Solano

As soon as I tested this in my elbow last summer, I knew that I loved it. The box had this beautiful illustration of sand dunes and a cheetah. But to me, the opening has a salty and windy note that brings me to a beach. Davana and Ylang are dancing barefoot in the fresh ocean air, Patchouli is there in the background, a little shy, very soft footed. This lasts on me for about an hour. The scent gets creamier as Patchouli steps closer and Tonka shows up and they melt into the dance. They remind me a tiny bit of chocolate and caramel, but not in a gourmand way. It's just a perfectly sweetened (not too sweet!), delicious touch. The longevity is really good, the projection as well. Yesterday I sprayed my elbows in the morning, in the afternoon I could still get wonderful whiffs. Before bedtime it was a skin scent, and when I woke up today it was still there! On clothes it stays for days. On the really hot days the scent is still fantastic, not cloying, but fades away faster. I would have to respray before going out for dinner. I think Solano can be great for layering, especially with woody notes. I will experiment and come back to tell you how it went! In the meantime, please give this one a try if you enjoy the notes! It's such a special and beautiful journey. IMO, Solano is a luxurious high class unique gem of a perfume, at a really good price. EDIT: As I knew the inspirations of the Remarcable Perfumes line from Le Couvent are the travels to faraway places, I was wondering where Solano is. I searched and found there is a place on the Philippine Islands, which made no sense, as they mentioned Sahara on the box. Then I found that Solano is a wind, travelling from the North of Africa to the South of Spain. That explained the windy, oceanic note that is so beautiful in this fragrance. This is what it said in Wikipedia: "The solano is an easterly to south-easterly wind, a regional variation or extension of the sirocco that refers to the relative position between the North African coast and southern Spain and not any of the other countries around the Mediterranean Sea. In the spring and summer, from June to September, it carries hot air, often with rain and sometimes with dust, from the African coast over the Strait of Gibraltar and the Andalusian plain, affecting cities such as Seville and Cádiz." As for now, the scent is so rich and wonderful, with great projection and longevity, so I haven't found the need to layer it with anything yet. It's a real treasure by itself.

I just got this by the mail... and it is absolutely gorgeous! Like if you open a box made of some expensive and exotic wood, and inside you find a bottle with a creamy perfumed lotion or oil, sweet and lushous. I feel the ylang-ylang, I feel the tonkabean. The patchouli is warm and comforting, and not like the dark rainy clouds I find in Cacharel's Eden. Also like shoe-shine, in a really nice way!! :) I'm sure this can be suitable for a man too, but I enjoy this very much for myself as a woman! Now I will test the sillage and longevity. It feels really cozy today, as it is raining, and it will be winter for yet a couple of months. But I imagine it will be really nice for warm weather too, at least for evening wear. Will be put on top of my dresser, both for the lovelyness of the very fragrance, and because of the lovely bottle! And of course I keep the beautiful box, black and velvety. I always do, for safe keeping and caring of my fragrances, but especially if they are beautiful. I only bought a 50 ml, but I could easily buy a 100 ml of this later on. A successful blindbuy for me!! 😁

Ahh! This is dreamy! The davana is unmistakable here, prominent but not overbearing. Unusual note and I really enjoy it. I detect the ylang-ylang and tonka, patchouli is here a backing - this is very, VERY nice. Somewhat, coconut comes to mind... I wore it 3 days in a row and can't get enough of it, and the fact that it's cruelty free makes me even happier. Wears light but projects well on my skin, beyond arms' length, and longevity is 6-8 hours to go skin scent. I therefore tested on clothes and it's still there on 2nd day... absolutely lovely, worth the full bottle for me. Unique, balsamic, lightly powdery but in a herbal way - if it makes sense... - and lingers around like an aura. I love it! 8/10 and will surely repurchase... this will go fast.

This one surprised me! I went on a limb with ordering this, since I typically don't love floral-forward fragrances, and have never enjoyed soaps or scented candles that smell like ylang-ylang. But this! Oh my god! After the initial five-or-so minutes it melts into this wonderfully rich blood orange tone, and after an hour the floral stepped out in such a deliciously delicate way. I'm intoxicated. I can't stop smelling my wrists. I want to bathe in this. I feel like I can wear it to bedtime, for a lunch in town, for sexy date night... It has a sense of sexy without being on the nose about it. Mind you, those initial 5 minutes made my physically recoil, but I've yet to find a single fragrance that didn't smell much too sharp on the first spray.

This is a TREASURE. To start off, I understand the comparison to Alien Essence Absolue. Yes, they are similar but Alien is a lot more heavy. This is a tad bit lighter, but it holds the same combination of almost herbal initial blast and smooth sweetness. If there was jasmine in here and the base was vanilla, they would be IDENTICAL. But overall they are similar. The scent itself is a bit green in the opening, but not overwhelming, it doesn't smell like grass, it's not medicinal. The base is sweet ylang ylang and tonka that turn into this welcoming sweetness that is smooth. This is absolutely beautiful and I hope they don't discontinue it anytime soon.

This is something special. My god, JCE never fails to create an effortless blend of the most unconventional combination of notes. How can something be sweet but herbal, bright but cozy, powdery yet tangy? It is a bottle of sunshine with an aromantic twist. The Tonka dry down is too sweet to make this an every day scent for me (my skin amplifies tonka and vanilla like crazy), so my only complaint is that the Davana and Ylang-Ylang lasted longer. Still a remarkable fragrance.

A modern take on ylang ylang that is refreshing and creates a cool balmy aura around the wearer. Stunning perfume. It probably shares only the ylang with the perfumes listed as similar. I own or have owned them and would never say they are similar, so take that with a grain of salt. Probably there isn't much this can be compared to on the market at the moment.

I wish I was more verbally elaborate to give this perfume credit it deserves but I'm not, so I just go with what I've got. On me it's sweet, thick and even somewhat spicy in floral kind of way but at the same time I smell something cool like a cooling breeze. It lasts all day on my clothes and about 6 hours on skin. Magical, contradictory and intoxicating.

The patchouli and tonka is very prominent on me, comes across as an earthy vanilla. Besides the opening i get nothing floral at all...

It kind of smells like Embruns D'Ylang from Guerlain in the drydown!!!

I tried this last week at a Marionnaud store here in France along with the other new release 'Anori' which is an exquisite floral fragrance (Magnolia). Solano kicks off as a more masculine edged scent than Anori, each fragrance only has three official notes listed but I would say there are a several more in each case! Solano has a slightly herbal and spicy-peppery beginning which evolves into a more floral mid which never becomes too 'feminine'. In the dry-down there's a kind of honeyed flowers feel, possibly from the interplay of the patchouli and tonka listed, it's a little creamy but with some darkness, I wonder if there's a touch of suede. This lasted a long time on my skin (as did the much lighter but lovely 'Anori'), I'm really impressed with this whole collection, the bottles are superb too (it's easy to see the level of liquid remaining despite the black glass), hopefully the brand will add Solano and Anori to the sample selection gift sets. Vegan and animal friendly too as all perfumes should be imo, certainly the latter, bravo.

agree with @TrephineArtist's excellent review below. A big big yes from me as well. more masculine than Anori (i sampled both today) but the winner for me was no doubt this beauty. calm and sophisticated and yet with a new vibe to it, making it stand out in the massive world of fragrances. edit: after giving it a whole day of wearing today, I found it to resemble Polo Red Extreme, same kind of sweet vibe, but thankfully less synthetic. Still a good Like from me, but I had to get rid of PRE due to its sickenly sweetness...

This reminds me of the smell of Indonesian Mung-Bean dessert called "Bubur Kacang Hijau". The beans are stewed over low heat with ginger, brown sugar, and coconut milk. It smells sweet, creamy, nutty, and earthy. I love the smell in the air. I never thought that I would enjoy it as much on my skin. It stays a long time on my skin 8+ hours. A few that this is unisex leaning masculine. But I would say that many women will be able to pull it off too! What a lovely work of Jean-Claude Ellena.

a bunch of yellow flowers, and from the cap smells like wine, but in a good way as it dries down it smells like a vanilla pudding and it also performs crazy, 10 hours easily for me

I have somewhat mixed feeling about Solano. I adore ylang-ylang and the davana is a nice touch. The opening is breathtaking. It's the tonka that doesn't rock my boat, I would have prefered a vanilla base instead. The whole scent is quite dense and heavy to me. But if you like tonka and ylang then this is a lovely and unique scent that should be tested. I do get why people find that it leans slightly feminine, but I think it would be great on a man too!

Very beautiful early on. Green, fruity sweet... but it gets sweeter still as it dries down with the tonka. The sweetness makes this feminine, not for me. If you like sweeter scents, test this, it's a good one.

Sweet floral. Has a bit of a minty cool vibe. Fresh and long lasting.

A very lucky blind buy for me. I have no idea what ylang/davana/tonka/patchouli smell like in real life, none of those exotic plants can be found in my not-so-southern habitat, but I could compare the top notes to the smell of Robinia pseudoacacia (black locust) flowers. This intoxicatingly fragrant tree blooms in late April where I live and the smell is just addictive. There's something common between Solano and Orchid Soleil TF indeed, perhaps with any 'soleil' perfume. I can also distinguish a veggie-like nuance here, sweet but veggie-like, resembles of physalis. And there's something nutty, creamy in the base. The bottle is very pretty, with a hefty cap, transparent, the spray works well, with a longer press, puffs out a whole cloud, one is enough. It was a risky blind buy and I didn't expect much but I'm impressed beyond words.

Solano is effortlessly sexy and sensual. It’s intoxicating. It’s not just another cliché ylang-ylang fragrance, it’s way more than that. The way it develops on the skin is so beautiful. It blooms into something creamy and smooth. A very well crafted fragrance that I hope it doesn’t get discontinued. One of the best releases from the past few years. Its scent is amazing, its performance is great and it’s a compliment getter. A signature scent contender.

Starts of very green with absinth then turns almost caramel-y and then dries to a nice vanilla body scent that lasts for hours. I don't know if I can get over to over the initial leavy notes just for that vanilla dry down since au have plenty of vanilla already. It is ans experience and very creative for sure but I don't think it works for me