Vamp à NY – hypnotic and irresistible and addictive

When the bottle of Vamp à NY, from French niche fragrance house Honoré des Prés I had ordered showed up at my door. I couldn’t wait to open it and smell it…for the very first time.

What possessed me to buy Vamp à NY unsniffed?  Three things: first, it's built around tuberose, a note I cannot resist; second, Olivia Giacobetti created it, and thirdly, all fragrances in the Honoré des Prés line are all natural – made from essences that are 100% natural in origin. There are no petrochemical products, synthetics, no ingredients of animal origin colouring agents or phthalates. It was a win-win-win for me.

And it smelled better than I imagined when it was on my skin. 

Polianthes tuberosa, the tuberose, is a night-blooming plant that thrives in hot climates. It’s fleshy, creamy, buttery, slippery, and erotic, and it smells glamorous and dangerous. Long associated with death and desire, it’s the perfect poster plant for vampire couture, and the name Vamp à NY, plays on that.

Vamp à NY opens with a hit of boozy rum that links to the coconut facet of tuberose and sets a tropical stage for the buttery, creamy, lush, floral, sexy tuberose to seep into my skin. And as it does, it reveals itself. There’s the smell of buttered popcorn, a glint of fresh green and a floral sweetness that just draws me in. Creamy, sweet vanilla twins with the tuberose while adding warmth to it. The tuberose/vanilla axis pulsates with sensuality. Over time, the tuberose settles onto a resinous base of ambery benzoin and vanilla/spicy faceted Tolu balsam and Peru balsam, creating a sweet/warm shadow that dances just above the skin.

Olivia Giacobetti excels at creating ethereal veils of fragrances. In Vamp à NY, she takes rich, luscious, sensuous tuberose and opens it up, allowing in space and air, then pulls back on the resins, giving Vamp à NY a weightless, free-spirited quality that’s hypnotic, irresistible, and addictive.

Every time I wear it, I'm reminded of my first trip to New York.

I was a young, single woman in my first corporate job when I was sent to New York to speak at a conference. While there, I met some fellow Canadian attendees who raved about a new place they had heard about in the not-yet-trendy SoHo part of town. We all agreed to meet there that night.

I remember the cab ride through a very barren, dodgy part of NYC. When I arrived at the bar, the outside looked no more inviting than its surroundings. But when I opened the door, an explosion of sexy salsa music, lively laughter, loud chatter, and the smell of good food welcomed me. I found my friends, joined them at their table, and had one of the most memorable nights of my life.

Vamp à NY is the smell of that night – a suggestion of danger, tropical vibes and feeling sexy and free-spirited in the city that never sleeps.

Check out Vamp à NY in our Shop.