"Chopped" Champion: Womanity by Thierry Mugler

By Marina Do you watch Chopped? The Food Network show "challenges four up-and-coming chefs to turn a selection of everyday ingredients into an extraordinary three-course meal." The selection of ingredients in a basket for each round is always unexpected: mint liqueur, canned chicken, raspberries and edamame for an appetizer round...frankfurters, chocolate, arugula and uni for dessert...you get the idea. The seemingly incongruous mix of notes in Womanity made me think of the show..."For a dessert round, in your baskets, you have strawberries, figs, black pepper, caviar and rye bread... Figs and caviar are the "official" ingredients, the rest are just what my nose smells in Womanity, so don't quote me on that. To be honest, I could not make myself page through the elaborate PR materials looking for more details. PR materials had passages like: "Beyond mirrors, beyond that reassuring glance at our own image, What if femininity meant feminine solidarity? What if women spoke out about the pleasures of femininity – of being women, together, in the world today? And what if women built for themselves the community that unites them?" What if we skip that and go straight to the juice, it's interesting enough on it's own. Here is how it goes on my skin: the smell of strawberry jam, brightened by citrus, then the ripe, sweet, chalky scent of figs, then suddenly a very distinct aroma of warm, freshly baked rye bread...then lots and lots of black pepper...then a salty-woody accord, within which, way towards the drydown I can intuit rather than really smell something ...very subtly animalic, which, when taken in the context of the saline accord, allows me to conclude without feeling too foolish that it must be the "caviar"... Basically, Womanity had me at rye bread, I am a sucker for doughy notes in perfume. I am intrigued by a savoury take on a gourmand (On Chopped, Womanity as a dessert entry might be criticized for not being sweet enough, it would fare better in an appetizer round). I like the way all ingredients stand out, as if afraid to truly mix and mingle with each other and yet somehow seamlessly flow. I like that, despite much brouhaha about women power and such, the scent is actually unisex. I like how the fragrance is possibly even stranger than Angel, but is a little bit more low key. I like how its bizarreness doesn't make it unwearable. But most of all I like the rye bread... To sum up...very strange, very Mugler, very well done despite or perhaps thanks to the odd selection of ingredients... Available at Nordstrom and Bloomigdales, $58.00-$98.00.