I´m in the middle of a work project and the twins are underfoot this week, so this post is going to be a quickie. Let´s talk about Guerlain´s Les Secrets de Sophie, a limited edition (natch) white floral with a hit of violet. The thing apparently retails for roughly $400 in one of those fussy, girly flacons with the bulb atomizers, and … unless things have changed, Guerlain´s atomizers are craptastic. I hate bulb atomizers. I´d say more than half the time when I try them in the store, they´re broken, and I´m convinced the bulb atomizer concept is a nefarious plot to allow all the juice inside to evaporate. Glad I got that off my chest. Anyhow, the chances of yours truly having a flacon of this in my hands is nil, so maybe it´s just sour grapes. Thanks to My Special Friend for letting me try her decant.
Les Secrets de Sophie opens with a heady combination of jasmine and violet. I love jasmine and violet, and I couldn´t have been happier, but I am always surprised by how many women don´t love violet (and/or jasmine.) The jasmine thing I understand; some people find it too ripe for them, although Sophie wasn’t particularly indolic to my nose. But violet? What´s not to love about an innocent little violet? (Rose, on the other hand, is prickly.) This violet was just about perfect, halfway between the candied violets that can be too sweet and a very green violet. For the first hour I had this on, I was debating whether I needed to go looking for a split.
Ultimately, though, Sophie´s secret is that her drydown smells rather like Apres L´Ondee, less hazy and more liquid purple (Caron Aimez Moi?) with an extra dollop of white musk tossed in for good measure. That´s all good, but I´m not going to pay 400 bills for it. I´d rather blow that (theoretical) money on some vintage Guerlain on eBay and wear Apres, or one of the gazillion other violet scents I already own. In fact, just typing this has filled me with a sudden longing for my vintage Jolie Madame. Hang on, I´m going to put some on right now! Cheers!
PS For anyone who is interested, a follow up to my Natori post – they have a hand(?) cream in a jar, and I am not an ancillary product fan, mostly preferring my lotions and creams unscented, but they were flogging it at Saks next to the perfume and I have to say it was pretty spectacular. Forgot to ask the price. The 1.7 Natori is $80, by the way, and as your favorite Auntie March is fond of saying, anything less than $100 is the new free.
Your deconstruction was quite clever and I thought the price for these Secrets was obscene since it’s not extrait de parfum. Took the liberty of linking that on another Guerlain discussion, hope it’s all right.
BTW, sending you an email about another thing.
I’m interested in this Armani Prive buzz–the cuir sounds delightful! I also don’t get violet from Feminite du Bois but I could just be a baby inexperienced “nose”…
I find it really unfortunate that price-points are soaring when fragrance is such an easy moment of pleasure and respite from daily concerns–how sad that cost can prohibit such instant relief and make us pause before we buy–unless it’s 10.01 on the ‘bay–and “it’s always 10.01 somewhere” right?
To be honest, FdB (which I absolutely adore, I even own the parfum) would not be first on my list when I think of violets — to me it’s much more about the “bois” part, with just a little sweetness, although there are other iterations with more emphasis on the violet.
You can put me over with the other violet haters, though technically I don’t hate them, I just can’t wear them. Jasmine is a whole ‘nother story, and anyone who can’t wear those big blousy roses can send them to me; I promise to give them a good home. I think my fav flower is orange blossom though, the thicker the better. The OB in Fair Verona and Tosca (both SIPs) is swoon-inducing. In a good way.
Orange blossom I mostly love, although I particularly love it WITH jasmine, and with them both being kind of stinky and indolic. 🙂 how do you feel about that, do you want yours clean? OB on its own can be pretty indolic too….
I think it was Fair Verona I swooned over? Dang, can’t remember.
Clean, moi? You know that the staff over @ Art w/Flowers call me “Mrs. Skanky Musk?”, right? Indoles are my friends (mostly becuase I’ve offended the noses of my actual friends)! I admit to a predilection for light, uncomplicated rose scents for when I’m not feeling like dialing up to 11, but jasmine and OB wouldn’t be the thing I”d grab on those days anyway.
Oddly … jasmine is calling out to me in the summer heat. On one of those recent 90-degree nights I put on my Montale Jasmin Full (speaking of Skank) and it was dee-lightful.
Jasmine is beautiful, but too sweet for me unless heavily cut with other notes, and violet–the jury is still out on violet.
Roses, on the other hand, are lovely, and I can’t imagine how anyone could not like them. What’s not to like? It smells like a rose.
That is so funny. See, I personally don’t perceive jasmine as “sweet.” I mean, it IS sweet, but not sweet like kill.me.now.I am drowning in sugar…. amber can do that to me, or gourmand stuff. Or sometimes tuberose, but not jasmine.
Rose I have tried to explain before (other people share my feelings.) I adore real roses, I grow a ton of scented ones. Big roses in perfume almost invariably smell sour and too much simultaneously. Just a personal flaw of mine. 🙂
Anything less than $100 is the new free.
Amen.
Out of curiosity, what was the old free? Was free ever the old free? Once upon a time?
The old free was $50. I had to raise it to $100 when a fair amount of the product crossing my radar seems closer to $200.
Violets can go either way on me. I adore them green, and in the heart of other things, or very purple and smoky/woody a la Attrape Couer and Feminite du Bois, but Aimez Moi sets my teeth on edge, especially on the wrong day, and all those powdery, lipstick violets don’t love me one little bit. And, Francesca, I hear you on the orange blossom, too, which for me has the same sweetness problem. Ugh. It has ruined many a good tuberose/jasmine for me…
So I suppose, Miz March, that I feel about violets, the way you feel about rose. It has to be Just Right.
KAY NO HATING ON THE ORANGE BLOSSOM THXBAI
😉
Sorry, one of my less sedate personalities seems to be answering comments this morning.
Super sweet powdery anything can be difficult; why is that? I like the idea of it (face powder!) but don’t want the reality.
Whew. Smells like Apres L’Ondee– that means I can scratch it off my list. I just don’t love that one yet. I am holding onto my decant, just in case I change my mind and grow into it, but on me, it smells a bit… off.
Hang on to your decant. Srsly. I’d put Apres on a list of things that are so glorious that they should be retried.
Or: here’s another thought, have you tried someone else’s sample? Honestly, I hated Iris Silver Mist until I realized there was something seriously wrong with my sample after smelling it elsewhere.
What March said.
Really?! It never occurred to me that the sample could be bad. I wonder if the same is true for my sample of 31 Rue. Or maybe I have odd taste at this point in my perfume education.
As a sample queen, I can attest that occasionally I get something that I figure out later is off. And who knows what the problem is? Let me stress here that I’ve never felt I’d been ripped off; maybe they turn in the vials? Maybe they got heated in transit? No idea.
Following the “anything less than $100 concept is free”, I am now going to pay all household bills in installments. Well, maybe not the mortgage. So, the electricity, cable, etc will all be free, and I can buy plenty of fragrances that cost more than $100. I will let you know the results when my husband discovers my new plan.
Um … sorry, doll. My theory only applies to PERFUME, not your mortgage. In perfume, anything less than $100 is like an impulse candy bar while in line at CVS.
Also: samples, decants, swaps, and eBay purchases after 10 pm and/or while consuming alcohol do not count toward your perfume “budget.”
Well, I was ready to type “killjoy” in big bold letters until I saw the second part of your response. All is well again. I will be scouring ebay tonight at 10:01 and thinking of you.
but of course you know that includes the time zone in which the item is located – so it can be after 10 in either your time zone or the seller’s, right? 😉
Wish I could wear jasmine. I love it on others, but on me it’s pretty GAH (same with orange blossom). LOL: “Anything less than 100 bucks is the new free.”
Which is kin to the always popular “Honey, look at my new $500 shoes that I snagged for $400! I just saved us hundred dollars!
I’m with Kim on the violets-they are lovely on others, really unpleasant to wear for me. You smelled what I did to the vintage Jolie Madame-an iodinic crime, it was. And wouldja please stop wrinkling yer pretty nose at rose, huh? Afterall, Paris is lovely on you 🙂
Aside from the Violet Issue, I found Sophie very pretty-especially on our dear friend that shared with us some of the precious juice. It was lovely on the open, as you note, and I loved the Jasmine. It is very easy to wear, so feminine, very dressy it seemed. But given the speed my skin metabolized perfume, it was a very short ride to an indistinct base, not the Guerlinade that I would have expected.
Still, a must-spray for those who can get access-and a willing SA!
my god, the heinous abuse you perpetrated on Madame! You should be ashamed … or not and I should shut my yap, since that worked out rather nicely for me, didn’t it? Remember what you did to Orris? heh.
Paris is probably the only dominant-rose perfume I actually reach for, and I do that by pretending it’s not rose. 😉
really? Paris is one of the roses I can’t handle – the honey in it gets magnified on my skin and just kills it for me. But I recently discovered YSL’s Cinema – really gorgeous soft oriental with roses wafting in and out – highly underated!
But Jolie Madame – borders on…. well, stuff that comes up when a kid eats way too much pink cotton candy. really, really bad on me. But I will try it again – I have been surprised in the past when I retry
I find this conversation about my beloved Madame to be quite shocking and frankly blasphemous. I will attempt to forget what I have read here today and get on with my life as if none of this had ever happened.
Don’t worry, Germaine is going to haunt all Jolie Madame blasphemers and rattle their bottles while they sleep.
That’s my girl!
ahhh… but I have the ghost of Madame Chanel/Ernest Beauxworship protecting me 😉
For some reason being haunted by Mme. Cellier terrifies me.
Smart girl.
Kim, are you talking new or vintage JM? I like the new, but it’s much sweeter and less … dangerous. The vintage JMs pop up pretty regularly on eBay and can be pretty fierce. The one I put on last night is intensely animalic.
Funny you mentioned Cinema. I have worked through three small samples of that, trying to decide whether I love or hate it. 🙂
not sure – I got my sample from TPC so will double check. likely the new Jolie Madame since anything animalic is usually on my love-it list.
yes, Cinema in parfum strength is definitely full bottle worthy – I couldn’t decide when trying it in the edp but the parfum won me over. Could be interesting to do a YSL retrospective (hint, hint?)
Well, I’m one of those – give me rose any day over violet!! Violet and I do not get along – the sweet ones are horribly cloying and the greens usually harsh on me. The only violet that I can wear is Armani’s Cuir Amethyste which I love and having finished a decant I am about to spring for a full bottle. What is the story with Armani Prive’s showing up at the discounters? I hope this doesn’t mean pending discontinuation? If $100 is free, then Armani Prive is now affordable!
I know! I have a bottle of the CA from a discounter and I’m hoping it was a packaging change or something. I know at one point they switched from the hard bottles to recharge (?) but I am pretty sure mine’s a refill. I think those bottles drift into discounters from all sorts of strange places, though.
CA is great, come sit by me. I don’t think it got as much love from other people.
Love violet, particularly on the green side, less on the candied side. On the Natori cream–I use it in the same places as the fragrance itself, I would not use it as heavily as I do my (unscented) body creams because it is a spectacular rendition of the fragrance–lasts 8 hours or more. The price is $75 or $80 I think. The new free, indeed. I still love Sisely #1, but not at that price, not for an edt.
Yum! Wish it weren’t so expensive … but maybe that’s why it was so wonderful? Was contemplating getting both, but $160 is NOT the new free…
I still can’t believe Tysons NM had the Sophie for sale. I can believe that they didn’t bother to have a tester out, though.
You missed it, btw, but I did go back to NM on my way out and I did try and buy Tokyo (technically, the husband bought it, but he was good with that after the fact). The highlight of the transaction was me going over to the Chantecaille counter and asking them if they could go and pull the box for me to ring it up because the SAs behind the Guerlain counter could not be bothered to even acknowledge that I was standing there, spritzing furiously, saying loudly how I really needed to buy that bottle of Tokyo. Dopes. And yes, the nice Chantecaille ladies were able to help me out and they apologized for the other SAs’ behavior. I like to think somebody got a reminder from their management on how it’s good to at least offer to help someone, esp if they are saying loudly how they really need to buy this damn $200+ bottle of pretty smelling liquid ASAP. But who knows? 🙂
Funny store, eh? I feel they stalk me the instant I walk in, but are mostly unable to help me at all once I get serious about a product (She Uemura and Chantecaille are the exceptions). I briefly got interested in a very expensive La Prairie lipstick that day, and the SA was excited. Except she didn’t have the tester handy, ran to find one, forgot the name, then just started to ring up a packaged one.
No thanks ; (
I had this exact thing happen to me with some perfume. I said I liked something (in response to the SA offering a paper strip to me) and no lie, next thing I knew she was ringing me up!
Of course the other humorous thing about NM is I refuse to get their credit card and I always forget this, so on the rare occasions I get something there I have leave to go get cash. They love that at Chevy Chase!
God, I hate that! Do they really still do that? I always had to run to the ATM just to buy a jar of Keihl’s face cream when they were the only place I could find it back in the day. I forgot about that stupid policy every damn time, and I absolutely REFUSE to get their card. But online you can use a regular credit card of your choosing. Or so I’ve heard.
I think they take their card and AmEx? Which I also won’t get… and cash, of course. I have no shame so the cash dash doesn’t bother me.
That was weird. Even though the Guerlain SA was semi-busy and the other SAs were with Kiehls, I don’t think I have ever seen employees so completely determined to ignore a customer who is ready to purchase a high-end product. These are the same people who send me letters for every special event and call me to announce new lipglosses or whatever. Huh?
And who work on commission during one of the worst recessions in recent memory. Maybe they’re so depressed they can’t move.
I find this totally unsurprising. Honestly, for a bunch of SAs who run at you like crazed harpies they are inept at the actual “complete the sale” part. Worst CS I have ever seen in my life. If they didn’t have things I couldn’t find elsewhere I would never go in there. They are nicer at NM in Chevy Chase but the fragrance selection is smaller.
I would love to give this frag a try, but I don’t think it’s possible to beat either Jolie Madame or Apres l’Ondee, I just don’t! And since I’ve been stockpiling both for many years now, I think I’m good 😉
… and here we are back to your Ondees. Huh. Maybe I should just give in to the smut today. why am I asking YOU this?
I am a perfect lady, thank you very much and I simply do not know how anyone could ever think otherwise. My body is a temple, my Ondees are clean, and my JMs are posted on your Wall.
I felt the same way about Sophie. She runs out of secrets a little too quickly, but her little story is lovely while it lasts. This actually reminds me a lot of the defunct Aqua Nerolia, with more violets. Ring a bell?
Couldn’t agree more. The opening is a knockout. Somewhere into hour number two or so, I had to spray more to reboot it. But when I did, I was swooning, just a little bit.
I was swooning too …. wth is with the comment loading so slow today? argh — do you worry whether rebooting is going to lead to killing others around you with the base? When I do that I’m always concerned I’ve gotten nose fatigue and everyone around me is dying. 😉
I don’t remember that one, D. Sigh. It sounds like it was lovely.
Har.
The new free.
Love it. Like, how does that translate to a handbag? Anything less than an Hermes Togo leather Birkin is the new free? That works for me! I am wondering about violets meself – I have one of those ‘make a statement but don’t scare folks to death’ meetings tomorrow – I was thinking Jolie Madame….then I remembered that you said guys (and this is an All Guys in Hard Hats meeting) like that Narciso stuff…do you think Apres would be a good middle ground? Def not my girl, Mits. Def not her. Something ‘nice’.
xoxo >-)
Depends entirely on the weather, but they are both perfection.
hrmph. but yes, all guys in hard hats does mean you as a woman have to have something ‘nice’. hrmph again. how about Bois des Iles – nice and worth it!
I am hardly in a position to judge people about their handbags, but I just don’t get the thrill. Of course this is probably due to my lifestyle — I’m more likely to be heading to the pool with four kids in tow than brunching with some PR flaks. I have a couple of nice bags (including a BV I share with my sister in law) but I inherited those. $500 is the most I have ever spent on a purse, and that was something of a splurge for me.
Re: your perfume choice — I don’t know, do you want the men in hard hats not to fear you, or to want to take you there on the desk?
omg did I just type that? Hold on, I have to go find and upload my smut filter.
You DID just type that! LOL! I’m appalled! A-palled, I tell you!
I wanted neither, btw. This was a very conservative group I was meeting with and I wanted to project ‘competent but nice’. Around here ‘nice’ goes a Very Long Way. And let’s face it, ‘nice’ is not the very first thing people think of, when they think of me… and I am still trying to figure out how to work the whole ‘conservative’ thing- yet another thing folks don’t think of when the ol’ >-) comes to mind…
…with all that to consider I decided upon a Rosine, of all things. The vaguely greeny one (something Ete). Worked just fine.
xoxo >-)
Me, neither. Well, okay – me, once (or twice) but not a lot. I am a sale/outlet/vintage fiend and prefer non-labels.
And I’ll see your pool and raise you an ALGAE pool! Srsly. That stuff will take the finish off any hardware you have.
But! gimme color, baby. Co-lor. The freakier, the better!
xoxoxo >-)