Parfums MDCI has launched La Belle Helene, a new fragrance named for the French dessert Poires Belle-Hélène:
Osmanthus is one of the most unusual floral essences in the perfumer’s palette, barely a flower really, but an oddly compelling hybrid of fruit and animal with its jammy apricot and soft leather facets. And for Parfums MDCI’s 10th fragrance, Bertrand Duchaufour has brought out its beauty with two lightly gourmand accords. ...Of the poached pears, chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream and crystallized violets, the perfumer has only kept the pear -- a vivid, juicy pear adding its green, rosy and musky notes to the apricot in top and heart, underlined by a zest of tangerine.
La Belle Helene includes notes of pear, aldehydes, tangerine, lime blossom, rose essence, osmanthus, ylang-ylang, orris, hawthorn, Mirabelle plum, myrrh, vetiver, patchouli, cedar Virginia, amber, oak moss, white musk, sandalwood and licorice wood.
Parfums MDCI La Belle Helene is now available at Luckyscent, in 60 ml Eau de Parfum. The glass bottle is $250, the Resin Bust Edition is $375. (via luckyscent)
Osmanthus, MDCI, Duchaufour! I try not to get too enthusiastic because this is so out of my price range…
I can’t help it, I am enthusiastic. Haven’t smelled it though.
I am always scared even to try these…ever since I fell in love with Promesse de l’Aube I am afraid they will leave me yearning for things I quite simply can’t (or rather, shouldn’t) have!
This does, however, sound gorgeous. Maybe just a sample, then…
So far, have really only loved one of them, and luckily there are so darned many fragrances now that I’ve already forgotten what it is called (it was the LOV one by Parfums de Nicolai though).
Un Coeur en Mai? I have a sample awaiting test (and spring). It’s the only MDCI sample I bothered to seek out, since I know they’re sooo spendy.
Yep, that’s it! I like it. Never going to buy it.
Osmanthus makes me swoon. Pear is refreshing if it’s done well. Every note just drawas me in more until…*screeech*…licorice wood? Not sure if that’s a naturally occuring thing or something born in a lab, but anything licorcey or anisey just doesn’t seem to jive with the rest. lol I wish they would have included the crystallized violets. Maybe Laurence Dumont will do a more straightfoward version of the dessert.
Osmanthus, yes, pear, no. So I shall smell & see!
Agreed, LaMaroc. If the licorice note is *really* faint, I might be able to pull it off. But when reading the ingredients of the original dessert, I thought,I’d so totally wear that!” Hehehe. Maybe they can make an intense version with those notes. 🙂
I’ll have to see how much the 60ml bottles are since there’s a couple MDCI’s I’ve been in love with for two or three years now but the passion was instantly dampened when I read the prices.
The MDCI “samples” in their sampler sets are 12ml, and even though I’m falling in love with them and worrying about the FB price, I keep reminding myself that 12ml could last me a looong time. But I don’t have any La Belle Helene! I’m a little worried by the pear, particularly after the apple-icious Traversee du Bosphore of last year that I cannot wear…but I still want to try this. I am loving MDCI these days.
*sigh* these notes sound lovely.
Osmanthus, if prominent, can easily be my favorite note. And pear… pear is nice too. I _have to_ try a sample…
The pear scares me a bit, but it’s Duchaufour. I’ll be trying it!
$125 for a resin bust, nice if you can get someone to buy it.
Gotta love aspirational pricing.
Am I the only one who doesn’t like these bottles? They seem gaudy to me.
They do look gaudy with the tassel and bust.
Without, I quite like them.
But resin is inexpensive, $125 is outrageous overpricing!
No, you’re not the only one.
I think they are pretentious.
Maybe its from the colosseum…
Stick a marble head on and you can charge anything?
I do seem to like Duchafour’s ‘creations’, but he seems over-prolific recently – or is that my imagination?
I am so excited about this one! It sounds perfect. I wish it weren’t so expensive.
This seriously sounds like my dream perfume. Why $250, why, why why???
Scary fragrances, I donot want to scare away my cats and family members !! :(—however, the bottle looks artistic.
I DIE!!!! OH THE HUMANITY! If i could i’d buy everyone here a bottle of this absolutely MIRACULOUS Sounding Scent! It just sounds like a new Addiction! MUST SMELL! MUST S-M-E-L-L!!!!!