When it’s cold and rainy, often I want to wear a warm, ambery fragrance, maybe even something with the faint scent of stewed fruit. Sometimes I pull out a bottle of Guerlain Mitsouko or Parfums Micallef L’Automne. Or I might dab on some Rochas Femme parfum. Most of the time, though, I reach for my bottle of Parfums de Nicolaï Sacrebleu…
Balkis was launched by Parfums de Nicolaï in 2003, and the notes include raspberry, Turkish rose, black pepper, coffee extract, iris, benzoin and vanilla.
Balkis starts out as a boudoir, pin-up girl sort of rose, along the lines of Frederic Malle’s Lipstick Rose. The raspberry is jammy-sweet (although there is nothing candied or child-like about it) and the iris lends a fair dusting of powder, and the whole thing is very creamy and uber-feminine. It would be out of the question (for me, that is) were it not for the coffee and pepper, which temper the sweetness (marginally, mind you) and lend some bite to what would otherwise probably be too prissy-girly for my taste…
What makes a life-long Francophile and perfume lover, with fantasies of living in the Loire Valley, sit up and take notice? A fragrance entitled Vie de Château…commissioned by a modern-day count no less — the Comte de Cheverny. Perfumer Patricia de Nicolaï’s aromatic take on aristocratic country living contains notes of: grapefruit, hay, tobacco, patchouli, musk, fern, cut grass, oak moss, vetiver, and leather.
Vie de Château starts off powerful and sweet with notes of grapefruit (think grapefruit lollipops), hay, and to a lesser extent, dried tobacco leaf. It has a “blonde,” sugary, sunny feel. A clean patchouli and minimalist musk are the next notes to appear (within five minutes of application) and they do little to lessen the fruity sweetness of Vie de Château. I do not find the ‘greens’ at all noticeable in this perfume — fern, oak moss, grass and vetiver are barely there. The leather is not apparent either, but Vie de Château is a great layering scent — add your own spice, leather or black tea fragrances to it for added dimension and variety…
Parfums de Nicolaï launched Vetyver for men in 2004. The fragrance includes notes of vetiver, cumin, black pepper, clove, coriander, ylang ylang, jasmine and tonka bean absolute.
Vetyver opens on juicy citrus notes overlaid with heavy spices. The cumin is quite strong, but the effect is moderated by the pepper, clove and coriander; despite my general hatred for cumin in fragrance, I didn’t find it unpleasant here. Mind you, I didn’t love it, but I didn’t find it unpleasant. The spices get drier and dustier as the citrus fades, and while they do calm somewhat, Vetyver stays quite spicy straight through the dry down. It is not quite so curried as say, Christian Dior Eau Noire, but it does have a mild Indian food vibe…
Balle de Match was introduced by Parfums de Nicolaï in 2002, and has notes of grapefruit, lime, pink pepper, incense, wood and musk.
Balle de Match is the fragrance that I credit (or blame, as the case may be) with starting me on the path to perfume addiction. Looking for a new citrus scent back in the fall of 2003, I wandered innocently into the fragrance forum at MakeupAlley. My first big discovery was that you could order samples online. How convenient! My second big discovery was that getting a handful of new fragrance samples in the mail every so often was really rather fun. After testing several such handfuls, Balle de Match took honors as my first full bottle of niche fragrance…