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

Annick Goutal Gardenia Passion

Annick Goutal's Gardenia Passion is a perfume that I have been test driving over the past few weeks. I worked my way through two entire samples of this product while I tried to decide how I was going to write about this fragrance and what I was going to say about. Why did it take so long this time around? It makes perfect when this one fact is revealed; I don't like gardenia and it is last on the list of my favorite floral scents. So we now have an issue, I am reviewing a fragrance that contains a heart note that I really dislike. So I know that I am using a fragrance that I'm not really going to like and I have to decide how to review it around the fact that this isn't a fragrance for me. I love the Annick Goutal brand so I know that the fragrance will be high quality and will be true to the heart note in it.

"A souvenir: that of a travel of Annick Goutal to Kyoto during the rainy season, when moistness exhales all the vegetable scents. Everywhere presents the fragrance of gardenias in flower, wet, that Japanese, in love with beauty, lay out in the gardens, at the edge of the roads, at the entrance of the temples. A passion: that of the creator for the gardenia flower, which scent is so subtil, so rich, so heady... For an infinitely feminine woman, at the same time generous and fragile, carnal without being sulphurous, and who knows how to be attractive and seductive", states the Annick Goutal website.

In addition the gardenia, this fragrance also contains the following notes: Orange Blossom, Jasmine, Tuberose, hint of Vanilla. This fragrance is available in both the EDP and EDT forms, I had received a sample of EDT from when I made a purchase at C.O. Bigelow and it is quite fragrant even though it is considered the lighter of the two versions. This fragrance is also available in the full line of body products in order to help build the fragrance.

This fragrance smells strongest of the gardenia, tuberose, and the vanilla. It has a hint of spice that comes out the most after an hour or two of wear. I was very impressed about how the perfumer bottled the essence of the rain on the flowers, one of my first impressions of the fragrance was that it smelled almost "humid" and had a rich, deep quality to the notes. The lating quality if this fragrance is what I have come to expect from this company, I get five to six full hours from this fragrance and it fades very gracefully.

This fragrance is much richer than many gardenia fragrances on the market and I feel that this would be best used at nighttime, especially if you decide to go with the EDP version of this scent. However, this fragrance is refined and professional so applied with a light hand (and the use of the EDT version) this fragrance would make a lovely fragrance for a professional environment.

I still don't like gardenia scents at all and I wouldn't buy myself a full bottle of this fragrance. This is the best of the gardenia fragrances and it is well crafted and a lovely choice if you love gardenia fragrances or white floral fragrances.

photo courtesy of Bergdorf Goodman

Annick Goutal - French Week Day 3

The French perfume house Annick Goutal is a truly luxurious perfume brand. This company falls firmly into the "niche" group of fragrances. I have only ever met one other person who shared my love of Petite Cherie (instead of 200,000 who wear Marc Jacobs Daisy). Not only are the fragrances and product top-notch, distribution is also very limited and the customer will have to search several high end stores in order to find the product that they desire. And we all know how much I love a chase...

Annick Goutal originally started out as a small perfume house in Paris in 1980, eventually growing a loyal and discerning group of clients. This company believes that a fragrance is more than a product made for scent. Their philosophy is that each fragrance represents a moment, one that the fragrance was purchased specially for or one that the fragrance was worn to commemorate. I was in agreement with this; for me, wearing Petite Cherie reminds me of the first warm day of Spring. I always get the bottle out right at the end of winter and eagerly await the first beautiful day in order to wear it. This fragrance represents the first blooms of spring and the excitement that the new season always holds for me.

Petite Cherie is my favorite fragrance from this house. It falls into their "Sweet" line of fragrances and is a perfect fragrance for a warm spring day. Here is the description of the fragrance from Annick Goutal, "The sweet, fruity, and gourmand notes of peach and pear mixed with the flowery touches of rose musk on a vanilla base. All the naive and determined 'Child Woman' will be seduced by this Eau de Parfum, with intense feminie chords of fresh roses. This Eau de Parfum is housed in a precious blue-green butterfly bottle, the emblem of the Annick Goutal brand". These are the notes - pear, peach, rose musk, cut grass, and vanilla. I find that the pear is the most evident on first spritz then the rose note come out after about 20 minutes.

Along with several sizes of Eau de Parfum, this fragrance also comes in several body product forms and candles. I highly covet the body products and the candles in this line and am trying to find a reason to celebrate and purchase these products.

Also while searching on this company's website...I discovered that they have a rose fragrance. This will become another highly coveted fragrance for me.

photo courtesy of Annick Goutal