Remember Crazylibellule and the Poppies? Six or seven years ago, I was obsessed with their solid perfume sticks and I owned a few: Après-Midi en Douce, Rose à Saïgon, Joséphine Jonquille, Amoureuse. . . I was very sorry when the brand apparently closed its doors circa 2010, and I was happy to learn last year that Crazylibellule's founder, Isabelle Masson, had returned with a line called Sabé Masson Le Soft Perfume.
Le Soft Perfume's twist-up perfume sticks are now available in the United States, and I've finally started testing them. I'm trying sample amounts of their solid scent in tiny plastic pots, but from what I can tell in photographs, the packaging for this new collection is as cute as ever. The new name is not all that appealing to me, I have to admit, but I didn't let it prevent me from sampling the products.
Why not begin with something French-themed? Parisian Rhapsody is a blend of floral and spice with notes of orange, red fruits, rose, jasmine, nutmeg, coumarin, vanilla and musk. This olfactory trip to Paris begins with a visit to a pâtisserie — lots of strawberry and creamy vanilla, like a fruit tart or a berry-layered millefeuille. Within the hour, Parisian Rhapsody matures into a lightly musky rose. The spice notes are subtle, just enough to give a hint of warmth. After that initial dessert phase, it's very easy to wear.
Striptease Flowers is a citrus-floral composition with mandarin, orange blossom, neroli, vanilla, patchouli, amber and caramel. That list of notes is somehow deceptive, because this fragrance actually ends up smelling much less gourmand than I expected. It does open with a suggestion of some very fancy sherbet (incidentally, have you read Robin's recent post on creamsicle fragrances?), but it turns into more of a powdery orange blossom scent as it goes along. It's especially radiant around the two-hour mark, with more sillage than I've ever experienced in a solid perfume.
Lastly, we have Rock, a woody blend of bergamot, leather, orange, leather, oud, sandalwood, amber, vanilla, praline and patchouli. Rock is more androgynous than anything I ever tried in the Crazylibellule collection — it could actually be marketed as a masculine fragrance, although adventurous women (many of whom are reading this post, I'm sure!) can also wear it. It's a potent little package of patchouli, dirty leather and husky sandalwood with a more mellow skin-scent dry down — for the same price as a watery "fruitchouli" roll-on fragrance from Sephora.
Rock isn't quite "me," but I'd recommend it to anyone (male or female) who's looking for a very affordable earthy-woodsy scent, and I'll be using up my samples of Parisian Rhapsody and Striptease Flowers, despite their somewhat silly names. I'll also be testing a few more scents from the collection and possibly reviewing them soon!
Sabé Masson Le Soft Perfume Parisian Rhapsody, Striptease Flowers and Rock are available for $25 each. For buying information, see the listing for Le Soft Perfume under Perfume Houses.
I’m gonna eat some crow about what I said about not liking sweet fragrances yesterday. One of the only sweet fragrances I liked was the Crazy… and the Poppies L’Olfactive 129. It was sweet, but it was light as air, and the YY kept it fresh. I always regret that I didn’t buy a bottle. I wonder if any of these new ones will smell similar?
Ann, was that one of the liquid fragrances (as opposed to the solid sticks)? I don’t remember it, unfortunately — but I think most of their solids are done with a light touch, too, even the gourmands! You’d really have to slap it on to feel as though you were wearing too much fragrance.
My sample is liquid, and I don’t know if it came in a solid. Cheers!
Rock sounds really interesting, especially for that price. Thank you for reviewing! This isn’t something I would have thought to try.
I wish they were a little easier to find — in brick-and-mortar stores, for example!
Rock sounds really nice! I’m always looking for sandalwood and I’m lacking a nice patchouli in my tiny perfume collection. At that price I can afford to blind-buy…