Untitled by Margiela & Infusion D'Iris by Prada - Brothers in Scent

INFUSION D'IRIS BY PRADA

In 2007 Daniela Andrier (IFF) created the second fragrance for Maison Prada, Infusion D'Iris. A fragrance that was described as a voyage to Italy and clean sheets.

A woody - oriental fragrance with notes of galbanum, mandarin orange, orange blossom, lentisk, iris, cedar, vetiver, benzoin and frankincense.

Woody, green, powdery...it was supposed to be fresh, but it has the same soapy strike Infusion D'Oranger has.

In a nutshell, this fragrance smells like this: if Gulliver would take a long shower and overused soap, Lilliputians would have the same impact in their little noses as I do with Infusion D'Iris by Prada. It might have worked for Infusion d'Oranger (although I would like also that the perfumer would have lowered the tone in this one too), but it kinda annoys me in this one.

The woody cedar blended in earthy iris is magnificent, really delicious. The metallic aceton smell in the opening is great, but too brisk.

Further information:

Lentisk or mastic tree, is a Mediterranean evergreen shrub with a acrid resinous scent. A very precious one. It is also said to be the balm of Genesis. Here it is combined with other resins, such as benzoin and frankincense, and the syrupy vetiver. Bringing to the iris notes, an incredible earthy - woody - mysterious bed.

Bitterness mixed in powder; feminine delicacy mixed with a masculine touch... Ithe result is a fragrance that irradiates broadly.

The first time I tried I hated it, but not convinced, I came back for more many times... and I ended up liking it. But still, wishing someone would work on it, and lower the soapy tone.

Prayers heard, Margiela's Untitled is just what I asked for. Less soap!

UNTITLED EDP BY MM MARGIELA

Untitled by Margiela EDP

Launch: 2010

Perfumer: Daniela Andrier (why I am not surprised?)

Olfactive family: Floral woody musk

Olfactive notes: Galbanum essence, Boxwood green, bitter orange Absolute, lentisk, jasmine, galbanum resinoid, musk, cedar, frankincense.

Description by the brand: Extreme simplicity with tremendous sophistication

Description by + Q Perfume Blog: My dreams came true! GREEN, ASHTRAY, ENERGETIC

Rating: ✪✪✪

Where:

✪✪✪✪✪ - Beautiful exclusive creation.

✪✪✪✪ - Beautiful, but I have seen this before.

✪✪✪ - Fresh, green but not my thing. I don't see myself wearing this fragrance a lot.

✪✪ - cheap grass and soap.

✪ - why to make twice the same mistake?

The general idea is how to make a new Prada, for a new client, and yet make it smell differently than the original.

The first whiff of this fragrance is very fresh and green. The smell of grass and galbanum is intense and it has a ticking peppery effect.

Green are mixed with woody notes of Boxwood.

Boxwood an evergreen small tree or shrub, is commonly used to make chess boards and the white pins. Violins and guitars of high quality and value are also made of boxwood.

I know this smell pretty well because not only my husband was a chess champion when he was a teenager, so the board is always opened in my home, but he is also a Flamenco guitar player in his free time. He owns one of the finest Spanish guitars money can buy. The smell of the Boxwood is really amazing!! But back to Margiela...

On my skin, after all the green effect has slightly toned down, I found a mix of a leathery - suede note with something that resembles chap sticks made of natural cacao. Some slightly gourmet, but very subtle. It is creamy and greasy. It also reminds me a bit of the scent of molasses grass.

COCOA BUTTER

MOLASSES GRASS - HAWAII

Than it comes another note that I really can't tell what it is. A fatty waxy smell. Lentisk? The mastic gum? I can't really tell because I have to be honest, I have never ever smelled mastic before, even thou I lived in the Middle East. But I will look forward it. But I do smell something fatty and sticky and frankly, not good, to my taste. The smell of lard, of untaken showers... but this is my taste...

The fatty note comes with a cigarette ash note - which sounds weird, but somehow it is creative. I don't hide my hatred for any kind of smoking habits and I hate the smell of cigarettes, but here blended in all the other notes, somehow it works nicely - don't ask, I can't explain!!

Although Iris is not listed as a note in this perfume, it does smell very Prada alike! I smell the earthy Iris here.

Jasmine brings a flowery touch but it is rather pale. The dry down is musky - creamy.

Slightly soapy, slightly earthy - leathery, green, creamy... it is indeed a better Prada.

For beautiful pictures of the fragrance, click HERE.

Sample provided by Henrique Brito

BYREDO

BYREDO sent me samples of their fragrances to review!

I can't wait to touch these babies too!

Photo credit: + Q Perfume Blog personal files

The Different Company - Photos of the month/Fotos do mês

THE DIFFERENT COMPANY BY CÉLINE ELLENA

My new baby samples - lots of goodies to review

Minhas amostras bebês - um monte de delícias para avaliar

+Q Perfume Blog wishes to than the brand for sending the sample set!

+ Q Perfume Blog deseja agradecer a marca por ter mandado o kit de amostras de present!

To The Different Company link, click here.

Para o link da maca The Different Company, clique aqui.

Les Parfums BIO

To Vanessa M.:

Gisele Bundchen for PHOTO magazine

Photo credit: Paul Vainer

Synthetic raw materials transformed the history of perfumery and gave birth to what we call today - The Modern Era of Perfumery. With the turn of the 19th Century many discoveries and inventions took place. The advance of modern chemistry developed in a way never seen before, and the taste of the society for perfumes changed and lead to the perfumes as they are today. The official beginning of fragrance chemistry happened in 1868 with the discovery of the artificial production of coumarin by Perkin, and the use of this ingredient in Houbigant's Fougére Royale marks the beginning of Modern perfumery.

The possibility of creating scents in the lab opened a new door to perfumery, not only in terms of ingredients but in terms of price. Perfume became a more accessible product.

I love synthetics, it is not a secret. But I cannot turn my back to a trend when it is here in front of my nose! Perfumes BIO.

The trend that has been applied to food and beverages has conquered the world of fragrances and cosmetics. Consumers worried about the environment and about their health (the ones who believe that synthetic materials are not good for us) are looking for ECOCERT fragrances.

The challenge for perfumers is to create fragrances that do not smell like colognes from the 18th century or fragrances that smell like something you would find in those hippie shops of the 60's. And this is exactly what captured by attention.

How brands can develop perfumes with such a limited palette and yet create ECO friendly beauties? By hiring very skilled perfumers such as Olivia Giacobetti and Céline Ellena.

L'EAU DE JATAMANSI - L'ARTISAN PARFUMEUR

In 2007 L'Artisan Parfumeur launched their first perfume BIO (100% natural) in a line called JATAMANSI (Himalayan Nard in Sanskrit) with notes of grapefruit, cardamom,bergamot, sage, nard, Guaïac wood, ylang ylang, rose, sandalwood, incense and light papyrus. A minimalistic woody fragrance created by Karine Vinchon, with an uplifting, harmonizing and peaceful effect.

Two years later Céline Ellena created a real beauty - Coté D'Amour. A fragrance with the smell of sand castles, sea breeze, shell, coconut and summer vacation in the Atlantic Loire.

Notes of green mandarine, pink grapefruit, rosemary, everlasting dune flowers, cypress, gorse flowers, coconut, rose, honey flavored heather, floating woods, broom, and pine.

It is salty sweet, totally natural, very sensual and with a special summer aura. You close your eyes and you imagine house beaches, sailing boats, lighthouses etc... a blue, red, white dream!

Although she mastered the challenge beautiful, she confessed she has no desire to make a carrier out of perfumes BIO. She loves synthetics, just like me.

After that Clarins launched also its fragrance called KIBIO. A product that is part of a line of organic skin care products containing at least 95% active ingredients.

KIBIO

Today we see the rise of many interesting brands with delightful fragrances such Parfums Honoré des Prés, developed by perfumer Olivia Giacobetti. The brand offers 5 different French perfumes with five different auras: Chaman's Party, Bonté's Bloom, Nu Green, Sexy Angelic and Honoré's Trip. The motto of the brand is rich is simple, connecting feelings with essential natural elements.

HONORÉ DES PRÉS NYC

And the newest launch is the NYC line, with 3 different fragrances, also designed by Olivia Giacobetti: Vamp in NY (tuberose rhum associated with ,balms), I Love Le Carottes (with carrot flowers, vanilla, orange and orris butter) and Love Coco (spicy delicate coconut milk with coriander leafs). It will be available May 17th in France.

+ Q perfume Blog will review these fragrances in the near future - keep track!

PATYKA

Patyka offers to bridge exactly this gap between organic and luxury. All their products are ECOCERT. Their perfume collection bring 8 different fragrances: citrusy, woody, ambery and chypre options of fragrances.

Jo Wood, a model in the past, created a brand - JO WOOD ORGANICS - combining her love for Rock n' Roll, for Africa (her mother is South African) and Art Nouveau. The brand offers 2 different lines: Jo Wood Everyday - a exotic way of living and Jo Wood Collection - glamour and sophistication. Certified ECOCERT, her products are 93% organic.

AMKA ORGANIC BATH OIL

The collection of perfumes offers 4 different fragrances: AMKA, a citrusy-flowery perfume, USIKU - spicy, woody, earth perfume, TULA - a floral perfume, LANGA - a fresh, uplifting, zesty perfume. All the fragrances are Eaux de Toilette.

PROVENCE & NATURE PATCHOULI ET ROSE

You will find many ECOCERT and BIO brands in the market today:

Senke, Shantara, Le Sense de Fleurs, Acorelle, Labo. de Sources, Cattier, Lavera, Provence & Nature, and many more.

In a nutshel the sandalwood natural essential oil X javanol might be a question of how someone cares about health or the environment, or it can be a just a question of taste or budget. It can be a question of way of living or a question of olfactive preferences. The fact is, BIO is a trend, and we hope it will be here to stay - together, with our beloved-synthetics!!

Chanel Nº5 Eau Premiere EDP - review

CHANEL Nº5 EAU PREMIERE EDP

Chanel Nº5 Eau Premiere EDP - Review

Launch:2008

Perfumer: Jacques Polge

Notes: Ylang Ylang, aldehydes, neroli, jasmine, rose, vetiver, vanilla

Olfactive family: Floral - Aldehyde

Description by the brand: "An invitation to discover Nº5 as it was for the first time"

Description by + Q Perfume Blog: POWDERY, HEAVENLY, FEMININE

Rating:✪✪✪✪✪♥

Where:

✪✪✪✪✪ - love at first sight

✪✪✪✪ - beautiful as first time

✪✪✪ - five times for the first time is enough

✪✪ - once and for all

✪ - once and never more

In 1921 russian Jewish perfumer (and Coco's lover) Ernest beaux created for Chanel its first fragrance. There are many stories involving the fragrance, but I am not bringing them here because it would be boring, since everyone else has done it already.

CHANEL Nº5 - 1921

Chanel Nº5 is in fact the most famous and most sold perfume above all till today.

The faces in the Chanel advertising posters have changed, the concentrations and the flacons have changed, but not its fame and the magic around it.

And how cleverly they propose a new flanker! Eau Premiere instead of Eau Fraîche, Chanel Nº5 L'Eau or Chanel Nº5 tendre. It is a flanker without having the aura of a flanker. It is an invitation for the granddaughters of Chanel's first clients who became by now ladies, to have a chance to be as chic as their grandmothers and moms were.

In the 20's Chanel was a statement. A rebellious woman who wanted to be modern and independent. Later it was a symbol of luxury and good taste. And today it is as old as furs, hats and gloves. How to keep on going for decades?

COCO MADEMOISELLE EDP - 2001

By promising a younger Coco. A contemporary fragrance inspired by her character. Coco as she would be if she was young now.

And Chanel brought to us Coco mademoiselle in 2001.

Coco Mademoiselle is all that and much more. My favorite perfume. I also love the EDT. When Polge thought that Eau Premiere is for the ladies who would say "Chanel Nº5 is not for me", I think he meant Mademoiselle. Sparkling freshness, femininity blooming in bouquets of jasmine and roses and a masculine touch. Gabrielle's tomboy personality with a chic aura - just like me!!! I never played with dolls, I hated pink when everyone was wearing it, I liked to play just like boys did, but I never forgot I was a girl. Feminine but not fragile. I could wear a dress or a military uniform (as Didier says), but I was/am 100% lady.

So they understood the possibilities, opening the door to the real idea. The drill lead to a new product: Make Chanel Nº5 again, with a new concept.

In 2008 Chanel finally launched the brilliant marketing idea - the same Chanel Nº5 without being the original Nº5. How you do that? Polge explains: making it lighter, more effervescent, keeping the creaminess and the quality of the original.

The Ylang Ylang notes are less diffuse, the jasmine is one tone down but they are there, blooming, enchanting, heavenly embracing and reminding us why Chanel was so beautiful in the first place. Make it less powdery, more transparent.

It feels like the first Chanel was created for Europeans only, and this version has to have a cleaner aura, so it will also seduce the New World. It is global, it is more Holywood. No wonder Chanel has Audrey Tatou campaigning for Nº5 and Nicole Kidman for Eau Premiere - it is not a coincidence!

The thing is, it really worked for me! Since my grandmother wore Chanel Nº5 (more accurately - bathed herself in Chanel), to my point of view, wearing it was not retro or vintage, like we say today. It was OLD. It would feel like I took something old from her closet, put on myself and tried to be her. So Chanel stayed in my childhood memories (good ones because my grandmother was nice) and that is all.

Wearing Eau Premier is a treat. I am actually wearing Chanel Nº5 without having to match it with the cashmere twin sets and the funky gray-to-violet hair, and I don't care what people say!