Sparkling Cyanide: Datura Noir by Serge Lutens

By Marina In my imagination, the delicate, passive Farnesiana has an alter ego...because there is only so much a sweet-natured girl can take... push her to the limit and we'll be looking at your necrologue in The NY Times. If you make her really, really angry, Farnesiana turns into Datura Noir, which is anything but delicate or passive. What unites the two for me is the bitter almond quality presented on a creamy floral background. And it is that quality that also makes them oh so different. In Farnesiana, the almond-heliotrope accord is a soft, if melancholy embrace. In Datura Noir, it is a soupçon of cyanide in your champagne. Lutens and Cheldrake cleverly used various gourmand notes to enhance the sweet allure of brugmansia/angel's trumpet/datura...A little bit of juicy mandarin and peachy osmanthus in the top, vanilla, coconut and apricot in the base, and almond throughout the composition turn Datura Noir into an irresistible temptation....better to pull you in, my dear. The tuberose, the presence of which lends the composition a languid, tropical feel, is wonderfully creamy, and makes a perfect seductive accomplice to the evil almond. “Very few of us are what we seem,” warns Agatha Christie. That certainly describes Datura Noir. Delicious but poisonous, beautiful but lethal, creamy-white but with the heart of darkness, it will kill you, but softly...if that's any consolation. Available somewhat more readily than cyanide, wherever Serge Lutens fragrances are sold.

Fête Accompli: Hilde Soliani Conaffetto

By Marina Falling in love with one orange blossom scent was surprising, falling for another one is really pushing it for me. Add to that a renewed interest in jasmine and a sudden craving for roses...Body rebelling against winter, refusing to seek comfort in the usual warm-resinous cold -weather comfort scents and instead trying to find it in an escape to ever-blossoming, ever-summery nevernever lands? Conaffetto is certainly escapist. It might not carry you to a faraway exotic paradise. It would take you as far as down your memory lane or down the path of your imagination, to "that place between sleep and awake where you still remember dreaming", where images of real, imagined, read-about-in-books, seen-in-movies childhood excitement and happiness dwell. Conaffetto is a smell of a Fête, which you maybe experienced or maybe only hoped to experience, a perfect celebration or an ideal carnival, where everyone is happy, clowns are not creepy, each throw of a dart wins you a stuffed animal, cotton candy never melts and the air is fragrant with trees in bloom. (As an aside, fragrance has been inspired by a wedding, and it certainly fits that inspiration just as well, just replace clowns with uncles.) After smelling first of sugar, plain and simple, then of bitter-sweet almonds, then of sugared almonds...a startlingly true-to-life replication of those candies ubiquitous to certain events, which, at real life celebrations, look better than they taste, much like most wedding and birthday cakes (but not at this Fête!), Conaffetto transforms into an orange blossom dominated composition. I probably wouldn't recommend this to someone seeking an almond scent, the realistic almondy feel is too short-lived for that, but certainly would to someone looking for an interesting take on fleur d'oranger. Funny as it might sound, even sugar doesn't make the blend smell overly sweet, and orange blossom puts a stop to any potential veering towards sweetness by being tangy, fresh and verdant. What intrigues me in this perfume the most is an unexpectedly raw, dare I say almost earthy feel...Does anyone remember Sloth by S-Perfume? The sadly discontinued Wasser's creation had a unique undertone, which I called "boiled courgettes"...I could also call it "boiled potato skins"...As it was the case with Sloth, this raw aspect brings a tinge of melancholy to the otherwise joyful Conaffetto. Nothing too existentially heavy here though, this is the melancholy of realization that it's late, and the Carnival is closing for tonight...but you know that tomorrow is another day and the Fête will go on. I believe that Conaffetto will be available later this year, probably from the usual Soliani stockists like Luckyscent and New London Pharmacy. Image, Ocean Club Sea Carnival by Sally Caldwell Fisher.

Hilde Soliani Il Vs Iris: Perfume Review

Il Vs Iris, the "I" in Soliani's TI AMO collection of floral fragrances (read the review of Tulipano, the "T", here) sneaked up on me with its quiet, understated, childish or better to say, kittenish charm. Although, I do smell iris in the very beginning, I would not recommend die-hard iris fans to look to Soliani's rendition for a fix. After the iris-like rooty floralcy goes away, and it goes away fast, one is left with very appealing woody greenness, evocative of a smell of freshly snapped young twig. For a little while, there is something delicately peppery in this verdancy. This part of the composition reminds me vaguely both of the piquant freshness of Navegar and of green spiciness of Piment Brulant, although Il Vs Iris is much, much softer than either of the two. Gradually, the scent acquires a distinctly almondy undertone. At first I was puzzled by the origin of this subtly sweet nuttiness. The almond wasn't thick and saccharine enough to suggest an overdose of heliotrope. The note had pastel transparency...Then I read that the blend includes mimosa and it all made sense: there IS something almondy in the mimosa/acacia aroma, and the almondy quality feels lighter, fresher, airier than in the smell of heliotrope. Imagine mixing Mimosa Pour Moi with Jour de Fete, only make both significantly less sweet. Add to that the pepper of Navegar and Pimont Brulant...And although I make Il Vs Iris sound like a pastiche of L'Artisan creations, it is not. With its initial earthiness and a distinct touch of spice, Il V Iris has something...I wouldn't dare say, animalic...but certain purring, feline grace. At the same time, its delicacy, its unripe greenness, its soft almondy undertone make it seem child-like. Like a heroine of a well-known song, it has a "gentle hand". Available at New London Pharmacy, $75.00 for 50ml.