Immortelle Marilyn

At least on my skin I can't detect anything ElenaLondon describes. It opens with a rather dry hazelnut that plays a steady "hide and seek" with a cheerful sweet, but soft raspberry. In this very first moment you might (depending on your skin chemistry) frill your eyebrows, but this moment lasts less then 30 seconds. The hazelnut finds a very good hiding place and the beautiful warm slightly green immortal appears arm in arm with a romantic, moony ylang-ylang and a powdery elegant musk. They jaunt around your skin until a dark leather forces its way out, that is only tamed by a calming blanket of amber. Whenever I wear it, I can't stop sniffing my wrist, because every hour I find a new aspect of this incredible beautiful scent. And yes, they succeded in capturing EVERY aspect of this "one-in-a-lifetime" woman - Marilyn Monroe.

One of the most compelling perfumes that have been released in the past 15 years and a potentially long lasting love story that may remain in my top 10 for years to come. The notes used in this composition are unusual, refined and perfectly matched with each other. The main ingredient is obviously the immortelle, a dry-herbal-dusty accord with a burned sugar aspect that's both special and quite strange. Immortelle Marilyn amplifies the dusty, dry aspect to the maximum, by adding powdery musk, bitter hazelnuts, rooty iris, dry leather and a touch of savory raspberry. Finally, a soft, feminine ylang-ylang and a creamy amber round off the scent, turning it into a modern, innovative and sophisticated feminine. Immortelle Marilyn is quite spectacular and overall unique - it has a facet that makes it resemble Mugler's Womanity (a certain sweet-salty dustiness, most obvious in the opening), but where Womanity tuns marine and juicy, IM goes on to create a fantastic nutty, arid, almost desiccated effect that's the very essence of immortelle and which I find endlessly provocative and attractive. Not your typical feminine and yet more classy and ladylike than many feminine creations today. Strange, exceptional and evocative of both the delicate fragility and the unforgettable presence that characterized Marilyn Monroe. A brilliant creation.

I love nutty fragrances and IMMORTELLE MARILYN delivers. It actually had no immortelle nor leather, just a very gourmand note of dry hazelnut and buttery ylang ylang. Very tart, very interesting at the opening, though lacks originality at the heart part and drydown. Also IMMORTELLE MARILYN had a staying power of 3 hours which is a serious letdown as I would NEVER justify a FB purchase for a fragrance this weak.

Salty, somehow. Dry and salty and leathery. Some interpretations of amber lean this way, I recognize the olfactory picture. Raspberry peeks through eventually, but at no point do I get any hazelnut out of this. I can't say that it evokes Marilyn for me, but that's not why I was attracted to it in the first place. Interesting fragrance, but it is one that I would never reach for, slightly nauseating to me.

Death by raspberry, again. It not only killed Édith Piaf (La Mome from Balmain), no, now this vicious fruit also killed Marilyn Monroe! And with it my beloved immortelle. I was interested in this perfume because of immortelle, which I adore. But don't expect IM to reveal it's immortelle beauty like Immortelle de Corse or Sables; on my skin it's buried under a sour fruitiness of raspberry, paired with Womanity's or Aqua Motu's savory smell. Why the note of "hazelnut" is voted highly is beyond me, because I don't smell hazelnut - more likely hazelnut oil, which smells different; still only the idea, not a real note of it. I do get the ylang ylang, but it doesn't save the perfume to me. And there is also no leather. But lots of a sweet-sour-sugery blast. Without all the sweetness and the raspberry this might have been interesting: Nuts and immortelle -> rough gourmand; but this fruit is just killing it all. I'd really recommend one thing: If you like this perfume, go to your next perfumery and test Womanity again with an open mind, they are of the same category. Womanity's fig note is exceptional, though, and makes it one of the best takes on the savory market of fumes. Womanity is less sweet and the fig fresh, whereas IM is too sweet and lacks some fresh counterpart. And by the way, if Womanity has a "caviar note" (which I don't think exists), IM has it, too. Oh, and if you like IM you'd also might like Ambre Gris from Balmain (Balmain, again, coincidence?). That's the take on IM from the other end of it's spectrum.