And as I promised in the first episode, we’ll start with the house…
HIC Beauty
The corporation, which, in addition to the aforementioned New Notes, represents the brands Moresque, The House of Oud, Jacques Zolty and Blend Oud.
Under the Moresque label, they launched 4 new fragrances at once – the unisex Scirocco with beautiful notes of spices, greenery, flowers and woods, a subtly mysterious scent in a dark green bottle and a trio of summer fragrances – Regina di Fiori, Rand Rose, Ambre Solesque ? (the last one I’m not sure I got the name right – feel free to correct me), pastel in both colour and fragrance. Plus, they contain subtle glitter that leaves a very subtle tingly veil on the skin – this will be very pretty especially on summer-tanned skin. These will be coming to the market around June.
Under the brand The House of Oud, they have launched a new “Crazy Collection” – Bonbon Pop, Gambling and Wabisabi fragrances.
I’ve already tried a couple of Blend Oud scents in one go, as I haven’t had the chance so far and they seemed like nice scents, blending the Oriental and European vibe. Oud is there more in the sense of a singled out ingredient that probably most symbolizes the Orient today, not that every fragrance is based on it. And even the ones that do contain it are decent. Not totally my style, but I think many forum (parfumanie.cz forum) members would like them.
And to make sure that the Jacques Zolty brand didn’t go to waste, they at least packed marketing materials in their bags:).
Masque Milano
The house, which also includes Soul Couture and Milano Fragranze.
At this year’s Excense, they launched the new green Emerald Collection with a single fragrance so far – Ribot, and the red Oud Collection. I tried the Oud Collection and found the scents nice, but they didn’t wow me in any way – but they didn’t disgust me either, what is actually a success with me and anything containing Oud.
I finally had the chance to try Milano Fragranze in my favourite colour of the bottles (I always think it’s mysteriously beautiful in dark blue…)
Especially the Isabey brand, which I just love from the first sniff to the Fleur Nocturne, and I dream of buying one of their extraits in pearl flacons one day (when I finally decide which one). Their latest fragrance is the white floral beauty Avant l’Aprés and two new indoor candles. Personally, I’m not big fan of candles, but these were amazing. Fleur de Jasmin Sambac smells like real jasmine, like when it’s just blooming, and Fleur de Gardenia is a gorgeous gardenia, but really gorgeous, life-like gardenia without any mushroomy undertones. But so honestly, who else knows work with gardenia better than Isabey?
Of course I couldn’t resist their Fath brand either, especially the L’Iris de Fath fragrances, both the Extrait and the much more affordable new Eau de Parfum.
L’Iris de Fath L’Extrait de Parfum is a gorgeous smooth and silky scent, where I smell mostly iris butter, incredibly tender musk notes, and a little bit of floral notes. It is so gentle, soft and luxurious, as it could be.
L’Iris de Fath Eau de Parfum works a little differently. There’s a light carrot note, some greeney, the whole thing is airier but also a touch harsher, the iris is more floral than buttery, distantly reminiscent of good old Hiris. Or maybe some cross between Hiris and L’Iris de Fath Extrait.
In the classic line they introduced the new Vetiver Gris.
And speaking of historic houses, I just have to stop by my next love – Dorin.
Dorin
Mr.Nasri is an incredible entertainer. So even if he didn’t have such an incredible perfume treasure in front of him, he probably would have gathered that crowd there by himself anyway. But standing there and listening to various unique stories and smelling the scent of his exclusive historical perfume house Dorin was probably one of the top experiences of the entire fair.
The vast majority of the fragrances I had already had the opportunity to try before, so I let myself get carried away by the stories and tried just a few… The new Carnet de Ball, which is very typical for the brand, an extremely elegant floral fragrance, a series of “clear” spring florals (Les Eaux Poudrees collection), which I left with the determination that if I ever buy a Lily of the valley fragrance again, it will ONLY be this one (but the other fragrances of the line were just wonderful) …. And since I finally had the chance, Candle Light – that fancy Disney princess-like bottle just couldn’t leave me cold. The contents left me much cooler…I was surprised to find that unlike the brand’s other fragrances, this one I just didn’t like. I found it to be a generic, bland, vague omni-floral…but it’s quite possible that only in comparison to the other wonderful scents around it.
In addition to the classic Dorin brand, he also resurrected the Lanselle brand (I like this way of saving cultural heritage very much, something similar was done by Virginie Choné with the Binet brand – but I will deal with that in the next part). There are 4 fragrances on sale within this brand so far, labelled according to the shapes on the bridge playing cards.
Another of his brands is Kiesling, which strikes me as his personal joy toy, where he can play with the whole fragrance as an object, fragrance+flacon as a whole. His favorite seems to be Be-bop (maybe he likes jazz…).
And in the next part, we will have my absolute favorites…smaller niche brands, local and exotic brands, and a few extra curiosities.