Myhorses

Profumi del Forte: a bottled tropical vacation on the beach. It starts with a citrusy creamy coconut accord that is enveloped in tiare flowers. A weird (green)banana note , reminding a little bit the smell of fruity chewing gum , brings more creaminess enhancing somehow the coconut accord which can be easily considered as main note of this perfume while the tiare flowers are slowly fading away after the first hour.
This light banana note save this scent from the suntan lotion cliché , taking in fun the entire composition and bringing to the person wearing Vittoria Apuana that typical carefree feeling common during vacation.
As the fragrance evolves on the skin it becomes much more sweeter, the coconut note now it’s enveloped in a gourmand amber vanilla accord that will linger close to skin for some hours.

My curiosity was raised at a very high level – vanilla one of the most used perfume note our days when there is an explosion everywhere of perfumes more or less gourmand featuring vanilla, from Sephora’s shelves to niche perfumery. I can easily confess that I was not expecting a simplified scent, that kind of single note perfume from Andy’s side, but a complex one in the way his doing scents. Before trying it I remembered what Andy says about this scent: “My vanilla. It is all in there that I love. Spices, roses, patchouli… and vanilla.” Definitely it will not be that vanilla centered perfume for sure I said to myself and then apply it on the skin.

Let me tell you right from the start: is not an enter into a patisserie/confiserie but in a bar to take a brandy. This is not a vanilla like those from Profumum Roma , it’s miles faraway from St.Barth’s and also it s not a daytime vanilla but a dark one , a night creature in Andy’s stable.

Vanilla Flash starts with a boozy spiced vanilla followed shortly by tobacco, a lot of dense tobacco bringing darkness and heaviness, keeping company to vanilla as long as this scent lives on the skin. It’s like smelling tobacco leafs submerged in a potion made out of vanilla,cognac and honey. From this perspective mid notes of Vanilla Flash remind me of Tom Ford’s Tobacco Vanille but without the plum and Christmas spices with more emphasis on tobacco while the boozy note brings to my mind Guerlain’s Spiritueuse Double Vanille in a way in which Guerlain’s scent is far less boozy and far more intense on sweet vanilla. In the last stage of the scent I get some vibes of Kilian’s Back to Black probably due to the tobacco load.

I do not get much of the rose, it’s more like a shadow but the shadow of a rose in the typical Tauer style and it’s loaded with spices, I detect some cinnamon among the spices which is not listed in the perfumes’s notes . The rose in Vanilla Flash is resembling somehow to the one from PHI-Une Rose de Kandahar. Patchouli is there , fine tuned with the vanilla , keeping the darkness and adding that camphrous vibe to the composition. All these notes are very well weaved inside the composition, each of them is sustaining the other in a compact and almost linear evolution, as Vanilla Flash is not changing dramatically.

In spite of the fact that Vanilla Flash reminds in different stages of other tobacco perfumes, still it has its own face and body and walks around strong. There is nothing girly in this vanilla, actually a warm vanilla tobacco scent, it’s a grown up scent and it has a lot of sophistication. Vanilla Flash is dark and sexy and can be shared by both genders , it’s complex but not complicated, being easy to wear especially during cold nights.

Part of the Jul et Mad collection “Les White “ Nin-Shar is supposed to capture the splendor of Babylon’s Hanging Gardens using a very popular accord – rose/oud, that these days is a crowd pleaser. It can’t go wrong with this accord, it’s on the safe side but in the same time there is nothing spectacular, nothing new I thought while reading about it on Jul et Mad website. I had the chance to try first from Les White the wonderful Garuda which is by far my favorite.

My expectations were around the rose, thinking that I’ll get everything from the blossom to the roots and wondering about oud and about that “fraction” patchouli. I didn’t take seriously into consideration davana note from the opening thinking that it might bring a fruity note to the composition but reading about this perfume and the way it opens on the skin are two different stories and the reality is far from “rose/oud” cliche.

Nin-Shar has a powerful start, I had the feeling that all the notes from the first one, except bergamot which I couldn’t detect it, to those in the base want to burst out, struggling to get some air. You can get the same olfactory experience when you turn upside down on the kitchen table a bag full of spices, rose petals, incense, vanilla pods and wood near an open jar full of rose jam and a glass of red wine. Soon everything calms down and the rose starts its solo.

This rose is miles away from Kilian’s Rose Oud teritorry, it’s melted in davana oil and it looks like this combination gave superpower to the rose note, it’s big ,volatile with new dimensions.. It’s like an olfactory 3 D image of a rose from roots to the flowers made of dark red velvet petals full of sparkling red wine drops but a changing image. This rose note does not evolve too much on the skin but it changes, returning to the starting point: I get a dark rose, earthy and animalic with an boozy echo reminding of red wine which slowly turns in a pink syrupy rose water for some time then gets back to the dark rose. While wearing it for a few days I had the feeling that in some days the dark rose was with me, in other days the rose water syrup.

On other people skin Nin-Shar smells different, probably due to davana essence which, beside the sweet fruity note, when applied on the skin, is said to smell differently on different persons. This peculiar property is highly valued in perfumery to create fragrances with truly individual notes.

The oud in Nin-Shar is a soft one, done in the same style like the oud representation in Neela Vermeire’s Mohur , those that are not happy with loud, harsh oud notes can easily give a try to Nin-Shar. That “fraction patchouli” listed in the composition is a patchouli note without the cold camphorous smell but more animalic , keeping a good portion of the earthy character of patchouli and the overall effect is maintaining the dark side of the rose, reminder of the roots.

Nin-Shar fully succeeded to be different in the rose/oud crowd due to its unusual rose. Definitely is a must try for those who are fans of rose perfume in the quest for a different rose and can be an interesting and original for oud perfumes fans but definitely this fragrance is not for blind buying.

Opus IX starts quit atypical for an Amouage – fresh and spicy creating the image of a fresh flower with green accents . These first notes gave the impression of a new unknown flower, a hybrid between jasmine and gardenia that finally evolves to jasmine. I could easily recognize some notes from Opus VIII as the jasmine opens bigger and bigger on a spicy background with a lot of black pepper.

In the final act the jasmine disguised in camellia in spite of the innocence and freshness of the beginning shows its real indolic character too. Slowly as the notes from base make their presence Opus IX starts to show its belonging to House of Amouage changing into a rich incense scent with an honey/ animalic accent probably due to the leather and civet. Not so much impressed

Nea opens with a strong spicy, fruity boozy note giving the feeling of tasting a very fine velvety fruit liqueur. It’s sweet but not that sweet , actually the sweetness is very well balanced by the spices . There is a gentle echo of caramel in this composition that never gets to really unfold and after some time I detect a milky fig note . I can’t easily recognize the floral notes except the rose , it’s more an oriental semi gourmand perfume rather than a gourmand floriental.

As time passes the strong notes from the start are softer and softer but keeping that complexity from the initial notes and sweetness slowly loosing ground in favor of spices. Nea is a very good example of gourmand , not so sweet perfume and can be a good choice for those in search of a gourmand fragrance not reminding of a confectionery.