Pierre Guillaume Paris

Mood Scent 4 : Duvet Day Perfumes

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Its Mood Scent 4 time again! Sam (I Scent You a Day), Megan (Megan in St. Maxime), Portia (Australian Perfume Junkies) and I write about a different  theme every month. This time we have chosen to post about our favorite Duvet Day Perfumes. Which perfumes do we reach for on our days off when we relax in bed or stay comfortably in our pyjamas all day? I have chosen 4 fragrances with comforting and relaxing notes of sandalwood, vanilla and Turkish apple tea.

1. Pierre Guillaume Paris 18 Cadjméré Eau de Parfum 

One of my absolute favorites Duvet Day perfumes is Pierre Guilaumes 18 Cadjméré. The comforting creamy sandalwood pairs extremely well with the light milky coconut creating a harmonious fragrance which makes you want to stay in bed or on the sofa all day in your pyjamas. A light touch of spices uplift it slightly.

Some say Cadjméré refers to the soft touch of Kashmir and mère” (mother in French). As the most important note sandalwood is often qualified as “maternal wood” due to its creamy and comforting qualities. I love to wear this fragrance when I want to slow down or before going to bed for its soothing effect.

Cadjméré includes notes of tangerine, aromatic sap, rosewood, Kenyan cypress resin, sandalwood, ambrette seed and vanilla.

2. L’Artisan Parfumeur Traversée du Bosphore Eau de Parfum 

The relaxing Traversée du Bosphore is a good choice for your occasional duvet day. It was inspired by a trip to Istanbul in 2010 by French perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour and opens with sweet Turkish apple tea and a pinch of cinnamon powder. The apple is slightly covered with sugar powder and softly baked in delicious browning butter. This is not a fresh crisp green apple more a sweet warm appetising apple desert. The Turkish apple tea note is mixed with Turkish delight, both very sweet at the beginning but never too candy like. It is just the right amount of sugar.

After a few minutes the scent of almonds appears. Comforting vanilla is the base of this fragrance with a little sweetness probably from the sugar powdered apple and Turkish Delight. Traversée du Bosphore is a wonderful little comforting tourist trip to Turkey with its sweet apple tea and turkish delight while remaining at home in your pyjamas.

Traversée du Bosphore includes notes of apple, pomegranate, tulip, iris, leather, saffron, Turkish delight accord, vanilla and musks.

3. Guerlain Shalimar 

Although Shalimar makes me feel like a movie star from the roaring twenties with natural glamour and sensual elegance I love to wear this at home for its comforting and relaxing effect. The balsamic properties of Vanilla sooth me and I love to wear this before going to bed. It’s a wonderful duvet day perfume and one I can’t live without honestly.

Shalimar notes include bergamot, rose and jasmine, opopanax, vanilla, iris and tonka bean.

4. Le Labo Labdanum 18 Eau de Parfum

More suited for our upcoming theme Sexy Duvet Day (no, just kidding here!) but, an honorable mention go to Le Labo Labdanum 18, created in 2006 by master perfumer Maurice Roucel. This cosy and warm powdery fragrance envelopes you like a soft cashmere blanket. Civet and castoreum add a sensual ‘dirty’ touch making it very seductive while still remaining incredibly confortable.

Labdanum 18 notes include labdanum, tonka beans, vanilla, castoreum, patchouli.

Have a look on the Sam’s blog I Scent You A Day, Megan’s  Megan in St. Maxime and Portia’s Australian Perfume Junkies to read their picks for duvet day perfumes.

What are your favourite duvet day choices on your day off? Did you like my choices?

Disclosure: all photographs were made by Esperessence

Top 7 Perfume Discovery Sets – Holiday Gift Ideas 2018

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I absolutely love perfume discovery sets and selected 7 fabulous sets from independent perfume houses for you. These sampler sets are great to try new fragrances and make excellent gifts as well. Here we go, the sets I selected are from Gallivant, Baruti, Tauer Perfumes, Sylvaine Delacourte, Etat Libre d’Orange, NOT Perfumes and Pierre Guillaume Paris. They are all available online.

1. Gallivant Nomad Discovery Sampler Set: Gallivant was founded by former L’Artisan Parfumeur creative director Nick Steward. Gallivant has 6 fragrances at the moment all based on different cities around the world, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Brooklyn, Istanbul and Telviv. The 6 sample set is sold out at the moment but there is still a smaller one available with 4 samples for 18 pounds. Postage is free in December 2018. All sprays are 2 mls.

2. Baruti Baruti was created by Amsterdam based Greek perfumer Spyros Drosopoulos. You will not find these fragrances easily anywhere else. They make an excellent gift for those who want to try something different perfume wise. I sampled his fragrances many years ago when Spyros just started and tried his newest creations at The Perfume Lounge in Amsterdam. This discovery set is only available online with 8 samples of the whole Baruti collection. All spray samples are 1 ml. Price: 30 euro

3. Tauer Perfumes Tauer Perfumes was created by Zurich based Andy Tauer. His samples are stored in small beautiful metal boxes like the box on the photograph. These boxes are still one of my favorites to store samples. You are free to choose from his whole collection and create your own Discovery Set. Andy Tauer has some recommendations on his website which is fabulous if you are new to his fragrances and do not know which one to choose. All spray samples are 1,5 mls. Price: 27,50 euro including shipping.

4.  Sylvaine Delacourte, Sylvaine Delacourte worked for Guerlain 15 years and started her own perfume house several years ago. At this moment she has 2 collections based on perfume notes, Vanilla and Musc. She just introduced some wonderful scented candles inspired by the different seasons of the year. Both the Vanilla and Musc set are lovely and affordable sets with 5 samples each for 4 euro including postage. I tried the Musc sampler set and just received the Vanilla box. This is an excellent deal. All sprays are 1,5  ml. Price: 4 euro per set including shipping

5. Etat Libre d’Orange (ELDO) This French niche brand has several sampler sets in its collection. One set for its whole collection and 2 different sets stored in fabulous metal boxes with their 7 classics or modern classics. All are available through their website. The metal boxes are 20 euro for 7 samples with 2 mls. The complete collection set has 22 samples with 1,5 to 2 mls and its price is 39 euro. Isn’t this metal box beautiful?

6. NOT Perfumes. This brand new Swedish brand recently launched with 5 creations. It’s creator and perfumer Johanna Venables made original fragrances with very outspoken Nordic visuals. The complete sampler set is 25 euro excluding postage. The samples are 0,5 ml extraits and the sampler set is only available online. I haven’t tried them yet but very much look forward to experience her poetic fragrances as they look and sound very unique.

7. Pierre Guillaume Paris  If you are not on a budget, French perfumer Pierre Guillaume just launched his whole perfume collection as a sampler set called Integral Box 64. All 64 creations are stored together in a beautiful black box for 146 euro excluding shipping. It’s available online but check your local perfume store as well if you live close to a perfume shop which sells his creations.

Concluding: The perfume sampler sets I selected this year are from the following perfume houses: Gallivant, Baruti, Tauer Perfumes, Sylvaine Delacourte, Etat Libre d’Orange, NOT Perfumes and Pierre Guillaume Paris. Did you like one? Are you interested in one of these as gifts?

If you want some more inspiration for sampler sets, please visit my previous Discovery Sets posts here: Discovery sets 2017, Holiday sets 2016 and Fragrant Holiday Gifts 2014.

You can find the direct links to the sampler sets in this article by clicking on their names:

Gallivant, Baruti, Tauer Perfumes, Sylvaine Delacourte, Etat Libre d’Orange (ELDO), NOT Perfumes and Pierre Guillaume Paris.

Disclosure: Except for the photographs of the Sylvaine Delacourte and Tauer sets all photographs were taken from the official websites. The photograph for the NOT perfumes sampler set was made by Joaquim Suñe from Lost Branch Leather and kindly provided for this post. This article was not sponsored and does not include affiliated links.

(Side note: please check before ordering if postage is included to your own country, I live in The Netherlands)