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The Smell Of Christmas Eve

It was a freezing winter morning. I was standing at the tram stop and waiting to see a dear friend of mine. We were close to Christmas time, and we had to exchange gifts. I looked around, and the streets of Milan were full of flashing lights. People moved frantically between one shop and another to make their last purchases, and a thin fog pervaded the city, as is customary in the northern metropolis. The tram arrived, I run to meet my friend who immediately threw his arms around my neck and kissed me on the cheek. I notice that instead of walking away, he moved closer, plunged his face into my scarf, and whispered in my ear, “Wow, what a wonderful smell you have! Just the ones I like!”. “I’m glad you like it, it’s a gift I gave myself for Christmas.”  " IL (Eau de Toilette) | Lancetti " had just come out on the market, the autumn-winter season of the early 90s. At that time I was working to support my studies, and the perfume was only one, and it had to last for the entire s

A Lion Has a Beautiful Fawny Coat

Yves Rocher Sable Fauve

A Lion Has a Beautiful Fawny Coat. Wait till you sniff the new Sable Fauve. It will knock your socks off. That's what happened to me while checking out the six new releases from Yves Rocher La Collection Parfums, Cuir de Nuit and Sable Fauve blew my mind!

Allegedly designed to recall tawny sand, the warmth of the sun on the skin, Sable Fauve is just too smoky, sweet, gourmand, and vanillic. The tonka you get here is an almond and smoke subtlety of this kind of roasted beans, from the synthetic coumarin, became more renowned thanks to its use in Shalimar By Jacques Guerlain in 1921. A sweet and fresh note will rise from bottom to heart of the fragrance, lingering on the skin for hours whilst enriching the overall fragrance. As used in Sable Fauve it has a sweet odor readily recognized as the scent of newly mown hay. Alongside its herbaceousness, it displays a slight spicy inclination – as well as a vanillic aspect, which is why often people confound it with the vanilla. This warmth also extends to encompass notes of caramel. I admire its creaminess and powdery notes, bringing depth and character to the fragrance once combined with benzoin and labdanum, here used to give a gourmand and oriental touch. An alternative to vanilla, tonka features heavily in iconic fragrances with a fruity-candy aroma, such as Thierry Mugler’s Angel and Le Mâle by Jean-Paul Gaultier, just to mentions a few.

But tonka is not the main note, it is a background supporter, rather the star is benzoin, with its velvety finish and pronounced fruity note, reminiscent of stewed Morello cherries, this is the sweetheart of many a perfume, including Sable Fauve. This is a real bomb of benzoin. What everyone calls vanilla in their reviews is the note of benzoin dominating this fragrance. Ditto, tonka bean is there, too, but most of all it's all about the leading benzoin.

Hold on, is this perfume all too cloying, sugary, sickly? Of course not! Sable Fauve features labdanum, which is used to create a resinous, woody-amber accord, reminiscent of ambergris and incense, and tone down the sweetness. The brown-eyed rockrose, Cistus ladanifer, is a species of a flowering shrub, the broad evergreen leaves are covered by glandular hairs that exude the odoriferous oleo-resin we call labdanum, better known to some gardeners as Rock Rose, which is a pillar of chypre perfumes and many Orientals. This warm and complex resin is sometimes perceived as leathery, sometimes honey-like, with hints of plum.

It's a pleasant fragrance, a very great one. Well made and long-lasting. I've had it on for about all day now, and it's still quite prominent. But at the end of the day, it's just benzoin. I have smelled this type of accord in other fragrances before, yet this one is excellent. This perfume is a nice surprise, now I've seen everything. The benzoin here is incredibly well done, so elegant, resinous, even smoky! Also, accompanied by the right amount of tonka and just a taste of labdanum, it stays cozy till the end.

Sable Fauve is a perfect feast for the wintertime, and long-lasting too. In my conclusion, it is a naive bet, a perfume with character and timelessness, and I see it harmless for wearing at the office. On the outfit side, nothing to complain about. I fancy the fact that it is not heady from the start but that it remains stable throughout the day with a tendency towards the gourmand-sweet side at the end of the day. This perfume is a fine pick, in the same collection I also really fancied Cuir de Nuit, which I've reviewed already.

-Elysium

#spicy #sweet #gourmand

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