Chocolat

Tried this one in Harvey Nicks, somewhat sceptical, as anything with the word “chocolat” in it tends to nothing in common with my favourite food group. Initially, I was not surprised to find, on first application, there was not a whiff of cocoa. In fact, my first impression of this (and many other’s only impressions) is that it was incredibly like “Angel” (Thierry Mugler). After drowning two spills, one in chocolat, and one spill in Il Profvumo Vanille Bourbon, much more to my liking I thought, I trundled off, via the Escentrics display, giving a few low grumbles along the lines of “if someone could just get it right without it turning into a three ring circus, I’d be happy.....” And the two spills lurked in separate pockets, one of Chocolat, the other of Vanille Bourbon for many long fragrant days....The Chocolate took on a life of its own over the timescale of a week, which is outrageous for any perfume, let alone something sprayed onto a paper spill. Every day, it mutated into something more....I was falling in love with this little superstar. A week later I returned to HN, determined to have a bottle of Chocolat EDP, because, after a week on a paper spill in my pocket, the fragrance had gone through a metamorphosis. There was nothing angelic about Chcolat. It had beautiful white wings for sure, but when they opened, the showered the area with sparkles. This Angel was at once jet propelled yet light en pointe. There is exotic spiciness, in a muted cinnamon kinda way, there is a slight resinous quality which serves only to drag the wearer down into a vat of dual layered chocolate, bitter and dark on the top, through a layer of vanilla dipped cherries into the most delightful milky cocoa confection beneath which still, when slightly agitated, erupts with sparkly top notes, not unlike those fireworks you think have erupted their last, then explode 3 feet above your head and make you wet your pants with fright. Sadly, HN had no chocolat. (What????) No chocolat? The generic counter assistant attempted to persuade me that both Chocolat frais and Chocolat amere were “chocolat”, and being the sassy cowbag I am, I begged to differ. And realising that Il Profvumo would be less than impressed by this reckless over selling, I left with my second choice, Vanille Bourbon, and ordered my Chocolat from Il Profvumo direct. Today, I have my EDP, beautifully packed, with a generous ballast of samples from their range. Whatever anyone says, this is not Angel. The feather on this one’s wings do not come loose and fall to the floor - they ruffle and swish and dispense sparkles, they enfold and cocoon, they caress and soothe and excite the olfactory erogenous zones. And they keep on doing it, long after the cherub has left the building. Chocolat, despite it's compassionate and tender nature, has a distinctly savage side, which delivers that addictive quality in perfume - the ability to disturb, to disquiet, an ambiguity which suggests that, though angels dont have sex, (accounting for the number of feathers stuck in the second airlock door between heaven and earth), this angelic juice has most definitely got it going on. Inside the bottle cap which I inquisitively stuck my fingertip, a small dribble of the perfume lurked overnight, concentrated with evaporation and the enigma of the disquiet became clear. There is, lurking in the base of this juice, a deep spicy note, a coriander/fenugreek almost cumin tinge, which is incredibly masculine. What we have is the Archangel Michael, innocent and naive, yet racy and addictively sexy, who smells of cookies, ice cream, chocolate, caramel, has beautiful floor length wings, dances like John Travolta to Rock & Blues classics, protects the innocent, fights for justice (and for the rush) and will travel the USA in a beaten up car just to look at the worlds biggest rubber band ball. But he has damp patches under the arms of his shirt, where you press your face when he pulls you in for a scrummy chest hug. And there's the hook, you're safe in the grasp of the big lad. Always did love John Travolta. Congrats Il Profvumo. You bottled the legend.

I got my bottle today and I am impressed! I DO get Angel at the start - the bitterness it is very similar on my skin and I do not like Angel !!!! How to describe the opening - a kind of bitter, dusty, dry, incensey, chocolate! Not sweet at all and very sour to my nose .... I thought oh no as this was a blind buy (being impressed with Silvana Casoli's creations thus far)! But, the beauty of Il Profvmo's scents is their chameleon-like quality! Their scents 'evolve' - they do not stand still on the nose - and next I started to get a warm amber peeking through - now that's not in the notes I thought - but neither is incense and I get a brief whiff of that on the opening!!! But hey, what's happening now? I'm getting a more mellow chocolate smell - almost like bournville cocoa powder and a touch of vanilla - a sweetness is peeking through to break my bitter heart! There is definitely a patchouliness to this in the background as well - I keep on sniffing trying to identify more notes! Then it reverts to bitter again and then back to warm cosy vanilla scented cocoa! Woa - stop this ride I want to get off....but I can't I'm so loving this. I can smell a fruity depth and some gentle spice! Down there I can smell a scant liquorishness with figs and cumin and freshly ground cinnamon! Il Profvmo positively encourage you to mix their perfumes with the Osmo Absolus - they even give you a chart to get you started!! Well I thought I'll plonk some of their Ginger sample on top - ohhhhh yet another dimension and on top of that went a dab of cannabis - another dimension!!! This is too addicting - and fun! This is a very sensual smell and once again from this perfume house - unique! QUICK EDIT: I think this is how Angel should behave on my skin but doesn't - it's so warm and yummy now and deepening into something rich and slightly gourmand!

cloth: tangerine! cacao, something balsamic possibly a wood plus something else orangy and chocolatey like one of those candies with the orange center I think the balsamic effect is sandalwood and jasmine skin: I was good and I got a xmas orange! The tangerine plus balsamic note is really communicating orange and yule tree even though there is no pine or fir note in the note pyramid. Will Santa bring me MOAR Il Profumo Chocolat if I'm REALLY good? (Like most of the things I test, what I have is a .7ml decant in a 1ml vial. I'm only going to get a few uses out of it even though I test a single dab at a time.)

I blind bought this one and oh my, it’s such a nice chocolatey perfume with a lil vanilla but it doesn’t last. After half hour it’s all gone. But to be fair, nothing lasts long on my skin unless I moisturize first or put on a fragrance primer. I think that to make a chocolate fragrance work, you need to add other stronger synthetic notes. Too bad, this one is the most realistic and yummy chocolate fragrance I’ve tried thus far. Still, I’ll take Angel over this one, only because of the longevity. Luckily I don’t have to choose, I have both.

This wonderful chocolate scent is perfect for wandering around a city on a cold but sunny winter day. It makes me miss Takashimaya, where I purchased Chocolat many years ago on a Manhattan winter's day. Chocolat is warm and striking. On me, its oddly similar to Yves Rocher Cocoon, but Cocoon has more Patchouli while Chocolat has more...chocolate!