Hey Hey Posse Peeps! Portia from Australian Perfume Junkies back with something so incredibly special that had to be shared with you all, Mohur Extrait. Recently I was in Paris and caught up with my buddy Neela Vermeire, the conversation between us always veers and careens like a drunken sailor first night back on land. Jumping from one thing to another, opera, events, friends, fragrance, food, cities, politics, jewellery, hair, books, perfume, perfume, perfume and it goes so fast that sometimes I have to check that we’re still on the same page.
Neela is clever, articulate, well traveled and read, loves life and food and together we have no holds barred fun. No wonder her fragrances are so complex, interesting and beautiful, they are a reflection of her enormous personality and experience. Wearing a Neela Vermeire Creation is like wearing a tapestry, a weaving of notes in a clear, beautiful and harmonious whole. Yes, it’s no surprise that I am a fan as well as a friend. Neela and her creations inspire me and show me that when you have a focused and clear objective and give 100% to it then you will have amazing results.
Mohur Extrait by Bertrand Duchaufour
Neela Vermeire Creations 2014
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Cardamom, coriander, ambrette (musk mallow), carrot seeds, pepper, elemi
Heart: Iris, jasmine, rose, violet, almond, leather
Base: Sandalwood, amber, woody notes, patchouli, agarwood (oud), benzoin, vanilla, tonka bean
The first thing we need to talk about is the Mohur Extrait bottle it’s the same cast as her original bottles, round but purple with the lovely rippled, corrugated effect but it’s the heavy lid with Neela’s very beautiful cultural crossover design of a mandala with the Eiffel Tower as its spokes that I adore. A nod to Neela’s birthplace, India, and her current home, France, and how the two have combined to give her a vision so different and new. If you have one of Neela’s original clear bottles keep it, it’s a collectors item and I think will be a good investment in the future for bottle collectors.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Mohur Extrait, I’m so excited to be finally able to write about it for you all. Neela gave me a sample last year and made me swear to secrecy. If you know Mohur you will know that among its incredible panoply of notes sits some of the most expensive and heady rose ever used in perfumery, and in enormous doses. The Neela Vermeire creations brand costs less than double a regular mainstream niche release but has up to eight times the expense of ingredients, yes you read right up to EIGHT times the cost of ingredients. Bertrand Duchaufour (who has often said that Neela is his most exacting customer: a perfectionist and a purist) was given no dollar value for his creations it only had to be what Neela considered to be perfect.
If you have not tried Mohur, or the Mohur Extrait, then I will do my best to explain how it lives on my skin. Though every wear is filled with its own nuance and splendour there is a definite change when you apply different moisturisers or body wash below Mohur, I think it’s because of the high content of naturals and how they are affected by your chemistry at the time.
Nothing on earth smells like the first heady rush of Mohur, the green, waxy, sweet herbal whoosh makes me swoon every time, if you were of a mind you could pick out the Indian spices and the bittersweet elemi, the pepper reads wet like a bell pepper and dry like fresh ground black pepper, and I have no freaking idea what carrot seeds smell like (sorry). Mohur was created as a reminiscence of the British Raj in India so though it is Indian effect, what I get a lot of is how the British lived in India, the spices from cooking, the large houses, estates and plantations, the wooden furniture carved and inlaid and waxed to high sheen with bees wax. Mohur is not a city scent as there is little of the close set humanity that you’d find in Connaught Place but I can imagine Shimla, the summer mountain retreat or even Kashmir.
Photo Stolen WikiMedia
Already in the first few Mohur Extrait minutes the milky almond and ROSES dominate the whole production, though nothing has left my olfactory field they power to the front and centre. Yes I can smell a whiff of iris with its powdery/woody but everything else seems completely in chorus mode for hours as the rose dominates, and joyously we smell almost every rose type, there are the boozy bourbons, the prim cool tea roses, the deepest spicy red and fruity orange, musky purple, arctic whites, it’s like walking through an enormous rose garden as if you’re wandering through the Huntington Rose Gardens outside LA in spring smelling all the roses in turn and together both heady and intoxicating. This section of regular Mohur’s life is quite long lasting and though it does wander through all the roses and show different facets it is quite linear, in the Extrait there is more definition and development. Maybe it’s the scale, Mohur Extrait is bigger.
Photo Stolen Huntington
Hours in to the Mohur Extrait experience and now we start to notice things that have played wonderful supporting roles move forward so you can notice the woods, resins and leather. You realise that they have been there all along and were just awaiting their moment. We are on the road to dry down now and slowly the roses recede into the distance, we are left with sweet vanilla/woods/patchouli but they are masterfully blended and on me no one is making a fuss, they are and they fade and they’re gone.
You’ll see in the photo below that Neela and I have been for dinner. We knew we needed a photo for this post and all was sailing smoothly until I remembered a thing called a Wet Willy, you put your pointer finger in your mouth and then stick it in some unsuspecting persons ear, by the time it gets to them it’s cold and wet like a dogs nose. Neela was a particularly good sport about it.
Mohur Extrait is ONLY available through Neela Vermeire, you must contact her through email: neelavermeire at gmail dot com. There are only 450 numbered bottles that will ship in the EU, otherwise you’ll have to get a perfume mule. 50ml of Mohur Extrait €340.
Neela is Offering a special discount to EU buyers if the say in their email, “I love Neela & Portia” and like NVC on Facebook. EASY!
Mohur Extrait GIVEAWAY
3 of our lucky readers will win 1 sample of Mohur Extrait posted anywhere in the world. Thank You Neela. Leave a hello in the comments to be included.
DRAW IN NOW CLOSED
Portia xx
All photos not otherwise noted have been supplied by Neela. THANKS BUDDY!
OH! Please include me in the draw! I’d love to sample
Hello! Lovely article! I have a teensy weensy Mohur sample from lucky scent which I stingily savor! Haven’t tried the others but this has been one of my fave new tries recently. Thanks also for the draw, I would love to be included if it’s still open.
Sounds intriguing.
Sounds amazing /Like to try
I’ve never tried any of Neela’s creations but I’d love to! The notes for Mohur sound absolutely wonderful!
Sounds utterly amazing please count me in!
Sounds amazing! Would love to try it – NVC fragrances are whole worlds in a bottle.
I would like to be entered to this wonderful draw! I ve read a few reviews about Neela Vermeire s creations but I have had no chance to try them. Thanks a lot! Lubka (lubaska at hotmail dot com)
Hello! This fragrance is new to me…The notes sound like a lovely, exotic blend and
the bottle is classic looking. I don’t think I have had the opportunity to wear a perfume
of this expertise. Many thanks, Cindi
jchoppes[at]hotmail[dot]com
Loved your review, Portia. Have been wanting to try it as I love Mohur edp so much.
sounds like such a beautiful fragrance. add me to the draw. thanks
I got a sample of Mohur awhile ago, used it up right away…would love to try this!
Hello! Roses and milk!!!! Delightful!! I would love to try!! Thank you very much!!
This sound amazing.
Hello Portia & Neela,
Trayee is one of my favorite fragrances, and the discovery set is on its way to me as I type. I would love to try the Mohur extrait. Thanks for the draw.
I would be happy to be one of the winners! Thanks for entering me!
This sounds nice! Please enter me in the draw! Thanks!
Oh my! This sounds so wonderful! I need to find a perfume mule! I sometimes wish I was a better writer so that I could have a perfume blog, just so I could meet all the wonderful interesting perfume bloggers and perfumers in person! Thanks for sharing this perfume journey with us, your words paint a beautiful picture.
What a wonderful drawing. Please enter me. Thank you.
Wow! Me too, please enter me in the draw. Getting a NVC sampler is on my fantasy wish list. I was following the post so attentively and then you had me in tears at the wet willy! Thanks Portia and Neela!
Hi – This sounds amazing – Love her perfumes. Please include me in the draw – thank you!
me, me! Pick me! (thanks!)
oh my GOD please count me in! I would endure a hundred wet willies for this extrait! (that sounds kinda wrong but i’m leaving it cuz it’s funny)
I love Trayee, which I’m sampling now…definitely on the bottle shortlist. She is so amazing! And of course Portia is fab as usual. Thanks you guys!
Please enter me in the draw, I would love to try this. With so many notes added in addition to rose, I think this perfume sounds wonderful. From the rest of her line I really hope I will get to try Bombay Bling and Trayee at some point.
I would just love to try this! I have tried Neela’s EDPs and own Trayee… and I can only imagine how glorious this extrait must be. Thanks so much for the draw and the gorgeous review, so evocative.
First time to comment here although I’ve been following it for a a few months now. Mohur EDP was incredibly beautiful that it almost made me cry the first time I smelled it. The extrait must be even more glorious! Thank you for the gíveaway and please include me in the draw. I’d also like to thank Neela Vermeire and Bertrand Duchaufour for creating something so beautiful.
The notes read like a dream come true! I’m already a fan of Trayee. Thanks so much for the draw, please include me!
Please count me in. This sounds delicious!
Hello! Please include me in the draw! 🙂
FUN. I would love to be included in the draw. I’m wearing Ashoka today and am in love with it.
Such a generous giveaway! I’d love to be considered for the draw, thanks so much!
Yes please – another one for the draw. Looks like you had a great dinner. I’m still yet to try any of her perfumes but they’re all down on my sample list!
So, I do love Neela and Portia!
The latter for the many entertaining posts, the former for the most *fun* perfume in years – the amazing Bombay Bling!
I have not tried Mohur, and would be very grateful for the opportunity!
Thanks for draw!
I have been hearing about this extrait for months, and would love to try it – thanks to you and Neela for the draw!
Hello! Thank you for this! I have wanted to try Neela Vermeire for a while, so I hope I win!
Ohhhhhh… I’m almost sad, because my chances of winning this are slim, and I do well and truly DESPERATELY want to try this. It doesn’t seem like I can just pick up a sample if I feel like it later, either! Oh, I think this is my first real “got it bad” lemming.
Well hello there Portia 😉
So far, haven’t been able to try any of Neela’s creations, but hoping to soon. Would love to be entered in the drawing. Thanks!!!
Please include me! But you’re killin’ me here, only available for purchase in the EU. Thanks for the great description and the draw.
Portia…I have wanted to try her perfumes for so long but haven’t had the chance yet. Thanks for giving us the opportunity. This sounds wonderful!
hello, hi, salut, hola, wow i’d love to try the new extrait!
The perfume sounds lovely, I would love to try it!
Sounds absolutely divine. Please count me in.
I think Neela’s story is amazing: a perfumista who had a vision and hired a great nose to create a line of fragrances that brought that vision to fruition so perfectly . I *love* that she is Duchaufour’s most exacting customer! Each of Neela’s creations is an exquisite jewel; the quality is truly outstanding. I have and adore Bombay Bling and Ashoka, and having now finished off small but precious decants of Mohur and Trayee, I have those at the top of my wish list. It’s hard to even imagine how Mohur might be better than it is in EDP, but I would be lying if I said I’m not dying to know! Thanks for the opportunity and your mouthwatering experience of the Mohur extrait. Neela always comes across as such a delightful person in articles about her; how lovely that you two are good friends!
that’s it? just a hello. hm. wellllllll… ok, HELLO! i had the grand pleasure of experiencing Neela’s perfumes pre-release and while the extrait sounds delightful, there’s no need to enter me into the draw. i just wanted to say hello. HELLO! oh, and Portia, there’s been some suggestion i rule Australia. i thought maybe you should have first dibs, but if you’re too busy and all.. and since Courtney is busy state-side… well… perhaps i shall! *laugh*
Sounds divine! Please include me in the draw for a sample.
At this moment I am wishing I lived in the EU. I would LOVE to try the extrait, thanks for the draw!
Hello! this sounds awesome! 🙂
This sounds absolutely GORGEOUS!! I’d love to have a sniff! Thanks for the draw and please include me in this 🙂
Mohur Extrait. Sign me up.
I can’t believe you did that to her. Lol.
Hello! I just love mohur. The extrait must be amazing!
You have Neela Vermiere a wet willy! Classic! Would LOVE to try this!
Roseeeeees! Thank you, Portia! Thanks to Patty for hosting!
So excited if I could only try at least one of Neela Vermeire’s frags – I don’t know any of them!
Hello Portia,
mmmhhh, I love Mohur and would be thrilled to try the extrait!
Oh please Portia send me one! I am dying to try Neela Vermeire’s creations. Everyone raves about her perfumes. I want to try it badly.
Hi – I really enjoyed my decant of Ashoka, and I would love to try the Mohur – it is so hard to get Neela’s stuff here in rural Canada. Thanks so much for offering the contest.
I love Mohur, and there is so much going on that it seems different to me–or I pick out different things, maybe–each time I wear it. I’d love to try the extrait.
I have not smelled it. But I need to smell this even though I don’t know either what carrot seeds smell like. That milky almondy rose sounds divine along with the resins ahhhhh. Fantastic!
Thank you Portia and Neela!
Thanks for this giveaway. Mohur sounds amazing.
Thank you, I would love to try this!
I’ve tried Mohur and I liked it. I thought it was very good technically, but at the same time it didn’t click for me, I’ve never felt the need to reach for it. I wonder how the extrait might differ. ty
hello 🙂
How exciting. I haven’t tested the Mohur in any form, and delighted to have the chance.
The perfume sounds delicious. Please include me in the draw. Thank you!
Please sate my love of carrot seeds with this beautiful perfume.
But for real, Neela’s creations sound gorgeous, and I have wanted to try samples for ages. Whoever wins this is lucky indeed.
Hi Portia! I love your reviews, and I would love to give this one a go! Thanks so much for the draw 🙂
Hello Posse & Neela! Mohur is my v. favorite of Neela’s line so far, & I don’t generally adore rose. Yet this one shimmers like **crazy for me. Would love love to try this version.
Slightly sorry I now know the Wet Willy, but adorable snap. Many bows.
Hello- this is so very kind and one day after Neela’s birthday!
thanks for the draw
Oh this sounds wonderful! Please do include me in the draw!
I have had Mohur on my list of roses to try for ages so would love to sample the extrait. I have yet to try any of her fragrances but they all sound wonderful. Thank you so much for the generous draw!
Oh my goodness! How I love NVC. Thank you so much Portia for the opportunity to try the Mohur extrait. The photos are precious, too. 🙂
How exciting! I would love to try Mohur, and I loved the pictures 🙂 Thanks so much!
I have a bottle of Bombay Bling and I was surprised at how heavy it was when the package came. Love the way it feels when it’s sprayed–sturdy but ever so elegant. Thanks for the tip on keeping it when it’s empty.
Mohur. In extrait? Holy cow, that must be amazing!
Oohh! Please include me in the draw for a sample of mohur. I have a sample of trayee and I adore it and it is on my full bottle wishlist. Would love the chance to sample mohur.
I’m pretty sure I had a past life in India….. seriously. I would love to try Mohur. I live in Canada and have not
been able to try Neela’s creations here.
I recently tried Trayee and fell in love. I can’t wait to try Mohur. Thank you for the draw!
This sounds divine, especially since I’ve been going crazy for rose scents lately.
LOVE that photo of the two of you together!
I’ve only tried the edp of Mohur, but that was wonderful.
This ragrance sounds very interesting and anything with cardamon is appealing.Thanks for the great giveaway
Thank you for the wonderful and complex description Portia 🙂 I am entirely seduced by it, please pop my name into the draw. x
Thank you for the fascinating review and the draw! I have not tried any of the NV fragrances but they sound so wonderfully rich and complex. I would love a chance to try the Mohur extrait.
Hello. I’ve tested Mohur and thought it was fantastic- I mean to wear my sample more often but it’s almost too perfect to use. I’d love to smell what it’s like in the extrait.
I had a chance to sniff Mohur Extrait, which is exquisite and contains the loveliest use of cardamom that I have ever smelled. Would love to win a sample and try it on skin!
Hey Portia! Thank you and Ms. Vermeire for this wonderful opportunity. I’ve heard nothing but good things about her and her work, would love to try this!
Hello Portia! I encountered Mohur during the initial phases of my tumble down the rabbit hole. As you know, it is a beautiful and unforgettable perfume. I am excited just to know that there is an Mohur extrait now and would love to win a sample. I am also a huge fan of Trayee, and have a small spray sample of it. Please enter me in the draw. Thank you!
Hello Portia, Please include me in the draw for this amazing perfume. I think it is really nice that you can get together for a visit with Neela–she certainly seems like a wonderful person to have as a friend!
Hey, Portia, this (and all her other perfumes) has been high on my to try list for a while now, so I’d love to be in the draw.
Hi! Thanks for the draw and the interesting article! I’d like to be included.
Hi, Portia! What a great post (you always take us on a wonderful fragrant journey with your descriptions), and it sounds like you and Neela had a ball. So nice to read that she is so cool, and a good sport to boot. That Mohur Extrait sounds divine; alas, though, DNEM. But it is so nice of you to let three of our lucky readers try this luscious-sounding elixir. Thanks!
A sample of Trayee is on its way to me since last week, I am very eager to try it…
Would love to be included in the draw!
This was a great article. You made both the perfumes and the perfume creator accessible, no small feat, given the complexity of her beautiful creations. Count me in, please.
Yes, please, I’d love to be included. Thanks for the wonderful draw.
Hi Portia – I drained my sample of Mohur last year, it’s so gorgeous and the extrait sounds divine. Thanks for the review and draw!
Wow this sounds fabulous ….I haven’t tried any of Neela’s fragrances but they are all on my wish list.
Yes please! It sounds exquisite! Thank you for the draw.
I received sample set from NVC once and it lead me to get Trayee few months later! 🙂 New Mohur Extrait sounds divine (still haven’t tested Ashoka). Unique brand with personal touch, thank you for review and generous giveaway! BR, Ela
Oh my God!!!!
I smelled Mohur in last July and I still can remember its bold, spicy roses! Since then, it is on my wish-want-crave-list…
A sample with Mohur extrait is a little treasure…
Oh, please, give one of them to me!!!!