Etat Libre d’Orange Spice Must Flow … and Mon Tableau

The 21^st is winter solstice. It gets lighter from here … hopefully, in all kinds of ways.

I said last Monday I would be more cheerful in today’s post and that just happens to have come true. Thankfully.

But first off, the main pic for the post is my kitchen window (mon tableau) which makes me ridiculously happy – from the bits of plant leaves just visible on the left via the menorah past the candle holder and the paper whites to the celadon vase (reference: The Devil Wears Prada) which belonged to my mother and holds eucalyptus which I love at this time of year.

Also, last week I read in a makeup blog here (British Beauty Blogger) that Dolly Parton is planning a fragrance line. I love Dolly and I believe, given everything else she’s done, she’ll offer something interesting and attractive even if she decides her perfumes should be decidedly mainstream.

So, on to perfume for this week.

Etat Libre Spice Must Flow came along in the samples I bought for their names – and it is really quite lovely and perfect for the season.

I realised mid last week that Portia wrote about this last year (ie, it was released in 2019), but we’re going to revisit. As the name says, this is about spices though other things are thrown in for support and good measure.

Notes list includes cardamom, ginger, pepper, cinnamon, cumin, rose, saffron, Turkish rose, amber, cypriol, fir, incense and patchouli.

It isn’t a spice bomb though (leave that to Diptyque L’Autre). Rather, though the opening on me is definitely a lovely dry spice melange, there’s always a whisper of rose hanging round in this. And, interestingly, the cumin under the rose just makes this deep rather than pongy.

As it develops I get rose and cinnamon which I haven’t encountered before in a perfume. It’s a spicy rose (with the emphasis on spicy) and doesn’t have any of the overblown-ness you sometimes get with rose fragrances.

The drydown is just all smooth spiciness with a hint of amber for sweetness and patchouli to keep things in line.

All together, I really enjoy it and it really is perfect for this time of year – both regarding the holiday season and as an antidote to our grey and wet (first flooding of the season over weekend in main road into village).

I’m not sure I’d invest in a bottle (probably not unless I found it deeply discounted somewhere), but I’m really glad I have a sample to play with.

I know we did Etat Libre a couple of weeks ago, but thoughts on this?

And best wishes for the Xmas period. Hope it’s lovely and stay safe.