Hey, I have three little samples of the new Guerlain Bodice Rippers in my hand, so let’s take a stroll through the smut-section of the perfumarket and see what we have.
Guerlain Femme Erotique Oriental Brulant – notes of Clementine, Almond, Tonka Bean & Vanilla. Goes on a very typical well-made Guerlain, smelling similar to some of the Matiere line. I don’t get a lot of the clementine, if any at all, just a warm, gourmandish incense. It’s very nice for what it is, but I’m not ripping my bodice over it. It seems to bridge a gap between maybe Angelique Noire and Bois d’Armenie, going not to far in either direction and finding a really quiet, elegant valley that makes it quite beautiful. I quite like it, but the price point is a little sproingy – for all of them.
Guerlain Femme Fatale Chypre Fatale – notes of White Peach, Rose, Patchouli & Vanilla. Oh, damn flibbertigittet cat, Rex, knocked this one off the table and who knows where, so no review of this one, sorry!! Perhaps someone who has smelled it could chime in? Denyse covers in in her reivews. I’ll try and cage another sample of it to review later on.
Guerlain Femme Enfant Gourmand Coquin – notes of Black Pepper, Rose, Rum & Chocolate. It’s a big fat old chocolatey boozy gourmand. I gained five pounds on first sniff. The pepper/burnt aspect of it keeps it from being a cliche. The longer it’s on, the less confectionary it feels, while continuing to shout gourmand at a low whisper. Its treatment of chocolate in perfume is one of the few that don’t make my stomach start heaving, so that’s good! I like it quite a lot, but it’s not my first choice of Guerlain. Great sillage and long-lasting. Fans of the gourmand will find it pretty charming, I suspect.
What I think they should have done with this trio is roll it out as a set in little 1/2 ounce bottles. At least the two I sniffed are charming and well-made and probably one or two worth having in some small quantity, but I don’t know that I’d need a full bottle of any of the three. Maybe the Oriental Brulant. Well, yeah, probably.
Well… I agree these would be nice in a nibble size, but they are not calling out to me. It doesn’t sound like they made you feel like a girlish she-woman either or whatever that was. 😉
Oh, I wonder if it was the same woman who visited our NM for a Guerlain trunk sale last May. She clearly steered the direction of our purchases according to looks and skin types. I tend to trust my nose! But, she wound up recommending fragrances that I would have purchased anyway. I wonder what would have happened had I disagreed? “No! I must have the Cruel Gardenia”. “But Madame, your skin has yellow undertones! You cannot!”
Oops! This last comment belongs under Trinity’s above!
I got the less-than distinctive honor of being looked over like a horse by that woman; she seemed mightily distressed that I liked the fuller, spicier end of the perfume spectrum given my too pale complexion. She kept trying to push me towards QVLP and Iris Ganache, which are admittedly pretty on me, but I love skanky things. When I mentioned my love of the stinky Serges she turned a little surly. Once I persuaded her to let me try the Sous le Vent, I think she understood where I was coming from.
Lord, do you think they’d only let me try the colognes? I’m really pale too. I don’t entirely understand that skin tone thing.
Hmmm, I’m pale yellow. That seemed to prompt recommendations for aldehydes (Liu, Vega etc), as well as Iris Ganache. I wonder what the formula is? I seem to remember that she fanned herself with one of those black Guerlain fans when I mentioned liking something with pronounced animalic notes.
Geez. Perfumes by skintone and looks? Glad she didn’t get me in the store! “Madame, you must wear ze old, wrinkled perfume in olive. What? You want Baum de Doge by Eau D’Italie? NO, NO, it is for the redhead with frown lines. YOU must wear old- wrinkled-olive to match your looks and skin!” Nah, I don’t think so.
Such a gap between copy and product, it seems…:-?
I’m afraid that for me these only bring to mind the most lackadaisical, slight loosening of a bodice. They simply lack any real depth or oomph to my nose. I may end up w/ a decant of Oriental Brulant, but definitely not a full bottle. However, must say that I can see potential in all of them and if they just had had a *bit* more time devoted to them, they might have been brilliant. I can see them being very appealing in parfum form.
Your kitty cat has good taste! The Chypre Fatale is my favorite of the three!
I wore this the other day and the drydown was so familiar…Tom Ford Noir de Noir! They were very close but the openings are different. The Chypre Fatale is reminiscent of Lady Vengenance in the beginning with added peach. Fantastic lasting power too!
I’ll have to retry the Oriental Brulant as I completely missed the incense on this. For some reason…I immediately thought of Dior Cologne Blanche with this one. Strange??
🙂
I’m glad some are loving them. I was completely bored by them. One of them was like a stripped down Iris Ganache, so that wasn’t bad, but for cryin-out loud. There’s IRIS GANACHE, which I think is ten times the scent any of these are.
I agree, they should have come out in little bottles, either singly or as a coffret.
I can only tell you about Oriental Brulant. I had a temporary fit of insanity and ordered the darn thing UNSNIFFED. Guess it’s a good thing I wasn’t looking at cars that day!
Anyway, I find it warm, comforting, it def has that Guerlainaide base, the almond note is fairly promient. In fact, it goes on a touch masculine on me at first, but then it settles down quite nicely, and blends with the vanilla. And guess what? I get LEATHER from this. I swear I do. I’ve worn it several times already, and I get that delicious faint whisp of leather each time. This one will be a total staple in my cold-weather rotation. Is is worth what I paid for it? Not sure yet, but then I think most scents are over-priced anyway. Do I love it? I most certainly do. 😡
Oh, I forgot to mention, when I ordered by phone, I got to speak to a lovely French woman, a fragrance expert from Guerlain, who was at BG that day. She asked about my hair & eye color, as well as what type of skin I had (dry, oily, etc). I don’t normally put alot of stock in that sort of thing, scent-according-to-skin-and-hair, but she recommended OB after I gave her my answers.
And it DOES work well for me. Hmmmm……..
You have just murdered me… want a bottle of OB NOW !!! Can Bd’A be improved ???
When I read my beloved “Bois d’Armenie” being mentioned, my heart stopped beating and on top of that LizS not only concurs, but even says Oriental Brulant is actually BETTER than Bd’A… all of a sudden my interest in these releases has been revamped !
Hmm, I am now more confoosed 8-}
I think I’ll just forget the ad copy and ignore all the various descriptors, and just, well try them for myself…now there’s an independent move :d/
And thanks, Patty-I have a date with myself to go to Saks today and check out the new Chanel collection…the Beige quad et al :-$
And now I want to hear a Beige (the scent) report from you, too…
D.C., being the backwater that it is…doesn’t have the Exclusifs line anywhere to be found 😮 But-I’ll be happy to report back on the makeup :d/
The Chanel boutique at the Galleria maybe? But they are often out of No 22, so I don’t know whether I would trust them to have Beige…
The last time I went by there they had hidden the perfumes; if someone finds them please let me know! I’m feeling the need for that FB of Sycomore as the weather gets cooler. You’re right about No. 22, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it there.
Not even…:((
Hi Patty! I sympathize with the loss of the sample — I have to hide all my vials from my Siamese demoness Jicky!
Judging from the two above comments, Catherine’s and Liz’s, the Elixirs can definitely inspire love. I found them lovely but wasn’t entirely bowled over (copy + price point, and also the excess sweetness of the Gourmand and the Oriental).
The Chypre may actually be the most interesting of the trio. It’s a “chypre light”, i.e. recognizably Chypre-ish in the style of, say, Parure, but with less complexity and depth.
They last forever on paper strips (three weeks).
omg omg omg i am dying over Oriental Brulant. i love it so much. its perfect. i thought i loved bois d’armenie but i was SO WRONG. i can not contain my love. i would bathe in it but that would be $$$$$ i need back up bottles for my back up bottles. i originally read the post on the marketing copy here, and i was turned off, but then i smelled it! then i smelled it after a few hours…utter heaven in a scent. i dont get clementine. i dont get almond. i get the most perfect ambergis, is that even in here?? usually guerlain turns weird-ish on me after several hours, but not this! i will be abandoning my bois d’armenie which does that…i agree they need a travel set…
You have just murdered me… want a bottle of OB NOW !!! Can Bd’A be improved ???
As someone who hasn’t been able to wear/stomach the older Guerlains (other than Jicky–I must have my Jicky), I’m become ecstatic to find the newer releases. This past year was coming into the L’A&M series, and the Elixirs are a new joy. My caveat: What I wanted to find for the fall were comforting, almost effortless scents–not necessarily a new “masterpiece” that blows everything out of the water like Onda or, for me, Iris Ganache–that are exquisite. Guerlain lived up to my wish–even if that wish wasn’t the wish of others. All of them are so soft, and softness is what I crave.
Oriental Brûlant: At first, the faint threads of both Bois d’Armenie and Attrape Coeur spring out, then the juicy clementines spill forth. I get a lot of clementine, Patty–once more signifying that chemisty/noses can make a different. Then the almonds rise up, just powdery enough to keep the scent from being fruity. And from that point on, it’s just marvelous. I could wear this all fall and winter and be content. Definitely full-bottle for me.
Chypre Fatal strikes me as the “no-brainer” scent the woman from Nordstrom was talking about in Chicago. A bit sweeter than most chypres, yet with that crisp edge that makes me think of walking through fallen leaves. I don’t have any “little black dress” scents, other than Jicky, but this would qualify in my book. At the same time, I haven’t sought out many of the “new” kind of chypres (other than Roja Dove–and I don’t smell the patchouli in that one or in Chypre Fatale), so I don’t know how it differs from those. Enough? The vanilla that rises forth deep in the dry down keeps it different for me–again, soft. A soft stole-like scent. Hubby loves it.
Gourmand Coquin: The first second I tried it, I thought: Iris Ganache, but rose-y and so much more! This is a giggling scent. A “Marie Antoinette” scent. I more sense the chocolate than smell it. The pepper and spice keep the fragrance far away from American-sugar-sweetness. I like it best in the dry down, after about an hour. Not sure where/when I would wear it, except to accompany my French Pink (that’s the name) painted office as my fluffy cat lays on his back in the sun. Yep–that’s the image of Gourmand Coquin. A fluffy cat lazing around in a bright pink room. Dispels all gloom.
Hey woman!
Yeah, I’m thinking these aren’t all that. It could be that I am still disappointed in the shameless drivel March reported to us last week that Guerlain is passing off as marketing for this trio, but I am disgusted with Guerlain in general these days. They don’t want my money, ’cause hey, I don’t have any money to buy their new fragrances at those prices anyway.
But, I must admit I am curious about the Oriental Brulant. (So sorry the Femme Fatale one had a fatal accident!) Angelique Noire is one of my favorites, so maybe I’ll bring myself to at least test the OB, lol! :”>
Have a beautiful, and fragrant, day, babe!
Hugs!