Jakoparfum

After reading numerous reviews about this fragrance and waiting many years, I finally got to try it.
Given what I read in almost all the reviews, I had high expectations.
Most of these reviews spoke of a highly complex chypre with strong similarities to Jubilation 25 by Amouage, Mitsouko by Guerlain and Femme by Rochas.
Unfortunately, I have to say that Chypre Palatin bears no resemblance to any of these great fragrances.
Chypre Palatin is an ambery, slightly powdery fragrance that has nothing to do with real chypre.
In the first phase of development, I only smell a note of clementine and galbanum with very light aldehydes.
After a few minutes, the perfume takes on floral aspects that I can't distinguish, then it becomes powdery, woody and very muddled. Overall, it is an amber fragrance, but it has no depth that could be categorized as chypre.
Also, I don't understand how you can associate Chypre Palatin with Jubilation 25, which has a sparkle and sophistication that only a true chypre can have.
I rate Chypre Palatin as a discreet perfume with amber and talcum.

There are fewer and fewer current fragrances that I consider beautiful and valuable and therefore want to buy. The Papillon Artisan Perfumes brand is one of them, and to my great surprise I can confirm this even more after receiving a sample of Dryad.
The opening is green, moist and fresh, with all the nuances of galbanum coming through perfectly.
After a few minutes, the galbanum exudes its "toasty", slightly woody and resinous smoke.
The green aspects of the initial phase of the fragrance are enhanced by notes of thyme and sage.
Tarragon (a note I particularly love) adds a slight fermentation to the fragrance, a complex strength.
I could see how the tarragon note is present in all the chypre fragrances I love the most.
The initial phase has strong similarities with Chanel N 19 (galbanum) and Trussardi Action donna.
Then the galbanum softens its dominant aspects and a warm, powdery iris note comes into play. Obviously, iris is the best note to associate with galbanum!
Orange blossom and narcissus give the perfume a more floral aspect and make it "softer".
After the first hour, all the floral aspects of the fragrance are overpowered by a very strong and predominant resinous base.
Oakmoss, storace and benzoin make the fragrance warm, ambery, enveloping and slightly powdery.
The fragrance as a whole shows a great development: green at the beginning, floral after a few hours, resinous and ambery at the end.
The quality of all the notes is clearly very high and the raw materials used are predominantly natural, which are no longer found in today's perfumery.
Dryad, along with many of the brand's other fragrances, adds great value to this artisanal brand that still produces such rare fragrances with a vintage spirit.

It is not easy to describe the figure of Hecate in traditional mythology, and this also applies to Soir de Lune.
It is natural to wonder what connection there is between a perfume and a mythological and esoteric figure.
The cap of this magnificent fragrance, formulated in 2006 by Master Dominique Ropion, bears the figure of a waning moon, the mythology represented by Hecate.
Hecate is the wise, clever and mysterious young woman, the perfect dualism between light and darkness and between good and evil.

All these qualities are embodied in a fragrance that is relatively young, but contains a maturity and complexity that seem to come from the mythical decade of the 80s.
Dominique Ropion has managed to carry the tradition of other chypre fragrances into the 2000s.
This historical period is obviously characterized by the formulation of predominantly gourmand fragrances. The slow and inexorable decline of originality took place precisely during this period. Therefore, Soir de Lune can be considered a rarity in terms of its historical context.

Soir de Lune is a chypre whose base note is a magnificent rose, made elegant and mature by the wonderful oakmoss, but also a soft and sensual counterpart given by the honey note.
The coriander in combination with the rose emphasizes its deep, mysterious and magical aspects. The first notes are mainly spicy: nutmeg, black pepper and coriander with a hint of lemon.
This initial freshness lasts only a few minutes and the rose reveals itself in all its splendor.
Immediately afterwards, a rose full of mystery and depth emerges, in which dualism, between light and dark, dominates the entire development of the fragrance. The cool, warm glow of sandalwood and honey match the atmosphere intimate, sensual and sometimes sinful.
Other floral notes such as iris, mimosa and jasmine make in more feminine.
Oakmoss and sandalwood, combined with patchouli, exude a mystical and sensual fragrance that lingers for hours. It reveals the profound dualism between light and shadow, chastity and sin, the sacred and the profane.
That's why I like to describe this gorgeous chypre as the scent of a good witch, just like Hecate, the mythological figure who protects witches.

The perfect interweaving of the spicy, fresh notes with the deep, sensual notes that emerge from the first hour make this perfume a true masterpiece of " modern perfumery ".

There are deep links to other great chypre fragrances such as La perla ( 1987), Eau de Soir ( 1990), Knowing ( 1988), Coriandre (1973).

The review refers to a miniature from 2006, which is in my possession.

Epic woman marks the end of my review cycle for Amouage women's fragrances.
Epic woman was composed in 2009, at a time when the brand was in a great artistic and compositional ferment. The great C.Chong had just arrived and under the impulse of an oriental representing the brand, this magnificent and complex fragrance was formulated!

It is well known that I greatly admire the complexity and quality of Amouage fragrances of yesteryear, but I believe that Epic reaches the highest peak in its "humble" and perhaps banal representation of an oriental.
Epic is not just an oriental perfume, it is not just about spices and incense; Epic represents the Middle Eastern DNA of Amouage at a particular moment in the history of perfumery.
Epic is not an easy perfume to understand, interpret or wear, because Epic must be worn first and foremost with the mind and soul and secondly with the body.
Traditionally, Eastern spirituality meets the material dynamics of the West, and only the fusion of both elements leads to a balanced and highly complex path that can be achieved.
Epic is complex, profound, spiritual, wise, but also knows how to be sensual with extreme sophistication.

The fragrance notes contained in this olfactory masterpiece are first of all the spices cloves, which dominate the entire composition, black pepper and cumin, the latter emphasizing the fragrance and giving it the right depth and by no means having the animalistic characteristics typical of the fragrance.
Cloves make the fragrance spicy, sharp to menthol in the first minutes of its development and for an oriental perfume there is no proof of its complexity when its olfactory limits go beyond the warm and enveloping aspects and reach the cold ones. Oriental "coldness" is very rare and always an indication of high complexity.
Just think of some iconic fragrances in which such oriental "coldness" can be found, such as Opium, Cinnabar and Youth-Dew.
The high dose of geraniol further emphasizes this "cold" and pervasive aspect.

After the first 20 minutes, in which the spices gain the upper hand, a second olfactory phase begins in which the rose note, initially fresh, then warmer and slightly smoky, emerges in all its splendor. The rose is complemented by a subtle and very refined Omani frankincense, olibanum and green tea, which softens the smokiness of the frankincense.

After the first hour in which La Rosa unfolds all its majesty together with frankincense, the fragrance envelops the skin with an incomparable softness thanks to the arrival of iris root. The rhizome of iris, which combines with rose, is at the heart of the fragrance, which goes beyond the oriental territory to embrace the West.
Rose and iris have always been a feminine fragrance manifesto of great sophistication, especially in the French fragrance tradition.
The patchouli in the base note, combined with a very refined amber (mainly reconstructed from labdanum and vanilla), makes the perfume a whirlwind of envelopment and warmth, while retaining the very spicy aspects of the opening.

After the third hour, we experience the penultimate phase of Epic's evolution with glorious sandalwood and guaiac wood, which soften the seemingly feminine aspects and stake out a territory of "primal sanctity". The warmth of the sandalwood and the envelopment of the guaiac wood thus bring it close to a masculine universe that lasts only briefly, for the actual epilogue of Epic is a sweet and languid tragedy that ends on a glorious note of spicy vanilla supported by patchouli, maintaining the oriental and full-bodied framework of this magnificent masterpiece.

For all these reasons and because of the high complexity of the fragrance, I consider Epic to be the highest peak of the brand's compositional complexity. Of course, the review refers to an old version, as the new version has been reformulated and has therefore lost much of its complexity.
I hope I have done justice to the task of describing this olfactory monument and wish everyone who has read this so far a peaceful and happy new year. Thank you for the appreciation and constant interest with which you read my reviews.
Happy New Year to all!

Imagine what a rose perfume for men might have looked like in 1974. There are many special features in this short sentence alone!
Yes, precisely in those years when masculinity had its own precise connotation, its own formal and adapted style, when there were only a few men's fragrances, all characterized by common elements (citrus notes, leather, patchouli and definitely spices).
Thus, the great genius Bernard Chant created this magnificent masterpiece, which in some ways bears similarities to Aromatic Elixir, which Bernard Chant had developed just two years earlier, in 1971.
I like to think of Bernard Chant as the father of the dry and tart chypre, full of aldehydes, leather and patchouli, but softened by floral notes, for which he is an advocate.

Aramis 900 is no exception: a monumental rose fragrance for men.
In this magnificent fragrance, B.Chant manages to combine the most intimate facets of rose with all the other typical chypre fragrance notes.
At the beginning, the classic, sparkling fresh bergamot can be smelled, interrupted in considerable quantities by pungent aldehydes. After a few minutes, the moist and impatient rose note emerges and dominates the entire composition.
It is a rose that is initially moist and fresh, but becomes darker and warmer as the minutes pass; it develops a kind of "warm involution".

The rose completely envelops the olfactory structure, but its characteristics are accentuated by the magnificent note of geranium and rosewood, the latter being the constituent skeleton of the fragrance.
The coriander note, which combines beautifully with the green notes and the lily of the valley note, brings out the spicy aspect of the fragrance. The perfume gradually becomes more and more complex and after about 30 minutes, the delicious civet note emerges, which is very balanced and present in "homeopathic doses".
The civet note also makes the perfume androgynous, sexy and wonderfully warm.
Patchouli, oakmoss and vetiver are the base notes of the fragrance, which settles on the skin as a refined and elegant rose chypre. Perfectly unisex (but only for those who love vintage fragrances).

The fragrance has some similarities with A.E., but they are still two different scents: A.E. is a more floral fragrance with rich aromatic notes, while Aramis 900 focuses on the rose note and all the nuances that come with it. Aramis 900 is not a more feminine fragrance than A.E.
Both fragrances can be worn by those who, like me, love chypre and especially the quality that has disappeared in today's fragrances.
But perhaps talents like Bernard Chant, who left this umpteenth masterpiece, have also disappeared, swallowed up by today's vulgarity and the rules of marketing and cultural and olfactory flattening.
The review refers to the vintage version.