Jardins d'Armide

So... Jardins d'Armide... 🫠 After falling in love with Déjà Le Printemps, I excitedly ordered more samples of Oriza L. Legrand fragrances. I tried the first three: 1) Beautiful, 2) Sophisticated, 3) Evocative... Then I put this one to paper. Qu'est-ce que c'est??? It was a whiny musky note. Not terribly strong, but also not pleasant. It was so unfortunate and I was ready to write a very disappointed review. Then I let it sit on the paper strip and tested some other fragrances and returned to it later. QUE BELLE!!! It had (almost) completely transformed! This has a very beautiful effervescent quality to it, along with a sweetness that reminds me of photorealistic candy, like pastilles or SweeTarts. Yes, there is definitely rose, violet, marigold: But the best quality rose, violet, and marigold I have ever smelled! Gorgeous! The opening has long been forgiven, and this is definitely a masterpiece! I never thought I would love a fragrance so floral as this one, but she's a beauty! She's one in a million girls! Don't fall in love 😉 Perfect 10/10.

I do love cosmetic powder/rice powder scents. They’re my retro guilty pleasure. This one is rose heavy on me, with the violet/Orris playing supporting roles. The opening is a bit harsh and a little bitter, but that’s actually grown on me quite a bit. Once it settles the purple and red flowers are still vibrant but in softer focus,.It’s powdery, but not talcy baby powder. I guess I could compare it to ELDO Putain de Palaces and Maria Candida Gentile Burlesque. The balance of powder/floral elements are different for each one, but they’re the same idea though this calls to mind a Versailles palace as opposed to a one night stand in a hotel or the Moulin Rouge. I used to love the ELDO until I tried Burlesque, which smelled like better quality materials and more polished and filled-in in comparison. The Oriza may have knocked Burlesque off it’s pedestal, though. I’m hankering for a bottle. One of these days...

My experience with it doesn't quite match the scent pyramid. From top to bottom I mostly smell a powdery mix of violet and rose with something that smells like incense--not honey like I hoped--but frankincense or something churchy. Carnation provides an old smell, like dust that has accumulated on books that nobody has touched for a hundred years. I have been sampling a lot of perfumes lately that all happen to smell like churches. This smells more like a chapel, a melancholy one, where services are held regularly although hardly anyone ever attends. The chapel is hundreds of years old, made of cold stone, like the cathedrals of Europe. Colored light streams in through stained glass windows. The scent of flowers lingers in the air, flowers that are beginning to wither in their vases. They are changed every Sunday morning. Today is Saturday. Sillage is minimal. Longevity is a solid 12 hours or more.

This is my favorite Oriza L. Legrand perfume I’ve tried so far. It smells of very powdery, honeyed florals, mainly rose and violet. This is sweeter than I expected, and at first I thought it might be too sweet for my taste, but I’ve since fallen in love with it. Jardins d’Armide smells incredibly romantic! It’s so soft (texture, not intensity), sweet, and powdery. The sweet honey base is a bit chalky, even screechy, but it’s what makes this so noticeably vintage – no warm, generic, ambroxan-y base to be found here. Sillage is moderate, and longevity is 6-ish hours. This perfume always makes me feel so pretty! I’m currently on a hunt for the perfect powdery fragrance, and this is a strong contender. I might have to get a bottle of this, we’ll see... EDIT: Found my perfect powdery scent in Teint de Neige, but I’d still love to add a full bottle of this to my collection.

Very sexy grandma perfume - starts with a very strong parma violets smell, like a violet-scented powder puff, which smells delicious but doesn't necessarily smell like a great perfume. It made me wonder if floral perfumes with powdery undertones could ever truly be in vogue again, the way fruity gourmands with ambery notes are in vogue right now. I liked the whimsy of that first moment though, and I kind of went about my day, occasionally getting a whiff of the parma violet scent. Then after a period of not really noticing it, I went to smell my wrist and found it had dried down to a really beautiful honey scent - it becomes so intimate and sexy, I was totally surprised at how much I like it. It makes me think of porcelain dolls, powder rooms, the old style jelly candies that are covered in flour. It's a shy yet whimsical scent with an underlying sexiness.