Annick Goutal Le Mimosa



Whenever the topic of perfume comes up, there's always a lot of gum-flapping about the exact elixir to wear to attract the attention of those lovely young things you require in a swarm about your person at all times. “Will she glom like a limpet to the hull of my manly ship if I smell sneezy-fresh?” “Will he consume my olfactory aura in an ecstasy of delight if I pong of dew-dappled jasmine?” Of course she/he will! is what you say, because it's nice to be encouraging. (However, I always like to qualify that to avoid future disappointment among all parties, it's best to let one's personality do the heavy lifting, and not the elixir.) But taking all she's and he's and their need for sexual approval out of the equation, I recently witnessed a swarm of attractive young things around a perfectly inanimate bottle of Annick Goutal Le Mimosa. The bottle wasn't trying to impress anyone, wasn't searching for a soulmate or a hookup. It had simply let forth a puff of its contents: mimosa with a big, juicy peach, fresh and grassy with a little bit of licorice, followed up by creamy muskiness and tangy sandalwood. All Le Mimosa did was sit there and smell pretty, and suddenly a cluster of woman in the newsroom where I'd sprayed it for my recent “Spring Scents” TV segment gathered to pay homage with excited “Oohs!” “YUMs!” and “Can I try its?” So much for personality. Let Le Mimosa bring the “Oohs!” while you stay pretty and vacant.
Le Mimosa is available from Amazon.com and Perfume.com, starting at $75 for 100 ml

18 comments:

  1. Powdery, flowery, and kinda dirty? Sounds like the cousin to my beloved Flower by Kenzo...

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  2. Le Mimosa is heftier in the fruit dept than Kenzo Flower, what with that big peachy peach. And Flower is more dry. But they might attract the same pretty little bees. I wonder if you'd like it, Maggie?

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  3. I don't like peach without oakmoss, white musk usually makes me slightly ill and I usually only like indolic flowers, so what the heck happened here? I smelled this sweet thing and immediately bought a bottle. It appeals to young women and girls who like pretty florals? That's so not me.

    Okay, so you said niche bunnies who like Amaranthine. Well, I'm no bunny either, but I love me some Amaranthine. So yes, Le Mimosa has a slightly dirty secret hidden inside when it dries down a little. I love it.

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  4. Do I sniff a Sex Pistols reference? ;)

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  5. Katie - this scent is most likely too feminine for me to wear by the sound of it, but the sound of it sounds awesome.

    I love the progression, the arc - whatever you call it from note to note. I definitely want to sample it at least.

    And as for the exact elixir talk, my advice is to be the kind of individual who could wear cold oatmeal dusted in gasoline and still have someone want to wear YOU the next morning.

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  6. Where can one sample this?

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  7. Maggie, I've seen Le Mimosa at Bloomies and Nordstrom. It's hit the discount sites, too, per my where-to-buy links.


    Stefush, I maintain the same thing: if Scarlett Johansson is wearing Mitsouko, no Hopeful Henry is going to turn his nose up at her "old lady smell."

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  8. Oh wow, Melissa, that's interesting to hear that Le Mimosa passes m61 quality control. I do find that this one is a successfully ambitious blend of "now sounds" fruity-florals with classic perfume's "secret stank".


    Haha, Bloody Frida, indeed the Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vancant" was on my mind!

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  9. Hahahaha! Yeah, theoretically it shouldn't have passed the test. But I have another fruity floral love-Ferre edp, the one in the rectangular bottle that smells like irises and honeydew. Doesn't hurt that Pierre Bourdon did it around the same time (?) that he did FM Iris Poudre. They actually bear some resemblance to each other. The former has fruit, the latter has aldehydes.

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  10. Is Mitsouko more old lady than Shalimar? Shalimar and Chanel 5 are the oldest lady smells I've met so far - I can't imagine something else more so.

    Besides, everyone knows old ladies smell of cabbage, not perfume.

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  11. I fell for this one too. You forgot to mention the cute black polka-dotted yellow bow around the neck of the bottle.

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  12. Stefush: your comment has made me feel sad. I don't think that people think twice about a woman wearing a masculine fragrance. But perhaps it's more difficult for men to wear smellies intended for ladies. It's not fair.

    Katie P: At first I thought you said, "horny hiney."

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  13. Nora, really? I'm a fan of Shalimar and Chanel 5 and wear both.

    What I think is really sad is how there's such a paucity of decent "men's" fragrances that anyone with a Y chromosome and a decent sense of smell has to wear women's scents just to know what good is.

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  14. Stefush, I think Shalimar is more accessible to younger nostrils than Mitsouko.


    Nora, haha - Heidi's got a horny hiney! In something that probably only makes sense in my head, I think of those delicate, feminine perfumes with a flourish of filth (ie Amaranthine) as "Heidi on heat" numbers. Just the innocent little milkmaid with hidden fires nestling deep within.

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  15. Kate, oh yes, Le Mimosa does have an especially jaunty bow!

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  16. Oh my gosh, Katie--you need to write romance novels about this Heidi gal.

    Stefush--I think it's fine for men to wear whatever, but maybe the general public has a double-standard. For a woman to wear a masculine fragrance, that's considered daring or confident or maybe she's seen as a rule-breaker. For a guy to wear a feminine, maybe that's not received as well. It's like, women can wear men's clothing such as pants, suits, etc., but guys just don't wear skirts.

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  17. Don't say tell the Scottish they can't wear skirts! Remember you wear the fragrance it shouldn't wear you. A great scent moves you, whether it's masculine in nature or feminine that's the beauty of frags. The emotive quality to perfumes has always intrigued me and sometimes when wearing a traditionally male or female frag "most" can't tell if it's "gender". I love Mimosa I also like l'occitanes mimosa I can't wait to smell this one, thanks for always being so descriptive and emotional when describing frags. I love "horny heidi" it speaks volumes!

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  18. My relationship to perfumes is emotional first an foremost (whose isn't), so I'm pleased that this aspect comes across in my fragrance reports.

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