Perfume Pen Pals: Annick Goutal Encens Flamboyant and Myrrhe Ardente


Dan,

I'm very much enjoying wearing Annick Goutal Encens Flamboyant today in the 90 degree heat, and it's still going strong after a hindquarters-shredding Pilates class.

In fact, it was a very nice smell to sweat in: clarifying and mountain-fresh during my hour of teeth-gritted voluntary torture.

Katie


Katie,

Here's something sort of amazing: around the exact moment you were writing the words "Encens Flamboyant," I was taking advantage of a deal on Beauty Encounter for another Goutal l'Orientaliste -- Myrrhe Ardente, the perfume you called mushroom-flavored root beer.

The thing is, I was a little intrigued because I like vegetal fragrances and I like root beer, even though I can't imagine those two things blending well (this contributes to the weirdness, right?).

Dan


Dan,

I don't know if you remember, but over a year ago I burbled this about Myrrhe Ardente:

“It is so WEIRD! It's sort of moist and dank and milkshakey and mushroomy. I kind of love it and want to vomit at the same time!”


I've just applied a dab of Myrrhe Ardente to refamiliarize myself with it, and I think you might like it. The root beer/mushroom also reads as sweet smoke, and I know that's your flavor of funk. Hmm! I'm liking this more than I remembered.

I just found this review of Myrrhe Ardente on Makeup Alley by Amy Kelley and I think she's right on the button (mushroom):

“Myrrhe Ardente smells like the inside of a box that's been used to store sheets of Papier d'Armenie and black jellybeans. I'm not sure which ingredient resembles licorice since I don't see anice listed anywhere as a note, but this isn't the screechy anice of Aimez Moi or Anisia Bella. It's just enough to give the smooth myrrh and benzoin a bit of a cola-ish bite. Frankly, it's one of the best skin scents I've tried in a long time, and I like it even more than the somewhat similar (and similarly priced) Bois d'Armenie.”

Katie


Katie,

Amy Kelley is good. And to the point. She says what she smells without any silly hoo-ha (yours truly). Her description of Encens et Bubblegum ("it's like someone dumped a packet of Grape Kool-Aid into a bottle of Sacrebleu") seems so spot-on, I believe it might be true.





But Tania Sanchez doesn't like Myrrhe Ardente, and says Serge Lutens La Myrrhe is still king of the castle. Apparently, I beg to differ, as I wrote this about La Myrrhe in my notes a while back: "Smells like an ungodly combination of Chanel No. 5 and some heavy Neil Morris scent. I don't like it at all."

Of course, that was nearly a year ago and so I don't remember it. Plus, I'm much more mature now. Back then, me reviewing the wonderfully sophisticated Serge Lutens line was like a child reviewing caviar. Cute but not worth consideration.

Dan


Dan,

Right now I smell really good -- an unintentional combination of Bruno Acampora Musc and Encens Flamboyant.

Katie


Katie,

And back to Encens Flamboyant, I think you should write a "Top Fragrances To Sweat In" column. It's an interesting angle and, at least for me, the results are often surprising.

Certain heavy perfumes do seem predictably oppressive during exercise, while others fuse to the sweat and somehow manage to form a whole that's greater than its parts. And some simple, discrete perfumes are fine, giving off a pleasant little waft of pretty, producing a kind of yin and yang, flowers and toil (the name of my new band, by the way).

Others just smell annoying, they ridicule you, they say, "you think you're some athletic tough guy and yet you're wearing perfume, and everyone can smell it, and they're all laughing at you, they're saying 'look at the tough guy running around in his pretty carnation perfume! I bet his mother still does his laundry.'"

And it's not fair, KP, because I do my own laundry. I've always done my own laundry!

Dan



Over to you guys: top fragrances to sweat in? Find out what happened when Dan received his Myrrhe Ardente...

For further Encens Flamboyante talk, click here

10 comments:

  1. Ok, now I've got two things to laugh about - "take a hike, musk to musk!" and "I do my own laundry!" I love these posts, I really do.
    I purchased a bottle of L'humaniste (Frappin) last summer and that worked very well for me in the sweaty, Australian heat. (Please note: the only way I'm going to sweat is due to the weather conditions and not any form of strenuous activity.)

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  2. I was sniffing around Lush the other day as I hadn't been in for a while. The associate introduced me to Creme Anglaise and the first words I spoke post-sniff, " Wow! That smells just like Annick Goutal's Myrrh Ardente!" Lush doesn't know Annick Goutal from Smellbent, but really, go give Creme Anglaise a whiff. I bought the jar then discovered the price while I was sitting in my car in a Lush induced daze.

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  3. Katie, didn't you say a while ago that Encens Flamboyant smelled kinda like a pine forest had burned down and you rolled around in the piney ashes? Or was that a different perfume/reviewer?

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  4. rossm, so glad you're enjoying our silly hoo-ha. My favorite sweat-compatible fragrance is biehl parfumkunstwerke mb03. It's light and transparent, more like "leftover incense" than one burning in your face. And somewhat counterintuitively, I love wearing Parfumerie Generale Intrigant Patchouli in the sweaty heat. It's a furry patchouli/benzoin/sandalwood number that glows nicely as it warms.

    A more "sensible" heat friendly one I like is Etro Shaal Nur. And there was about 10 years when it was Clarins Eau Dynamisante or nothin'.

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  5. vicunasuz, I'm now curious to try Creme Anglaise. Is a body product or is it a perfume?

    kjanicki - yep, that was me on Encens Flamboyant, all right. It's piney, rich and ashy, with a lingering soft and sappy sweetness. It's simultaneously dry and rich. I linked to my EF review in the first line of the post if anyone wants to check it out.

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  6. It seems you and Dan so rarely (if ever) agree with Mr. Turin and Ms. Sanchez! That alone makes me giggle!

    In the heat I enjoy wearing Amaranthine. I feel it fills both categories of sweat-appropriate perfume. It smells fresh and uplifting but also blends well with personal funk.

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  7. xaryax, I don't always agree with Laz'n'Taz, but I always see where they're coming from. Their reviews are hugely helpful in focusing my own opinions on various perfumes.

    Hey! Good solid logic on Amaranthine for those sweaty times. A sweat-friendly fragrance needs to meld nicely with one's own ripeness.

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  8. xaryax, I feel I more often agree than disagree with Turin/Sanchez, and even when I disagree, I'm not confident enough to call it a disagreement. I simply assume my tastes aren't sufficiently evolved. Though I'm guessing they'll never evolve enough for La Myrrhe. Eek.

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  9. I just got a sample of Biehl Mb03 and I'm really liking it - will definetely give it a run during Summer to test your sweaty theory! The rest I'm yet to try but they're now going on my ever growing list (yes, I actually keep a list.)

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  10. rossm, I think we all keep a list!

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