Annick Goutal Un Matin d'Orage: Perfume Review

By Tom Gardenia in fragrance can be a good or a bad thing, depending upon how you feel about the flower and how it's handled. Some will grab you by the lapels and shake you like a cat with a fresh-caught mouse (Agent Provocateur) while some whisper rather than shout (SIP Epic Gardenia). I prefer the whisper, thanks, and the house of Goutal is almost always about the whisper. The idea behind Un Matin d'Orage is that it's supposed to be the simulacrum of the smell of a Japanese garden after a morning storm. I can speak to the accuracy of that, but there is a definite aquatic freshness to the scent, as well as stemmy green-ness and discernible grapefruit at the beginning. I should hate that but I don't at all. This part of the scent stays close to my skin and is quite lovely. The gardenia is gorgeous and surprisingly shadowy; I catch it at odd times but don't smell a lot of it when I close in. I can appreciate the femininity and easy chic of this scent and think it could be summer favorite for someone who isn't me. It needs a woman to bloom on. But it always doesn't need to be about me. Besides, there's enough from this line that's me all over, perhaps this one is all about you? Available at Saks, and at Lianne Tio Perfumes