Narciso Rodriguez Wild Tuberose

 

I'm always on the lookout for the perfect beach scent when I'm in Australia every January. I've written about beach scents here before and if I was looking for a scent to realistically depict the beach it would feature salt, seaweed, and fresh winds. There are no palm trees or tropical flowers on the local beach, but nevertheless, that's the scent profile that gives me beach vibes happiness. At the same time, I don't want a scent that is too invasive or overpowering. 

When I saw that Narciso Rodriguez had some new scents out, something about the beautiful blue bottle appealed to me. Wild Tuberose is part of a special collection of musc scents for the line. Narciso Rodriguez achieved cult following when they came out with a block-like milky hued perfume bottle entitled simply Narciso in 2014. The bottle perfectly illustrated the gauzy musk fragrance inside. Since then there have been many renditions of the theme but always featuring the note of musc. This newer elevated series still uses musc but features different headline notes. 

I love tuberose and have plenty of perfumes with that note, but I had high hopes that the watery blue of the bottle would reflect what was inside, maybe a gentler version of the floral that is famously known for operating in beast mode. When I spray Wild Tuberose, it does have a soft, wafting, transcendent character, rather than the bubblegum or feral aspects that tuberose can sometimes show. It is definitely very floral and sweet. If you don't like the note of tuberose, that scent that was supposed to make young maidens swoon and behave badly back in the day, this won't change your mind.

But for me, I can't get enough of the note. The perfumer is Aurélien Guichard and he put a jasmine tea, as well as a peach note, in the opening of the scent. I think the jasmine tea helps give the airy feel to the scent, and the peach softens the intensity of the tuberose. Then tuberose and jasmine bring the intoxicating florals that both are known for. The musc is in the base, and although it is faint, I think it melds beautifully with the florals.

This is soft enough for me to wear on the beach without overpowering yet has enough of a presence to be a beautiful grace note to my day. I think I've found my beach scent for 2025.

Bottle and photos my own.

Dusita Pelagos, A Journey To The Greek Isles

 

Once a year there is the excitement of a new fragrance introduction from Dusita Paris, a fragrance house created by Thai perfumer Pissara Umivijani, now based in Paris on a quiet side-street just a short stroll from the big designer houses in the first arrondissement. Ms.Umivijani has proven herself to be very diverse in her scent creations. Her first three scents included a classic floral gardenia, an evocative and aromatic fougere, and an Oudh that meant serious business and took no prisoners!

With each new fragrance introduction, Ms. Umivijani adds a new facet to the collection, but one type of scent missing in the lineup was a beach or sea scent. I heard back in the spring that Ms. Umivijani was releasing a scent based on the ocean, specifically the Greek Isles and the Aegean Ocean surrounding them. Pelagos is the Greek word for seas and open water, and more expressly, it indicates a deep sea. 

View of the Aegean Sea In Oia, Santorini.

I was so excited when I heard the inspiration for the scent was the Greek Islands. It has been a life-long dream of mine to visit Greece, and even though I've traveled quite a lot, I never made it there. I'm getting older, and I finally had booked a trip for this summer. It seemed totally serendipitous that I would be able to test the bottle of Pelagos in the actual place of its inspirational conception! We were going to Santorini and Paros, and on Paros I had just so happened to book a quaint little guest hotel called, wait for it, Pelagos Studios! Everything just seemed to align!

Perissa Beach in Santorini.

If you're like me, when you think of beach or marine scents, you think either ocean freshies, suntan lotion skin scents, or bright citrus colognes. Pelagos is none of these. Remember how I said that the word Pelagos can translate to deep water? Well, that became very instrumental to me in understanding this perfume. Just like the bottomless deep blue water that surrounded us on the island of Santorini, Pelagos hints at depth and mystery.

Ms. Umivijani wanted Pelagos to represent some of the natural aspects she found beautiful in Greece, so this included the land and landscape as well as the ocean. Pelagos takes a while to settle on my skin. The opening doesn't really remind me of the sea. It features bergamot, litsea cubeba, and sea breeze accord in the opening, but I don't smell any of these lighter notes. On me it is woody. Back in May  Dusita created a Zoom call to introduce Pelagos, and it seemed that people were getting a lot of different reactions on their skin. Some got brighter notes, for some the scent opened with florals, and some, like me, smelled more salty wood.

Port in Naoussa, Paros.

After about ten minutes Pelagos becomes like a compilation of all the elements surrounding me as I gaze out on the Greek shoreline. The rugged landscape of rock and stone, and depending which island you're on, perhaps some marble columns from 100 B.C.  Heart notes of orris butter, white thyme, and tonka bean soften the wood notes I'm getting, and it becomes more of a meditative skin scent, redolent of the scrubby bushes and herbal vegetation, the tang of the ocean breeze, and the salt left on the skin as the water evaporates in the breeze. 

The base notes are leather, sandalwood, and patchouli, and again, Pelagos was somewhat muted and quiet when it reached this point I found Pelagos to be a softer scent than the others in the Dusita line, and it's the first that I would call a skin scent. However, a skin scent seems fitting for a fragrance that is meant to represent the basic natural elements of a Greek isle. We visit these islands to be immersed in the beauty, to walk the arid shorelines with their sparse vegetation and on the warm pebble beaches, diving into the dark waters and rising up with the salty water droplets glistening on our skin like a thousand tiny diamonds, stripped to our elemental self!

Pelagos Studio on the island of Paros.

Pelagos was both a shape shifter and a crowd pleaser. My husband and I were vacationing with my daughter and son-in-law. Everyone tested it and everyone enjoyed wearing it, but we all smelled something slightly different. My son-in-law smelled florals at the start, which I didn't get at all. My daughter and I noticed more of the woodiness of the scent. I especially enjoyed the later life of the scent, with its subtle aura indicative of the moody dark blue waters of the Aegean Sea.  I have to be honest and say that when wearing this on a Greek beach it really bloomed into something totally beautiful, and I've never quite captured that same feeling when I spray it back home and hop in the car to run to the grocery. It is as if Ms. Umivijani painted a beautiful scene of the Greek Isles, but in scent. It seemed to know when it was at home, and put on a spectacular performance! I have the 15 ml. bottle which is just so perfect for traveling. I enjoy the quiet stillness that is Pelagos on my skin, and it makes me long for those few glorious days in Greece. I may just have to go back there to experience Pelagos it in its full glory!

Pissara Umivijani is a talented painter and she did this watercolor to try to capture some of the inspiration she found in the beauty of Greece. 

Ms. Umivijani always includes a line from one of the father's poem. Her father, Montri Umivijani was an esteemed Thai poet, and with her perfumes she seeks to honor her father's legacy by putting  scent to his inspiring words.

"Tell me where my limit lies, so I may go up to it and knock just so gently to show I am human."

The photos are all my own. The sample of Pelagos was provided by Parfums Dusita.

Puredistance Papilio, The Butterfly

 

I took a little break from blogging. I wasn't feeling inspired by what I was smelling, life was busy and a bit chaotic, and I took to wearing perfumes in the "easy, breezy" category that smell nice but don't require much notice from the wearer. Recently, though, I felt those stirrings coming back that have made me eager to explore new scents, and to write about those that touch or inspire me. So I finally reached for my sample of Puredistance Papilio which came to me during this off time.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jan Ewoud Vos several years ago when I lived in Singapore. Not only was I impressed with the quality of his fragrances, which numbered around seven at the time, but I liked his absolute commitment to producing a quality product that would withstand time. To do this, the creation of a new Puredistance perfume starts to germinate with an idea in the very creative mind of JEV, and then goes on to a storyboard. Picking a perfumer is key, and I can only imagine how exciting it must be to be picked as a creator of a Puredistance perfume, knowing that cost of materials takes a back burner and quality and execution of the scent are all important considerations.

Nathalie Feisthauer had completed work on Puredistance 12, and JEV decided to have her bring his vision of Papilio to life. I can understand why. When I wrote about Puredistance 12 here I spoke of how its subtle beauty and quiet presence stood out to me as a departure for the line, which in the past has not backed away from making a bold statement. Butterflies are ethereal, fluttery things, so when expressing that in perfume, one would look for a light touch. Perhaps this delicacy is Ms. Feisthauer's signature, at least in regard to Puredistance creations.

What are my impressions? Knowing that it is about butterflies and their cycle of life, I let me mind go with what I smelled. Fragrantica lists this as a floral musky scent, which are a favorite category of mine. When I first smell Papilio I get a woody, musky scent, with just a touch of light in the form of bergamot. The cumbersome caterpillar has transformed into a chrysalis. It hangs by a slender thread, waiting for the transformation into a beautiful free being which can fly through the skies. The smell is quiet, musky, cocoon-like if you will! On my skin there was no dramatic moment of transformation as the figurative butterfly transformed from its pupa state to a fluttering winged creature. Instead there was a light emergence of florals, unveiling their scent as if carried on the wind, the overall effect a gossamer lightness and transparency.

The notes listed in the heart of the fragrance are gentle and quiet. They are magnolia, orris, heliotrope, carrot, lily of the valley, and peach. The notes seem to speak more of the ethereal nature of the butterfly, with its delicate wings and floaty, airy movements. Some other butterfly themed perfumes tend to gravitate to using notes of the nectar it consumes, with strong white florals or honeyed notes. That is not the case here. Ms. Feistheuer has chosen to zero in on the butterfly in all its stages. It is always delicate, understated, but a airy, beautiful and transparent scent.

I found Papilio a gorgeous scent, but it hasn't replaced my love for some of the heavier hitters in the Puredistance family. Warszawa will always be my number one, and I love Antonia and Gold, in particular. But there is a place for quietness and understatement, and Papilio will cloak the fortunate wearer in their own gossamer wings of flight

Thank you to Puredistance for the sample of Papilio. The photo is from their website. 

Jo Malone Honeysuckle & Davana for Autumn Transition

 

I am currently in Australia, now that we live this retirement life of wintering in the Australian summer during January through April at my husband's home city of Adelaide, and then back to Texas spring once autumn arrives here. If you can see the tree in the background of the photo above, the leaves are beginning to turn rust and golden colors. In another two weeks the tree will look like a ball of fire, but by then we will be on our way to Texas, transitioning from autumn to spring.

Many of us who wear a lot of different fragrances, loyal to none, are vitally influenced by the changing seasons and even the daily weather forecast. The scents I will choose for spring when I'm back to Texas will be ones of light green hopefulness and gentle florals. For autumn, something totally different is called for. I want scents that may have elements of the fading summer but that strongly allude to the cooling nights and crisper air. Jo Malone Honeysuckle & Davana fills this need perfectly.

Honeysuckle has always been a favorite note of mine in summer scents, referenced here and here in posts about finding the perfect honeysuckle scent. I think as I get older, the memories it stirs of childhood roaming and the joy of smelling wild honeysuckle trailing across a fence are sweet souvenirs of the past.

Jo Malone scents are very hit and miss for me these days, as I find their newer releases never offensive but also never exciting. However, they have had a few releases in recent years that I do like, and this is one of them. This is one instance where I think the descriptive copy for the fragrance really does capture the essence of the picture the fragrance conjures in my head when I wear it. From the Jo Malone website:

The wildness of honeysuckle, winding through the English countryside. Climbing. Twisting. Ever more alluring after dark. Fresh with rose, and the aromatic, fruity twist of davana. Woody with moss. Warmed by sunshine. 

The juxtaposition the aromatic, woody, mossy notes, but then warmed by sunshine is the essence of the autumn transition to me. Here in Adelaide our days are usually filled with golden sunshine, but the sun's bite is gone and the glow is softer. Then at night the coolness moves in like a cloak of fog, a harbinger of what is soon to come. 

My little bottle of Honeysuckle and Davana that I have here in Australia is a few years old, and I feel that it has mellowed and aged a bit, like a wine. The initial spray does give the aromatic notes from davana, a bit of tea and fruit. But it now feels like it is fermenting, infused with a wine-like presence. This gives it a more formal "perfume smell" than many of the lighter offerings in the Jo Malone range.

The davana is the top note. It is an aromatic plant from India and has a smell reminiscent of dried fruits. The fruitiness is pleasant but not at all sweet or tart, more rich and edible. Heart notes are honeysuckle and rose. The honeysuckle doesn't have the fresh innocence of a summer scent. It smells more of the honey aspect and less of the floral. The rose is very subdued and just a subtle sweetness underneath. The base is mossy, and this is what gives the perfume the autumn vibes for me. 

Overall, Honeysuckle & Davana comes across as a more polished, old-school perfume scent than the name might imply, but being a Jo Malone scent it is not in the least overbearing. The honeysuckle does give the scent a warm, golden feel to me, which feels like the waning days of summer and the more chilly days to come. Try it if you're looking for a scent which hasn't totally said goodbye to summer, yet brings the comfort of autumn days.

The perfume and photo are my own. 

Parfums Dusita Rosarine & A Journey To Flåm, Norway

Parfums Dusita launched Rosarine, their newest scent, this past May. I was very kindly sent a mini bottle and invited to the online launch. The scent was newly poured, and my memory was it being a pretty rose, rather innocent and fresh. After the launch, I proceeded into a very busy travel period and tucked the bottle into my baggage. When I eventually smelled Rosarine again, I was in for a surprise!

Dusita perfumes are released -- one per year -- and they are always an event! I decided that Rosarine would be my focus on a special part of our trip to Norway. We flew to Bergen, and from there took a train to the town of Gudvangen. It's a tiny town at the foot of the UNESCO listed Nærøyfjord, one of the most scenic fjords in Norway. From there it is a two hour cruise around the horseshoe-shaped fjord to the tiny town of Flåm. 

You have to plan ahead when going to Flåm, there are only about three hotels, not enough to house all the people who may come for the day on the ferries. When we got to Flåm we were greeted with the sight of a large cruise ship. Groan. So much for our idyllic hidden village! 

 

Happily, they loaded up their passengers and sailed away before five, and suddenly it seemed we were the only people in town!

Our hotel choice was born of necessity, it was the only room in Flåm we could find. But the Fretheim Hotel turned out to be a very fortuitous choice, considering I was doing a story on Rosarine, a rose-based perfume. It just so happened that the hotel had a gorgeous rose garden in the front lawn. Photo opportunities abounded!

 So now it was time to smell Rosarine again. Like a fine wine, Rosarine had aged in the couple of months since I last smelled it, and morphed into a lush, brilliant rose scent!

These deep red roses well represent the lushness of Rosarine. I get a very wine-like scent from the perfume. In my mind I picture harvesters stomping grapes for wine, but instead of grapes, they are stomping rose petals, and it is turning into the most rich, indulgent rose scent!

The opening of Rosarine contain a succulent raspberry note, a slightly tart lychee note, and a little bergamot. As the richness increases, the rose is joined by orris butter, jasmine sambac, wood, incense, and ambrette. The heart of the perfume is intoxicating!

After many hours Rosarine will settle into a gourmand base. Notes listed are patchouli, vetiver, cocoa, vanilla, sandalwood, and benzoin. What is amazing to me about this scent, at least on my skin, is how long the sumptuous richness of the rose permeates.

Even the next morning when I wake up, my wrist is near my nose, and the first thing I smell is the whisper of Rosarine. It's a beautiful way to wake up!

Anyone familiar with Parfums Dusita knows that Pissara Umivijani always selects one of her father's poems to represent and introduce her scents. Her father, Montri Umivijani, was an esteemed poet in Thailand. As corny as it sounds, when I first smelled the luxuriant, opulent roses in Rosarine, I thought, "this smells like a poem". Her are the words from her father that Pissara chose:

On my lips, "leaving" is love, A thousandfold from the outworn heart.

If you are a lover of roses, Rosarine is a must try. I find when I wear it, I experience the uplifting feelings of joy and optimism that rose scents can impart. 

Thank you so much to Pissara and the Dusita team for allowing me to experience this beautiful perfume! And I loved it so much, I took the opportunity to order it during Dusita's Christmas box special, and got all these extra goodies with it! And I just saw today that Dusita is having a similar generous special for Valentine's. Go to their website and have a look!

Thank you to Parfums Dusita for the sample of Rosarine. All opinions are my own. All photos are my own.
 

 

Xeroff Coffee Break Collection

 I have been sniffing my samples from the Xeroff Coffee Break collection for about a year now, but as we finally are starting to see some fall temperatures in Texas after a horrendous summer, they are suddenly smelling especially good to me, and apropos for autumn weather.

Sergio Momo, the founder of Xeroff, travels the world, and became intrigued by the various styles of coffee served in different locations. Thus was the Coffee Break collection born, and I for one am hoping there will be future additions to the line! There has been an explosion in coffee scented fragrances in the last three or four years. Some are very realistic, and while they have a certain appeal, I find that I am more drawn to the fragrances that use coffee as a starting point, but then actually make the scent smell more like a perfume than a cup of Starbucks. That is definitely the case with the three scents currently in this collection.

Golden Dallah was the first scent in the collection to catch my attention, and I couldn't imagine that I could possibly like any of the others as much! It opens up warm, sweet and slightly sensuous, like a coffee with caramel-brown sugar stirred in.  There is smokey incense contrasting with bright, golden scents in the background. There is coffee but it gets equal billing with the warm spices. There is a gourmand element, which consists of the coffee, and a combination of cocoa and tonka, which add a hazelnut syrup to the mix. I love the balance between the gourmand element and the incense. They work well together and neither one overpowers.

Dallah is the name of the traditional coffee pot used in the Arabian peninsula. It has a distinctive shape, with a rounded base, a pinched waist, then opening wider at the top with a sharp, beak-like spout. The serving of the aromatic, bitter, and spicy coffee from the pot is a treasured ritual in many Arabian countries. Golden Dallah gives such a rich evocative smell, and makes me imagine I am in a souk, surrounded by colorful sites and clamour, while I serenely sip a flavorful coffee that is like none I've ever experienced.

Golden Moka was a new one for me, and I found it to be very different from Golden Dallah, but equally impressive and distinctive! Golden Moka smells like autumn, just not like coffee! Its opening notes remind me of a particularly good candle I had last year that was meant to simulate the smells of nuts and spicy leaves. In fact, I'd love to have a candle that smelled like Golden Moka burning in my house during October and November to keep me in the Fall mood!

Italians have used moka pots since the second world war. They are known for brewing strong and flavorful coffee, much like an expresso. My first exposure to one of these pots was when I started dating my eventual husband back in the late 1980s. He was from Australia, and these pots had become quite popular there due to all the Italian immigrants moving there after WWII, but to me it was a quaint, somewhat antiquated method of producing the morning cup of coffee. I much preferred my (also now antiquated !) plug in percolator. 

Google Image

The moka pot is valued for making aromatic coffee and bringing out nutty and even chocolate flavors from the coffee beans. This makes the nutty flavor I smell at the beginning of Golden Moka make a lot more sense. The opening notes are a collection of bright citrus smells, including blood orange, mandarin orange, and lemon. I believe these bright "wake up" fragrance hues are what accounts for the "Golden" half of the name in Golden Moka. It is a beautiful bright opening, but this is not your summer citrus scent! These citrus notes are metered with the warmth of the nutty, coffee essence, and a slight spiciness. It is honestly very delicious while not being gourmand at all. 

Cambodian Oud, Amber, and Incense deepen the scent at this point I feel like I'm in an Italian sidewalk cafe, with an aromatic coffee. Unlike the American coffee I'm used to, the coffee note is secondary to the spicy, nutty aroma. In the later life of the fragrance, it becomes more green, dry and smokey. 

I found this to be a unique and delicious take on coffee scent, and I think I prefer it to the more straightforward interpretation of a cup of Joe.

Golden Green is the newest of the Coffee Break collection. It is meant to represent the coffee beans before they are roasted. This is a very dry scent and on my skin the dominant notes are wood and vetiver. Golden Green opens with cardomom, juniper berries, pink pepper, and nutmeg. This all sounds very spicy but on my skin the fragrance skips straight to the middle notes, which are vetiver, cedar, labdanum, leather, and incense. Something about the mixture of these notes almost gives me an oud wood smell. Coffee is in the base, but don't expect to smell anything that reminds you of your morning cup. This is all about the beans! On my skin this translates to dry and almost dusty. It is fine, but I didn't find it distinctive enough to seduce me. Those who tend to like their scents more masculine or like a dry vetiver might find this very much to their taste.

My final conclusion: I love Golden Dallah for its richness and extreme longevity on my skin; I love Golden Moka for its spicy opening but I wished it lasted longer, and Golden Green is a pass for me. If you are attracted to coffee scents or spicy scents, give this collection a try!

Perfume samples were my own. Photos from Google images.

Goldfield & Banks Ingenious Ginger

I have always been fascinated by the unique plant life in Australia, some of it so different and unique to that found anywhere else in the world. As an American married to an Australian I make regular sojourns there, and I never tire of walking around our neighborhood and viewing wattle or eucalyptus that is not to be found in my home state. So when Goldfield & Banks perfumes came out a few years ago, introducing fragrances that highlight some of Australia's native plant life, I was excited to see what they would come up with. I've enjoyed almost all of their releases, to varying degrees. This year's newest release is Ingenious Ginger. I actually had the name wrong until I began writing this article. I had been pronouncing it as "Indigenous Ginger", which personally I think is a better name!

I lived for several years in Singapore and used to walk in their magnificent Botanic Gardens almost every day. I was always intrigued by the Ginger Garden. Although the ginger plants were beautiful, there was no discernable odor coming from their large pod-like red flowers. It seems that Goldfield & Banks owner Dimitri Weber had a love for the red torch ginger flower, but it had no distinctive smell. He and his perfumer turned to an indigenous native plant, the red back ginger, which is known as a "bush tucker" plant, meaning its berries and underground rhizome roots are all edible and have a mild ginger flavor. They used this plant to come up with a ginger flower accord.

From the beginning I liked this scent, but the more I wore it the more it has grown on me, and it is now one of my favorites from the brand. The perfume goes through several evolutions on my skin, but starts with a sparkling lemon and mandarin citrus blast, with a ginger flower accord adding a spicy, warming note. I have not smelled quite this exact combination of notes before, and in this opening phase, it's very more-ish. I keep putting my wrist to my nose to inhale the invigorating scent.

Next there are notes of magnolia, jasmine, and rose, but it is only the magnolia I can discern. The florals lend a creamy texture to the scent, making it soft and billowy. This doesn't last and then the scent deepens. I begin to get more wood and amber notes. I think anyone who enjoys woody perfumes will like this scent. Notes of patchouli, musk, vanilla, sandalwood, and amber give a rich luxurious texture that shifts between a creamy deep wood note to a spicy amber richness. In the final phase of wear, the scent once again softens and a sandalwood vanilla combination plays on my skin.

If you have smelled a ginger perfume where the ginger note is harsh or more edible, this is different. The ginger flower note is rich and spicy, but the only thing it shares with cooking ginger is the sense of warmth that ginger root can provide to a dish.

I was so intrigued by the many changeable phases of this perfume that I decided to find out more about the perfumer. It was a name I was not familiar with, but probably should be as he has a vast portfolio, Hamid Merati-Kashani. He is a German/Iranian perfumer who is based in Dubai, and he says that the Middle East and the opulence of the scents there is a big influence on the fragrances he creates. He was charged with interpreting Dimitri Weber's vision of the unscented ginger flower into reality, and smelling what he has come up with, I'm a believer that this is what this opulent red flower should smell like! 

The perfumer has given an impressionistic vision of what the Australian Torch Ginger Lily flower might smell like, and by using a native ginger plant, it is a totally believable and unique fragrance highlighting another unusual Australian plant to add to the growing Goldfield & Banks collection of fragrances.

Top photo from www.GoldfieldandBanks.com. Other photos Google images. Perfume sample is my own.