Guys, I FINALLY created an Instagram account and have been going nuts taking photos of my fragrance collection.🤣 I never knew it would be so fun and satisfying to get these little portraits done of my bottles.
If you are on Instagram, come on ova and give me a follow and I will follow you back! @fragamour
Here’s a few highlights so far:
And so many more to come!!! ❤❤❤
The first thing that struck me about this perfume was the name. Panthea, from Greek, meaning “all of the gods”, is a pretty bold name if you ask me. So naturally I was expecting a bold fragrance, something titanic and worthy of the gods, but nope. Nothing like that here. Panthea is unapologetically generic.
It opens with a very mellow citrus, crisp green violets, and iris. Surrounding the iris and violet, I get a big cloud of waxy, soapy aldehydes and what I suspect is calone, with its watery melons and ocean breeze facets. Panthea is very similar in feel to Acqua di Gio Homme, though substituting the barbershop cologne aromatics for violet, iris, and jasmine. I would throw Panthea into the aquatic soapy green floral category. The projection is moderate as is the longevity.
While I do accuse this perfume of being generic, that doesn’t mean it smells bad. Quite the contrary. Panthea actually smells really nice. It’s a definite crowd pleaser with mass market appeal and would probably not offend anyone but there’s nothing unique or anything really memorable about it like many of the houses other offerings are. It could just as easily be a body spray sold at the local pharmacy, scent wise, though the juice itself is obviously of much higher quality than a body spray. But overall it feels unfinished, uninspired, and rushed, as if Lucas was more concerned with pushing out another release on schedule rather than devoting more time into creating something incredible. In his quest to remain relevant and in the spotlight, he compromised his artistry.
While it could definitely be pulled off by both sexes, Panthea leans feminine. The violets and calone really amp up and turn a bit shrill in the heart then sweeten up before dying down into a very anticlimactic clean and powdery musk. I never get any tobacco or tonka though the notes are listed. While I find it pleasant enough, I’m just not compelled to buy a full bottle. It just doesn’t have the wow factor. I sure hope Lucas puts more effort into his future releases because this one is suuuuper boring or to use the highbrow adjective currently in vogue, “pedestrian”.
Season: Spring/ Summer
Top: Bergamot, tangerine
Heart: Iris, violet, jasmine
Base: White musk, tobacco, tonka, sandalwood
Another city inspired fragrance and this time it’s all about sweet hookah tobacco and Doha nights.
If you ever buy or order hookah, the tobacco leaves come very wet compared to other forms of tobacco. It’s typically infused with flavored syrups and packaged in either resealable bags or jars to keep it from drying out. Most hookah tobacco is dyed bright red for aesthetics. Flavors often resemble those you would find in a candy store from fruity to minty to chocolaty or even actual candy flavors like gummy bears.
Nuit a Doha focuses on immortelle, tobacco, and vanilla and it’s very sweet. Immortelle is somewhat difficult to describe but it smells fruity, with nuances of hay, and maple syrup. In this fragrance, I pick up hints of ripe peaches, mango, and sweet cream as well as buttery caramel, and a tiny bit of licorice. Ginger and vetiver are listed but I don’t pick up on either of them.
Tobacco can be very loud and offensive in any form and setting, but as a perfume note in this fragrance it’s very subtle and polite. It’s unburnt and adds robustness and depth to the composition.
On a trip to Nicaragua a few years back with my beautiful Canadian friend, we stopped at Doña Elba’s cigar shop in Granada to learn how to make hand rolled cigars. It’s located in a Spanish Colonial house, with an open air center courtyard that featured a garden with parrots. The cigar rolling station was on the courtyard patio and the materials and equipment used were all traditional, which included dried tobacco leaves, agave gum to seal the cigar, and a wooden press, to compact and form the cigars. The smell of the dried tobacco leaves wafted all around on the warm tropic breeze and I could still smell the sweet tobacco on my hands after we left. Before burning, tobacco can be a very pleasant scent but most associate tobacco with cigarettes, and that’s not at all what this perfume is about. This perfume is sweet, warm, and ambery with no smoke.
While this frag certainly sounds like it would be very unique, especially since immortelle and tobacco are mostly niche frag notes not commonly found in mainstream perfumes, I get an overall generic feel from this fragrance. There’s nothing really unforgettable about it. Dont get me wrong though, it’s a beautiful fragrance with a lot of depth made with materials that are clearly of great quality and I do really like it, but I’m not compelled to own a full bottle though I’m glad I’m got to try it.
The projection is moderate to high as it’s potent juice and the longevity is fantastic. It’s a beautiful fragrance that will certainly not offend anyone nor challenge the wearer. And if you enjoy immortelle and or tobacco, you should definitely check this one out!
Season: Works well year round
Top: Fennel, mandarin orange, ginger
Heart: Immortelle, tobacco
Base: Vanilla, vetiver
I’ve been on such a roll going through these Stephane Humbert Lucas samples, I’m determined now to finish reviewing the rest of the set now haha. So 2022 Generation is the name of this fragrance though I’m not completely savvy to its name or meaning. Perhaps it is in reference to the 2022 FIFA that is scheduled to take place in Doha, Qatar? Lucas names most of his frags thus far in reference to places in the Middle East and the only thing I see relevant to 2022 is FIFA. I’m just guessing here but I must say the use of galbanum along side an almond and heliotrope accord in the top is most unusual. Galbanum is an incredibly potent green note while heliotrope is typically the main player in powdery fragrances along with iris and violet. With it’s cherry-almond facets that are quasi-gourmand in nature, heliotrope is a sweet fruity floral note while galbanum is an aggressive, musky gum-resin containing terpenes and even sulfur that is quite disagreeable on it’s own. And I know this from personal experience after spilling a beaker with about 15mls of galbanum tincture on my bathroom counter. The grout between the tiles soaked it up and my bathroom reeked of galbanum for weeks lol. Needless to say, these are two notes that are not usually coupled together. But Lucas has clearly worked some type of sorcery allowing these two conflicting notes to play well together.
The galbanum doesn’t last very long though since it’s a top note. Within 10 minutes or so it’s completely dissipated and I’m left with a bright sweet heliotrope, cherry-almond, and tonka accord that becomes increasingly sweet moving into the heart. This is quite enjoyable and anyone that loves heliotrope should certainly give this one a try. It’s a very modern, fruity floral. And though the heart is a familiar play on heliotrope and almonds, the galbanum opening alongside these notes make for a very unique opening.
Apricot is listed though I don’t pick up on it much nor the white tea. But it’s still a very fruity scent from the cherry-almond of the heliotrope. The projection is moderate to high. I dabbed a small bit on my left hand and I can smell it from almost a meter away so this is some potent juice! It lasts a very long time too, which for me is a major plus since most heliotrope frags I have are low projection skinscents that fade into the base after a few hours.
I still detect heliotrope all the way through to the base but now it’s alongside sandalwood and tonka. Though I am not a fan of cherry notes I actually adore heliotrope and this perfume does the note more than fair justice. It’s sweet but not cloying though I imagine a heavy hand could really amp up this juice since it’s so potent. I love that this frag really brings out the cherry-almond nuances of heliotrope rather than suppress it to crush it into a powdery fragrance. Because this perfume isn’t very powdery at all though my nose tries to convince me that it is since my associations of heliotrope have all been with powdery fragrances. But nope, no powder. Just heady heliotrope in all it’s glory and just LOVE it. Will be buying a bottle of this!!!
Season: Spring/ Summer but works well year round
Top: Nectarine, neroli, almond, galbanum
Heart: White tea, heliotrope, cherry-almond
Base: Sandalwood, tonka, jasmine
When I think of Petra, I think dry dusty, and ancient. Of course the first image that comes to mind is of the great temple of Al-Khazneh, that’s carved into the side of the pink sandstone canyon wall. Al-khazneh, known as “The Treasury”, was thought to contain hidden treasures and pirate loot and is one of the most popular tourist attractions, if not the most popular attraction, in Jordan.
Rose de Petra is not a dry dusty rose however so it’s difficult for me to abstractly connect this fragrance with the location. To me, this fragrace is a humid, dewy, sweet, and boozy deep burgandy rose, growing in the proximity of an open air spice market.
Rose de Petra opens with a sugary candied rose, sweetened by litchi and pomegranate. It’s also very spicy with pepper and cardamom. It’s in the same vein as a rose/oud though oud is not listed as a note. But it definitely feels like there’s a small amount in the composition along with patchouli, though both are very much in the background. And even though cumin is listed, I detect none.
While I generally dislike overly ripened fruit notes, the litchi and pomegranate are perfectly ripe and are used here in the best way, supporting and enhancing the rose without ever becoming too dominate or cloying. Think sweetened rosewater, which is a very inexpensive luxury to have especially during the hot summer months. I keep an atomizer of rosewater in my bag to refresh and cool myself during the grueling summer days on the go.
For a spicy rose perfume, this one is very tame compared to others in this group. It seems to come and go throughout the course of the day, playing a bit of hide and seek. I almost concluded it had poor longevity then I would catch another waft of this intoxicatingly beautiful fragrance.
Though rose-centric perfumes are not in short supply, I think this one is different enough to stand on it’s own. The use of juicy sweet notes along with the dry spicy notes give this rose a unique feel and very modern, Western twist to the long held Middle Eastern tradition of spicy roses.
Season: All
Top: Litchi, pomegranate, Rose
Heart: Deep Bulgarian rose
Base: Pepper, cardamom, cumin
Oumma was created during the peak of the Western oud bandwagon and is a very standard, dare I say generic, rose/oud perfume even if it IS incredibly well blended and very smooth, non-abrasive. Oud can be very aggressive and even fecal, hence the phrase “barnyard oud”, but not here. Oumma takes that raw agarwood and sands it down and down further with very fine grit sandpaper until it’s smooth as glass. For what is normally a dirty note, the oud in this composition is about as clean as it gets.
Oumma opens with a synthetic top that’s almost plastic-y but this phase rapidly gives way to a very refined, polished woody oud and heady rose in full bloom. Jasmine adds a sweetness to the mix, while the balsams add the feel of incense. There’s nothing really new about the combination of these notes here. Nothing unique, nothing original. But the fragrance is pretty nonetheless. To me it’s a very gothic/ noir scent, better suited for cooler evenings.
The sillage and projection are fairly low surprisingly. Most oud-centric frags are serious powerhouses, monsters even. But Oumma settles into a skinscent within a few minutes of spraying on. That can be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. It also doesn’t seem to last as long as the others I’ve tried from this house, which is actually pretty odd since oud basenotes are known to last a very long time. Which leaves me to conclude that this is most likely synthetic oud but I have no way of knowing for sure.
Overall, I enjoy the fragrance. It reminds me of Midnight Oud and even Rose Anonyme, though out of the three, I think I’d actually prefer Oumma for its smooth and clean qualites. But for the price and lack of longevity, there really are better rose/ouds available, value-wise. I’m still glad I got to test this one though. I love trying and comparing rose/ouds and though I wished it lasted longer, Oumma is very nice while it lasts.
Season: Fall/Winter
Top: Rose, jasmine
Heart: Peru balsam, tolu balsam
Base: oud, cedar, cyperus
Though Fragrantica has this listed as straight up ambergris, this is really a labdanum and resin bomb. My last post was somewhat of a rant over these two notes inspired by finding the note pyramid for this fragrance on Fragrantica, what a joke lol.
So it’s all about amber here, but ambergris? I think not. I don’t really get any of that salty marine aroma though I’m sure it must be in there. It HAS to be, because this is incredibly expensive juice. A 50 ml bottle retails over $700 USD!!! Labdanum in itself is not a very expensive nor rare material at all so my only guess is that the price reflects the materials but this is just an assumption. Mr. Lucas could actually be pulling our leg here, bluffing the ambergris note since the actual notes were not divulged. I was actually surprised LuckyScent added it in as a free sample with my purchase to be honest since it costs so much lol.
What I detect most is honeyed labdanum, which is a balsam from the cistus plant, commonly called rock rose. This is dreamy labdanum though as the turpinoids and tar like qualities have been greatly smoothed out and sweetened. I pick up lots of benzoin which adds spicy cinnamon and vanilla nuances to the composition. There’s actually enough cinnamon that it could be its own note here.
This fragrance has a very leathery overall feel to it. It’s dirty but not cumin or civet dirty, but sweaty birch tar dirty. Brand new leather. It’s also a little boozy from honey. It smells like it should be sticky after being sprayed on skin, as concentrated labdanum tincture can be as well as honey. As a side note, at least honey can be washed off with water. Labdanum is not water soluble and if the absolute gets on skin it has to be dissolved with alcohol or some type of spirit but that’s the nature of resins and most balsams.
While I absolutely adore labdanum and this fragrance masterfully showcases the note as there’s no denying its beauty, there’s no way I could justify buying a full bottle since to me, it’s just a labdanum “soliflore” and I could easily mix one up myself from my collection of EOs and absolutes. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I could recreate this fragrance because I can’t or that my little tincture would be as nice as O’ Hira becauseit wouldn’t be. I don’t have all those materials readily available. I’m nota trained perfumer and I’m not THAT arrogant haha. What I AM saying though, is that I could very easily and cheaply tincture some cistus absolute that would satisfy any urge to wear a labdanum soliflore should one arise lol. And I’d still have my $700. Bottom line: yes it’s nice and the bottle is awesome but it’s not worth the asking price IMO. Next.
Season: Fall/Winter
Notes: Who really knows but definitely labdanum lol
Judging solely on the notes listed on Fragrantica, this isn’t a fragrance I would have fervently sprung for even though I am a huge osmanthus fan. Combining osmanthus with a leather note raised a red flag, because leather notes can be very dirty. But I received samples with my purchase from LuckyScent and man this stuff is GOOD! I will definitely be ordering a full bottle!
Soleil de Jeddah opens with a sweet candied lemon, osmanthus, and ironically intense chamomile accord. I say ironically because chamomile isn’t typically a note that comes to mind when thinking about intense perfume notes, like oud for example. After drydown, the lemon gives way to a delicious vanilla note alongside the osmanthus, and chamomile. Vetiver isn’t listed in the notes but my nose picks it up here nonetheless. It’s a very light vetiver though and gives the composition a very subdued masculine feel, making this frag very unisex, though overall it DOES lean more feminine. The heart is sharply sweet from the osmanthus and vanilla, with moderate projection, so even though it’s sweet, it’s not all in your face. And it’s not sweet so much in the gourmand sort of way but more floral sweet. This stage lasts a long time, but it does seem to me that SHL fragrances have some serious lasting power, which makes it a more justifiable purchase since frags from this house do not come cheap. The base is a softer version of the heart. I never really detect the leather or the ambergris.
Here in the southern US osmanthus, or commonly known here as “tea olive”, is a fairly popular evergreen landscaping shrub. While the flowers are in no way showy or even particularly attractive, the fragrance is incredibly intoxicating. They are potent in the same way that gardenias are, where even a gentle breeze can carry their fragrance on the wind. And even though the plant itself looks like a plain, generic green bush, they are anything but and make beautifully fragrant additions to any garden or landscape. And Soleil de Jeddah is one fragrance that really does justice to this incredibly gorgeous smelling flower. It really amps up the chamomile and gives it a much more heady aroma.
This fragrance is very unique but not completely alien to my nose since I can pick out some of the notes. But it’s surely something you won’t smell on everyone since these notes are not so commonly used like rose and jasmine are, for example.
I’ve never been to Saudi so I cannot really understand the connection between this perfume and the city of Jeddah. My associations are all based on my experience with the notes themselves. But I do know that Jeddah is a huge business hub and basically the gateway to Mecca, so I imagine the people do their best to keep it nice. And if this is what Jeddah sunshine smells like, count me in! Because it gorgeous!
Season: Spring/Summer
Top: Lemon, chamomile, osmanthus
Heart: Iris, ambergris
Base: Vanilla, leather, iris
Rive Gauche, which means “Left Bank”, refers to the left bank of the river Seine in Paris, which is considered the trendy and hip boho part of town where Yves Saint Laurent first opened his boutique in the early 1970s. I came across this little gem through a fragrantica swap about a year ago. I never would have tried it otherwise, I’ll be honest here. *sigh* Though you should never judge a book by its cover or a perfume by its bottle for that matter, I am, nonetheless, drawn to perfumes not just by the notes but also from the aesthetics. I mean, come on, who doesn’t love a pretty perfume bottle on their boudoir, right? And I hate to say it but for a women’s fragrance, it isn’t contained in the most attractive bottle. It’s metal and looks more like a guys fragrance. It actually reminds me of those aerosol canister body sprays that were so big in the 80s and 90s. Malibu Musk anyone? Anyone? Bueller? haha But I supposed it was something different at the time it was released, way before Malibu Musk.
Aside from the bland presentation, the juice itself is a really nice clean fragrance. This has got to be the epitome of an aldehyde if I’ve ever smelled one. It opens with a burst of soapy aldehydes and damp green oakmoss. The heart develops into a slightly metallic, herbal floral musk which is also very powdery from the iris. I can faintly detect vetiver but it’s very light. I can definitely smell the rose, though it is fairly tame. The overall feel of the perfume is a lightly green and powdery soap. This fragrance won’t offend anyone, though some people find aldehydes migraine inducing. But aldehydes are top notes, so unless you spray it on right then and there, you shouldn’t have a problem. Aldehydes themselves are a rather soft, airy type of perfume material, so even an overload doesn’t mean powerhouse, because Rive Gauche is anything but. If you aren’t sure what aldehydes smell like, think Chanel No 5 which is also an aldehyde bomb. It’s the waxy, clean soapy smell that permeates the top notes, before the florals really bloom.
About four years into my fragrance journey I swapped a few perfumes I wasn’t wearing for a perfumers kit, complete with 2 different aldehydes (there are many different types of aldehydes) so I’ve become familiar with how they basically smell as singular notes. And from what I can tell, Rive Gauche is composed mostly of aldehydes and oakmoss. Those are the two main notes I detect front and center stage. The rest of the notes play minimally supporting roles, though the nuances ARE there.
Though it was produced as edt, edp, and parfum, I believe only the edt remains in production. It was also reformulated since it was first released in 1970. The edt is very easy to get online at fair prices but the edp’s have become very rare since being discontinued and the prices for them have skyrocketed. I own both edt and edp, and they are so similar that I don’t think it’s even worth the trouble or money to hunt down an edp. I acquired both of my bottles through swaps, otherwise I would surely not have the edp. But I’ve hoarded it away as a collector piece and never wear it though I tested it a few times after receiving it.
If you enjoy Chanel No 5 and enjoy clean laundry type fragrances, I think it’s a safe bet to say that you’d probably like Rive Gauche as well, though keep in mind Rive Gauche is much less sweet and floral than No 5. There’s a bit of greenness to it from the oakmoss and it wears on the powdery side from the iris. It’s considered a feminine fragrance but I think in this day in age it’s fairly unisex since it’s not overly floral or sweet, plus I think the bottle would appeal to guys too. Overall, it’s a very simple, minimalist fragrance, though timeless and classic and easy to wear.
Year: 1971
Season: Year round
Top: Aldehydes, honeysuckle, peach, green notes, bergamot, lemon
Heart: Magnolia, iris, gardenia, jasmine, ylang, lily of the valley, rose, carnation
Base: Oakmoss, sandalwood, tonka, amber, vetiver, musk
I was introduced to this frag about 5 years ago by a fragrant friend whom I consider my perfume mentor though I was in no way ready for it back then. It smelled sweaty and dirty. But I’ve come a long way in the past 2 years as far as chypres and animalics are concerned and this one is loaded with both!
Though it’s considered a chypre fruity, and it really is fruity for a chypre, it’s also loaded with cumin that gives it a real dirty twist. Fragrantica has it listed as a “leather” note but I couldn’t disagree more. I own lots of leather goods and have worn many leather frags and this is definitely cumin, not leather.
The play of cumin on oakmoss reminds me of Alexander McQueens Kingdom, though Kingdom is much drier, brittle, dusty almost. Femme is humid, chewy, and rich in comparison. ¡Muy rico!
But Femme gets compared to Mitsouko the most and while they are both fruity chypres with peach notes, Femme has a lot more going on than Mitsy, being much more fruity since it also features a plum note not to mention all that cumin. The fruity notes give it a chewy, jammy, boozy feel.
Did I mention the cumin? Haha I read a review on Fragrantica recently where one perfumista compared Femme to the smell of her armpits after eating curry hahaha. I died lol. French perfumes are known for layering the sweet over the skank, most immortalized with the use of civet in the icons Shalimar and Chanel No 5. Femme followed right in their trails, being released roughly two decades after them.
Femme is NOT for everyone clearly as she is no dainty lady. She’s a femme fatale, but classy, sultry, and not afraid to get her hands dirty. She works for a living. She’s on the go, never idle. That dirty note can only be compared to the infamous Putain des Palaces from the House of Etat Libre d’ Orange, ohhh la la! Haha. While these two fragrances do not actually smell similar at all, I do think they have a comparable level of the skank factor. PdP being a leather note and Femme being cumin.
After coming around to Mitsouko the last few months I HAD to revisit Femme, which I still had that sample given to me 5 years ago and this time around I fell head over heels for it. I went online and ordered a vintage bottle right away. The bonus here is that it’s not expensive at all but definitely does not smell like a cheap perfume. I paid $40 USD for 100ml, “new old stock” vintage with the gold cap.
When I think of Femme, I think Josephine Baker but not in the banana skirt. No, she’s a little older here and on the run during WWII after her beloved France was under German occupation. She’s in North Africa, fighting for the French resistance, using her celebrity status as an entertainer to gather intel, a spy of sorts in the tradition of the one and only and oh so infamous, Mata Hari. She’s still a lady but she’s working up a sweat, but not from dancing but fighting for the things she believes in.
Femme is not some damsel in distress, teeny-bopper syrup spray. This is a classic chypre for the people, it’s affirdable, attainable. It’s a favorite pair of broken in dress flats, it’s lived in, comfortable, sexy, and so very feminine. This is leather and lace and will make you smell sophisticated and even a little intimidating. Femme is the scent of a confident, independant, intelligent woman that knows how to handle her business. She is her own boss though men still trip over themselves trying to open the door for her. And best of all, it’s soooo easy to get your hands on. I feel zero guilt spraying without reserve. Grab yourself a vintage bottle before I buy them all 😉 lol.
Year: 1943
Season: All
Top: Cumin,Apricot, Plum, Cinnamon, Cumin, Peach, Bergamot, Lemon, Rosewood
Heart: Rosemary, Carnation, Cumin, Iris, Jasmine, Clove, Ylang, Rose, Cumin
Base: Leather, Cumin, Amber, Patchouli, Musk, Benzoin, Vanilla, Oakmoss, Cumin
💜~FragAmour~💜 A Fragrant Affair 