Perfume Pen Pals: Le Labo Iris 39, Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady Body Cream, and Hermes Vanille Galante



Katie,

I scored some Le Labo samples today and I've finally come around to trying Iris 39, one of your original LL recommendations for me. And I must say I prefer it to the other irises I've worn.

For some reason, I'd assumed it was more of a masculine iris, one of those grim Ingmar Bergman scents that lead to contemplation and misery, usually over the fact that I'll never find an iris that doesn't make me miserable.


But Iris 39 is different: lighter on its feet, almost spring-like, not frivolous but not one of those boring boardroom irises either. It's what I'd hoped Heeley Iris de Nuit would smell like, but instead that one made me draw the curtains and ponder why I've never had a proper job, one that could provide an appropriate context for all these irises that seem so depressing when cast against my own exhilarating existence. Iris 39 is not one of those irises. I'm not quite ready to declare it the iris for me, but I know it's not the iris for Ingmar Bergman and that's at least a step in the right direction. Dan
Dan, This just in: Frédéric Malle are bringing out a body cream version of Portrait of a Lady. Body cream? Uh-oh. You know me and ancillary products.... Katie
Katie, Remember Frédéric Malle's fabulous YouTube video where he tries to explain his unexplainable perfume classification chart? There is so much to savor here (as we've discussed before), but the gem is when Malle says people will be able to look at the diagram and know which perfume is for them "if they're honest with themselves" about what kinds of fragrances they like. Implying that people lie to themselves about their own perfume choices. But it sounds like Frédéric Malle is at least honest with himself about what you like. Have you tried to formulate your own perfumed body cream? I wonder if it would work, just stirring a little perfume into a tub of Ponds. How much more complex could it be? You might already have all the ingredients for Portrait of a Lady Body Cream in your home right now! I'm drowning in new perfumes and I've got to settle down and get a read on everything. I just picked up a gift pack of four 15ml samples of Hermèssences. Tonight was Vanille Galante, which I'd only worn once before, and it's going to take more time to come to any strong conclusions. Except it's sort of sweet and floral and I could imagine it pleasing somebody. I'm just not sure the somebody is me. I smell like a pretty girl in a summer dress sipping a banana daiquiri in a gazebo. And if I'm being honest with myself, that's not the best possible scent for me. Dan

33 comments:

  1. Dan, when I want a perfumed body cream/lotion I will take a handful of unscented cream/lotion and spritz some of the chosen perfume into that handful. The trick is to then apply now scented cream/lotion fast as it has now become more liquid than it was before and will spill over if one is not very concentrated on the task. Often, I'm not.

    I think Frederic Malle has a point. If I'm being totally honest with myself I like sweet and/or fruity scents more than I care to admit. That doesn't mean I don't like other types of fragrances as well. But sweet and fruity do not seem to be the highest praise in perfumista land. I shouldn't really care, should I? And who buys all the sweet and fruity fragrances (also niches ones), I wonder.

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  2. Iris 39 smells like Rue Cambon to me. Am I the only one who thinks so?

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  3. Dan,

    Please let us know more about your Hermenessence experience later... I'm eyeing one of these gift boxes but still haven't decided what are the 3 other scents I would ask together with Ambre Narguile (I like this one so much that I would consider a big bottle, if it didn't cost 170 Euros!!!). I guess the gift box is a nice idea, because the bottles are not that small and they end up costing "just" 25E each.

    Hugs,

    S.

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  4. Referring to my watch, Marie, I'm guessing Katie is fifteen minutes away from her first experiment with do-it-yourself Portrait of a Lady body cream.

    And you make a good point about sweet/fruity scents. I think the answer is perfumistas make up a teeny tiny percentage of the world of perfume buyers. Also, they lie. (I own many more sweet/fruity scents than I'd ever admit to you.)

    And Sabrina, I love the 15ml Hermessence, too. I wish everything came in 15ml. (Except ice cream.) Katie and I are writing madly about them right now and I'm sure the results will appear soon.

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  5. I'm with you on the ice creams:) About the 15ml fragrances, I never tried one that small, I usually go for big bottles and end up with more perfume than I will ever be able to wear! But I guess it's a good option, specially because I wouldn't have the nerve to pay 170 Euros for a winter scent (Ambre Narguile) in the beginning of the spring, and the gift box will give me the chance to have 4 Hermenessences instead of one. Looking forward to read your and Katie's comments on the other ones :)

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  6. I'm all afluster trying to figure out if I like or hate Prada Infusion d'Iris. There is a weird body odor quality to it, that a) I am not sure I think is all that bad, and it grew on me as I wore it more, and b) I do not know if it is a quality of iris or not.

    This one is making me work. I need a larger sample for at home to play with.

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  7. I just noticed now that I wrote Hermèssence wrong, and two times in a row... I feel like an illiterate hillbilly right now:) This has an explanation, I am a little dizzy because of today's excessive sampling! Won't happen again!

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  8. Oh Vanilla Galant: I so wanted to like you, but instead, you sour on me to the point of day-old-vomit.

    Best,

    Geordan

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  9. Sabrina -- I don't think misspelling a pretend word qualifies you as an illiterate hillbilly. It's the plural version that makes my eyes go buggy: "Hermèssencesesesesessssssz"


    Maggie -- I know that fume connoisseur rabbit hole: "Boy, this stinks like B.O.! Oh, it's *supposed* to? That's all right, then!"

    And then I find myself eagerly looking for the blue cheese note, or the armpit note, or the testicular note in a fragrance! (Just ask Dan how sad he is that he sold off his original formulation of The Different Company Rose Poivrée, which apparently was downright perineal.)

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  10. Geordan -- you paint quite a vivid picture. I can smell you from here!


    Kitty VH -- Interesting! I'll bear that in mind the next time I smell them.


    Junelady -- I guess sweet'n'fruity is considered greasy kid stuff - the comic book of the perfume world. But look how lauded graphic novels are now in the literary world. I nominate Annick Goutal Le Mimosa as a graphic novel fruity floral.

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  11. Katie, I think perhaps sweet/fruity scents are perhaps the port wine of the perfume world: It's considered in poor taste by some - because there's so much sticky sweet port around (and one should prefer burgundy wines) - but the really good stuff is highly enjoyable and more difficult to come by.

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  12. Dan, I will never, ever hold sweet/fruity scents against you or anyone else. And there must be some sweet/fruity scents among the socalled niche scents (of which there seems to be hundreds by now) - I have a sample from the perfumed court named Chypre Fruite - I forget by whom, but obviously I had to get it.

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  13. Junelady,

    What a great idea! I just followed your homemade scented lotion recipe and made my own Eau Premiere body lotion, amazing. I used a thick unscented lotion, so it didn't get runny at all. Katie, you should try this!!!

    Hugs,

    S.

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  14. Whoops, Dan, Junelady and Sabrina have just put Frederic Malle and Chanel out of business! But what's the difference (smell-wise) between spraying perfume into lotion and rubbing it on, and just rubbing on the lotion first, then following with perfume spritzing?

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  15. Well, makes no big difference, unless you want an all over body scent, and something softer, of course... To make my entire body smell of Eau Premiere, for example, I would have to use a huge amount of perfume, which would probably make my husband kick me out of bed tonight :)

    I'm not planning to take anyone out of business, just decided to try Juneldy's idea, which is very good, specially when your favorite scents don't have a matching lotion.

    Off to bed now, nighty night!

    S.

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  16. I find the lotion infused with perfume gives a softer, closer to the skin result than spritzing directly on the body. I don't have the science to back it up, but that's my personal experience. There's something about rubbing it into the skin with the lotion that works very well, and then there's the possibility of layering with a spritz or two later on directly on the skin, if deemed necessary. Also, it is very enjoyable. And also works well it I don't want the full monty but just a hint of scent all over.

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  17. And the body lotions or creams that come from the perfume companies might not live up to the standard of one's favorite cream or lotion. I have had scented body lotions that were completely useless to me in terms of being a good moisturizer.

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  18. Junelady -- I will vouch for the skin-quenching qualities of the Malle "body butters", though they are so densely loaded with perfume oils, you're in danger of overapplying. Also, the Dayna Decker line has an amazing ookie gookie cream I love.

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  19. Katie, I'm in an acute state of temptation Malle wise these days. This weekend I found my Portrait of a Lady sample that I thought I had thrown away by accident and.......it is WONDERFUL!!! Well, obviously you know this - but you also know the excitement that POAL inspires if one is so inclined - and one is. A high quality POAL body butter sounds like the perfect "too much of a good thing" thing.

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  20. Interested to get a man's take on Vanille Galante. My nickname at school was Vanilla Mutton and this, coupled with a strong liking of the note, seems to draw me inexorably towards all scents with Vanilla variants in their name. This one does feel exceedingly "me", but it is definitely salty, not sweet. Maybe you ramp/amp? up the ylang ylang of which I do believe there is a dash in there?

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  21. Okay - I can't really get past those Dr. Who-looking red "huffing booths" in the Malle video. I think they serve a far more sinister purpose than just allowing a proper huff. I think they're actually meant for those who "aren't really being honest about what they like."

    Either that or they're containment fields for folks who've unwittingly sampled Dan Tes Bras. They might think to include some cherry red hazmat suits in that case. Money of course, being no object at Frederic Malle, after all...

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  22. Actually they remind of the tubes in that Woody Allen movie, where he is frozen and wakes up in the future.

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  23. Gojira - heh.

    Seriously, though - about the Dan Tes Bras? A MUST TO AVOID. It smells like fresh vomit on the skin and I don't say that lightly. If you have to sample this particular Malle offering, have a Handi-Wipe nearby. It's horrific, and a damn shame when the same line offers such transcendent scents like Eau D'Hiver and Bois D'Orage.

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  24. Stefush, I'm hurt, really hurt... how can you not like Dans Tes Bras? It is one of my favorites:) Seriously now, I know it's not a crowd pleaser, it's strange and not perfumey somehow, but I really don't get the "fresh vomit" thing. I do get some "fresh sweat", but it's not a bad thing IMO.

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  25. Dans tes Bras seems to really divide the good perfumista people into two camps. I'm getting more and more annoyed that the sample I ordered never arrived - I want to join in on the love/hate event as well.

    But as Katie once wrote, you like what you like, and I say, hear hear! Today I'm wearing Miss Dior Cherie a la mode de body lotion mixed with EdP and I LOVE it! It might actually be the perfect way to wear it. And I will wear it proudly although it seems to be the must-hate of the perfumista world. To my nose it has a butter scotch roundness to it that makes my brain happy. And I'm with you, Sabrina, fresh sweet notes are lovely. But I'm wondering what actual notes you two are experiencing so differently....

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  26. Junelady,

    I guess all those mixed feelings can be due to the cashmeran overdose in DtB. Hope you can get a sample soon, and join the "love/hate" event:) The first time I tried it, I found it odd, but still couldn't stop sniffing my wrists. It doesn't smell like anything else!

    Hugs,

    S.

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  27. Junelady -- a scent that results in a happy brain is winner in my book. And just as you found with Miss Dior Cherie, I think wearing the body cream versions of big perfumes is a great way to tame them.

    And I take your point about the mad scientist-style mixing of perfume and lotion being an effective way to diffuse the effect of a perfume.


    Stefush -- you mean to tell me that this is the first you've heard of the Malle huffing booths?

    Check out Nathan Branch's post on our visit to the flagship Malle shop in NYC:
    http://www.nathanbranch.com/2010/04/frederic-malle-with-katie-puck.html

    Most people who encounter the smelling columns have an immediate desire to climb inside them. Alas, there's only a Mr. Ed-style half door that swings open at waist level. I have a theory that the Malle staff get crazy at the office Xmas party and try to cram as many people into those booths as they can.

    Dan Tes Bras: no vomit for me, but certainly a compellingly odd metallic blood effect.

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  28. I'm sorry, but I stand by my vitriol over DTB. Yes, there's nothing quite like it. And there's nothing quite like visiting a hospital, either.

    As Corn Award as it may sound, I strongly feel that all perfumes should strive to do one thing - invite the wearer and the outside world into something greater and more profound than what had gone before. Some do this better than others - for example, Frederic Malle's Eau D'Hiver is completely otherworldly in the best winged nymph tradition.

    DTB feels like it's striving to annoy the hell out of the world around it. Blood, Sweat, Vomit - why on Earth is this necessary to wear?

    However, having said this, it's just my opinion. The greatest salvation in fragrance is that no one wears the same thing the same way. Cheers to anyone who can make that scent work.

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  29. *dons geek hat*
    On making scented body lotions: technically one should reformulate the fragrance because the base will alter how the scent smells. The raw materials in the lotion have different polarity to the alcohol/water base of liquid perfumes and the raw materials tend to have their own (often unpleasant) base smell which needs to be disguised. I don't think any perfume house has achieved a perfect match with the lotion vs. liquid scent for this reason. (And some will just chuck in the same perfume regardless ;) ).

    On the other hand, if you manage to find a reasonably unscented lotion or one that somewhat resembles your perfume, the way to make your scent last is to spray the perfume on first, then cover lightly with lotion.

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  30. Stefush -- I'm sorry to inform you that you are ineligible for the Corn Award, despite your use of the phrase "winged nymph." Your body of work demonstrates a far-too-regular use of wit and feistiness.


    Nukapai -- But don't you think the geek-hatted folks at the fragrance companies are making the very adjustments you mention? Granted, there's always an extra "lotiony" whiff to a perfume cream, but some of them are pretty darned faithful. I'm thinking of the Angel cream and the Frederic Malle body butters in particular.

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  31. Katie, I recently discovered Le Labo for the FIRST TIME! (fully credit your review of Labdanum 18 for this wonderful introduction!) In ordering the discovery set, I got one of life's wonderful surprises, when, to my unexpected delight, Iris 39 was my fave ( though each of the three scents did fully impress!) I see where you recommended l.l.Iris to Dan, at one point, but would LOVE to read/ see a full review from you on Le Labo Iris 39- Are you taking requests?

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    Replies
    1. Inspired by your question, I revisited Iris 39 the other day and plan to review it shortly.

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