This weekend I did a very small fragrance shopping trip with my friend B. Our local opportunities are limited, to say the least, but here is what we managed to smell:
Laura Mercier Ambre Passion: The notes are listed as amber with a bit of geranium, and that is exactly what it smells like: lots of amber cut with a bit of geranium. It is not a dark, resinous amber, nor is it particularly sweet, nor is it foody. Just a middle of the road amber, plain and simple. I would love to hear from any amber fanatics who have tried this perfume; I am not an amber lover and it did nothing for me at all.
Fresh Memoirs of a Geisha: This fragrance will be released soon to tie in with the movie release of the Arthur Golden book. It is not on counter yet, but we were allowed to try the tester. The notes are jasmine, rose, langsat fruit and white peach. It is a light, sweet, sparkling fruity-floral with citrus top notes, very much in keeping with the youthful Fresh Index style, and nothing like the atmospheric scent you might expect from something meant to evoke the book.
Clean Fresh Laundry: The notes are Brazilian Orange, Rose Otto, Night Blooming White Jasmin, Cotton Blossom, and Mexican Lime, but forget all that: it just smells like dryer sheets, which I take it is the general idea.
The above are just general impressions since I did not try any of those fragrances on skin, my arms being already in use to test *drum roll please* Shiseido Nombre Noir. Nombre Noir was created by nose Jean-Yves Leroy for Serge Lutens in 1981 and discontinued shortly thereafter. Its current legendary status, as near as I can tell, is largely due to the fact that Luca Turin, in The Emperor of Scent, called it "one of the five great perfumes of the world", and subsequent mentions on his blog have added to the frenzy; it now goes for premium prices on ebay. B. managed to score a few drops, and very kindly brought her miniature along so that we could try it together.
Having never smelled the original, I cannot say how badly the scent had deteriorated, but after 20 years I would imagine it is but a pale shadow of its former glory. The top notes were undoubtedly destroyed; it started out very perfumey, with rose the only recognizable note. It resolved into a rose with dark undertones that at first sniff reminded me of amber, and only much later in the afternoon started to possibly (maybe I was trying too hard?) bear some resemblence to what based on the notes ought to smell like prune.
The osmanthus note, which was said to be stunning, was nowhere in evidence. It was a pretty scent, but nothing earth-shattering, and as I told B, not something I would sell my sister into slavery for. At least now I won't have to lay awake at night wondering about it.
Note: the Nombre Noir advertisement is from the wonderful site Images de Parfums.
Sounds like you had a lot of fun! I have Nombre Noir, and my impressions are of a rose with a sweet apricot leather note, melting into smooth sweet cedar. It is ambery and dark, with damascones being rather prominent. I have some damascones (both alpha and beta) at home, which is why I even know what they smell like. I can only guess why it has been discontinued, since they are considered allergens. Nombre Noir uses them in high amounts. I really like it, but I do not think that it is more mysterious or more perfect than Feminite du Bois. It is just unlike anything other rose that is current made.
V, I am so jealous…this was apparently in much worse condition than yours. Osmanthus is one of my all time favorite notes, but the apricot-leather was long gone, and didn't really smell cedar either. It was a splash mini so has probably had tons of exposure to air.
On the other hand, I highly respect but don't love Feminite du Bois…maybe this would not have been my cup of tea even when it was new.
LOL — she is still in great danger given how badly I want one of the large OJ gift sets!
Coincidence alert—I just wore Nombre Noir again this weekend for the first time in ages! I think the frag. industry really blew it when they decided to discontinue this because of the photosensitization issue. Due to the cruddy skin I have, I have to use a lot of benzoyl peroxide & salicylic acid facial products, and all of them have dire warnings to avoid sun exposure whenever you use the product. It would have been a stroke of genius merely to re-release Nombre Noir with a warning: “The components of this fragrance are unstable in sunlight and can cause a skin reaction. To be worn only at night.” Can you imagine what a sensational goth fragrance it would have become? Look at the packaging! The name! Every vampire disco would have reeked of it within a year.
I like it a lot myself. It strikes me as haunting. I definitely get a plummy, purplish, raisiny quality (I never would have thought of it as a rose if Luca and others hadn't called it that), and a big silvery wash of something plumping up the whole thing and making it sort of cool and damp while still being dark and dramatic. The opening notes are plummiest (that to me is osmanthus, which I only know from osmanthus oolong tea, and this is the spitting image of it), and the drydown is this delicious raisiny rose plus some kind of big attention getting drama that I'm lousy at describing.
Alas, I accidentally dumped 1/3 of my mini on me before I went out. That sucked. I smelled great, but it sucked. I was walking around muttering to Will, “You know how much this **** goes for on eBay?”
T, Again, I didn't get any of that, not even a whisper. I think of Osmanthus as very bright, with a bit of apricot, but that is just what I know from other perfumes, having never smelled the real thing. Didn't find anything like it in Nombre Noir. Guessing that what you felt as “big silvery wash of something” is what Luca says is hedione, but I didn't smell that here either.
I have a feeling I will still have to stay up nights wondering if I can get a bottle in better condition…
R, I can bring you a sprig of osmanthus in September! Our bushes should be flowering by then. Remind me!
L, that would be so cool, thank you!
How I would have spent my youth if I had only known: working in plant nurseries and studying french 🙂
Come to NYC, I'll let you huff at mine. 🙂
And P.S. since I don't have any freaking clue what hedione smells like, I guess we'll just have to take his word for it. Didn't V say she spilled some all over the house recently?
Sounds illegal, LOL, but also worth the trip! You should have seen the people in the cafe staring at B & I with our arms glued to our noses.
T, I'll bet you do, you've smelled Eau Sauvage, right? It is the part that makes it fresh & transparent, but also a “big smell” for lack of a better phrase. Quoting myself on ES: “It was one of the first fragrances to use appreciable amounts of hedione, a synthetic molecule said to have a diffusive jasmine odor with a hint of an aquatic note.”
Er…no. No. I have not actually smelled Eau Sauvage.
(slinks off in perfumista shame)
There are so many classics that I have never smelled, so must join you in shame!
R, I was curious about the new Fresh scent, but if it´s just another of those fresh & fruity jasmine fragrances I guess I can live without it…Fresh Sake was already a disappoinment for me because it got very sharp & storng on my skin.
S, Perhaps it improves radically on skin, as I said I didn't give it much of a chance. Will probably get a sample after it comes out and try it again.
I was lucky enough to try some Nombre Noir myself (thanks to T). I think that the top notes on mine had possibly gone slightly too but all in all I completely failed to understand the fuss. JP 1000 and Paco Rabanne Ultraviolet both have a lot of osmanthus so I had a preconception about what I was going to smell. Instead I found something that seemed to me to be very much in the vein of 80s fruity florals like Poison. It also made me think of Cacherel Loulou. Interestingly, I found SL Cedre slightly reminiscent (if you discount the strong cedar note of course). I ended up passing my bottle of NN to someone who had it on their wishlist.
Ok, now I'm convinced I need to get my hands on another bottle — even though you didn't like it, it sounds like we smelled 2 different scents.
hmm, not sure. I've just looked back at what you wrote and I'd agree with perfumey, dark rose and the prune note, although that was there all the way through for me. Of course, there is also this issue of whether there are fake bottles circulating (the whole Nombre/Nombbe debate)
Good point, it could have been fake, although in that case I would think that so long as they were bothering, they would have put a bit more juice in the bottle so as to jack up the price further!
I'll never know, even if I try another bottle. It is easy enough to believe that a 20 year old splash mini could have deteriorated significantly by now…
How lucky to be able to try the NN, no matter the state it's in, I think. Sounds like a fun sniffing expedition you two had!
I'm not too enthused about this Fresh movie tie-in thing. Just sounds like something designed to make a quick buck more than anything else. Nothing wrong with that, of course, it's just that it doesn't particularly speak to me.
Wow Robin, lemming effectively slayed and buried 🙂
K,
It was lucky, and it was fun to try it with another perfume fanatic 🙂
Can't decide what I think about movie tie-ins. Maybe it could be really interesting with the right movie & fragrance.
Was that for Nombre Noir or another fragrance in the post? If Nombre Noir — wait for part 2, I may change my mind when/if I get another try at a better bottle!
Am I the only one whose passion was roused by…the Amber Passion… rather than the Nombre Noir?
I'm a passionate amber lover, so I'm intrigued by this one. However, I sampled the other Laura Merciers at the weekend, and I thought I got a strange nicotine note off both. Was that just my imagination, or is there a house note in the Laura Merciers?
N
I've scored a couple of those minis and found them to be weak,but got the apricot and prune notes. I thoughtit was OK,but wondered why I spent all that money. Then I got a bottle from a different source and shazaam! What a delight. SO I think people are watering this down,or perhaps there were differnet lots which are funny.(The Nomrre Noir from Japan, for example)
Hi N, You must be, LOL! I really don't know the other LMs well, have only tried them briefly on scent strips. Hope you will let me know how the Ambre Passion is if you ever try it on skin.
Well then I'll have to keep looking for that shazaam bottle!! I tend to be a trusting person, so I just assume “bad” bottles were poorly stored, but what do I know, maybe they are watered down.
There's been quite a discussion on MUA lately about whether or not some of the Nombre Noir minis that have recently appeared on the market are genuine. My encounter with NN last year (courtesy of Tania) left me feeling that i could safely resume my regularly scheduled sniffing – the earth did not move, nor was i induced to slash my wrists in despair at its discontinued status. What i got from Nombre Noir was: Feminite du Bois, less a few cedar shavings and with the addition of a deeper, plummy/raisin note. Perhaps it was degraded; it did not smell *off* at all, but who can say whether it was watered down…
To all the Nombre Noir lovers,
Thank you for honoring Jean-Yves Leroy who was a friendly colleague of mine for a couple of years and who unfortunately passed last year before reading any of your comments on his creation, he would have been touched and proud. Merci.
D — I would still love to smell a “new” bottle, but as that will never happen, I'll have to join you in resuming my regularly scheduled sniffing, LOL!
Massilia, Thank you so much for commenting, and my sympathies on the loss of your friend. Would you be willing to share with us what other perfumes Jean-Yves Leroy created?
Boy, I really did distribute quite a lot of these!
You did indeed, T (thanks again). You sent me an actual mini (with some juice in it) and it says NOMBBE like another one I got from someone else. They both smell the same: absolutely wonderful!
Just wanted to comment that the LM Ambre Passion, for me, had not even a touch of geranium. It was a straight amber, and a somewhat boring one at that. And I'm a HUGE fan of amber scents. Give me the iPdF, SL or L'Artisan ones over this one any day. And yes, R, I think we truly must have looked odd with our noses buried in the crook of our elbows sitting in the cafe of the Food Source, but I don't care. There!
Hi B!
I am so forgetful — you've tried Cedre, right?? Am trying it for the first time today, and tons of amber in the dry down.
Just tried a sample from the Perfumed Court, and all i can say is , Shazam! The pure parfum is magnificent, rose/honey/plum that lasts, if you think you might like the notes, it's worth a try.
Years ago, I lived in Washington, DC and frequented a French bakery/cafe in Georgetown with a wonderful traditional plum tart. It was so relaxing to go there and have a bit of dessert with a cup of tea after shopping at Banana Republic/Bebe/you get the picture. NN takes me back to those 20-something years, choosing something sexy to wear to a rendezvous, with a sweet treat afterward.
Here in Austin, I still have my rendezvous, but alas, they do not involve plum tart. From now on, however, they probably involve Nombre Noir.
What cafe was that? Although I probably lived in Georgetown even many more years ago than you — BR (and the other big chain stores) weren't there yet.
You know, the name escapes me (it was about ten years ago), but it was on Grace St. right behind the Georgetown Park mall. A quiet little place just perfect for a breather from the M St. crowds.
Thanks! Can't think of it, but its been a long time since I knew Gtown well.
Fresh Laundry sounds really nice when you read the notes. I got suckered into buying it by the smooth talk of a home shopping network person. It was useful to spary on tee shirts and jeans for that fresh out of the wash smell, but that’s it. I would never buy Fresh Laundry by Clean again.
Clean has built a very successful business — it kind of astonishes me what people will pay for fragrances that are essentially just variations on laundry detergent white musks.
I’d love to try CLEAN but I dont know if they sell it in uk
and none of the stores do anyway. :/
oh wait Harvey Nichols and House Of Fraser apparently do