Some things are just made to be attractive and repelling — riding that love-hate see-saw until one side or the other dumps you off, and Guerlain’s new Iris Ganache is at the top of my list of that kind of oddity. Notes of bergamot, iris butter, white chocolate, floral notes, cinnamon, patchouli, white musks, cedarwood and vanilla. Huh.
I love iris. I’m not a fan of the gourmands normally. Pairing iris with a bunch of delicious cupcake ingredients seemed to be the kiss of death, but the iris totally saves this. As it dries down, you start to get more of the pastry notes for a while, then the iris seems to rein it back in, and it keeps doing this little pastry/dirt dance for quite a while until the musk and vanilla steps up, puts an uneasy truce in place, but one that makes this thing pretty addictive. Do I love it? I don’t know. Do I hate it? Absolutely…. not…. yet. Do I find it interesting? Yes. It’s doing a weird balancing act that somehow seems to work and keeps my interest. Weird little lovable ganache-covered iris debbill.
Cartier Declaration — Dusan, you’re going to kill me, but…. gag! This thing went to pure sweat on me, and it’s taken about four hours before I see what you love about it. I’m assuming it doesn’t do that for you? Lord, that just wasn’t pretty for a while. Notes of orange, cedar, birchwood, and oakmoss, but I’m only attesting that there was a very big, powerful cedar b.o’ish notes for far, far toooooo long.
CB’s new Wild Hunt has notes of torn leaves, crushed twigs, flowing sap, fallen branches, old leaves, green moss, fir, pine and tiny mushrooms. It is meant to smell like the ancient forest in the heat of the summer afternoon. Check… right on target. This is every bit of what it should be, it is dark foresty perfection. Mirkwood Forest, but with the sun coming in a little between the branches and some magic happening just underneath that carpeted forest floor you can’t see. This is a quiet, beautiful happy place, and in the drydown, it has a very soft sweetness to it from the sap, which leaves almost the exact same scent that is left on your hands after you have been plunging through the forest, a very slightly sweet green.
Guerlain’s Mayotte, the do-over for Mahora, is a stunner. One of a short list of Guerlains that work for me all the time, every day. Notes of frangipani, neroli, tuberose, ylang ylang, jasmine, sandalwood, vetiver and vanilla. It starts off fresh and bright and beautiful, like a happy child greeting the dawn, and the drydown just gets happier and warmed by the basenotes, and the vetiver lending an earthy touch so it is never too sweet, but it retains that same joyful exuberance that it has in the beginning. I like that in a perfume. This thing is just stunning. If someone were new to Guerlain, I would tell them to try this and Apres L’Ondee first, very approachable and just gorgeous, and not a drop of powder or fussiness in it anywhere!
Okay, it’s official. I have tried every version of Guerlain Shalimar that I know of, having finally attempted the parfum today, and it is just fantasically awful on me in all iterations. Now I know!
So which perfume do you keep trying to wear over and over with no success? And which perfume has struck you as the oddest one you’ve smelled so far this year?
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