November 26, 2014

Ineke Chemical Bonding

L'Esperessence Ineke Citrus, Crisp Citrus Fruity, Ineke Ruhland, Musky Citrus, Summer, Tea 0 Comments

Just bite the sour apple

When I first heard the name Chemical Bonding I was a bit put off by its name. Bonding and chemical sound a bit sterile to me. The image I get is a chemical lab not the romantic idea of two people bonding. Chemical Bonding is based on two people bonding and alchemy as well. Chemical Bonding was launched in 2006.

I bought Ineke’s beautiful Deluxe Sample Collection Set with all of Ineke’s 7 perfumes. One of the samples was Chemical Bonding. The discovery set is an excellent way to get introduced to her whole collection. All of Ineke’s perfumes are categorized by alphabet, an abecedary as Ineke calls it herself. Ineke Ruhland has her own small perfume house in San Francisco.

When I first scented Chemical Bonding I did not like its opening note. It was (and still is) too harsh and loud for me. It smells like sour citrus. Ineke calls it a citrus cocktail herself. Or it could be the tea note in the beginning as I do not like tea perfumes, such as Bvlgari Eau Parfumee au The Vert or Bvlgari Eau Parfumee au The Blanc. After this loud sour citrus burst, surprisingly I got a more mellow clean musky base. Very pleasant and fresh. In Dutch you have a saying to bite through the sour apple to get something nice afterwards. In English the saying is to bite the bullit. It is like this in Chemical Bonding, after the sour part the really nice part of the perfume starts to kick in !

The principle of Chemical Bonding of two opposites attracting can be found within this perfume in the citrus and the more clean mellow musk. I found this quite interesting. The Fragrantica website classifies Chemical Bonding as a floral fruity and Michael Edwards as a crisp citrus fruity. Personally I would classify it as a musky citrus.

Some find Chemical Bonding too mainstream and in general reactions are mixed. Personally I prefer to wear Chemical Bonding on a hot day. On these days it works best on my skin. It smells even better sprayed on clothing. Chemical Bonding will not end up in my top 10 list but I like to wear it from time to time in summer.

Ineke Ruhland just introduced a new perfume to her abecedary, H Hothouse Flower. This based is based on gardenia, one of my favorite flower scents in perfume. I really look forward to trying her interpretation of the gardenia flower.

Notes according to Ineke leaflet with Discovery Box and website:

Top: smooth citrus cocktail, tea, blackberry

Middle: dewy peony

Base: vetiver, amber, powdery musk

Longevity: very good for a citrus, several hours

Sillage: stays quite close to my skin

Origin of sample: my own

Photograph: my own

Originally published July 27th, 2012

Update November 26th, 2014

Youtube: Chemical Bonding by Ineke Ruhland

November 25, 2014

Maria Candida Gentile Cinabre

L'Esperessence Maria Candida Gentile Cinabre, Nahema, Parfum Sacre, Rich Floral, Rose, Spicy 0 Comments

Some perfumes should come with a warning as in a Thai restaurant saying how spicy it is. If perfumes would come with 1, 2 or 3 peppers, referring to its spicyness, the eau de parfum Cinabre would have 3 peppers.

Cinabre is a spicy rose perfume made by Maria Candida Gentile in 2009. The combination of the rose with the black pepper in the beginning makes it very daring. It gives the perfume a bite. This perfume is not a light tea rose but a strong powdery spicy hot rose. While wearing Cinabre, I feel daring and courageous. One would not think a rose perfume could do this.

Maria Candida Gentile is a female independent Italian perfumer with her own perfume house. She has developed 6 classic perfumes and 4 exclusive perfumes for her own line. All her perfumes are available online.

I have been wearing Cinabre for some days now and am struck by its beauty and originality. The bottle and perfume might look and smell very classic. But the perfume has a very modern touch to it. Like a Burberry trench coat classic but modern at the same time.

At first I got a very powdery rose scent mixed with black pepper. After 15 to 20 minutes the pepper subdued and the scent became a light rose powdery perfume like smelling an expensive rose powdery soap. The soap scent subdues into a more creamy soft sweet rose after more or less an hour.

Notes according to the Maria Candida Gentile website are: black pepper, ginger, rose baies, Splendens rose, Moroccan Rose, benzoin, opoponax and vanilla. The perfume group is rich floral according to Michael Edwards.

The spicyness in this rose perfume brought to mind the image of being dressed completely in black and adding a very red bright scarf or wearing no makeup and adding red lipstick. Your complete image changes completely.

According the official website of Maria Candida Gentile Cinabre means dragon blood, a crimson red resin from the Dragon Blood tree. Dragon blood was used for alchemy, health cure, for violins in the 18^th century and used as lipstick. The dragon blood tree is quite rare nowadays and grows primarily on an exotic island, Socotra in the Indian Ocean and is part of Yemen. The label of the very classic Cinabre perfume bottle is crimson red. Beautiful. For rose lovers, this eau de parfum is a must try. If you like Guerlain Nahema or Caron Parfum Sacre, give Cinabre a try. You could see Cinabre as a very distant little foreign niece of Nahema.

Coco Chanel said that women should not smell like roses but I think that even Coco would not mind to this modern interpretation of a rose perfume.

Origin of bottle my own

1. Photograph made by Pierre Javelle and Akiko Ida (Miniam Food Creative)

2. Picture was made by Rene Gruau

3. Painting made by Henriette Hackenberg, www.henriette-hackenberg.nl A card from this painting is available on her website as well.

Originally published Octobre 2012

Updated and re edited: November 25th, 2014

The Maria Candida Gentile Collection consists now of: the collection Flight of the Bumblebee with three fragrances which was introduced in 2014, 8 eau de parfum the latest being Noir Tropical, 4 pure perfumes and 2 home fragrances.

November 14, 2014

MDCI Peche Cardinal

L'Esperessence MDCI Amandine Marie, Coconut, Floral fruity, MDCI, Peach, Pretty, Tuberose 0 Comments

Parfums MDCI (MDCI) Peche Cardinal is a young, joyful and pretty fragrance. Wearing it makes me feel 16, innocent and charming like no other fragrance I have found.

It was the first perfume with a dominant tuberose note I enjoyed wearing and is one of my absolute favorites in my collection. What makes Peche Cardinal interesting is that although the tuberose note is dominant it displays a fresher (greener ?) more innocent facet of the flower before becoming lush or even carnal. Peche Cardinal is a bit of shape shifter sometimes showing more of her sweet peach liquor side at other times more her creamy tuberose and coconut aspects.

One could say Peche Cardinal is a tuberose fragrance for beginners. Peche Cardinal was released in 2008 meaning Cardinal Sin.

The bottles come in two versions a simple more reasonably priced edition still expensive and one with a bisque stopper which looks beautiful and comes with a the Medici price tag. Both bottles are beautiful, although the one without the buste reminds me of the David Beckham glass bottles. The perfume has a beautiful peach pink orange color.

All MDCI fragrances were made by very talented perfumers like Francis Kurkdjian, Patricia de Nicolai. Stephanie Bakouche, Cecile Zarokian, Amandine Marie and Bertrand Duchaufour.

I sampled most of the MDCI line some time ago buying a sample kit directly from the MDCI website, 8 small 12 ml splash bottles in an accompanying beautiful box. All buyers except people in the Netherlands can deduct the price of the sample box from their first full bottle. It is an excellent deal and a pity for people living in the Netherlands to be left out of this deal. Peche Cardinal was the fragrance I liked most from all the ones I tried.

Some people on the perfume website fragantica and Luckyscent did not believe Peche Cardinal was worth its price and could have been a main stream perfume. I agree with them this scent could have been one but only if better and more interesting main stream fragrances would be released. Although expensive I have not been able to find a cheaper alternative.

Notes according to Luckyscent: Davana, Peach, Coconut, Blackcurrent, Tuberose, Prune, Lily, Cedar, Sandelwood, Musc

Perfumer: Amandine Marie

Fragrance family: Floral Fruity

Sillage: 3,5/5

Longevity: 3,5/5

Rating: 5/5

picture 1. Made by Rene Gruau, picture 2 taken from Luckyscent and picture 3 taken from the Parfums MDCI website

Origin of bottle and samples: my own