Perusing photos of Denis Durand’s Cher-worthy gowns didn’t give me much confidence I’d like Parfums M Micallef's Le Parfum Denis Durand Couture. One gown in particular — a sort of cross between a black lace negligee and something that might have been on stage at the Moulin Rouge in the 1890s — really scared me. If I want bombastic, I already have a few divas in my perfume cabinet ready for action.
Well, shame on me for making assumptions. While Parfum Couture could never be called shy, neither is it the crass, room-hogging perfume I feared. Instead, it’s a warm, easy-to-wear oriental balancing tangerine, honey, and amber with a streak of metallic tang. I bet it will find a lot of fans. I’m one.
Parfum Couture's press release lists the perfume's notes as Ceylon cinnamon, Italian tangerine, Bulgarian rose, orange blossom, honey, animalis, sandalwood, patchouli, amber and white musk.
Parfum Couture’s tangerine and honey leap right out of the fragrance at first, reminding me of Byblos by Byblos (remember that one?) layered over the new Schiaparelli Shocking. I like the combination of sweet and animal that honey gives a fragrance — something about it reminds me of drinking sweetened ice tea. As for the citrus, in the mid-1990s I was obsessed with tangerine-laden fragrances, and I even wore Guépard for a while, despite the cheesy gold and green plastic cage over its bottle. (Sorry, all you old office mates.) Parfum Couture reminds me of those fragrances, but softer and more elegantly blended.
Oud isn’t listed in Parfum Couture’s notes, but I swear I detect it cutting the mouthwatering heft of the tangerine and honey. Or is it the "animalis" listed in the perfume's notes?1 Orange blossom adds buzz, and Parfum Couture’s amber is the shimmery rather than cloying sort. I mostly smell the perfume’s patchouli after I’ve worn it several hours and on my clothing the next day, where it clings in a quiet, sexy way.
I wore Parfum Couture last night to an event where it had to compete with drag queens, Taylor Dayne, and a pork chop entree. I wanted to have some presence but not be overbearing, and Parfum Couture did the job well. At dinner I sat next to a woman in Guerlain Samsara, and my Parfum Couture was much quieter, but it held its own, personality-wise.
My only fear with Parfum Couture is that it’s so distinct yet so easy to wear that I might get bored with it. There’s only one way to find out, isn’t there? I guess I’ll need to invest in a decant before fall.
Parfums M Micallef + Denis Duran Le Parfum Denis Durand Couture is $190 for 50 ml and comes in a bottle covered in black lace and adorned with a satin bow. (I can’t tell from the photo if the bottle is lovely or goofy. If you’ve seen it firsthand, please comment.) For information on where to buy Parfum Couture, see Parfums M Micallef under Perfume Houses.
1. The perfume blog Cafleurbon did further investigating in this post and defines animalis as a blend of castoreum and labdanum. Later: see also Joe's comment below!
Shoot. I thought I could resist after seeing the review at Cafleurbon earlier this month but now that you’ve said you like, I give up. On the sample list it goes.
I probably have more Micallef perfumes than any other line (except may Soivohle). Wish they were available in the U.S. in bricks-and-mortar stores, though.
I know what you mean about availability–I’d so much rather be able to test niche lines than Ivanka Trump’s latest (for example) at the mall.
Which Micallefs are your favorite? Can you recommend one or two to this amber-phobe?
Lys: My favorite of the line is Mon Parfum with Note Vanille (discontinued) and Ylang close behind. I also like Watch, Ananda, Vanille Aoud and Gaiac which I believe are still available.
Thanks Tiara!
Osswald in NYC carries M Micallef fragarances as does a boutique in Seattle (forgot the name.)
Parfumerie Nasreen, I bet. Thank you so much!
Angie: yep…Nasreen carries some of the line.
Thanks, Kevin! I’m long overdue for a trip there.
They are available in the U.S. — at least in one store in Seattle, at any rate. Parfumerie Nasreen there carries them. Too bad I’ve disliked (or, at the best, not been bowled over by) all the Micallef samples I got there, though. But if you’re ever in Seattle and you like the Micallef perfumes, you should stop by.
Whoops — just now seeing others got there before me!
Thank you, though, for the good information! The Micallefs haven’t bowled me over enough so far, either, to shell out for them, but I do like this one.
That photo! What is wrong with those ladies? Is that a Durand-approved promo photo? I hope not.
The dresses, they remind me of the dresses by that mean lady Wendy from Project Runway who thought she was making couture when she put socialites in see-through tops. How titillating, are we not edgy? But maybe I’m missing the point. If the fragrance is good then maybe there’s more to the designer who inspired it too? Anyway, a great review, thanks! Also, the bottle makes fun use of the designer’s, er, aesthetic.
One of the dresses has a high slit and the other has transparent lace accross the abdomen . If they are indeed manufactured for distribution, that slit probably stops somewhere more discrete above the knee, and a customer unwilling to show her abs can use a black foundation. A customer can also sew the seam further up the slip. So I don’t really see the dresses as being shocking. They, are however, awfully full of stuff (lace ruffles etc).
They are, however, perhaps, perfect for an evening of drag queens, pork chops and Taylor Dayne. However, I am having a little trouble imagining what that evening would be. Surely if two draf
Sorry I hit “post” too quickly.
I can imagine two modern drag queens getting married, using a Taylor Dayne song for their first and suggesting their guest wearing black tie. But surely such a couple would be modern enough to have vegetarian, heart healthy, Hallel/Kosher alternative to pork chops?
Or perhaps it was an fundraiser for Future Transgender Farmers of America (Iowa Pork Chapter). But surely such an event would not force the teenage future farmers to listen to Oldie’s Radio.
Or perhaps some drag queens have set up a dinner theatre in the barn of a pig farm owned by Taylor Dayne?
You’re hilarious! This weekend’s event had to please about 800 people, and vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options were available for the non-pork eaters. (I’m not sure what Taylor Dayne ate.) Bolivia and Svetlana–two of the flashier drag queens in attendance–could have totally rocked the Durand gowns.
I am glad to hear they were respectful of guests dietary issues. But what exactly was the event?
It was a fundraising auction and dinner for the AIDS Service Organization I work for.
Dilana I wasn’t referring to the dresses in the photo specifically, but designs like this one:
http://www.cafleurebon.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/denis-durand-2.jpg
seem gauche. I don’t think the designs are shocking, since “shock” implies an engagement in Fashion as discourse. I wish there was some shock, not false drama, that’s all. But I think from your comment we agree: the camp quotient is very high.
I have to admit that as much as these dresses terrify me personally, I love to see someone wear them and wear them with pride and attitude! Someone has to be ready to pick up Bob Mackie’s mantle, should he decide to retire.
Ah, that looks like one of those creations designed for the runway, which is never actually manufactured. It is a little hard to imagine the occasion for wearing such an outfit. (Even as a bedroom only outfit, it has too much lace nylon to struggle out of).
I know what you mean. A black lace catsuit?
The dresses are about a certain type of glamour that I certainly couldn’t pull off! The perfume, on the other hand, is relatively easy to wear.
Further commentary later, but I meant to leave a comment on the other blog — I wish misinformation wasn’t so easily spread. Animalis is a trademarked product of the fragrance company Synarome. It’s what makes me love one of my favorite scents, ELdO Vierges et Toreros, so much.
Further info: http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.com/2012/05/perfumers-base-animalis-by-synarome.html
I’m VERY curious about this M. Micallef scent, as I love so many in the line and I think they do great work (I’m wearing Gaïac today!). You’ve made it sound really nice, Angela. I wonder if production is or will be fairly limited at all. I haven’t heard much about it in the perfumista community, though I think one or two people have tried it or may have bought it.
Further: I guess Synarome is now part of the French Nactis conglomerate.
Fascinating! Thank you for the link–very helpful. All I can tell you for sure is that Parfum Couture doesn’t smell particularly animalic to me, but it does smell like oud. Whether that’s the animalis or not, I don’t know. Maybe there actually is oud in the fragrance.
Joe, have to disagree that this necessarily means the info at CaFleureBon is wrong — could still be perfectly accurate that what they’re using is an accord with castoreum and labdanum, in fact, what is written at Perfumeshrine would seem to verify that. Don’t think perfume companies necessarily have to tell you if they’ve purchased a ready-made accord, in fact, most don’t.
I’m confused by what you’re saying. “Animalis” is what’s listed in the perfume notes list for both Durand and Vierges et Toreros, isn’t it?
I’m willing to believe Animalis (capitalized, the way Ambrox/Ambroxan, Adoxal, and others usually are, though those are different in being single molecules) might contain “castoreum accord” and “labdanum accord” (among other things) but I for sure wouldn’t consider it accurate to call it “a combination of castoreum and labdanum.” But maybe it’s semanitic and merely “half correct” or something.
“Blend of labdanum and castoreum” probably isn’t as good as “something that smells like labdanum and castoreum”. To my way of thinking, it’s still more rare than not for companies to list the name of captive odorants or bases, so I don’t see such a big difference as you do between listing “animalis” or some vague description of what animalis might smell like, since the vague description is what we usually get. We know most fragrances that contain animalis aren’t listing animalis in the notes, right? Kouros just went ahead & listed civet & amber, among other notes that might have been “covered” by animalis. Don’t see how that is any more or less accurate than calling animalis a “blend of labdanum and castoreum”.
But you’re also right that this is mostly a question of semantics
Oh but isn’t it nice to see a woman of color in a crazy-expensive-couture fashion ad? At first glance I thought it was the ad for the perfume and was really pleasantly surprised… guess that will have to wait. Not trying to heave politics into the conversation… just like a little progress with my daily dose of scent dreams. Thanks for the review.
She’s beautiful, true! It’s a pleasure to have her image on the post.
Honey and tangerine sounds lovely, but I’m afraid to try a scent with that sort of price tag! I still need a replacement bottle of L’eau d’Hiver. . .
I know what you mean! I’m still saving up for the bottle of Baiser Volé parfum I intend to have at some point.
It’s great to see a designer commission a perfume that is different and really smells good from a niche line – let this be a trend!
Yes yes yes!
Sounds like an interesting perfume. I will lemming a sample
At last! “Lemming” using as a verb! (I guess “lem” just doesn’t sound right.)
Lem doesn’t sound right at all!
This reminds me of an essay about nominalization (typically, using verbs as nouns but it could be the other way around too) by Henry Hitchings of the New York Times. He wrote “nouns get verbed as often as verbs get nouned” and he had to go lie down after writing that — I must agree that it was painful reading that.
Anyway, here’s the link if you’re interested. There is also a link in this essay to the previous on he wrote on the same topic.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/the-dark-side-of-verbs-as-nouns/
I love this sort of thing! Thank you so much!
What perfumes do drag queens wear?
I’ve asked a few, and found one who like Tabu, but I also got some responses from drag queens who don’t wear scent at all!