Annick Goutal Les Nuits d' Hadrien

Annick Goutal is one of my favorite niche fragrance brands and I collect samples from this company since I have to drive at least an hour and a half away to the King of Prussia Neiman Marcus in order to try any of these scents.  So I end of collecting samples every single time that I buy any fragrances from any of this company's counters and I love how generous the company has been with their samples so far.  I am currently using through my sample collection and I have several large samples of the fragrance that we are going to look at today, Les Nuits d'Hadrien, a very unique fragrance that has taken me several weeks to decide what my thoughts are on the scent formulation.  This fragrance is a combination of citrus notes, spice notes, and then a wood base, I own nothing even close to this scent and it took me a long time to decide both my feelings on this very unique scent and how I would wear it. 
The Annick Goutal website contains both a description of the fragrance and the story behind the creation.  Les Nuits d' Hadrien is the complement fragrance to the best selling Eau d'Hadrien fragrance, a fragrance that I have not yet smelled and must be added to my list to try and find (even if just for comparison to the Nuits).  "More than 20 years after Eau d'Hadrien, composed by Annick Goutal after reading the novel 'Memories of Hadrien' from Marguerite Yourcenar, her daughter Camille and Isabelle Doyen offer us a new interpretation of that book, by creating Les Nuits d'Hadrien.  A chapter unfolds.  Night follows day...An enchanting Italian interlude bathed in darkness, inspired by a night time stroll under a starry Mediterranean sky, at sunset's magical hours, where nature, set ablaze as dusk falls, finally quiets down.  A delicious scent of orange and spices, bringing warmth to your skin, and pleasing to share."

The notes of Les Nuits d'Hadrien are as follows: Citrus, Amber, Bergamot, Icy Sicilian Lemon, Green Mandarin, Tangerine, Cypress, Basil, Cumin, Juniper Bay, Ylang-Ylang, Vanilla, Sandalwood, Patchouli, White Musk.

The description of the EDP provides the full harmony of the notes.  "A succession of fresh and spicy chords to evoke a new enrapturing story of Italy, at night...This fragrance takes off with the sparkling scent of citrus: bergamot, Silician Lemon, Green and Acidic Tangerine.  Its middle notes then become warmer with touches of Mediterranean Cypress, Basil Leaves, Egyptian Cumin, and Juniper Berry.  The sensuality of ylang-ylang mixes with the rough aroma of Sandalwood, Amber, Patchouli, and Vanilla offers a remarkable oriental base."

This fragrance is one of the only ones that I have ever used that smells almost completely different as it develops on the skin.  The first spray is all citrus, the orange and lemon notes last about half an hour and then completely fade out.  The fragrance then turns very spicy, with the juniper, cypress, and basil all taking center stage.  Within two more hours, the cypress and juniper remained on my skin and the amber and patchouli notes came out.  I have never had a fragrance behave like this and I am in constant awe of the formulation every single time that I use it.

I had a very hard time trying to decide what season was best for this fragrance and when I would wear it.  When I first tried it on, I decided immediately that it was a summer fragrance with all the citrus notes.  After the fragrance developed, my conviction weakened a bit since the fragrance became very spicy and I decided that the middle and base notes would be much too strong to wear in hot, humid weather.  However, this isn't a typical fall and winter fragrance as it contains more citrus than I normally wear at those times of the year.  This dilemma confounded me for a quite a bit until I finally decided that I would wear this fragrance in the cooler weather and break with my tradition of not really wearing citrus scents outside of the summer months. 

This will be a rare citrus scent for me in the cooler months, the spice and green notes in it set it apart from the rest of my fragrance collection.  I still have another full sample of this fragrance to use and then I am considering buying a bottle of it the next time that I go to King of Prussia or New York City.  I can only really see myself using this fragrance when getting dressed up to go out at night, I think the spice notes will be too much for a professional environment.  This is going to be a fragrance for special occasions and I am willing to bet that the day version of this fragrance will be better for a professional environment or a day date.

photo courtesy of Bergdorf Goodman