If a perfume can be self-polarizing, then for me, Matiere Premiere’s Crystal Saffron is possibly the intensest. The central heart note of saffron, extracted from crocuses grown in the Greek region of Kozani, is mindbendingly good : delicious and beautiful and reportedly the highest quality of saffron available in the world. Wedded to a Somalian incense that anchors the base, you would think you had hit bingo ( and you still might – this thing is damn sexy and could easily sweep the naive and unaware straight off their feet).
The ambroxan though. Oh my lord. That intense, acrid, membrane piercing woodnote that makes my spleen and marrow cringe in instinctive terror, is so strong in this perfume that even in the little sample box, hidden in a drawer, the final stages of this scent make me want to call up the biohazard people and have it removed and scrubbed clean with gasmasks and hazmats.
Ambroxan and other woody synthetics are favored ingredients of perfumer Aurelien Guichard, who likes to combine them with very fine, even mesmerizing natural materials to addictive modern effect. French Flower, for example, treads an exquisite line between ambroxan and a heady sweet and brain altering tuberose absolute that you literally can’t get out of your head; I sniff at that regularly, it’s like a drug. Neroli Oranger is the perfume I received as my birthday and Christmas present this year from my parents (for me to get a second bottle of any perfume speaks volumes) as it is just stunning in Spring; so bright and refreshingly optimistic that it regularly garners compliments; when I combine with a fine bergamot oil, reactions have actually verged on delirium. Others in the range, though, the ultra brutalist architectures of Santal Austral, Bois Ebene and the shuddering Falcon Leather I just loathe at the deepest level of scent being ; like being twice basted in tar, drowned in a barrel of creosote (then buried in a teak-interiored casket breathing mahogany). It’s a personal thing ; some people get off on the sheer directness of such potency : I just feel under attack.
Which brings me to the newest creation in the collection, Vanilla Powder. Guichard’s deep and edible Encens Suave, one of his earlier releases, is a warm and very enveloping coffee/ cacao frankincense with rich vanilla that is fantastic when you need emotional warmth – when I saw the name Vanilla Powder on the sample box my heart skipped a beat as I knew that he can do a fine amber and that this one could be interesting.
And it is. Like a space age variation of Serge Lutens’ delectable Un Bois Vanille, a coconut-dusted vanilla with an almost aquatic, shiny edge is given ‘verticality’ and depth with a backbone of palo santo (and, then ( oh no you cry !) unfortunately, much to my chagrin, what smells like a dosage in the base notes of the detestable ambroxan….). With a saffronish edge somewhere in there, Vanilla Powder is not powdery in fact, more flirty and fetching ; very modern and millennial, it would work perfectly on the cute with clean skin in a club context, inviting, shimmering and bite-me ( it reminds me somewhat of the Ariana Grande Mod Vanilla I reviewed recently, all part of the current. MK Baccarat Rouge Brigade that are erotically persuasive but for me, just somehow too…. blunt). On my skin, the last fade of this scent is all modern wood-notes, and you know I just won’t ever, evergo there. I do like this house and the ones that I love from there, but if I want vanilla, i want it softer : I want vanilla
You speak my mind. I got the sample set after liking Neroli Oranger, but was very disappointed in the other perfumes with their extreme amounts of Ambroxan. Thanks!
Too much, right ?
Are you listening, Monsieur Guichard ?!
Thank the lord someone else find some MP fragrances brutalist!
Radioactive Rose just wouldn’t leave my skin despite taking 3 long soaks & a shower.
I really enjoyed the first 8 hours of Encens Suave. Yet again it outstayed its welcome with whatever evil aromachemical Guichard uses to produce this unwelcome longevity.
Have you seen Persolaise’s review of VP on YouTube? Worth a watch for shits & giggles
He didn’t like it ? I will have a look.
I genuinely think he is a really good perfumer just addicted to these ingredients in some of them I personally can’t abide
I had the chance to sniff some of the MP line recently and none captivated me to stay long enough to get to the dreaded ambroxan. I would have liked to test them more properly but it wasn’t practical at the time.
What I like about them in a way is their stark simplicity. To me they are very vivid and ‘real’ without any extraneous nonsense. That’s why, if you like a hard woody ( sorry that came out more suggestive than intended ) there is a streamlined quality to even all the macho ones I personally can’t abide that nevertheless is rather impressive. They really do in my view smell like they are using ‘premiere materials’. I just seem to have something verging on an oversensitized phobia of certain notes – if I detect them even in infinitesimal doses it is game over for me
Biggest ambroxan bomb mistake I have ever blind bought = Jimmy Choo Floral. The notes sound wonderful, what could go wrong with nectarine, apricot blossom & magnolia?
The Floral was a lie- sawdust, sawdust, and more ambroxan OD sawdust with a tinge of faux peach. Barf.
French Flower sounds like something for me, a brilliant tuberose can overcome just about anything.
I was in a rare mood for a cozy vanilla oud or such in the chilly weather . Vanilla Powder might fit the bill.
I tried a few attars at the local shop by the mosque.
Regret is eminent as the gawd awful cheap strawberry note of one of the VS Bombshell knockoffs will NOT wash off.
When will I ever learn?
I do love a good knockoff sometimes though and at least you haven’t lost your curiosity
I’ve never heard that near-allergic overreaction to certain notes described so well. Yes! The teensiest whiff of any of those particular aromachemicals is enough for me to shut down. (Whatever is in YSL Libre for women still haunts me after trying it in the store eons ago.) I’m guessing this guy doesn’t have the same problem with ambroxan et al. Sometimes I almost envy people like that.
The same. I actually annoy myself with my inability to even begin to comprehend such scents; it makes me feel like I am ‘out of touch’. But as you say with your Libre experience, once haunted, the brain can’t be rid of the sensation and the body REJECTS it