Posted by Jessica
on
6 January 2012
One of the long-running best-sellers in the Annick Goutal line is Petite Chérie (1998), a girlish fruity-floral that Annick Goutal dedicated to her daughter Camille. Camille has now reciprocated by devoting a fragrance to her mother’s memory: it is a spicy floral chypre titled Mon Parfum Chéri par Camille and its composition includes Indonesian patchouli, iris, violet, plum, and heliotropin.
Mon Parfum Chéri par Camille is partially inspired by a vintage solid perfume from Annick Goutal’s fragrance collection (originally a gift from the author Colette!); working with the perfumer Isabelle Doyen, Camille Goutal was also “drawn back to her childhood memories of Hollywood’s wartime movies. Tempting satin. Delicate lace. Actresses and their gloved hands and ruby lips. And a memory of her mother dressing for an evening out…” For me, Mon Parfum Chéri par Camille succeeds in this evocation. It’s old-fashioned, in a full-bodied, self-possessed way, and it really is most appropriate for evening wear (although I normally avoid that kind of fragrance-wearing instruction).
When I sniff Mon Parfum Chéri from the sample vial, I notice plenty of patchouli…
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Posted by Robin
on
12 May 2011
Annick Goutal will launch Mon Parfum Chéri, par Camille, this September, with a preview at Harrods in early July. The new perfume for women is described as a “very feminine, elegant and mesmerizing fragrance, inspired by Hollywood glamorous actresses”…
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According to the lore of her eponymous fragrance house, Annick Goutal was deeply fond of roses; as one of the company websites states, “Every moment of her life was filled with them as she believed in their sensorial properties and their beneficial powers on the skin. She added drops of rose essence to her bathwater, drank it in secret teas…” Over the years, Goutal has released spicy fragrances, woody fragrances, green fragrances, and all sorts of florals, but it also continues to offer several variations on rose. Here are my thoughts on four of them…
Rose Absolue is an early Goutal fragrance, released in 1984. It was difficult to find for a while — in the United States, at least — but now it seems to be more widely available. Annick Goutal said of Rose Absolue, “Roses symbolize beauty, the eternal feminine. I wanted to dedicate a perfume to them which would also evoke this femininity.” This fragrance is all rose: it contains essences of May rose, Turkish rose, Bulgarian rose, Damascus rose, Egyptian rose, and Moroccan rose. Rose Absolue is both delicate and radiant. Like a gradually opening rose, it shifts from dewy to velvety to slightly dusky. If someone asked me to recommend just a few high-quality rose soliflores, this would be on my list…
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Posted by Kevin
on
30 March 2011
I love the smell of mimosa flowers (Acacia pravissima is blooming in my garden now). For me, the “perfume” that best captures the floral scent most of us associate with “mimosa” (Acacia dealbata) is Diptyque Mimosa room spray. I’ve loved many of the Annick Goutal floral fragrances, and I hoped Le Mimosa would provide a mimosa scent I could wear on my skin, not simply spray into the air.
Le Mimosa, developed by perfumer Isabelle Doyen, lists fragrance notes of peach, anise, iris, mimosa, sandalwood and white musk. Le Mimosa opens with a dry, flat note that smells like a combination of pencil shavings, cumin powder, and ‘hairy’ leather. This slightly “dirty” aroma marches thru the entire composition…only soap will remove it from skin. As Le Mimosa develops, I smell artificial “peach” and I detect, for a split second, a puff of iris, a speck of anise, and some vague “citrus.”
There’s plenty of white musk and the aforementioned “peach” in Le Mimosa’s base, but none of Le Mimosa’s notes produces a scent with the aroma of fresh mimosa blossoms (if that’s what you are looking for or expecting). What mimosa there is in Le Mimosa is faint…
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Posted by Robin
on
30 June 2010
Annick Goutal will launch Rose Splendide, a new fragrance for women, in September. The perfume pays tribute to the brand’s founder, Annick Goutal, and her love of roses…
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