Tuesday, May 26, 2009

We Love Fruity Florals

I especially enjoy Angela’s reviews over at Now Smell This. Recently she wrote a piece on Keiko Mecheri Passiflora, which spawned many comments on how fruity florals can be wonderful and how we shouldn’t unilaterally pan this category due to it’s (clears throat) sheer abundance. There are, indeed, many wonderful fruity florals and I’ve been thinking about this over the past month every time someone writes a disparaging comment about fruity florals on the various blogs and fora.

I realize fruity floral scents tend to multiply in spades, but even so, there are so many great one's.

Here are some of my favorites:

Badgley Mischka ~ BIG, gorgeous fruity extravaganza. Still a very real and serious perfume.

Frederic Malle Le Parfum de Therese ~ effervescent basil, lemon, melon and peach on a bed of oakmoss. Gorgeous.

Teo Cabanel Julia ~ Tart fruity floral. Alahine (ambery oriental) and Oha (dark rose) are the two most discussed from Teo Cabanel but Julia is lovely for the summertime. Julia has a nice blackcurrant & rhubarb scent that I love.

Yves Saint Laurent Yvresse ~ Fruit champagne (Yvresse was originally named Champagne).

Parfums de Nicolaï Balkis ~ Tart roses, blackberries and cream.

Ava Luxe Johri ~ Johri is really interesting and nice. It’s mostly green and hesperedic; with figs and creamy coconut milk. Johri strikes me as joyous and great for the summer.

Jean Patou Colony ~ Green, leathery, animalic pineapple – what’s not to love?

Histoires de Parfum 1804 ~ technically 1804 is a floral oriental but there are strong fruity notes. Because pineapple is such a rare note in perfumery I tend to think of this as an homage to JP’s Colony. 1804 is a gorgeous scent with notes of pineapple, peach, gardenia, jasmine and cloves; on a bed of sandalwood, musk, vanilla and pathouli.

Annick Goutal Eau de Charlotte ~ Starts off like sticky fruit syrup but dries down to a lovely, cozy scent with blackcurrant, mimosa, chocolate and vanilla.

Keiko Mecheri Ume ~ Not sure if this counts as a fruity floral because it’s actually a woody plum. Ume is a dry fragrance, focused on Japanese plum, with a base of woods.

Keiko Mecheri Peau de Peche ~ with notes of white peach, orris, sandalwood and amber, Peau de Peche is a beautiful velvety fragrance meant to mimic the scent of peach skin. Peau de Peche is dry and woody, not fruity and juicy, and not especially sweet. This one is great.


What are your favorite fruity florals?

5 comments:

Tania said...

Robert Piguet Visa - the new one, not vintage. When I first tried it I thought 'oh no - another Angel wannabe!' But that was the first five seconds. It's a lot better than that, and it grows up nicely.

By the way, I have a bottle of 'Y' winging it's way to me. I tried it in Selfridges (they say they are the exclusive stockists) but they wanted £91 for it! So I found it at FragranceX for £22, with free shipping to the UK to boot.

chayaruchama said...

Allright, Abigail-

We're going to have to 'post the banns', girl.
I'm going to be forced to cheat on Lucy and Elena and Lord-knows-whom-else with you, LOL.

Tania- I'm with you on the Visa.
And the Y, too.

Yes, I'm a skank person [ SMN Peau D'Espagne- Strindberg's Miss Julie, with that horsewhip], and a chypre queen, and I adore orientals, anything that resembles moss and the forest floor and damp earth...

But there are so MANY divine scents with fruit.

The cassis/ galbanum in Silences; the indefinable fruity glory that is Patou's Delices; the plethora of fine oranges/ fruity neroli in PdN's Maharanhi,MH's Cuir D'Oranger.

Molinard's Nirmala, and the M de Molinard [ more cassis !].

Apricotty osmanthus in so many others- Daim Blond, Osmanthe Yunnan, TDC.

Mmmmmmm.

Abigail said...

Tania,

Congrats on your inexpensive Y purchase! I can't wait to hear how much you love it. :-))

Chaya,

Bring on the fruity love, girl! I could have gone on and on (yes, Osmanthus/apricot delish and all the others you mention, too).

Molinard Nirmala...I haven't tried. That goes on the top of The List.

I'm fruity today, too, wearing Histoires 1804... niiiiice.

Olfacta said...

Does "In Love Again" count? Because it starts as a sweet grapefruit and becomes flowers and berries as it dries down...I've also tried Nirmala, and it's all white peach, very strong, you'd have to lovepeach. I do, but in a Bellini.

The farmers market where I shop has recently added a line of flavored black teas. At first I was thrilled, as I like to make flavored iced tea, but soon discovered that the "flavors" were all synthetic; the mango, for example, made me gag. Similar problem with mass-market fruity perfumes, the obviousness of the synthetic "fruit."

Whereas "Therese" is so artful and unusual that I wouldn't think of it as a "fruity floral." You're right; this category has gotten a bad rap because of all the celebrity-skin garbage produced in its name.

fifthsensenyc said...

YES!!!! my heart belongs to Edmond Roudnitska's Le Perfume de Therese. I love Visa, Osmanthe Yunnan, 1804 and of course although its a chypre, X by Clive Christian can sneak in this category. Let's sneak MDCI's Vespres de Sicilliennes in too.