Just recently Cinnamon wrote about this one, as it happens to be Ina Garten’s signature scent, Now I love Ina and I love reading Cinnamon and it occurred to me that if I had smelled this one it was a case of “sniff at the store and ignore” in favor of ones that were more immediately my thing.
Which in this case was kind of a mistake.
I think what did it for me was the immediate first whiff- to my nose that first hit of aldehydes and sweet flowers comes at me chilly and fast- the smell of opening the refrigerated case at the florists. The smell of stock. It’s not necessarily off-putting, but when you’re going through a whole group of scents (and I think this was one of those times- I tested at Barneys when they still had those ridiculous booths- heck, when there was still a Barneys) you tend to cull through the group quickly and sometimes never get back to those you have set aside. (I wonder how anyone deals with houses like BPAL which seem to have endless numbers of scents, and more seemingly on the hour?)
But thanks to Cinnamon I did circle back, and I like what I smell. I find Mimosa to be kind of a difficult note- even a whiff too much and you’re being drowned in powdery sweetness, like some SciFi plant gone amok from radiation in a 50’s movie: “Attack of the Giant Mimosa.” It still has some of the almond aspect of both mimosa and cassie but balances it with a grounding of almost harsh, not quite bitter green sharpness, the champagne zing of the aldehydes, the blameless violet and frankly, a pretty decent helping of good old skank.
Oh, Ina.. No wonder Jeffrey’s so perky..
Un Fleur de Cassie looks like it’s one that isn’t the easiest to find. It’s seemingly not available at the department stores- you need to go to the Malle website, in various sizes. Discounters such as JomaShop have the full sized bottle for 1/2 off, but I would always sample before buying.
My sample was from Surrender to Chance.
Photos: My iPhone, Wikimedia Commons and Pexels.
Another Ina here, the one some of you may still remember. 😉 Back to writing about perfume, after 17 years. But to stay on point, Fleur de Cassie… trying really hard to remember what this smells like. I think I liked it at one point.
Well, welcome back! I hope to read a lot of your thoughts!
Whoa, you have just made this much more interesting to me! I was pretty ehhhhh about it although I know I sniffed it — I think I was on the prowl for a different kind of fragrance at the time. This sounds like something I might really enjoy; I need to try it again.
I think you would definitely enjoy it, even if you didn’t actually ‘wear’ it. It’s squicktastickly good!
I love that word! I’m going to co-opt it!
I think at first blush it was a little self-effacing. Much like Ms. Garten. When testing with a slew of things it gets lost in the shuffle. Give it a try- tC has it at the ready,
Ina and Jeffrey certainly seem to have that ‘thang going. When I lived in Brooklyn, a mimosa tree grew nearby. Beautiful scent. I wonder which FMs EL will divest over time.
I hope they’ll just send them to the vault like Uncle Serge seems to. Although they could lose Outrageous! and I wouldn’t care much.
There were rumours of its demise & it got hard to find. Everywhere seems to have it in the UK again now though
I hope it’s not gone. It’s really quite lovely. Just not as obvious as some..
No it seems to be available again. Guessing the shortage was just cos of waiting to do the next production run.
Oh whew! I thought I’d just found a new love only to have it go..
I had already decided to try Un Fleur de Cassie even if it has cassia instead of cassis. You confirmed that it’s worth a try and Frederic Malle does have some terrific perfumes. Fingers crossed.
I would love to find a really nice cassis scent. Anyone?
I became interested in cassis (French for blackcurrant) recently when I sniffed and loved Fueguia 1833 La Cautiva. The notes are: top – musk, middle – vanilla, base – blackcurrant.
It’s all about the base on me. Wonderful. If you ever stop by Luckyscent you can sample it there. Now I would like to explore cassis scents too.
I will have to do that!
Thanks, Tom, for the reminder about this one. I have had it on the back burner of my brain, wanting to sniff and sample it. I like everything about the way you’ve described it. I’m glad to hear STC has it.
I am too. Really. IDK why big companies get so sniffy about decanters. If I try and like I’m gonna buy retail- just offer me a travel size one!
FdCassie is one of my ‘grownup’ perfumes. In order to wear it I need to be in a suit ( or at least a well-cut jacket and slacks)
Something about the scent reminds me of a grey cashmere fabric with a thin chartreuse line running through it…
Your comment on the fabric made me think of when I’d get properly dressed each day for work in NYC. All those great clothes and shoes, a proper manicure. Saks 5th Avenue, Barneys, Bergdorf. Sigh.
I used to do that for Rizzoli in Beverly Hills. Blue blazer and good chinos at the very least, with collared shirt and tie. In some ways nice clothes make me feel good. But when you get out of the habit man is it a chore..
That’s it! When it’s every day, you get into a groove and get excited about getting dressed.
I remember loving picking out the tie I was going to wear. I had a few Nicole Miller ones, one of which was old NY Post headlines. I felt quite subversive wearing it..
That’s a good way of putting it. But the weird thing with those is that I don’t feel the need to actually dress up to the scent. I feel the scent does that for me. French Lover for instance- I could be wearing Daisy Dukes and flip-flops (like that would ever happen) and one spritz of FL and I am in Savile Row vicuna..