Preparation Parfumee

I had this beautiful fragrance back in 2005 with some bittersweet memories attached. Fresh, light and slightly mysterious. Very green and bamboo-like. Unfortunately it took a lot of potion to make this project and last. I really wanted, and still want, this to be available in a super-duper edp where a little goes a long way. The store I found this at here, with many other great scents, the salesman said that Ms. Putman actually visted the store while she was promoting the fragrance. It's sad that she's left us. Lovely. Jason G 020113

This is my most treasured fragrance. To smell it is to float in water, to become one with water, among the water lilies in the early morning mist, but without feeling cold. There is a slightly tannic sweetness to it that reminds me of the twigs we used to strip and bite into as children. (I can't remember from which trees, but I would recognize the taste.) To smell it is to feel calm and quiet and weightless.

delicato come un acquerello, evanescente come un'ombra. vaghissimi sentori di fior di loto lasciano presto -prestissimo, invero- spazio ad un accordo delicatissimo, legnoso e leggermente pepato. tanto bello quanto volatile. 4/5

(A review originally posted on MakeupAlley in 2006, I wanted to re-post it here now because I do not use MakeupAlley anymore [but have many fond memories of using it] and I am trying to get back into writing reviews, using old 'work' as inspiration...): The nose behind this very pretty edc is Olivia Giacobetti, and like all of her creations that I am familiar with it has a beautiful, impressionistic aqueous feel to it. Notes of pepper, wood (wet wood, driftwood, wood after the rain), coriander and waterlily. Buzzwords from First-in-Fragrance: serenity, discretion, clear harmony, energy, modernity, curiousity. The rather aqueous feel to the cologne reminds me slightly of "En Passant" from Frederic Malle, and Olivia Giacobetti's style, although not my own passion, is one I am beginning to appreciate more and more. This fragrance has helped me to appreciate coriander as a note, and is making me hunker for Jean Couturier's Coriandre for instance. For women or for men (and stated even for children), this scent is "clean cut" and perhaps even a little too contemporary for my tastes (heavy, syrupy animalic perfumes) but nevertheless noteworthy imo. I think Olivia Giacobetti has a lot of integrity and is obviously a perfumer of consummate skill. Like most of her creations this one in its present concentration does not have a lot of sillage and becomes a skin scent, envelopping the wearer. A fragrance with layers, from the crackling pepper topnote enhanced by the coriander leaf accord, leading down into a driftwood accord (I cannot place the wood note yet)and the beautiful serene fragrant waterlily. Smelling this for me is like finding a secluded pond or accumulation of water in a forest on a spring/summer/fall day, breathing in crisp air and visualizing the entire scene and being able to feel the edges and depths of the water, the surrounding wood, especially the floral growth, fresh bubbling smell and cupped edge layers floating up--the coriander and pepper frame the picture. Mary Cassatt?

The first thing that came to mind when I sniffed this was the waxy transparency made famous by another perfumer Jean Claude Ellena not to mention some similar notes particular to Hermes Osmanthe Yunnan. It's the smell that comes to mind when you pinch the plump waxy petals of the water lily or even a very young rose. The only problem is as soon as you smell it the scent is gone. The longevity is akin to flower water. Very gentle fragrance and very fleeting. The blurry & waxy kex note seems to be the one that lingers almost invisible. For me this is a fleeting sketch of a water lily root just lifted out of a fresh pond with only a subtle almost hidden under a wet cloth coriander after that - which lasts very close to the skin for a couple hours. If you love this one but want some more longevity try Hermes Osmanthe Yunnan it might be a pleasant although pricey alternative. 4/27/2013