Hilde Soliani

Mood Scent 4 : Weird And Wonderful Perfumes


It is Mood Scent 4 time again! A joined perfume bloggers project where we share our views on the same subject linking perfume to mood or occasion. This time Portia (now on A Bottled Rose), Sam  (I Scent You A Day) Megan (Megan In Sainte Maxime) and I chose to write about unusual weird and wonderful perfumes.

It has been a month since my latest blog post. In The Netherlands we have moved from the semi lockdown to a new situation where we are able to travel further away, go abroad and visit restaurants or other public places keeping the 1,5 m in mind. All is still a bit unusual. As some of you who follow me on Instagram might have seen, flowers and nature helped me to stay centred and positive. Luckily I have been able to see my 85 years old dad more as well.  I hope that those reading are able to keep their spirits up.

Back to weird and wonderful perfumes now, I chose three perfumes which all tell an interesting and unusual story. All three are anything but ordinary, because of their story or perfume notes.

BeauFort 1805 Tonnerre, (Come Hell or High Water Collection), Visit The Battle of Trafalgar In 1805

Tonnerre features notes (or accords) of lime, gunpowder, smoke, blood, brandy, seawater, amber, balsam fir and  cedar.

BeauFort was founded by musician Leo Crabtree, a current member from The Prodigy band. Tonnerre was inspired by the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Tonnerre features the scents of a complete sea battle with smoking gunpowder, scorched flesh (or blood), black wet earth, salted seawater and pungent tar. It is almost like time travelling as these are not scents (luckily!) you normally get to smell. Tonnerre is not for the faint of heart or a perfume I wear regularly on skin but I find it very intriguing as a perfume creation and olfactory experience.

Hilde Soliani Caffe Delle Vergini, Visit An Italian Cafe In the Eighties After A Night Of Clubbing

Caffe Delle Vergini features notes of ink, coffee and vetiver. 

Caffe Delle Vergini was created by Italian perfumer Hilde Soliani. She was inspired by her visits to the bar Delle Vergini in the Italian City of Sassuolo after a night of clubbing to have breakfast. Bar Delle Vergini is said to be one of the first bars to admit women in the Sixties in Italy. Which reminds me of going out in the Eighties to a Spanish disco and have hot chocolate and fried churros in the middle of the night, not exactly the same scents but you get the idea. Caffe Delle Vergini smells of ink from the newspapers in the bar, espresso coffee from the steaming coffee machine and the smell of vetiver from the perfumed men visiting this bar. Caffe Delle Vergini is not as unusual as the Beaufort Tonnere perfume and more wearable. Actually it is one of the fragrances I wear most from Hilde Soliani as I like the story behind it too. The bottle has a label with a newspaper as you can see on the photograph.

L’Artisan Parfumeur Dzing! Visit An Old Fashioned Circus With Animal Poo and All

Dzing! Features notes of tonka beans, balsam, saffron and ginger. 

Dzing! was inspired by a live circus with notes of horse or elephant dug, hay, powdery animal fur, sweet bright pink candy cotton, used saddle leather and wood dust in the ring. From all fragrances this is my favourite weird and wonderful perfume as after a few hours it leaves a scent of used soft comfortable black leather with a cleaner aldehydic (or soap like) accent. Last week when my cat Rubio visited his cat loo he left the scent of animal dug which very much reminded me of Dzing! Luckily there is much more to Dzing! than animal poo with the used leather, powdery fur notes, cleaner soap and wood dust. Some people got candied sweet apple too. Dzing! was launched in 1999 and created by perfumer Olivia Giacobetti (who also created Diptyque Philosykos, L’Artisan Tea For Two, Frederic Malle En Passant and Iunx fragrances)

These are my 3 picks of  Weird and Wonderful Perfumes. Have a look on Sam’s blog I Scent You A Day, Megan’s  Megan in St. Maxime  and Portia on A Bottled Rose to read their picks and see how they are doing!

I hope you and your loved ones are able to stay healthy, calm, centred and positive during this period.

There have been some troubles with leaving comments lately. I do hope you are able to leave your choice for a weird and wonderful perfume. I love to hear from you.

Disclosure: all photographs were made by Esperessence. All perfumes were bought by me.

 

Hilde Soliani Luce A brand new day !

takingflightSome months ago I tested many Hilde Soliani fragrances. I really loved scenting these perfumes as they are so different from other fragrances I have tried before. Hilde Soliani is an Italian perfumer with a passion for teatre and Italian haute cuisine. The Hilde Soliani Facebook page shows her many times near a master chef and helping him with his cooking. Hilde Soliani has 4 different perfume lines.  Profumo e gusto in liberta was inspired by haute cuisine dishes. Teatro Olfattivo di Parma was inspired by local theatre in Parma.  Ti amo was inspired by flowers and Gli Invisibili was inspired by emotional events in her personal life. Some bottles might seem a bit odd. At first I was put off a bit by the bottles of the Gli Invisibili line with a crucifix on them.

What struck me most about Hildes fragrances was the joy they brought me and probably the pleasure of Hilde making her fragrances. They are different from anything I have tried before, very original and fresh. Their structure does not seem very complicated. They do not change a lot on my skin as other perfumes might do. But their simplicity might be deceiving. They are really well made. Hilde is very original in her combination of scents like strawberry and salt in Fraaagola Saalaaata and custard cream with cherries flavoured leaves of tobacco in Doolciiisssimo.

One of the fragrances I enjoyed most was Luce of the Profumo e Gusto in Liberta line. Luce means light in Italian and was inspired by the birth of a child of a friend of Hilde, a new born child bringing light to the earth and joy to the ones around him/her. Personally I would find it more logical if Luce would have been in the Gli Invisibli line, a liquid emotion and not in the haute cuisine line.

birth2010Luce is all about powder, baby powder. Somehow it reminded me of the almond coated sweets given to visitors when a child is born in Spain and maybe other countries too. It would be very suited to scent a birth announcement card with Luce. Hilde Soliani keeps her notes/ingredients secret like a master chef who does not convey his recipes. The emotion Luce brought me was of pure joy, the same pleasure I experience while watching the scene brand A brand new day (everybody rejoice) in the movie The Wiz (1978).  But at the same time Luce is very relaxing and comforting.  A very interesting combination, bringing delight and cosiness at the same time.

Luce is sold in a 100 ml bottle. I really wish Hilde Soliani would introduce a discovery set of her fragrances or smaller 30 ml bottles as Parfums de Nicolai does. Swiss perfumer Andy Tauer recently introduced an explorer set and the French perfume brand Jul et Mad small 5 ml bottles.

Give Luce a try if you like other (very different takes on powder) perfumes like:

Lorenzo Villoresi Teint de Neige

Laura Tonatto Dama

Parfums de Nicolai Kiss me Tender

Guerlain L’Heure Bleue (according to Patricia de Nicolaï, perfumer and the president of the

Osmothèque perfume conservatory, the universal symbol of the word powdery in perfumes)

 

A sample of Luce was provided for pr purposes. This did not influence my review.

Paintings Taking flight 2011 and Birth 2010 are both made by Henriette Hackenberg.

 

Originally published November 4, 2013

 

update march 12th 2014 : Hilde Soliani informed Luce is from the Momenti line

 

A brand new day / Everybody Rejoice The Wiz