Diptyque, Al Haramain, A Lab on Fire & Etat Libre d’Orange

Source: diptyqueparis.com

Source: diptyqueparis.com

The end of the year is always a crazy time, particularly in terms of new releases. I’m starting to have visions of a Leaning Tower of Pisa composed of sample vials toppling over and squashing me to death. I simply can’t keep up. It’s almost entirely my own fault because of the detailed, verbose way I approach my reviews, but there are also more and more fragrances being launched every year. According to Michael Edwards, author of Fragrances of the World, there were 1620 releases in 2014 as compared to 38 back in 1984. I’m sure there are even more this year — and it all seems to reach a crescendo during the holidays. I’m exhausted, both mentally and physically, and my stack of notes (some going back months and months) exceeds the number of proper, full reviews I can write before it’s time to do the year-end “Best of” lists.

As a result, for much of this week, I’ll be posting rapid-fire mini reviews, starting today with Diptyque‘s new Oud Palao and Essences Insensées 2015Al Haramain‘s Najm Gold and Atifa Blanche attars, A Lab on Fire‘s new Mon Musc à Moi by Dominique Ropion, and Etat Libre d’Orange‘s Remarkable People. They are all 2015 releases except for the Al Haramain attars. I’ll provide only the most basic information: note lists, and links to the company, a vendor, and/or Fragrantica for you to pursue later if you’re interested. The “reviews” themselves will be generalised overviews or nutshells. So, let’s get to it.

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