Vamp à NY – Are you trying to glamour me? July 7, 2010

Photo: perfumeniche.com

There is always a frisson of excitement when a delivery van pulls up to the curb outside my house. Something for me? What could it be? A gift? A surprise? Some boring old legal papers that need my signature?

Last week, it was a package I’d ordered from Collette – my bottle of Honoré des Prés Vamp à NY! Designed by Olivia Giacobetti, it is one of three scents from their new "New York Collection" and is made from all natural ingredients.

With quivering hands, I opened the box to find a plain paper bag. Opened this up and found a take-out coffee container with a take-out paper coffee cup in it. Inside the coffee cup was the juice. Very clever packaging, very NYC, but I’d have plenty of time to admire that later, gotta get to the juice -  pop, spray, sniff, relief, pleasure, sigh.

What possessed me to buy Vamp à NY unsniffed?  Truth be told, I have a tuberose monkey on my back. That’s right, I just can’t quit you polianthes tuberosa. I’ve never met a tuberose I didn’t like, so how much of a risk was it? I had to have it.

A night-blooming plant that thrives in hot climates, tuberose is fleshy, creamy, slippery, erotic and smells glamorous, crude 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 rum hit that also has a note of coconut. The rum isn’t boozy, it just sets a tropical stage for the buttery, creamy and full tuberose, which appears along with sweet vanilla, and a green note (from something I can’t really identify) to launch from. The tuberose isn’t screaming and everything is so balanced that the scent is unlike any other – a true original. Its sillage is soft, gorgeous and seductive. But there is also something close to the skin, a heat that shadow dances there that is hypnotic, irresistible and addictive.  

I was a young single woman in my first corporate job when I was sent to New York on business.  It wasn’t long before I managed to hook up with some expat Canadians (we’re everywhere…) who gave me some great insider tips on where to go and what to see. They raved about a new place called S.O.B. in the not yet trendy SoHo part of town and we all agreed to meet there on my last night in New York.

I remember the cab driver’s response where I told him where to take me: “I wouldn’t go to that part of town alone if I was a woman.” he said. The threat of danger only made me more eager to go. I must confess the drive was pretty unsettling as we drove to a very barren, dodgy part of NYC. We got to the bar, and the outside didn’t look anymore inviting than its surroundings. I opened the door and an explosion of sexy salsa music, lively laughter, loud chatter and the smell of good food welcomed me inside. Beckoned by my friends, I joined them at their table and had one of the most memorable nights of my life.

S.O.B.'s full name is Sounds of Brazil and it’s still around, and I have been to New York often since then, but Vamp à NY is the smell of that night  - dangerous, tropical, inviting, sexy and seductive in the city that never sleeps.

What scent smells ‘dangerous’ to you?

Vamp à NY is listed in our Decant Store. Decants are $5.00 for 1 ml.