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02/18/2023
BrianBuchanan
355 Reviews
BrianBuchanan
3
Diamond or Dud?
Gem has a touch of that key note of the High Eighties, tuberose, but it's not typical of its time.
It’s living in the shadow of that forebear from a decade earlier, Jean-Claude Ellena's First - a symphonic mix of chypre and milky-soft floral - which itself goes back to Roudnitska's Femme (1944).
With a similar mix of tart fruity chypre and creamy blancmange, Gem is hobbled by this line of tradition; it's also rather crude, a poor imitation.
Just good enough for Second...
It’s living in the shadow of that forebear from a decade earlier, Jean-Claude Ellena's First - a symphonic mix of chypre and milky-soft floral - which itself goes back to Roudnitska's Femme (1944).
With a similar mix of tart fruity chypre and creamy blancmange, Gem is hobbled by this line of tradition; it's also rather crude, a poor imitation.
Just good enough for Second...
