The background: French niche line Comptoir Sud Pacifique released Vanille Banane in 2003. At that time, the brand had a bit of a cult following for their various vanilla + fruit blends, none of which I cared for (although I still wear two early Comptoir Sud Pacifique fragrances, Aqua Motu and L’Eau du Gouverneur). I doubt I even tried Vanille Banane. In due course it was discontinued, then in 2018 they brought it back…
Are you a fan of chestnuts? If so, was this an acquired taste for you? I’ve been a chestnut-lover for most of my life, only because roasted chestnuts figured prominently in two family traditions that took place during the holiday season. One: my grandmother and my mother and I would go together to see the Christmas windows of Manhattan’s department stores, and my grandmother would buy me a small paper bag of roasted chestnuts from a street vendor, to eat as we walked along. Two: my grandparents prepared roasted chestnuts as part of the dessert course on Thanksgiving and Christmas, roasting them in the oven after my grandfather had made a small X or cross on each one with the point of a knife (to prevent them from bursting).
These happy memories surrounding the chestnuts, not to mention the chewy, buttery enjoyment of the nuts themselves, would make me want to try any fragrance with a chestnut note. But why do so few perfumes try to capture this sensation…
Bruno Fazzolari Ummagumma is a mess. For some people, it will be cravable mess. If you order cheeseburgers with bacon — and, come to think of it, why not mushrooms and a few slices of avocado, too? — Ummagumma might be your Holy Grail.
Ummagumma (pronounced “oo-ma-goo-ma”) is the name of a Pink Floyd album. It came from a roadie’s slang word for sex.1 Ummagumma’s notes include saffron, carnation, chocolate, tobacco, leather, labdanum, sandalwood, cedar, frankincense, tonka bean and vanilla. Can’t decide between a gourmand or an incense fragrance or a tough leather? With Ummagumma, you get them all…
As a follow-up to my review of two Hilde Soliani fragrances, Una Tira l’Altra and Conaffetto, I’ve been sampling two more offerings from this line: Sweet Home and Il Tempo delle Mele. Both are gourmand perfumes, and both were inspired by specific chefs and dishes that left lasting impressions on Soliani’s palate and nose.
Sweet Home is an olfactory tribute to a dessert Soliani enjoyed at Lido 84, Riccaro Camanini’s restaurant overlooking Lake Garda in northern Italy…
You know the whole “scent-is-memory” thing? Sometimes I get a little tired of hearing about it, science notwithstanding. I don’t even know whether it affects me, when we’re talking strictly about perfume. A specific fragrance can remind me of people and prior scenarios involving that same fragrance, of course — Guerlain Shalimar will always remind me of a certain eccentric aunt, and patchouli oil of a dear college friend — but there’s no memory to account for my love of roses and violets or my distaste for pear or indolic jasmine notes, for example.
Food and scent and memory, on the other hand — there you’ve got me. I realized again how susceptible I am to the combination of smell, taste and storytelling when I recently sampled a few scents from niche perfumer Hilde Soliani…