Eurochic

Tiziana Terenzi Gold Rose Oudh
A rich rose Oudh

I wore GRO for a third time, trying to decide what to do with this blind buy.
They say the third time's a charm, and I guess it is because wow, it finally hit me what a beauty she is.
The first two times I tested GRO I applied it shyly, one tiny spray, and the result was an animalic opening with dark bitter sour roses and it just didn't work for me (I struggle with rose notes in perfumes and cosmetics).
Today I sprayed a little more generously, 3 sprays, and this brought out her true beauty. Yes, sometimes more is better ;)
GRO opens strong. The top is deep dark bitter. Imagine a rose dark as blood, dried blood, almost black, with a thick stem and the darkest green leaves you've seen, standing in rich wet soil, that's the image that comes to my mind. That rich earth is probably the patchouli and oud. I remember smelling some high quality Oud oil a few years ago and it transported me to winter walks in the forest I used to make as a kid. We'd play hide and seek, making yourself tiny, crouching behind trees and shrubbery. That smell of rotting leaves and wet soil, sometimes still covered with patches of snow here and there, mixed with the dark green pine smell, there's something very comforting about it. In this fertile setting stands a lush dark rose with a powerful deep and rich aroma, on the bitter side, not sweet.
I didn't pay attention to the evolution, but suddenly I was thinking gosh, I love this. In the dry down the play between the rose and the Oud (soil note) is perfectly balanced out, it has softened, become more dusty or powdery, more smoky, whilst hiding some sweetness under that smoky cover, and it's captivating. I can't keep my nose off my arm, and boy am I glad I held on to my bottle and didn't swap it away as soon as I got it.
This may have just joined the ranks in my personal best and most loved rose and Oud combo fragrances.

I love tropical flowers, especially Ylang Ylang and Tiare, and all flowers that remind me of Hawaii, beach, sunshine, relaxing times.
Tiare Mimosa opens with strong citrus, and as that finally fades a little I can smell traces of soft powdery mimosa. The lemon note is present until the end, and the mimosa plays hide and seek with it. But where the heck is the tiare??? I certainly couldn't find any trace of it.
As a norm I can't stand citrus, but I will admit that the lemon here didn't make me run for the soap to scrub it off, so I'll give it that.
Still, what a disappointment not to find any tiare in this perfume.
Tiare Mimosa is a very very misleading name.

Fumerie Turque opens with smoke, smoke, and more smoke. The smoke is very dry and thick, almost tangible. I hate cigarettes and cigarette smoke, but this is a lovely smelling smoke. I compare it with the smoke from incense sticks: thick, dry, tangible, almost stifling and choking, but deliciously sweet and fragrant, and I can't get enough of it. Sometimes after I burn incense and I come back into the room, the air still feels dry and smokey: that's what I get in the top of FT. I can also detect a bit of hay.
The dry smokey smell lingers, and gradually the sweet notes come forward. There is also something earthy, which is probably the patchouli . This is the good kind of patchouli, maybe a bit similar to the patch in Coromandel, but less fresh and bitter, much softer. Still the smoke remains the most prominent note to me.
As I get to the drydown, the scent is still dry and a little smokey, but it is no longer stifling, it has settled to something rather dusty or powdery and with a sweet fragrance, which reminds me a bit of sugar almonds (maybe the tonka bean?), and chamomile tea with honey. In many perfumes honey is animalic and sometimes reminds people of a urine note, but in FT the honey is soft, gentle, sweet, a mere teaspoonful in chamomile tea, nothing dirty or sour. I can also detect a bit of a dusty rose, just enough for me (I'm not a big fan of big roses in perfume). I can't smell the leather note though.
The general "feel" of the drydown is the same I get in Keiko Mecheri's Loukhoum: the powdery dry smokey sweetness that is so addictive. I'm not saying FT is similar to Loukhoum, Loukhoum is 100 times sweeter than FT, it's just that feeling I get.
Fumerie Turque is a big LOVE for me.

I never had the pleasure of trying the original Shalimar on myself, but it was my dearest grandmother's signature scent. I remember one day, as she opened the velvet box in which a bottle of pure perfume was nestled in dark blue satin, I saw her face lit up like a little girl's. She loved Shalimar, I loved her, and to me this perfume will always be a gem, because of the memories tied to it. I would love to try it on me too, but unless I can get a hold of the vintage (70's or 80's), I don't want it. It just wouldn't be the same.
And now Guerlain is feeding of Shalimar, releasing flanker after flanker after flanker and even flankers of the flankers. The current version of Shalimar is, from what I have read, already a pale copy of what it used to be. So why tweak the formula even more? They had a great classic beauty (several actually), couldn't they just leave it at that? Concentrate on what they already have, try to stick to the original formula, or at least try to recreate it as best as they could within the new IFRA restrictions.
This is just my opinion, but I think that when people are presented with a choice between a classic original timeless beauty and a modern generic "of the moment" cutesie, they will choose the first, because the latter will be forgotten in no time.

I am so glad I got to sample this before (blind) buying. I had high hopes for this one, but it left me feeling disappointed. Right after application I thought that this was nothing new, just another generic (synthetic) vanilla based wannabe classic perfume. Been there done that, seen this smelled that. I didn't find it very pleasant, quite cloying and annoying at times. Many people rave about the vanilla notes in Cinema, personally I didn't get any sweetness.
I guess it's all about chemistry, but on me the citrus notes linger for ever and I dislike citrus. I want a perfume to make me feel good, and go "aaaaahhh" when I smell it. You know that feeling of wanting to sniff so hard that you want to absorb every single molecule, and you can never get enough? Well, with Cinema I could only take very short sniffs, had to pull my arm away from my nose after a fraction of a second because it makes me feel irritated every time I smell my wrist.
Pass.