Sorenza

Sorenza opens with a distinctive and rather dated floral combination which has sadly been overused in too many products in the last three decades. However stick with it because the Hawthorne is coming, for me that is the hesitant smell of spring, and it does hesitate, it's a tease as the rose overtones fade into mimosa with the hawthorne still there, almost hovering above. I like this perfume because it does make me think of balmy days but if I hadn't read the notes I wouldn't understand why. The jasmine comes on strong on me after the first hour or so but the suggestion of warmth also developes. I'm going to hang on to this until later in the year, April or May, and then I'm going to use it to perfume my hair. It isn't the most individual scent ever but I think that the suggestion of warm florals and the rather soapy overtones will make it very useful for all those ocasions when I want to be pleasant to be close too but truly don't want to suggest that I've put on perfume lest it be misread. I think Fragonard described this as smelling like flowers on a sea breeze and that does sum up the overall impression but for me it's real strength is that it's a brilliant non-perfume perfume, the vanilla even gives it a kind of indefinable friendliness and it would be hard to overdo it, the benzoin is very restrained on me, but it's quietly re-assuring. Not girly, not sophisticated, not green, fresh, or overtly floral but warm, relaxed, very clean, belonging to a slightly more advert-perfect world than the real one but inviting other people in rather than boasting in a touch-me-not way. This is a companionable, rather dreamy perfume, and one I think will prove invaluable.

Strongly animalic from the start for me. This smells like someone who hasn't bathed in months and is trying to cover the scent of their BO with perfume. I don't usually react this strongly, but no sooner did I put it on than I had to take it off with alcohol wipes... with a quickness. Fragonard's Soleil was a nice surprise. This was a deeply unpleasant one.

This is no big issue but... something just struck me among the notes listed in the present pyramid : I can see "genet" referred to as an animal note. But as far as I can remember, the sweet floral Sorenza contained none ! Instead it had a very discernable "broom" note... which in French translates as "genêt"! ;-) Whereas "genet" translates as "genette"...! To make things right, here is the "official" pyramid, as found on Fragonard's website : Top notes: may rose, jasmin Heart notes: mimosa, iris Base notes: vanilla, benzoin, broom