Arquiste Ella

My samples arrived. I’m afraid only one is a recent release.

I dislike the shop I bought them from. Of the three places it’s easiest to get samples from in London, this is my least preferred. Once on a sniffing expedition there with a friend I watched the SA lamely spray something into a vial without using a small metal or plastic funnel, wasting a huge amount of perfume. When I ran my online shop, the sample offering was a big deal and I had a rotation of metal funnels I used which were easy to wash and reuse. It’s not that hard.

Anyway, rant done for now.

I had a period after my shop closed down when I didn’t wear perfume. Couldn’t bear it. At the tail end of that period I visited my father in New York and went to Twisted Lily in Brooklyn (it looks like their shop is closed but things are still available online – don’t know if that is Covid-related or an economic choice) to do some sampling and get some things for a friend in the UK.

I noodled around what was (is?) a very nice space. The SAs were good – after asking me if I needed any help, when I said no, they left me alone, didn’t hover.

I smelled a lot of stuff that day and bought some things as samples. I can’t recall now what they were.

What I do recall is sampling Arquiste Ella, which I’d read about (launch 2016) and sounded like it might be awesome. In general, Arquiste fragrances haven’t moved me and that sampling of Ella didn’t change that.

For some reason, I decided to throw Ella into my recent sample order and I’m really pleased I did.

What got me curious about Ella originally was a number of reviews saying it was a chypre and a throwback to the beauties launched years ago, that it had a very ‘70s vibe (I did teenagerness in the ‘70s). I’m not sure why I didn’t get that last time round but am getting it this this time.

In shop-that-will-not-be-named’s description the notes list reads: Heart – honeysuckle; rest of notes – ambergris, angelica root, ash (what?), cannonball tree flower (see pic on right/source: Wikipedia), cardamom, carrot seeds, chypre (so, tree moss? This is so lame), civet, honey, jasmine, patchouli, rose, Turkish rose, vetiver.

Yup, definitely honeysuckle. Adore honeysuckle but never found a fragrance in which I thought it worked as a main note. Definitely old-school chypre feel (how come it didn’t have that first time round?) – that wonderful sharp powderiness, the sense of flowers, the underlying pong.

In feel, of more ‘modern’ fragrances, this reminds me of the sadly gone Theo Fennell Scent.

So, well. This gets added to ‘I want (but can’t have because mostly they are way too pricey)’ list, along with Cartier l’Heure Fougeuese, Malle Carnal Flower (still thinking about a travel size) and Lutens Tubereuse Criminelle.

I seem to be a broken record when it comes to the subject of retrying things.

Have you tried Ella? Do you love Arquiste’s offering?

PS The featured pic is by someone named Sharon McCutcheon from Pexels

PPS I really wanted to use a pic of Harry Styles in his Watermelon Sugar incarnation (he seems to have morphed from mostly forgettable cutie in boy band to someone worth paying attention to). I wasn’t sure I could use a video here, so have a look on YouTube.