Les Quatre Saisons - Quant Vient L'Ete

An Australian blog said this scent was formerly known as Terracotta Voile d'Ete and said it was a "scent from the past" that's been reissued as Quant Vient L`Ete. An older bottle is on its way to me - will post review next week! Update: Sky's written a masterful review and I second her opinion of this luscious, carnation & caramel delight. I have both the dry oil and the edt and find that layering them gives this fragrance a generous 6-8 hour scent-window. The carnation is immediate and carries through the dry down. Caramel emerges about 1/2 hour in and remains as well. I can't catch any mint whatsoever - it, like all of the other notes, seems to blend with & enrich the overall carnation. If you dislike carnation you should avoid this entirely, but if you love carnation Terracotta is a dream come alive!

Joining the few connoisseurs with a comment on this exquisitely feminine smell - a definitely guerlainean one at that. Pleasure to comment on a smell collecting all the summer in it- there is a spelling mistake in the title correcting it as I look at it - quanD - when is summer gone (or goes away)... to my nose it opens with a rich bouquet of many flowers with the carnation in the lead...it lingers on all through - in a very subtle, summЕry way, leaving a subtle trace of vanilla and probably caramel... lovely smell for the winter, autumn and spring...

Weegee, my Terracotta smells very much like how I would expect the notes of this "new" fragrance to smell. It is a light fragrance, with a mid-weight warmth & low, caramel sweetness in its heart. The overall impression I find is of warmth & dryness, the colour of the juice is perfectly matched. Sunbaked terracotta pots in a parched garden where you catch a warm waft of fragrant flowers. I never thought I liked carnations in fragrances until I realised that I disliked them in high, sweet "white" florals. Amid the vanilla they do not shout & instead produce a beautiful spiciness - I am a convert! The lemon & mint are artfully introduced (nothing in your face, very mellow) & then I smell a real lily (it has the green sap, too). There is a honeyed floral background & then the carnations step forward. The dry down keeps the gentle spice, a touch of powder & lots of vanilla. Definitely not a fragrance I would have expected myself to love, but it is such a soft, laid-back affair & manages to ride out the heat without resorting to lemon, water or fizz that I am under her spell. Sadly it is a short spell as the lasting power is a little poor. I will now have to track down the "new" version to see how similar they are.

To add: there is a faint metallic tang to this perfume, that is suprisingly pleasant. For me it fuses the old baked earth & the modern metallic world. I'm enjoying it more & more!