Last week’s discussion of sweet fragrances inspired me to stop by the Laura Mercier counter. Of all the cosmetics lines, Laura Mercier seems to be most known for gourmand perfume. Amber, vanilla, spices, sandalwood and soft musk infuse the line's fragrances. I was hoping to sample the latest, Lumière d'Ambre — I still regret not buying a bottle of the limited edition Ambre Passion Velvet — but it hadn’t arrived yet. So instead I tried the fragrance that launched Laura Mercier’s perfume line, L’Heure Magique.
Perfumers James Bell and Cecile Krakower developed L’Heure Magique in 2001. It has notes of pikake, bergamot, white rose buds, pink geraniums, soft spices, sandalwood, amber and cashmere musk. Although L’Heure Magique is warm and cozy like the rest of the Mercier fragrance line, it’s probably the least gourmand of the fragrances I’ve tried.
When first sprayed from the tester bottle, L’Heure Magique's pikake (another name for jasmine sambac) sings bright and clear, and its tingle is more herbal than citrusy. Right away, “cashmere musk” appears as the fragrance’s backbone. To me, the cashmere musk smells like ripe sandalwood wrapped in velvety, suede-like musk and powder.
For a while, L’Heure Magique plays along in a lovely duet of sharper, buzzing floral notes against soft base notes. After an hour or so, the base notes take the spotlight, and L’Heure Magique’s sweet, fuzzy body with just a whiff of plastic and soap shavings glows on skin all day long. Really. This fragrance has remarkable staying power.
With its blanketing of cashmere musk, L’Heure Magique is comforting but dated, firmly fixed at the turn of the 21st century along with ultrasuede couches and Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel hairdo. (That’s not entirely bad. Give me an oversized ultrasuede chaise, a cat, and a stack of novels, and I’ll see you next week.) The fragrance is built for simplicity and comfort. It doesn’t try to wow you with complexity and a surprising take on beauty. Instead, L’Heure Magique seems to aim to make you smell warm and pretty, and I think it succeeds.
Everyone from real estate agents to soccer moms could wear a spritz of L’Heure Magique comfortably. That said, the fragrance feels targeted to the khaki capri pants and pearl-wearing set. Aspiring burlesque performers might want to keep looking. I’ll pass, too, although I appreciate how well L’Heure Magique succeeds in spinning an aura of safe, sweet warmth.
Laura Mercier L’Heure Magique Eau de Parfum comes in a satisfyingly hefty 50 ml bottle and costs $75. It’s available online or at any Laura Mercier cosmetics counter.
aspiring burlesque performers….haha!
Hopefully there are lots of them out there!
Thanks for clearing up what pikake means! I thought it was Hawaiian, I guess it comes from the Hawaiian word for peacock. Learn somethin new everyday I guess!
I didn’t know what pikake was when I first wrote the review, either. Originally I wrote that L’Heure Magique smelled a lot like jasmine initially, and maybe it was the pikake. Robin set me straight!
How does one pronounce “pikake”, anyway?
I’d have to consult the dictionary. It’s amazing how many words I read yet have never said aloud–or may have said aloud incorrectly. I just learned how to pronounce Ed Ruscha’s name correctly, for instance.
Was it the New Yorker article that tipped you off? That’s where I just learned how to pronounce Ruscha’s name correctly.
I believe “pikake’ is pronounced pee-KAH-kay. At any rate, that’s what my mother told me when I was little, when my grandparents brought her a bottle of Pikake perfume back from Hawaii.
Yes! It was the New Yorker article. And as for pikake, that would have been my guess, too.
Whoever the khaki-capri-pants-pearl-wearing set are – I’m sure they assume their taste is impeccable!
Impeccable, sure, but maybe not rife with imagination or edginess (as you might have guessed)!
Perhaps, they are upper middle class woman (hence the pearls) with young enough children not to want paid employment (hence the khaki capris, more lady like then running around in jogging suits or shorts, but not quite suitable for most professional settings) with enough income for a daily fragrance, a desire to wear a fragrance regularily, and a wish to distinguish themselves from the sort of perfume found at Kohls, but not insufficiently interested in perfumes for true niches. (And perhaps, not wishing to spend too much of their family income on personal luxuries for themselves).
Of course, such women may turn into burlesque performers in the evening. However, at that point I bet they switch from Laura Mercier to Agent Provocateur).
You’re practically a Nancy Drew of perfume!
Hahaha! I love it!
Sounds like you play the same game that I do at the mall . . . trying to imagine the less-public lives of the people as they walk by!
Hey, I play that game, too!
Actually I live in a town with a large population of the type of woman I described, and there is a store that sells Laura Mercier. It has dropped carrying the Serge Lutens line.
Oh, too about losing Serge Lutens.
Good social analysis, Dilana.
Those Laura Mercier bottles *are* satisfyingly hefty. I picked up LM Neroli on a whim at Costco a couple years ago, and the bottle is a pleasure to use. (Juice isn’t bad, either.)
I never tried the Neroli. I’m glad you like it! I like the hefty bottles, too.
I want to say that I sniffed through this entire line a few years ago and found them universally too sweet and foody–enough so that I have assumed that there wasn’t a reason to go back if/when new scents are released.
I’m sadly NOT an aspiring burlesque performer–ok, there have been some fantasies along that vein, but nothing strong enough to put together a routine
–but, I suspect my tastes run more along those lines than the khaki-capri types!
Fortunately, there’s plenty of room on the pearls to burlesque spectrum for people like us!
I like the idea of burlesque WITH pearls. I’m picturing the showgirls in the musical version of The Producers. “Girls with pearls”. . .
A good visual!
I’ve never tried L’Heure Magique, so I should do so next time I’m at Nordstrom’s. Even though it doesn’t sound like my sort of thing – you never know. I am a huge fan of some of the LM fragrances. I feel so fortunate to have FB’s of both Minuit Enchante and Ambre Passion Velvet, and acquired them both a good while after they were discontinued. In fact, I believe I am the lucky person who must have grabbed the last bottle of APV on earth. Sorry Angela!
Oh, you lucky! I hope you’re enjoying them. With any luck the new amber will compare well with the old one. What I liked about Ambre Passion Velvet was that it was cavity-producing swet
Make that “sweet.”
I hoard Amber Passion Velvet like oxycontins. You just never know when you’ll need one, badly, and you can’t trust those in power who have them to give them when needed. Not to be abused, of course. Anyway, I have in my stash, an OLD bottle of the original and REALLY sweet Amber Passion, and then I got the APV as WELL AS the APV Extreme, or Extrait or Parfum or whatever it was that was quite strong. I’m set for a while. There’s a store in Bozeman that carries the APV. I was shocked to see it. And here’s this: no one was buying them, so she put them out for like 40 dollars apiece! Naturally, I jumped on that. If you need a fix, I’m your man. Perfume-wise…
Does the store still carry the APV? If so, I’ll make it worth your while to snag me a bottle. Otherwise, I’ll be patient and see what this year’s Mercier Ambre is like.
$40?!?! Wowza!
Uh, yes please? Srsly? I don’t see an email attached to this but really I would gladly take you up on your AP acquisition capabilities… email me? lemonprint on gmail will work…
Okay, so what are your recommendations for aspiring burlesque performers? It’s been a few years since I performed and there’s a part of me that aspires to do it again, although I don’t remember wearing a specific perfume probably because a) I didn’t have much perfume then and b) I get slightly nauseous from nerves
I draw the line at Lotta having her own perfume wardrobe–she’s already got the boas, garters and stockings, elbow length satin gloves, rhinestone jewelry and ostrich feather fans
Is that all? I guess if you add all that to a good personality and bump and grind, you have a star…
Hurray! I’m so happy to hear about your burlesque past.
As for perfume, Dilana mentioned Agent Provocateur. That’s a good one. I think Jicky EdT would be great too, for its fresh lavender (hey, you’d get warm up there under the lights!) and fetid civet skank. Yes, Jicky would be my choice.
Can’t decide whether these sound great or just way too sweet and bland – must test to find out!
The good thing, at least, is that as long as a store near you sells Laura Mercier, it’s easy to find.
I believe this is the one the LM asked Sarah Jessica Parker to name (as you do?). I can only imagine it was because I once read an interview way back when where SJP raved about this ’10 year old’ concealer palette in her purse by LM (compliment of sorts, I guess). It must have been some ancient prototype of that duo mixable concealer palette that made her famous. Are those caps still just plonked on and not really ‘attached’? Those used to be killer if you dropped them on your feet!
The cap is definitely heavy, and I’ve noticed with my bottle of Minuit Enchantee that I have to fool with it a few seconds to make sure it’s firmly clicked on. Otherwise you could lose a toe!
I have been warned!
I wore this in my early 20’s about a decade ago, back in those days when I was an impressionable young woman with an above-average interest in perfume. Since then, I have fallen down the perfume rabbit hole, and I’ve become acquainted with my inner perfumista (“how do you do, bookgirl perfumista?”), and as such, my taste in perfume has evolved (isn’t this the case with most people?). I’ve learned to embrace the unexpected and un-pretty and have come to understand the sort of scents that most resonate with me, that take me somewhere I wouldn’t have otherwise have dreamed of going (transporting things, those perfumes are!). Though I look back on my time with L’Heure Magique with fondness, it rests very much in the past for me. I think you’re right in that the perfume captures those heady early years of the 21st century perfectly.
I hope you always have some L’Heure Magique around, then, to remind you of that time! It sounds like it’s almost a time machine for you–and it really is a nice fragrance.
All I can think of is the ‘hours’ collection from Cartier.
I had that thought, too.