Top Notes 
Heart Notes 
Base Notes 
01/02/2013
Sherapop
1239 Reviews
Sherapop
Helpful Review
2
Bert does Benzoin, in a very big way
It never ceases to amaze me how many excellent perfumes Bertrand Duchaufour manages to create. He must have that same gift as Sophia Grojsman to come up with a new idea and stake out a plot of uncharted territory on the grand olfactory map. I imagine that this is becoming more and more difficult to do, given the recent explosion in launches, but Léonard LEONARA was issued more than a decade ago, way back in 2001, so I am sure that this was a loner in the streamlined benzoin perfume neighborhood at that time. Since then others have followed, including Rochas ABSOLU.
LEONARA is limpid and resinous and offers a paradox: a perfume which smells both perfumey and non-perfumey at the very same time! Unlike Amouage OPUS III, which also features a big, bold benzoin note, LEONARA does not offer an equally bodacious bouquet of flowers to go along with the benzoin. This creation is instead one which doesn't just blend the notes together in a seamless tapestry but rather hides them altogether from my nose!
I initially tested this perfume from a manufacturer-carded sample vial because I've pretty much given up on blind buys of designer fragrances--or any fragrances, I should say, since being "niche" is no guarantee of anything these days--so although my interest was piqued by a bottle which I had espied at a discount emporium, I held back, reminding myself how many unwearable bottles I had already bought in the past. Instead, I ordered the sample. Once the sample arrived, and I decided that I really did like the perfume, I went back to the emporium only to find that it had disappeared.
The happy ending to the story is that LEONARA popped up again at another emporium a while later. All of which makes me wonder about these gigantic perfume warehouses. Where do they get their perfume once something has been discontinued? Why do I see large influxes of stuff like this and even more obscure fare as well? Another example: I was told that Kenzo JUNGLE L'ELEPHANT was discontinued, then I saw a bottle pop up suddenly out of nowhere for a really good price, so I bought it, as a back up. To be honest, I could not really justify it, given the strength of the perfume and the volume still left in my 100ml bottle, but it's one of my favorite bottles of all time, so I couldn't resist. Who cannot benefit from a herd of elephants in her perfume armoire? Not too long after, I suddenly was seeing JUNGLE literally everywhere. So if it was discontinued, what is the provenance of these bottles? Were they stuck in purgatory somewhere? I seem to have digressed...
LEONARA is only going to please someone who totally loves benzoin, so don't even think about acquiring the beautiful bottle unless you are prepared to commit 100% to benzoin! The bottle is gorgeous, by the way, although the spray mechanism is a bit faulty and ends by running a bit down the sides and thus one overperfumes oneself inadvertently every time one sprays it on. But it doesn't matter, because the layer is clean, resinous benzoin, which piles up like sheets of mica, never becoming very thick.
LEONARA is limpid and resinous and offers a paradox: a perfume which smells both perfumey and non-perfumey at the very same time! Unlike Amouage OPUS III, which also features a big, bold benzoin note, LEONARA does not offer an equally bodacious bouquet of flowers to go along with the benzoin. This creation is instead one which doesn't just blend the notes together in a seamless tapestry but rather hides them altogether from my nose!
I initially tested this perfume from a manufacturer-carded sample vial because I've pretty much given up on blind buys of designer fragrances--or any fragrances, I should say, since being "niche" is no guarantee of anything these days--so although my interest was piqued by a bottle which I had espied at a discount emporium, I held back, reminding myself how many unwearable bottles I had already bought in the past. Instead, I ordered the sample. Once the sample arrived, and I decided that I really did like the perfume, I went back to the emporium only to find that it had disappeared.
The happy ending to the story is that LEONARA popped up again at another emporium a while later. All of which makes me wonder about these gigantic perfume warehouses. Where do they get their perfume once something has been discontinued? Why do I see large influxes of stuff like this and even more obscure fare as well? Another example: I was told that Kenzo JUNGLE L'ELEPHANT was discontinued, then I saw a bottle pop up suddenly out of nowhere for a really good price, so I bought it, as a back up. To be honest, I could not really justify it, given the strength of the perfume and the volume still left in my 100ml bottle, but it's one of my favorite bottles of all time, so I couldn't resist. Who cannot benefit from a herd of elephants in her perfume armoire? Not too long after, I suddenly was seeing JUNGLE literally everywhere. So if it was discontinued, what is the provenance of these bottles? Were they stuck in purgatory somewhere? I seem to have digressed...
LEONARA is only going to please someone who totally loves benzoin, so don't even think about acquiring the beautiful bottle unless you are prepared to commit 100% to benzoin! The bottle is gorgeous, by the way, although the spray mechanism is a bit faulty and ends by running a bit down the sides and thus one overperfumes oneself inadvertently every time one sprays it on. But it doesn't matter, because the layer is clean, resinous benzoin, which piles up like sheets of mica, never becoming very thick.
1 Comment
