It is once again that time of year when we look back over 2007 and put on our magical perfume sorting hats and declare which scents are the best of the 2007 entries.
- Amouage XXV Men – Lee says: you get those perfumes that you sniff and instantly you know – it’s a bang! whee! Ka-pow! moment. There aren’t many. But this one did it. Fruity incense drying down to a smoulder of exquisite velvetty richness, like the warm afterburn of a casked single malt. Duchaufour has done a marvellous job here with the best naturals, probably shaped, polished and refined by an exceptional palette of synthetic tones.
- Amouage 25 Women – Patty says: “What the world needs now is skank, cedary skank.” Lovely and dirty.
- Bellissima Perfect Night – Lee says: On Louise, it smells hot. Nuff said.
- Bond No. 9 Silver Factory – March says: easily the best of the Bonds to my nose; who knew incense could smell so fun and lighthearted and trippy? I wonder what Andy would think.
- CB I Hate Perfume Wild Hunt Water Perfume — Patty says: forest on the best day of your life
- Chanel 31 Rue Cambon Patty says: reinvented chypre, as if needed it. Well, maybe it did.
- Estee Lauder Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia — Patty says: Just pretty, and there’s plenty of room on this list for pretty
- Guerlain Spirituese Double Vanille – March says: and Guerlain does it again with a scent that sounds sooo not me but has enough smoke and heart to win me over.
- Guerlain Iris Ganache – March says: another surprise success for me; I seem to have killed off the sweet notes. It’s true, iris and ganache can smell good together.
- Juliette Has a Gun Lady Vengeance – Patty says: Who cares about the juice? Good enough, not groundbreaking but kudos on the name, which puts it on the list.
- Hermes Kelly Caleche – Patty says: Again, just a pretty perfume, and JCE did it. JCE will always be on any list of mine.
- Lostmarc’h Lann-ael – March says: okay, maybe not Perfume Genius, but it’s warm and cuddly vanilla and cereals. The sort of thing I’d hate if you described it to me. Smelling it brought me around.
- MDCI Enlevement au Serail (formerly FK3) — Patty says: All of the MDCIs could have made this list, but limiting it to one, this has to be it
- Micallef Note Vanillee — Patty says: A beautiful vanilla, very different from the Guerlain one. But no less deserving.
- Serge Lutens Rousse – Lee says: still a cinnamon dream, an autumnal reverie, a Keats poem bottled.
- Miller Harris L’air de Rien – Lee says: a wonderful oakmoss drydown, though for some reason that bran accord at the opening keeps making me think of Coke…? (March says: smells like something died in the barn. Don’t go in there, man, it’s fierce.)
- Narciso Rodriguez Musc for Him – Lee says: Patty pointed out that the oil is a superior beast, and so it is. The middle structure of the scent is pretty much the same as the edt, but the first ten minutes dazzle, and the drydown is delightful.
- Parfum D’Empire Fougere Bengale – Lee says: take Sables or Eau Noire; strip out the sweetness; add a playful tarragon / anise ‘wtf is going on?’ mobility that drifts off, unanchored, in all directions, and weld all this onto an animalic beast that lasts for days. Glorious. There’s been a lot of fuss about the marketing schtick that goes with this scent, and I admit that I find all the tiger hunt imagery distasteful. But no more so, perhaps, than the same line’s idealisation of Napoleon, the Ottoman empire and so on. Perfume names are rife with the blood, sweat and tears of culture – I always find it odd that people get more worked up over animal cruelty than war and the massacring of innocents, but there you go.
- Vero Profumo Onda – Patty says: Djedi is dead, long live the new Djedi.
- Les Parfumes de Rosine Rose Kashmirie – Patty says: saffron, rose, gorgeous, probably one of the best things Rosine has done in years
- Roja Dove Unspoken – March says: wow, where did the love go for this one? Or this line? Are we just buried in releases?
- Serge Lutens Sarrasins – Patty says: Okay, maybe just on my list, but this is a great jasmine and I think will get more love as the years go by
- Tom Ford Private Blend Moss Breches – Patty says: A couple of the Tom Fords could have made this list, and others may be more popular, but this one is the most inventive of the line.
- Worth Courtesan – March says: I have almost killed a bottle of this, which for me is, let’s face it, unheard of. Its very very slight cumin-y note is sensual rather than in-your-face. In fairness, I’ve now been teased by folks who smell a pleasant fruit salad scent and cannot figure out what I love about this.
Join other perfume blogs as they weigh in with their thoughts on perfume in 2007. Aromascope :: Bois de Jasmin :: Now Smell This :: Perfume Posse :: PerfumeSmellin’ Things ::
Helg at Perfume Shrine also has some thoughts on 2007 in Perfume
Lee, I too loved L'air de Rien this year. I will have to try the others you mention. Best wishes to you all in the New Year! :)