Smeraldo

Sylvaine Delacourte has a gift for creating emotionally impactful scents. This one immediately took me back to the early Sunday mornings of my childhood and to cuddling with my mother in bed. I first got a beautiful, fresh, herbal angelica with crisp green anise and mint facets, brightened by fragrant, juicy notes of yuzu and lime. The pear starts peeking through after a few minutes and brings a creamy, comforting aspect to the scent. Hawthorne and rose unite to further round up this perfume and give it a dose of gentle sophistication. The lentisque, vetiver and cedar leaf constitute the backbone of Smeraldo, creating a warm, slightly resinous and dusty vegetal backdrop. This is a perfume that smells very safe - not in the sense of "uninventive", but in the sense that it smells like being safe feels. The vegetal creaminess and herbal-fruity notes wrap around you just like the pashminas Delacourte describes as her inspiration for this collection. Just like a high-quality pashmina, Smeraldo also hits that perfect balance between comforting and elegant. It's a bit more mature than I usually go for (not in a bad way, it's just clearly made for people older than myself) but I'll very happily come back to it in a few years.

I was not a big fan of the vanilla collection by Sylvaine Delacourte, but I love the musk collection, which is funny cause I'm usually much more into vanilla than musk. Smeraldo is my favorite, closely followed by Dovana. This is such a beauty. In the opening I smell the refreshing notes of angelica and yuzu, but this isn't quite as herbal and green as the notes pyramid and the name suggest. The creamy and sweet notes come out quickly. Juicy and natural pear, a musk as soft as a baby's skin, hawthorn and warm mastic. Hawthorn is a note that doesn't get much use in perfumery, and I wonder why - it's so nice in here, kind of almond-like. The whole composition smells somewhat vanillic, too. It's so soft and silky smooth, but not uninteresting. Ultra fluffy sweet musk with surprising green and fruity accents. Cozy and comforting. If this was a color, it would be pastel pistachio green with specks of light pink. I love it.

Wow - I have been blown away by first impressions of this one. Love at first sniff for me. I have had this sample pack for some time and this one hadn't particularly drawn me to test it from its description - but today I tried it and I adore it from the off. Such a great balance between green and sweet, herbal and gourmand. In its composition, though the notes are not the same, it reminds me of Caron's Aimez Moi - the way there is a herby top over a warm and fruity base. I can't really tell which fruits I can smell - though I guess yuzu, pear and lime make sense. Ethereal but substantial. However, I will say that whilst it's not completely fleeting, after a few hours the scent is mostly diminished, leaving a musky base that is a bit underwhelming. Still, for the exuberant earlier stages, I would be happy to respray.

Smeraldo is probably my favourite of La Collection Muscs. In saying that, I rather like all of them. They all provide rather intelligent looks into what a fragrance should be. At least, what a good musky fragrance should be. All of them thankfully avoid the animalic musk that one might expect if coming in unaware - they're all crystal clear refinement. Smeraldo is creamy, luscious and pure delight. There doesn't seem to be one misstep on my skin as it all blends with my skin sumptuously. Angelica is an accord that I'd not really come across before Smeraldo and I must say, I enjoyed this thouroughly. A soft, not too fruity pear comes out to play at around the 30 minute mark and stays almost all the way throughout. Just beautiful.

The bright dry herbal/citrus blast in the first seconds of this spray settles into a creamy sweet fragrance that is elegant and sublime. I would give anything for it to project across the room and to trail behind me for hours but alas, it is a skin scent within the hour...I still catch whiffs of it trailing up through my décolleté throughout the day so there is longevity. The quality of ingredients is evident but I cannot determine yet if I will spring for the full bottle or even the travel sizes yet...For fans of Guerlain's Angélique Noire there are some elements here that you will definitely like! EDIT: I did spring for the travel size and the more I wear it the more I love it and I am thinking to go for the full bottle.