By Kilian In the Garden of Good and Evil & winner of the Jasmine Perfume!

By Kilian in the Garden of Good and Evil packaging

By Kilian In the Garden of Good and Evil.  

(Before we dive in, I have a real post coming out later tonight – this week is – oh, wait for it, you’ll find out soon enough! so come back after about 10 p.m. ET)

We’ll do something fun with this right off the bat.  Three small sample sets of the new By Kilian In the Garden of Good and Evil are up for three lucky commenters.  The earliest I may have them is mid-October, and that’s only if they are in the Sniffa Goody bags. Otherwise, late October, early November, but we’ll do it now so three people will know they have samples coming!  Just leave a comment on this Winner of the Jasmine Perfume Sample set post that turned into something else to be entered. Which one most appeals to you just from the descriptions (down below)? (oh, keep going to the bottom for the winner of the Jasmine Perfume sample set)

There is very little about that choice of name for his new perfume collection – By Kilian In the Garden of Good and Evil –  that wouldn’t appeal to me. He is again exploring humanity, our choices, our failings, our triumphs.  The pure white of the bottle and the case with that serpent going in for the whisper in the ear.  Dear God, that packaging! Who does this for him, I want to know?

His themes of love/pain/redemption in the first collection were so appealing – playing with the dark and light, pain and sorrow overlaid with joy, which is how all of life is lived – in twilight.  

Yeah, sure I cared what they smelled like, but I had to always fight my predisposition to love them just for the themes, that amazing packaging – oh, no, you can’t review perfume packaging you say? packaging is a huge part of the perfume experience, just ask Guerlain about their use of Baccarat bottles and Nina Ricci what up with all the Lalique, and if I’m going to plunk down 200-500 for a perfume, I want it in something that looks extravagant and worth having, and By Kilian got that – luxury needs to look like luxury.  

How many times have I glared at that Profumum bottle that costs $250 and wondered why they can’t at least put it in a bottle with  a hint of style?  It’s practically the same plain square bottle that Lostmarc’h uses, and they charge sub-$100 for 100 mls of their juice.  Parfums de Nicolai has their own bottle they’ve used for years with a sense of style about it, and they are around the $100 mark with a lot more interesting perfumes inside.  Can I also just say that Parfums de Nicolai was the first brand whose little price jump I’ve applauded.  

Oh, sorry!  Back to whatever subject I was on.  By Kilian In the Garden of Good and Evil, Octavian teases us – 

“The perfumes … exceptional. Ingredients? Exquisite. But I will not tempt you with a review. Or should I? Perfumes are written with the ink of sin and with an ingredient of Paradise, not metaphor, but true fact. The excitement of the forbidden fruits melting with the nectar of flowers. Because Perfume is an Art. From Heaven. Welcome in my garden of forbidden fragrances and flowers…“

Created by Calice Becker and Albert Morillas, there are three – In the City of Sin, Good Girl Gone Bad and Forbidden Games.  Now Smell this has all the notes.  

William Blake “The Temptation and Fall of Eve”

Here’s the descriptions for By Kilian In the Garden of Good and Evil stolen as a whole from Luckyscent, where they are taking pre-orders – they say shipping late October.  Kilian’s Facebook page is saying November 1 availability. 

Created by Calice Becker.  “FORBIDDEN GAMES, literally. FORBIDDEN GAMES embodies the spirit of a temptation that leads to total abandon. FORBIDDEN GAMES is a composition of fruits and spices, flowers and amber; A nectar of fruits prohibited to mortals. The perfume opens on a potpourri of fruits – Apple, Peach, Plum – spiced by Cinnamon bark from Laos. Then the perfume advances into a lush, exuberant floral heart – Bulgarian Rose Orpur, Geranium Bourbon, and Midnight Jasmine – before disappearing slowly into a sweet confection of Madagascar Vanilla, Laotian Honey and the spellbinding resinous oil of Opoponax. FORBIDDEN GAMES: when going beyond the boundaries has never been so exciting.

Developed by Calice Becker. “IN THE CITY OF SIN, a perfume as the opening face of the collection. IN THE CITY OF SIN, a place of extreme temptation where every street corner offers the possibility of impromptu encounters and seductions….IN THE CITY OF SIN is a rich composition of fruits and spices, flowers and woods, in which the essence of fruit liquefies and melts onto the heady woods. The perfume opens with an explosion of Bergamote from Calabria, pink Peppercorns and Cardamom from Guatamala. The perfume then evolves into a heart of Apricots and caramelized Plums held in check by the Turkish Rose Absolute. A light haze of Indonesian Incense entrances and then lends a profound depth, further sustained by Atlas and Virginia Cedar woods and rich Indonesian Patchouli. IN THE CITY OF SIN, when the door opens onto a universe without limits: the quest for ecstasy is launched.

Created by Albert Morillas.  “GOOD GIRL GONE BAD typifies a special sort of woman. A perfume that represents a kind of voluptuousness beloved by Kilian : sensual and unrestrained…GOOD GIRL GONE BAD is a composition of fruits and flowers, a perfume as bewitching as bursts of laughter, a barrier moved beyond, a forgotten prohibition. The perfume opens on the fresh innocence of the petals of Jasmin Sambac and the apricot sweetness of Chinese Osmanthus…The Rose of May gives off its honeyed heat. The Indian Tuberose nakedly exhibits its milky roundness, while the narcotic sensuality of Egyptian Narcissus surges forth, uncontrollable and deliciously haunting. Notes of Virginia Cedar and Amber open up and try to assert their dominant character In order to contain that outpouring of opulence, but they never succeed in taming it completely. The tension is palpable; the addiction exacerbated; the pleasure consummated.. GOOD GIRL GONE BAD, when the woman become a temptress, a sinner – when she dares and when she proves her audacity.“

So my basic premise remains – packaging, story, then make sure you get good perfumers to create perfume that, at a minimum, is interesting and good.  Doesn’t always have to be great if you’ve got everything else working.  I’m anxiously awaiting these releases, and I can’t help but love that it is over the top from the ad copy to the packaging to the perfume, and I actually like that.  It takes a lot to go all in on something, declaring your passion for what you have created, and what you can never say of Kilian Hennessey is that he didn’t go all in.  Hmmm, I had a lot more to say on that subject that I thought!

BTW, Denyse at Grain de Musc has a Serge Lutens Une Voix Noire review, so you should pop over there and read it.  Us realistic gardenia lovers aren’t going to be happy, but her description has me still very interested in it. I’m okay with gardenia interpretations if they are artistically interesting.  

Oh and a winner!!!  I decided to do two winners for the Jasmine Sample set from the Comprehensive Guide to Jasmine Perfume post.  

First winner is Comment 115, Kacey!  Second winner is comment 70 –  Liane!  clickety click on the Contact Us up there at the top, send me your mailing address, remind me that you won the Jasmine sample set, I’ll give you a quick reply so you know I got it and it didn’t get trapped in the spam filter drain, and I’ll get it mailed out to you. Enjoy!