Holiday Gifts

Holiday Giving For Him 2018

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Holiday Giving for HIM. Here are 3 great gift ideas which look fabulous and all are under 40 euro. They are: Bentley Intense For Men, Guerlain Habit Rouge L’Eau and Zara Home Nordic Leather Fragrance Cards. 

Holiday Giving: Bentley Intense For MEN

Don’t let the rather flashy bottle put you off. Honestly I had some second thoughts when it arrived.  BUT this fragrance is absolutely amazing for its price. Some perfume lovers (or perfumista’s) say it smells like the niche fragrance Lubin Idole. Bentley Intense For Him was created by perfumer Nathalie Lorson in 2013. It’s notes are black pepper, incense, geranium, clary sage, labdanum, leather, cedar wood, patchouli and sandalwood.

Longevity is fabulous. You can still smell a boozy vanillic dry down after 12 hours! A very festive gift for a loved one 🎄 I gave one to my partner earlier this year and he wears it daily at the moment. As a few sprays are enough. This bottle will last him a long very time. Available at the moment online for 30 euro for a 100 ml bottle. Smaller 50 ml bottles are sold as well which might be a good choice as it lasts such a long time and is a rather heavy bottle. 

Holiday Giving: Guerlain Habit Rouge L’eau

Guerlain Habit Rouge L’Eau is a great gift for someone looking for an uncomplicated and office friendly fragrance. It is a very good introduction to more complex Guerlain fragrances like the original Shalimar or Habit Rouge. 

Notes are jasmine, patchouli, vanille, bitter orange, hazelnut and green notes. You can find Habit Rouge L’Eau easily online for very reasonable prices. I found a bottle this week for 40 euro for a 100 ml bottle. You might find it cheaper in old packaging. 

 

 Holiday Giving: Zara Home Nordic Leather Fragrance Cards

Nordic Leather is a very warming woody fragrance with sandalwood, incense and spices. This is not a perfume but a home fragrance with additional fragrance cards which make your clothes smell as if you are wearing a perfume. The cards can be overwhelming at first so it’s best to keep them in a close cupboard in the beginning. These cards work like a modern version of lavender sachets and are made of plastic impregnated with fragrance.

The cards are available online and at Zara Home shops. They cost 12 euro for 3 and last about 6 months. The sachets are available in other home fragrances as well like Sicilian fig, Cedar wood and White jasmine. I have Sicilian Fig as well but don’t like it as much for clothes as Nordic Leather. 

Bottom line: Bentley Intense For Him, Guerlain Habit Rouge L’Eau and Zara Home Nordic Fragrance Cards are fabulous affordable gifts for the upcoming holidays for him. All are available online. 

Have you tried any of the fragrances or the Zara fragrance cards? What do you think of them? Or Bentley Intense For Him? 

Link to my previous post:  Guerlain Habit Rouge L’Eau , 

Disclosure: all products were bought by me, all photographs 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)

Perfume Review and Budget Pick of the Month: Yves Rocher Secrets d’Essences Rose Oud

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Notes: Rose, Rose Damascena, Oud, Cistus Labdanum, Cumin

Rose Oud was created  in 2016 by perfumer Annick Menardo who made Lolita Lempicka Eau de Parfum, Amouage Opus X and many other excellent fragrances. This woody fragrance is an adult, grown up and very dark red velvet rose. She had lead a bit of a turbulent troubled life and lost her innocence. Its darkness with boozy fruity aspects are quite surprising. Especially for a Yves Rocher fragrance. Some compared Rose Oud online to Serge Lutens Feminite du Bois. I can relate to the boozy plum soaked in alcohol part which both have in common but Rose Oud is much more floral in my opinion. I get cinnamon as well as part of the boozy plums.  A veil remains of slightly brighter dusty rose as a base. Honestly Rose Oud is slightly too dark for my taste, personally I prefer lighter roses. I wonder how this fragrance will sell as it smells much more like a niche fragrance compared to other Yves Rocher fragrances.

 

What can Rose Oud do for you?

What does it do? If might be a good scent for those who are dealing with hardships in their lives for example when having to make complicated personal financial decisions, dealing with lawsuits, losing their jobs, losing a loved one or at the end of a relationship. To go through this process and make the best of it as there will be light again. It helps to loose one’s innocence and maybe even naivity when one needs too when dealing with life challenges as we all encounter in our lives. I could have used this scent for this purpose while going through very rough times in my life.

Yves Rocher Secrets d’Essences Collection 

Rose Oud is part of the Yves Rocher Secrets d’Essences Collection which focuses on raw materials in perfumery like vanilla, jasmine, neroli, iris and rose. All of the fragrances come with excellent accompanying body products except Rose Oud. Yves Rocher Secrets d’Essences Collection was launched in 2005 with Voile d’Ambre. Two fragrances from this line have sadly been discontinued Rose Absolue and Iris Noir. I have to admit I bought all fragrances from this line.  The scents are not multilayered but very well made for a good price. Who doesn’t want that?

All Secrets d’Essences fragrances were created by well known perfumers like Olivier Cresp, also creator of Thierry Mugler Angel and Jacques Cavallier. He made Issey Miyake L’Eau d’Issey as well. The beautiful bottle was designed by Thierry de Baschmakoff who designed bottles for Bvlgari, The Different Company and many other perfume houses.  As you can see, quite some effort has been put into producing a high quality perfume line by Yves Rocher.

Why did I pick Rose Oud as Budget Pick of the Month?

Rose Oud is excellent value for money. If scented Rose Oud blindly one would believe it to be a fragrance sold at Harrod’s or the Dutch department store Bijenkorf for 10 times if not more its price. It is a marvelous gift or if you are on a limited budget (or both). The fragrance leans towards feminine but can be worn by men and women.

I recommend anyone who likes rose/Oud, darker roses or even boozy fragrances to try this fragrance as soon as possible.  No one ever knows when Yves Rocher will discontinue a fragrance as they have done so very often in the past. I bought my bottle blindly and recently ordered another bottle as I gave one away.

Bottom line: buy a bottle or test the fragrance while it is still easily available for a reasonable price.

Rose Oud in a few words: dark, troubled, turbulent, lost her innocence

Have you tried any fragrance of the Secrets d’Essences Collection? Do you have a favorite one?

Price: 55 euro for 50 ml (but it is frequently on sale, I bought mine for 27,50 euro online)

All photographs were made by Esperessence, Rose on photograph: Rosa Amor, In a few words was inspired by the excellent perfume blog The Scented Hound.

 

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