Perfume Pen Pals: Annick Goutal Myrrhe Ardente



Katie,

Tonight I cracked open my new bottle of Annick Goutal Myrrhe Ardente, and at first I was delighted by the root beer accord. But the perfume soon turned sort of sweet and then just stayed there, smelling simultaneously spicy and sweet and smoky, not at all unpleasant during any particular moment but a little much over the course of an entire evening.

And it's definitely lasted the entire evening. It's like hearing a song you enjoy played twenty times in a row, at an uncomfortable volume. By the end, not only are you unsure about your feelings for the song, you're also grumpy.

Wearing Myrrhe Ardente reminds me of a teenage prank I once played. I was having pizza with a friend and there was a rather loud jukebox in the corner, in which customers were dropping in their coins, choosing their favorite Journey songs, and sitting down and waiting for them to come up.





My friend and I, rapscallions both, ended our evening in the pizza parlor by trading several dollars for change, discretely dropping it all into the jukebox and playing "Happy Birthday." Not once but many, many times: 1st selection, G-56, "Happy Birthday"; 2nd selection, G-56, "Happy Birthday"; 3rd selection, G-56, "Happy Birthday", over and over and over again.

What's more painful than listening to Journey? We were all about to find out. Except "we" didn't include us, because my friend and I slipped out before our selections started and watched through the windows from outside.

The first "Happy Birthday," a generic '50s-style group sing-a-long that was plenty loud enough to hear from the street, was met with wide smiles and people curiously turning and looking around the restaurant for the evening's honoree. Maybe it was a secret "Happy Birthday," we imagined them thinking, for a shy little girl or boy. Or maybe it was a mistake. Oh well, we'll get back to Journey in a minute.

Except after two annoying verses, with the celebrant's name appearing as "la-la's", as in "happy birthday to la-la...", it started all over again. Two more verses, two more la-la's, and an increasingly irritated pizza parlor.

By the third or fourth version, fathers were standing up, hands on hips, looking like they wanted to club somebody over the head with their pizza pans. And by the fifth go-round, several people had gathered in front of the jukebox and from the street it appeared as if they were somehow trying to convince it to stop, to please just stop playing.

Around that time, a couple of families walked out and spotted our hysteria over the monumentally stupid scene we had created, and so we made a hasty departure and missed the ending.

And right now, I'm convinced Myrrhe Ardente is my punishment at last. Because it just won't stop, it keeps singing "happy birthday to la-la" over and over again, and I want to gather up all the angry dads in my neighborhood and find somebody to club with our pizza pans. Except it's 2 a.m. and they're all asleep. And they can't smell it anyway. It's only me. Me and Myrrhe Ardente, all unrelentingly heavy and sweet and by now more painful than listening to Journey.

Dan



Revisit Dan Rolleri's initial high hopes for Myrrhe Ardente here.

19 comments:

  1. Hilarious, Dan! What a fantastic prank! I never would have thought of that, but even though I'm getting into my 30's, I'm STILL going to do that one of these days. But what song I ask? (Not sure that particular ditty would be contained within the jukeboxes of these parts....maybe something from Nickelback perhaps?)
    Shame about the scent, BTW. I haven't really had much luck with any of the Goutal's so far myself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sorry, Dan, I wrote my first comment to Katie, here is it fixed (again and again, I'm clumsy today):

    LOL, you are so funny, Dan! I shall confess that my experience with Myrrhe Ardente was more painful than listening to Journey. I mean, you get what you expect when you put a coin in a jukebox and choose a Journey song... unfortunately this wasn't what I got when I tried Myrrhe Ardente. I was expecting something that really smelled like Myrrhe, but I got the sweet root beer accord, from beginning to end. I am a big fan of Annick Goutal's fragrances, but not of this one, which had the same persistency lack of linearity of the most dreadful fragrance I tried so far (which is Chanel's Allure)...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Sabrina. I happened to be awake in the middle of the night (my time) when you first thought I was Katie, and I started contemplating the merging of my perfume personality with hers. I concluded it was an honor and that allowed me to finally fall asleep. That's my new insomnia cure: what if I could be Katie, just for one day?

    And rossm, the key to the prank (and, yes, it's remarkable something so stupid has a key) is picking a song everyone immediately loves, one that surprises and delights and brings smiles all around. This will produce the largest swing, from utter joy to utter outrage. That's where the humor lies. (I feel like Moe as an old man looking back and explaining how the Three Stooges gags worked.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dan, I am sorry again :) Hope your problems with Myrrhe Ardente are gone now.... tomorrow is another day, and I am sure you will be luckier with your perfume! Hugs, S.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dan. Utter joy? Surprise and delight? For some of us, (well for me anyhow)the prank would have caused a resentful glare from the opening notes of the song. Perhaps I am, and have always been, a party-pooper. A hopeless birthday killjoy.

    The Happy Birthday Song sets my teeth on edge. As a child, I held my hands over my ears when it was sung at the few parties that I remember. As an adult, I turned down dinners out until my family finally understood that I REALLY did not want to be surprised with a cake and a crappy rendition of that song done by a bunch of unhappy waiters and the dinner participants. So if Myrrhe Ardente is anything like it, (and I can't remember if it is) I must avoid it at any cost.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm with you, melisand61. But this was a festive little family place, where diners were looking for reasons to celebrate and sing. At least until I arrived.

    The day I realized I could turn down birthday dinners with my family and suffer no consequences was the happiest day of my life. That or the day I played the Happy Birthday song twelve times in a row. They're sort of related.

    ReplyDelete
  7. m61 - haha, I always thought that the song "Happy Birthday" sounds like a dirge. And that's usually how it's sung: forced and plodding.

    Sabrina and rossm, I'm very keen on many Goutals (and there are lots of 'em, to be sure!), but to my Queen of Sheba tastes, Les Orientalistes are the standouts. Encens Flamboyante can't be beat for burnt-pine incense, Ambre Fetiche brings joy to amber fiends, and Musc Nomade is one of my very VERY favorite perfumes. I'm afraid Myrrhe Ardente is the odd one out for me, too.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dan, I believe "We could be Katie - just for one day" was on Bowie's original demo for "Heroes".

    But I caution you, merging with any aspect of my personality will not ensure restful sleep. But it might double your already considerable perfume collection.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Of course, the KEY. I will dutifully follow your instructions oh wise one!
    And Katie, I've only tried Sables, Les Nuit De Hadrien, Duel & Mandragore and they all have an olde-worlde feeling to me and I'm not really an olde-world type person. Will give your suggestions a crack though. On the list they go!

    ReplyDelete
  10. rossm, "olde worlde" does rather sum up many Goutals - I can see where you're coming from. But Encens Flamboyante strikes me as more contemporary than the rest of the AG oeuvre.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ha ha. I always enjoy a chapter of PPP. I love the prank you pulled, Dan, and only wish I had the kind of friends who would pull that kind of prank with me.
    Katie - I never thought of it, but you are right, the Happy Birthday song does sounds dirge-like. I was going to say that there is another birthday song I have heard sung by annoyed waiters at restaurants, but it sounds a bit forced too. The soug is preceded by loud clapping as they approach the table with the hapless birthday person and then the singing starts. The words are - Put another candle on your birthday cake, your birthday cake, your birthday cake...put another candle on your birthday cake, you're one year older to-day-ay-ay. I mean, come on, doesn't that sound a little mean? There might as well as been a chorus of "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha" after it.

    ReplyDelete
  12. soug = song. anybody can be dyslexic but I write the letters upside down. lol

    ReplyDelete
  13. SoS, the "hahahhahaha" chorus seems fairly well implied in those lyrics. Someone out there should be working on a Happy Birthday song that's not sad or mean.

    ReplyDelete
  14. You know what makes Myrrhe Ardente a-okay? A liberal dose of Encens Flamboyant layered over the top of it. Root beer smothered in forest fire! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  15. You're right, Nathan - Les Orientalistes do seem amenable to customized layering.

    ReplyDelete
  16. How funny that from Les Orientalistes Myrrhe Ardente is the one you like the least. For me Musc Nomade is the one i am not fond of, loving the other tree, but i can see the similarities between Amb Fet, My Ard and Incens Flamb, alas, it is normal i like them all, but with Musc Nomade?? for me it is the odd one in the familly, cold instead of warm, kind of dirty (at least to my nose) instead of the purifying fumes of the other 3, a bit plain instead of the deep voluptuosity of the other 3....dunno..too mineral for me..to dead and grey...maybe i should give it another try as fond of Annick Goutal line as i am and more of Les Orientalistes line (loove!!) and a lot of people seem to find it's interest..maybe it wasn't the proper time. After all getting to appreciate some fragrances takes time and smelling many other versions

    ReplyDelete
  17. ElenaBueno: given how well you've articulated your position on Musc Nomade, I can see where you're coming from. You're right, it's somewhat the odd man out, quieter and not as guffingly big as the others. But it's not cold on me, rather it's quiet and gently snuggly. I was anosmic to it for a long time, however, then one day the lightbulb flashed on and I could smell it and love it.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Katie Puckrik : wow! lucky you! on my skin the first thing that came to my mind when i sniffed Musc Nomade where humid musky cold stones

    ReplyDelete
  19. Well, that is just a marvelous description, ElenaB!

    ReplyDelete