Vetyverio – clean and warm and woody

Fall arrives - perfumeniche.com 

The other day, I came across an article called ‘The Science Behind the Smell of Fall’. It’s good reading for anyone interested in fragrances, but the part that struck me most was this:

‘Smell happens when the receptors in your nose pick up aromatic molecules in the air. These molecules ooze out of objects and living organisms in the environment around you.

You smell more aromatic molecules during the summer because hot, muggy air holds more of the molecules and enables them to move through the atmosphere more quickly. The opposite happens when it’s cooler and drier in the fall: air molecules contract together and leave less space for odour molecules to move through.

It means we’re bombarded with smells in the summer, but are able to better pick out specific scents in the fall.’

I thought about this as I reached for Vetyverio EdT this morning.
Created by nose Olivier Pescheux in 2010 for French indie fragrance house Diptyque, Vetyverio is something I find myself craving more and more in these early days of autumn. It’s so distinctive, I could pick it out of a line-up.

Vetyverio - diptyque.com

I have no resistance when it comes to vetiver-centric fragrances, but there is such an emotional tug to this crisp, clean vetiver mingling with flowers and warmed by spice that I find compelling. I wish I could say that this comes from some long-ago memory or association with some event. It doesn’t. When I smell Vetyverio on my skin, it triggers pure pleasure, and that’s enough for me.

It opens fresh and lively with sweet, succulent mandarin and tart, tangy grapefruit - perfectly balanced and wonderfully nose-tingling. The crisp citrus fruits are calmed by warm, spicy nutmeg. As it moves to the heart, a floral bouquet of geranium, ylang-ylang, Turkish rose starts to bloom. The lemon-tinged geranium and banana-faceted ylang-ylang surround the rich rose, keeping the heart light and airy, while a note of carrot seed, earthy and vegetal, tempers the feminine florals. The vetiver at the base is refined and elegant, with no sign of the vetiver’s inherent dirtiness here. Any earthiness comes from the carrot seed. Instead, this vetiver has a creaminess to it that always surprises me when I sniff it. Cedarwood at the base is clear and clean and paired with a note of reserved musk that supports the fragrance beautifully.

The drydown is refined, elegant and alluring and can easily be worn by both men and women.

What I love about it most is that this vetiver fragrance is clean and refreshing. It’s a different kind of vetiver experience for me. And, judging by the way it steals attention away from everyone else when I wear it, I’d say I’m not the only one who likes this vetiver experience.

I guess picking out this great scent is what happens when air molecules contract together in the fall – who knew?

Vetyverio is listed in our Decant Store. Decants are $6.00 for 1 ml.
 
Musc Eau de Parfum – An earthy spicy come-hither musk

Bruno Acampora is not a perfume brand that immediately leaps to mind for most perfume lovers, but if you crave unusually beautiful high-quality hand-made fragrances that will set you apart from the crowd, then read on. 

I’ve admired the Bruno Acampori line since I first encountered it on Luckyscent a few years ago. It’s image is so definitively Italian, old-school and ultra-modern at the same time. Small sleek phials for the perfume oils with traditional cork stoppers sealed with pink wax, labeled in different jewel tones. Polished aluminum spray bottles for the extrait and eau de parfums. And the small oil phials are packaged in large round aluminum tins machine stamped with the star logo, instead of a traditional box. Cool and classy.

Based in Naples, Italy, and established in 1974 by founder Bruno Acampora, Acampora Profumi is still a family-run independent perfume brand which creates, formulates, develops and produces artisanal fragrances of the highest quality, offered in perfume oil, parfum extrait and eau de parfum concentrations. After sampling a few of them, I can tell you that Bruno Acampora’s fragrances combine the best of traditional and contemporary sensibilities. They are fragrances that are truly elegant, and which have a sparkle and a seductive quality that makes them irresistible, and oh-so Italian.

The first scent introduced in 1974 was Musc perfume oil. It was re-launched in 2012 in the EdP and extrait format, and is described on the website as “A siren song that blooms in your own heat. Musc is seduction.” It’s the fragrance that initially drew me to the brand, and the one I purchased, an easy and predictable choice because I adore the musk note. 

Musc Eau de Bruno EdP opens with a vivid rush of earthy musk, dense and velvety, with a primal vegetal mushroom-y scent, I think of the waft when slicing a perfect shiitake. The cool mushroom accord becomes greener and more forest-y with the addition of green violet and lavender and soon creates a spicy peppery sensation as notes of clove and rose float into the mix. This is where Musc Eau de Bruno EdP begins to seduce me, I’m not a die-hard mushroom lover but suddenly I love these spicy mushrooms. There is a mystery and a strange complexity developing and I feel myself falling in love. 

The back of the EdP box states: “The intense pure resins are muted with subtle hints of sweet tenderness. Color: Gold.” And that’s exactly what I start to experience as the Musc EdP heart develops: the spicy rose deepens and joins with a gentle white jasmine to form a floral waft, coloured with vanilla and amber. The heart takes on a golden glow, floating on the earthy musk accord, releasing a sensation of powdery sweetness, but a subdued sweetness, like the scent of warm salty perfumed skin. 

As Musc EdP dries down into the base, the musky accord becomes even more intimate as patchouli and creamy sandalwood add a layer of woody warmth. After a few hours Musc EdP has morphed into a sultry skin scent, with an hypnotic tantalizing waft that conjures leisurely nuzzling under the warmth of a goose-down duvet.  

Bruno Acampora Musc EdP smells beautiful. Dank, earthy, spicy, floral, sweet, golden, warm, woody, it’s not a fragrance that is experienced as notes but as sensations. It’s not a clean aldehydic musk, or a skanky animalic musk. It’s not a floral musk or a sweet musk, a light musk or a heavy musk. 

The allure of Musc EdP is in its subtlety. It does not announce your presence, but beckons others to come close. It’s a deeply intimate musk that really does bloom in the heat of your skin, and stays close, a come-hither musk which is equally powerful on a man or woman. 

Bruno Acampora says that their Musc is…”heralded as the best musk from here to Shanghai…” . Luckyscent says that Bruno Acampora Musc EdP is  “…a forever-love…a truly superlative musk scent…”. Other blogs, perfume reviews, and customer reviews echo these opinions. I’m adding my voice to the chorus of love.

Musc EdP is listed in our Decant Store. Decants are $6.00 for 1 ml.

Image - Bruno Acampora Musc EdP 50ml. bottle - brunoacampora.com

 

 

Welcome to perfumeniche.com

"She smelled the way the Taj Mahal looks by moonlight."

                                                                       Raymond Chandler

We are Gwen and Kay, two perfumistas making our scent journey in the cool, clear North.  We are also BFFs - we hang out together a lot, travel together - so we try, buy and share fragrances.

What started out as a shared interest grew into a hobby, and has now become our obsession.

We’ve spent many evenings with a glass of prosecco, a little cool jazz playing in the background, spritzing, sniffing - “How does this smell on you?” and, sadly, sometimes scrubbing.

We’ve tested and tried hundreds of samples over the years, and when we deemed a fragrance ”full bottle worthy” (FBW), one of us has tracked it down and bought it. We now own a lot of really great perfumes, and we continue to buy bottles of what we think is the best of "niche" as new scents are launched.

Also, we include many perfume "classics" that are the foundations of modern perfumery - like Shalimar, Chanel No.5, Eau Sauvage - plus other perfume "gems" that have been discontinued, or were ahead of their time when launched but now fit perfectly in the Niche category. 

With so many exciting discoveries, we can’t help but talk about our passion with other friends. Wherever we go, people ask “What is that perfume you’re wearing? Where can I get that?” So we end up sharing a bit of our “juice” with friends. But the circle has grown, so we've started this website to let others buy and try samples from our collections and experience the fragrant beauty we write about.

WHAT WE DO

We blog

We blog once a week and post a story about a scent from our collections, and add it to our Decant Store. We're not scent critics, so these aren't negative reviews. We love all our fragrances  - that’s why we bought them! But we describe how we think they smell, and share our stories about why we love them - maybe you’ll rediscover an old flame, or fall in love with a new scent.

Or we post conversations about whatever has grabbed our attention recently. Or we write about a specific perfume note,  and offer a Decant Pack, which allows you to explore new territory by trying 3 or 4 fragrances in a special pack at a special discount price.

We sell

We sell 1 ml. decants - .7 ml volume once you allow for the stopper in the vial - filled from our own bottles in our collection because the only way to experience a fragrance is to try it on your own skin. We take the fragrance from its original bottle and decant it into a smaller brand-new, 1 ml sterilized glass vials so that you can try it on your skin to see if you like it.

Through our Decant Store you'll have access to some of the world’s greatest niche scents, hard-to-find fragrances, and classic favourites. 

When you click on the Decant Store tab you’ll find our personal descriptions of each of the fragrances we currently offer from our collection, then you can add them to your Shopping Cart.

Let's be clear (this is a disclaimer!!)

  • We don’t sell full bottles of any fragrance - just .7ml decants. We only sell decants  from the perfumes we've bought.... because we love them.
  • We don't re-sell manufacturers samples.
  • We don’t represent any perfumers or distributors, so we don’t have every scent from a whole line of perfume.
  • We aren’t being paid to promote any product or scent.

If, after sampling a fragrance, you decide that you must have it, i.e. it is FBW (full bottle worthy), and you can’t find it, e-mail us and we will direct you to the best source we know – retail store or online source.

We provide

A place for you to learn about scent, and to share your fragrance experience with others. Click on the section called Resources, under My Perfume Notes (see top right), where  you'll find a Glossary, and fragrance FAQs. You'll also find two great tools we've created - Handmaps and My Sample Perfume Notes - so you can keep track of, and record your own scent experiences.
 
We hope you enjoy perfumeniche.com, and visit us often. Leave your preconceptions behind, look around, see what’s on offer, read the Blog, share your experiences and discoveries, and join the circle.

It’s just us.