NANA-M PARFUMS - THE BEST WAS SAVED FOR LAST!

THE BEST WAS SAVED FOR LAST!

This is the time of the year where I share some of the fragrances that I think are worth checking to wear during the Holidays season or to share with someone you really love!

Nana-M is a fresh new brand from France, so chances are that you are giving a real exclusive gift!

Photo credit: Nana-M Parfums

Nana-M Parfums is the newest niche perfumery brand coming from the world's most famous perfume capital Grasse, launching this year a collection of signature fragrances called Rêves or dreams. 

The nose and owner Céline Ripert combined her expertise of decades in the perfumery industry, her identity and the savour faire grassois, creativity, sensibility and local raw materials, to offer to an exclusive clientele her olfactive dreams, presented in hand made luxurious round bottles developed by glass blowing artist Christophe Saba.

The brand is debuting 08 fragrances, all EDPs 20%, called Rêve Fou, Rêve Piquant, Rêve de Sensualité, Rêve Romantique, Rêve Royal, Rêve Erotique, Poudre de Rêve and Une Île, un Rêve.

RÊVE FOU EDP - It is a oriental fruity perfume combining traditional classic perfumery with a modern touch with notes of Pink Pepper CO2, Fir balsam Absolute, Davana EO, Bitter orange EO, Rose de Mai Absolute, Raspberry EO, Cinnamon EO, Violet, Benjoim, Siam, Vanilla Absolute, Patchouli EO and Incense. 

RÊVE PIQUANT EDP - A woody-spicy-citrusy fragrance playing with the contrast of cold fresh and deep warm notes of Ginger CO2, Grapefruit EO, Lemon EO, Green Mandarine EO, Black Pepper CO2, Litsea Cubeba EO, Cedarwood Virginia EO, White flowers, Benjoin, Vanilla Absolute, Guaic wood EO and Tobacco Absolute.

REVÊ DE SENSUALITÉ EDP - A chypre aromatic composition where sophistication and sensuality with simplicity is brought with notes of Lavender EO and Absolute, Tuberose Absolue, Patchouli EO, Sandalwood EO, Musks salicylates and Vanilla Absolute.

RÊVE ROMANTIQUE EDP - A dreamy yellow flowery romantic fragrance bringing notes of Green mandarine EO, Cocoa, Fir balsam Absolute, Apricot, Mimosa Absolute, Jasmine Absolute, Broom Absolute, Cassis Absolute, Amber, Everlasting Absolute, powdery musks and Hay EO.

RÊVE ROYAL EDP - An opulent, linear woody-leathery perfume with notes of Osmanthus Absolute, Orris Absolute, Davana EO, Cashmere and Guaiac woods EO, Mate Absolute, Honey, Soft leather, Benjoim, Vanilla Absolute and Cistus Absolute. 

RÊVE EROTIQUE EDP - Bringing an animalic sensuality the fragrance it combines notes of Davana EO, Rum Absolute, Cinnamon bark EO, Sandalwood, Violet, Guaiac wood EO, Vanilla Absolute, Tonka Absolute, Musk and animals amber.

POUDRE DE RÊVE EDP - A powdery and ultra feminine floral composition with notes of Pink pepper CO2, Ginger CO2, Freesia, Cedar Atlas OE, Orris, Rose de Mai Absolute, Heliotrope, Cashmere wood, Ambrette, Vetiver OE, Vanilla and Sandal OE. 

UNE ÎLE, UN RÊVE EDP - An aromatique white floral bouquet bringing the aura of Cannes with notes of Rosemary Absolute, Eucalyptus EO, Cistus EO, Ylang Ylang, Tuberose Absolute, Moroccan Jasmine Absolute, Orange bloom Absolute, Vanilla Absolute, Patchouli EO, Benjoim, Beewax Absolute. 

The Bottle
The fragrances are presented in heavy glass hand made bottles by artisan Christophe Saba combined with a classy red atomizer. When less is more, you won't find incrusted stones or golden charms; just a very beautiful thick round glass bottle with a Murano style with tiny bubbles in the bottom. 

The package
All fragrances come in a round black mate package with a beautiful velvety red ribbow.

Nana-M Parfums is offering in this debut collection perfumes that have in common some elements: most compositions have a strong presence. That said the person wearing it needs to have a personality that goes along with it. I had no problem with that even thou sometimes I like to wear low profile perfumes. I think it is for the fact that most of them are absolutely gorgeous. IMO the brand is soon to become a cult brand among perfumistas all over the world.

OBS.:

63ml refills and body milk are also available for all fragrances.
You can discover each fragrance by purchasing a discovery set of miniature bottles or free perfumed cards.

Nana-M can be purchased on line at http://www.nana-m.com or in Grasse at their showroom located at 52, Chemin de la Tête de Lion, Grasse - France.

The brand is offering real nice ideas/packing for Christmas gifts! 

FIORE DI BELLAGIO EDP BY SHELLEY WADDINGTON

What can I say about Shelley Waddington? She is a great perfumer. 

But I've already said that. 

That she creates masterpieces...I've already said that too. 

I love her fragrances! 

Are you going to keep repeating that? 

YES, till she stops creating them I probably will.

So what's new with Shelley Waddington? 

She created a perfume inspired by Zelda Fitzgerald. 

Well, that is not news; Zelda EDP was launched in 2013. 

This is another one!

Fiore di Bellagio EDP is the newest fragrance created by Shelley Waddington that seems to be in a retro journey these days. With Zelda she took us back to the roaring 20's. With Chocolate Trio to the court of Marie Antoinette & Josephine and Paris and London of the turn of the century. 

Needless to say she is very good at that. Pêche Noir EDP, a creation from this perfumer launched in 2010 takes me to the French Bohemian Era with dark smokey cafés and jazzy rendezvous like any other perfume. One thing is inspiration; another is time travel. Shelley Waddington perfumes are sometimes travel machines that will take you to an incredible journey somewhere in the past.

Fiore di Bellagio EDP will continue the journey to the Roaring 20's that started with Zelda EDP. This time she will bring you a luxurious and exuberant fragrance represented by an ARTDECO perfume. True that I have seen one before made by Vero Kern called Rubj EDP, but Fiore di Bellagio EDP brought something that IMO is hard to find: 

A REMARKABLE RETRO YLANG YLANG FRAGRANCE!

FIORE DI BELLAGIO EDP

photo credit; En Voyage Perfumes

Notes of FdB provided by En Voyage Perfumes are: top - Italian lemon and Citrus, green leaves and ylang ylang; middle - spicy carnation, gardenia and jasmine absolutes, Bulgarian Rose otto, muguet, violet, Bois de rose; base - dark vanilla, antique sandalwood, iris Fiorentine (orris absolute), costos oil, vintage resins, civet and musks.

Said to be inspired by Caron's Bellodgia (launched in 1927) and combining a high percentage of pure extraits, Shelley offers Ylang Ylang combined with spicy carnations, gardenias, jasmines, violets, roses and orris, bringing exuberance to a majestic status. 

Its warmth is presented with a strong fresh-green citrusy providing a vivid contrast with the curvilineal art deco bouquet that will follow. The opulent bouquet is somehow exotic-tropical and retro granny. Fantastic! There is also a vintage violet-iris-muguet combination that is powdery and pretty. As the middle notes develop you will perceive an extremely positive joyful alluring vibration. As flap dancer on your skin.

Drydown is mellow and sweet with resins and a sensual touch of musk and civet.

A versatile fragrance that despite its opulence is suitable for all seasons. I know what you are thinking... too bold for summer...well, Ylang tree comes from exotic lands with wet hot weather so... you will really enjoy its beauty wearing it on a hot day! 

Fiore di Bellagio EDP is part of The Masterpiece Collectio found at EN VOYAGE PERFUMES website. Sold for USD75 - 0.6oz/EDP concentration or USD95 - 0.25oz/Parfum Extrait concentration.


OBS: There are two other interesting perfumes with spicy ylang combination that I enjoy: Lys Carmin EDP by Van Cleef that brings to us a clove-ylang-lillies experience and Lys Fume EDP by Tom Ford, combining ylang, lillies and nutmeg

* Video provided by aaron1912 - youtube.

MOON DUST EDP BY MiN, MOON LANDING CONSPIRACY AND SPY MOVIES

Thinking that the United States has never sent men to the Moon seems absurd. To some specialists in the field, former astronauts, journalists, and a small percentage of people around the globe it is a supported, highly demonstrated and confirmed fact. Truth or not, these polemic theories are out there being debated over two decades and they have a name: MOON LANDING CONSPIRACY THEORIES. 

According to these theories NASA has hoaxed substantially the audio, video and photo shootings of the landing on the Moon by Apollo Missions, using the Nevada Area 51 to shoot the images. In fact, if you watch the video I posted you will see that it is fair to say that it is indeed a very polemic and complex subject that raises a lot of questions.

Credit: SG TROOP via youtube/FOX 

Another conflicting detail about the Moon landing is the smell of Moondust. In the Apollo Chronicles - The Mysterious Smell of The Moondust -  astronaut Gene Cernan from the mission Apollo 17 attests that the Moon surface is soft as snow, fine as flour, rough and abrasive as sandpaper, provokes hay fever and that smells like burnt gunpowder.

If Moondust was so abrasive as they scooped back then, how come it did not ruin the suits but it made some damage on the boots? How come it smells like gunpowder if it is made of silicon dioxide glass, magnesium, iron, calcium, olivine and pyroxene and modern gunpowder is a mixture of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin? 

Curiously, back to Earth, the "samples" taken did not have the smell of gunpowder at all! According to NASA the samples taken were placed in vacuum containers that somehow got unsealed and in contact with oxygen and that actually they can't really attest how much these samples were altered by this kind of exposure. 
A question raises here: is it possible that highly trained personnel in a mission that costs millions of dollars be that careless about handling, preserving and bringing samples back to Earth to study? If so, NASA should review its protocols...just saying...but back to scents:

Describing the smell of the Moon ISS astronaut Don Petit states in the NASA website: "Picture yourself in a desert on Earth, what do you smell? Nothing, until it rains. The air is suddenly filled with sweet, peaty odors."

Eugene Cernan covered by Moondust - "Lunar surface" in December of 1972.

Credit: NASA

How do you find the smell of Moondust outside the Moon? In Nevada desert after the rain? Or in the new collection of fragrances developed by Chad Murawczyk and Mindy Yang from MiN New York? 

MOON DUST EDP is one of the 11 scents of the collection or "chapters of visceral moments/volume I" (as the couple is calling them) and inspired by the very description of astronaut Gene Cernan. 

Notes of flint* stone, ozone, tobacco, benzoin and black musk were cleverly mixed to give an overall mineral effect in this wicked perfume! *Yes, you remembered The Flintsones! So did I!!

What MOON DUST EDP has in common with the Moon itself is not the smell of its dust, but the very Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories, in a sense that all is questionable, all is arguable AND CREATIVE. I explain: Mindy and Chad had their share of travels; they come from mixed backgrounds and cultures; they have their very personal way of seeing the world and to express their feelings and creativity in scents. They want you to open your heart and mind and have your very special way to relate to these fragrances. They tell a story at the very first whiff, but you can use your imagination and rewrite your own chapter! Actually they encourage you to do.

Moon Dust EDP by MiN New York - Scent Stories Vol. I

Photo credit: Min website

+ Q PERFUME BLOG IMPRESSIONS

MOON DUST EDP is bold, powerful, extremely sensual perfume with a profuse performance. You need to have an outstanding personality to support this one, otherwise you will be swallowed by it. So if you like intensity and well designed fragrances this fragrance is for you. 

MOON DUST EDP is a black shinning Arabian stallion running free in the wild and need to be domesticated. It will sprint into your nostrils and be carefully smoothed on your skin. Once that happens, it is beautifully developed.

It also has a serious animalic facet to it that it is at the same time both mineral & salty sweet & sensual. The opening has a very unconventional mineral -  wet & hot pavement-ish kind of scent, as if it rain just evaporated on a very hot pavement. I love it because it reminds me of my childhood at the beach, when after a long hot day, the rain falls, bringing up the mineral scent of the sand, pavement and the sea altogether.

It contains layers and layers of darkness with a beetroot undertone mixed with the smell of dry dirt that is very interesting. Here at the heart you will be enchanted by a strong cedar scent a bit rubbery and very unique.

The drydown is very sexy due to the black musk notes. Slightly powdery, sophisticated and also slightly sweeten by a note of benzoin.

If you tried Black Bulgari, Fire Intense by Sonoma, Lonestar Memories by Andy Tauer and even Encre Noir by Lalique or M/Mink By Byredo(all reviewed herein the past) you are ready for the MOON DUST EDP experience. In fact it would be a very interesting and complementing couple's scent experience to wear MOON DUST EDP (for him) paring with Black Bulgari (for her)!

Truth is smelling the perfume I was taken to a Bond movie scene at the beach - in Quantum of Solace - in which James Bond play by DanielCraig (my favorite Bond) comes out of the water and is seduced by actress Caterina Murino on a horse.

MOON DUST EDP of Scent Stories Vol by MiN New York takes you to a journey. If to the Moon, to a Bond movie,  or any other place, it is up to you to smell and discover. I did not write my own story. My memory took me to a journey involving secret agents that started a long time ago with Black Bulgari. My evoked journey was to a beach in the Bahamas where Craig shows his well built torso and Murino shows the sensuality of her body and the curves of a stallion. The script was already written.

But let's come back to the city because most of us lead an urban life. Being more practical what I can say about the fragrance is that I feel that is more suitable for the masculine gender; for colder days and to be better explored at night (due to its mysterious and seductive aura).

You can order a sample or purchase a full bottle at MiN New York Atelier at 117 Crosby Street, Soho, NYC  or online at: minnewyork.com

You can also visit the brand during PITTI FRAGRANZE 2014 from 12 to 14th this month - Booth #9

My next review of the Scent Stories is going to be Magic Circus EDP because it has also a common element with Moon Dust EDP - but that I will reveal in the future. Stick around to be surprised!