It's oud-week.

Trying ouds, reading about ouds, thinking about ouds. I have three, two from Byredo and the Kilian. I will be back with reflections. In the meantime have a look at THIS. Juliette has a gun. I have a crush on this brand right now. To be continued.

In the meantime, watch your sillage.

Day 11 by Kilian: Liaisons Dangereuses, mon amour...

Saving the best for last. My 11-day quest with By Kilian has come to an end. My relationship with this perfume house though, no... never. J'adore. The black, the creation without compromise, the elegance, the dance between sweetness and darkness. In my ideal olfactory world everyone would one a Kilian fragrance and they are so diverse, even if with a clear concept, that I really think anyone could find a favorite here.

So for my grand finale I chose my first love. Liaisons Dangereuses - typical me. This fragrance was my first encounter with this brand and I almost missed a flight from Amsterdam because of it. It would have been worth it. I love this fragrance. When I experienced it for the first time about a year and a half ago I was infatuated. It is sweet but with integrity, easy bit sophisticated. It is like a floral but so fierce. I never wear florals, to me this is one even though if you look at the notes..it's really not. And it so very very romantic in the word's most dignified, playful and urban sense. To the formula.

I am in awe of this creation by Calice Becker. This is one of the most beautiful fragrances I know of. And I have seen it blend perfectly with different people that normally would not choose the same perfume. So I recommend it to anyone. I have never experienced it on a man though, so that thought makes me curious. I have a notion that the musk would create something interesting when blended with a man's body odour.

My conclusion after these 11 days is that I have found two new fragrance loves. I have also found in two other ones very nice scents for people that I love. And if possible my admiration for Kilian creations is even bigger.

Try it. Kilian's olfactory world is a great way to travel.

Kilian Day 10: The Devil attracts you with honey and sugar

Being a copywriter I give more than a little attention to the names of fragrances and I have a profound allergy to clichés or arbitrariness. So this...baam. I would buy it just for the name maybe. You have to agree with me that the name is outstanding. So let's not perform a semantic dissection on it. Let's just embrace it. Sweet Redemption - The End.

For obvious reasons I should have taken this one as the last fragrance of my Kilian-process, right? But I am also allergic to over-ordering things so, no. I have one left now. Over to the fragrance. It is very unusual. Definitely a very sweet very dark. For some reason unfortunately you cannot find the formula on Kilians web as with the other fragrances so I have searched for other sources of information. According to Basenotes, the top notes are bergamot and bitter-orange leaf, middle notes are orange blossom, myrrh and frankincense and base notes are opoponax, benzoin and vanilla. 

My feeling wearing the fragrance is that the orange and frankincense are dominating. It is very sweet even if a dark kind of sweet and also a bit powdery, like the perfumes from the 1920's. The sillage is very strong so you can't really wear it on a low key day...

When this fragranced was recently launched it was indeed the last (10th) fragrance of the L'Oeuvre Noir line. In this article Kilian Hennessy describes the inspiration for Sweet Redemption - The End, "What came to mind was Goethe’s Faust. He already has a great deal, but he wants more. He accepts the Devil’s deal. The Devil attracts you with honey and sugar. Sweet Redemption, the top notes, had to present this battle of good and evil.”

The nose behind the fragrance is Calice Becker, who has created the majority of the fragrances of L'Oeuvre Noir. She describes the creation as "love without sexual tension".

Kilian Day 9: Confusion

"A tobacco aroma with sweet undertones of honey. A pure aphrodisiac". This is how today's fragrance is described by Kilian. And Kilian's perfumers know their stuff so I am sure this potion has caused more than one baby in its lifetime. For me...no. Unfortunately. I would love to love tobacco and honey. I want to love every Kilian fragrance because the ones that I do love I am completely enchanted by. And I know enough to know that every black bottle with this name has been created with great passion and dedication. Also I am interested in all sorts of connections between the olfactorial world and the emotional world. So I am sorry to say, "Back to Black: aphrodisiac....our paths will never cross again".

The first two hours I was intrigued by this perfume. I felt like I smelled like a male rock star. Crude, restless, eager, fierce. I did however not feel like that rock star, but like I had borrowed Mick Jaggers perfume. A bit weird but interesting! However the fierceness disappeared and turned into something more like heavy incense at Midnight Mass. Bit too much of it for me, I couldn't carry it off, but still... interesting. But then by the end of this day suddenly something entirely different emerged. To me, it resembled heavy roses and soap. I know a lot of people think that sounds beautiful but it is just not my thing. I felt like when you have not rinsed the soap away from your hands and that experience to me is really uncomfortable, just the thought of it makes my head itch. But this is personal, the people in my company did not react like this at all or even sense that sort of thing.

My reflections do not mean anything else than this, a bad match simply and I would love to hear someone else describe a contrary experience of this fragrance to me. In fact, when you google "kilian aphrodisiac review" you will find exclamations of great joy. And this, is one of the things that makes perfume so interesting.

So, please look at the notes below and if you like the sound of them look up reviews on blogs, Fragrantica etc. This could be a sensational discovery for you. And now I am going to look up the notes - which I have in fact not done before this very moment because I wanted to give you a sincere reflection without having "the right answer".

Oudphoria

Going through samples on a theme is a really nice olfactory adventure. I think when I am done with Byredo I will spend a week or so on Oud.

Kilian Day 8: Jasmine whispers

Ok, another floral day... Not my thing. Still not my thing. But, if you like light florals you will probably love this one. It is very springy and very feminine and gentle. Like a soft kiss on the cheek. You hardly notice that you are wearing a perfume but you smell really nice. And I mean really really nice. It does not however make me want to surrender as much as it makes me feel like I already have surrendered, which to me is a less interesting feeling. But if you want to have a perfume that feels elegant and easy, try this one. Also I would say that it is an excellent choice for environment or situations where a more extrovert fragrance is not suitable.

Kilian Day 7: Iscious

Fragrance no 7 is described with these words by Kilian, "An inspiration from the Marshmallow. A pure sensual treat." I didn't read it however until today (I wore the fragrance yesterday), and it makes me smile. The description feels more than adequate as I felt a bit like this the entire day. Or no, I did not feel like this, but I felt like I smelled like this.

Holy Sweet, Stockholm

The roses, honeysuckle and the caramel are like a romantic embrace. There is something about the feeling that this fragrance creates that makes you think of women like in the old movies. Of blushing cheeks, soft skin, light red anticipating lips, blossoming cherry trees, skirts that swoosh on a summer's day and crushes. Total utter impeccable sweetness. And... as much as I love seeing it and it makes me smile and fills my heart with marshmallows...it's just not me. Well, ok, it is a part of me... Yes. But not enough parts to define me in a way that I am comfortable with so not a fragrance that I can "stay" in.

However...there is a person that is the embodiment of all the things mentioned above. Also she of course has many many other sides and is a more complex person. But. She has that very very very special kind of romantic sweetness that you find in so few people these days. You have met her before on this blog, Karin. Karin can carry blush, blossom, swoosh, caramel and rose with a credibility and contemporary touch that no one else that I know can master. So, my Love. don't be shy-sample now belongs to her, it's  a really lovely match. Perfumes like this are made for women and womanisciousness like Karin.

Kilian Day 6: Oligophoria

Second day with this diabolic caress.

I am infatuated. I keep smelling my own skin and every time I do it smells differently. It feels like I keep chasing it, the scent. Trying to capture it. Eight hours after application only a soft basenote veil is left and you have to be very close to feel it. So I put my wrist right under my friend Fredrik's nose. He is a photograper with a divine eye and he has been wearing Noir Epices by Michel Roudnitska so you understand... he understands. He tells me I smell like I am wearing a man's perfume, but he says it with a smile that can only mean that it is in a really good way. Before he has finished describing his reaction the fragrance has changed again. Which gives me a reason to start all over and reapply. I have it in my pocket. I have been carrying the sample with me for two days, every now and then I have to reach for it. Love is an understatement. Fredrik leaves with arms covered in styrax and castoreum.

For some reason, for me it is really about basenotes. I am obsessed with basenotes. But then I also prefer afternoons, Sundays and autumn. The dance between the resinoids, woods and glands in this fragrance intoxicate me. I don’t feel the violet at all. I feel an almond that is not there. I feel so many things and this fragrance just keeps changing. But there is a constant balance between soft and coarse. Between close and escape.

This is what perfumery as an art is about. The creation of adventure. Artistry and mathematical precision in magic union.

Agarwood. gaharunusantara.indonetwork.co.id

Kilian Day 5: Tempted to break the rules

After some floral confusion for a few days everything fell into place today.

I am not at all ready to let this go and wear a new fragrance tomorrow. I am in the middle of a love affair. So I am breaking the 11 days with Kilian and one fragrance per day rule. But this is my game so I can. I'll be back with reflections around this liaison extra-ordinaire tomorrow.

Kilian Day 4: Iris & I

I have a weakness for Iris. It is a scent that gives a fragrance immediate elegance and it quietly travels between confidence, politeness, reservation and kindness. Extrovert and disciplined one second, discreet and sophisticated the next. It is also a note that I love experiencing on different people and especially both men and women. Iris is so elegant, and so versatile. So I was looking forward to this.

This is a lovely fragrance. I can imagine that many people would feel very comfortable with it and that it would blend nicely with most body temperatures, skins, characters, textures. I think it would be very interesting on a masculine man. On me, it felt light and undemanding. I had a moment when it gave me associations with traveling in warm equatorial countries. Not because it smells like a warm equatorial country but because it is the kind of fragrance that you would feel comfortable and invigorated applying for dinner on a warm day. I also think it would be lovely with light clothes in linen and elegant sandals.

For me it was maybe a bit too light. I felt like I was searching for something that was not there and like it left me too soon. But like I said, this is a lovely fragrance. It works very well in a business context and does not demand attention. Also one of rather few interesting perfumes that would work very well at a dinner or lunch.