Armani Privé Ambre Soie

Posted on October 5, 2014 by Kafkaesque

Source: cosmetics-parfum.com

Amber gets the refined Armani treatment in Ambre Soie, an award-winning fragrance from his Privé Collection. Like his clothes, Armani’s perfumes tend to be minimalistic, fluid creations with simple lines, the highest quality materials, and a very restrained, quiet style. They aren’t baroque, bold, or intense fragrances that make their presence known. For some people, Armani’s extreme refinement makes his scents the epitome of luxurious smoothness, but I’ve frequently had problems with their bland character, sheerness, and discreet nature. In one case (his iris Nuances), the perfume was so purified, safe, and refined that I felt claustrophobic from the airlessness.

Source: Bergdorf Goodman.

Ambre Soie is significantly better. It’s still far from my ideal scent and I wasn’t keen on its opening phase, but I can absolutely see why so many people enjoy it. Its simple character is genuinely elegant, the materials feel expensive, and its middle/final phases have an appealing warmth. It has been compared to Fendi‘s Theorema, a popular gingerbread amber with patchouli and spices that was discontinued but is still very much loved. I think the Ambre Soie is better on some levels, thanks to that Armani signature touch and the use of more expensive, luxury ingredients. The end result very much feels like the sort of safe amber that would work in a corporate boardroom, worn by men or women who want to enjoy a smooth oriental under their expensive suits without bothering their colleagues with any scent trail at all.

Source: Bergdorf Goodman.

Ambre Soie is an eau de parfum that was created by Christine Nagel, and released in 2004. According to Fragrantica, it has won 3 Fragrance Foundation (or “FiFi“) awards: Fragrance Of The Year Men`s Nouveau Niche 2006, Best Packaging Women`s Prestige 2006, and Best Packaging Men`s Prestige 2006. Armani describes it on his website as follows:

Ambre Soie is a contemporary magic potion, created by Giorgio Armani, using the rich and voluptuous Soft Amber. It evokes the scent of an amber when, during the 15th and 16th centuries, musk and amber scents were embedded in the mortar of palace constructions, despite their rarity and price. Giorgio Armani wanted to reveal the raw beauty of the amber accord in simple, unpretentious fashion. With rare and delicate sense of balance, he has created a contemporary magic potion. “This is something I had always dreamed of”, notes Mr Armani. “A beautiful, rich and pure scent that evokes sensuality and mystery.” Warm and intensely compelling, Ambre Soie awakens the subconscious and stirs the spirit.

KEYWORDS: UNSETTLING, VOLUPTUOUS AND INTOXICATING.

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Bruno Acampora Blu & Jasmin T

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Kafkaesque

Bruno Acampora wants to take you on a journey into the twin worlds of tuberose and jasmine where the waters run blue and the white flowers are almost green, drenched with a dewy freshness that drips onto their bitter stems. The Italian niche house is an interesting one, and I’d long heard about their famous Blu, a tuberose scent, as well as their Jasmin. (Officially, the fragrance is called “Jasmin T,” but I shall sometimes go by the simpler version that several retailers use.) What I hadn’t realised at the time was what an interesting chap Mr. Acampora was. He was part of the European jet-set, close friends with Gianni Versace and hung out with Andy Warhol at the latter’s Silver Factory. In fact, there is even an Andy Warhol print of Mr. Acampora.

Source: Fragrantica.

A Fragrantica article from earlier this year provides more details. Apparently, Mr. Acampora founded his perfume house 40 years ago after advice from a “French sensualist” on the beaches of St. Tropez who told Mr. Acampora to create fragrances that embodied his jet-setting experiences from Rio and Cairo to the Saharan Desert, Kenya, Marrakesh, Venice, Capri, the Antilles, Rio de Janeiro, Beirut, India, China and Japan. In 1974, Bruno Acampora did precisely that, releasing several fragrances, including Blu and Jasmin, all in very concentrated essential oils.

Mr. Acampora is now deceased, but the company continues under his son, Brunello Acampora, who works alongside his wife, Sonia, to continue his father’s vision. To that end, in 2012, they released the classic scents in a new concentration: sprayable eau de parfums. It is those versions of Blu and Jasmin T which shall be the focus of this review. One reason why is that they are much more affordable, per ml, than the oils. Another is that the eau de parfums apparently hew closely to the scent of the originals.

Source: Fragrantica.

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Bogue Profumo Cologne Reloaded: Lavender & Leather

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Kafkaesque

Source: Bogueprofumo.com

Lost olfactory treasure from the 1940s, vintage essences, and an ancient recipe lie at the heart of a modern fragrance centered around a duet of lavender and leather. Cologne Reloaded takes the cornerstones of a very traditional barbershop fougère, and juxtaposes its cleanness with darkness, blackened leather, smoky resins, and a touch of musky dirtiness. The result is classicism with a twist and an elegant fragrance with a rather sensual drydown.

Antonio Gardoni. Photo: Bogue Profumo via Delicatessen at moreinside.blogspot.com

Cologne Reloaded is a 2013 eau de parfum from Bogue Profumo (hereinafter just “Bogue“), an Italian artisanal perfume house founded by Antonio Gardoni. On his website, Mr. Gardoni describes the fascinating story behind its creation. In a nutshell, an antique dealer told him about 40 bottles of raw essences and perfume preparations from an old pharmaceutical laboratory. The vintage materials dated back to the 1940s! The dusty bottles had been hidden away and forgotten in a dark cupboard of an underground warehouse, but they were still sealed, somehow unaffected by heat, and very well-preserved. You can see them below in the photo. (Isn’t it the coolest thing?!) Accompanying them was a fragrance mixture for something called “Cologne of Esperis,” complete with the original recipe and the dosage amounts for preparing an eau de cologne.

The vintage bottles. Source: bogueprofumo.com

Mr. Gardoni started experimenting. As he explains on his website, he “mixed the ingredients following the instructions glued to the bottle for all the 5 different cologne variations with some very interesting results, full of granddad memories and old barbershop’s flavor.” He fell in love with the results in such a way that he decided to “exploit this treasure in order to create a completely new contemporary perfume.” He used the vintage materials, but increased the concentration from 4% to 15%, making the fragrance an eau de parfum instead of cologne, and added to this base “a mix of contemporary new materials”: Continue reading →

Santa Maria Novella Patchouli: Holy Grail?

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Kafkaesque

One of the best patchouli fragrances I’ve ever tried comes from Santa Maria Novella, an old Italian company with an 800-year history. They make simple, unpretentious, refined colognes that often highlight one key ingredient. In the case of Patchouli, the result is a rich, beautifully elegant fragrance that every die-hard patch head should try. As one commentator admiringly stated, “SMN weren’t f*$%ing around when they made this one.” No, they most certainly weren’t.

Source: auction listing on njuskalo.hr

Many of us tend to think of patchouli as a 1970s thing, something worn by dirty hippies at Woodstock, but the plant has a history that goes back to the 1800s. Ship captains would use fresh patchouli leaves to cover their valuable cargo (usually silk), because the camphorous aroma would protect it from infestation during the long journey to Europe from the East. It seems that Santa Maria Novella‘s Patchouli was made at precisely such a time, well over a hundred years ago, judging by the cologne’s description on the company’s American website:

This perfume met a great success in the late 1800s and early 1900s and has now become a classic. The plant from which the fragrance is made grows in India and Malaysia and creates a warm exotic, oriental and musky scent. Perfect for men and women.

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