Needle in a Haystack. Perfume Review: La Base For Her

When I saw that today’s random sample turned out to be La Base, I was a little scared. Last time I tried it (a long time ago; as I said, samples stay in the To Review Box for years, awaiting their destiny), I found La Base, an homage to Switzerland, the Alps, and mountain flowers, to be simultaneously a little too aquatic-fresh and too overwhelmingly, headily floral. That, of course, was during my Floral-Hatin’ Period. If you too are or were such a hater, read the list of notes in La Base and tell me if they do not spell Death by Flowers to you: alpine rose, iris, jasmine, bluebell, violet leaves, mimosa, freesia, magnolia, marigold, alpine bell flower…These days I am in the throws of mad love for floral perfumes, and so I decided to give La Base another go. Oh, how our tastes change…Or, as Mr. Colombina would say, fickleness is thy name, woman! The scent that blossomed from the sample vial was…breathtaking. La Base starts fresh, “yellow-green”, with field flowers and grass covered in morning dew, shivering in the mountain breeze. The top notes seem to be the olfactory rendition of Albrecht von Haller’s poem, The Alps; they tell us the story of how Not far from the ice, a fertile mountain stretches its broad back, with meadows rich with fodder; its gentle slope glistening with ripening grain, its hills heavy with a hundred herds… As the scent progresses, it grows warmer and headier. The sun is at its apex, and the meadows and gardens are languorous under its hot rays, the flowers ripe, their petals fully unfolded, greedily absorbing the sunshine. I kept coming back to re-read the list of notes, because in the middle stage of La Base’s development I smell tuberose and gardenia…I am not familiar with the scent of marigolds and “alpine bell flowers”, so perhaps the creamy, indolent, sultry aroma is due from the presence of these notes…After a while, the floral symphony subsides a little, and the scent once again becomes fresher and drier, thus taking us through the whole day in the Alps, from the chilly, grassy-herbal, fresh smelling morning, to the languid day, fragrant with the luscious flowers, to the brisk, slightly earthy-smelling twilight …Exquisite, beautifully blended, and just the kind of scent I am craving these Floral-Lovin’ days. I need the bottle! La Base For Her, Eau de Parfum, is available at Luckyscent, $130 for 50ml. To read about Ina’s Needle in a Haystack, please visit Aromascope.