Tom Ford’s latest release, Vanille Fatale, which just came out yesterday here in Japan, is a rich and convincing gourmand chock full of goodies : vanilla Madagascar, coffee absolute, roasted barley (!), frangipani, and mahogany among other lusciously sounding ingredients, all coalescing creamily into a great humping vanilla on a mission.
Sweet ( some might say sickly), lively, and completely over the top, with its thick, coconut-like facets and a strangely appealing clumsiness, Vanille Fatale puts me somewhat mind of Serge Lutens’ pleasing Un Bois De Vanille, except dressed up in the shaggy monster costume that the wry and poignant father character wore at the end of the brilliantly funny German absurdist comedy ‘Toni Erdmann’ ( probably the best film that I watched last year ; so trenchant, incisive, lovely, bizarre ).
I don’t know. I quite like this. Sometimes, especially at this grey and cold time of year, when you are still in semi-cocoon mode and need comfort – the weather here has seemingly gone straight back into bleak urban winter mode – you just need a scent that is good-humoured, big-boned; furry. Ridiculous.
The Black Narcissus 
I thought it was wonderful for an hour or two, then it turned into a formless, faint skin scent. Such a pity.
Oh I didn’t let it get anywhere near my skin…
That movie was brilliant but excruciating as well…that poor daughter.
I know! Squirm central. But ultimately extremely touching ( and perceptive ).
Love the Serge Lutens, although the reformulation is truly mediocre. I have the original and it lasts forever, evidently outperforming (according to Tara C) the TF. I don’t know why, but I have a huge resistance to spending TF kind of $$$$ on almost any TF, especially on a vanilla scent. (I would buy a bottle of the heavenly, bizarre, discontinued Velvet Gardenia if I could.) And I’m not much of a gourmand girl, either.
I really dig the big shaggy monster à la Toni Erdmann.
Have you seen the film? It is a true original.
And YES: I loved the almost three dimensional fluff of the original Bois, and then it became flat and as you say, mediocre and I lost interest. Good to have my instincts corroborated.
The Tom Ford is quite nice even though on me I knew it could get nauseating. I liked carrying the smell around on perfume strips tho
ugh