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.

I love Angelica so I was interested in test driving this scent, my first from Sylvaine Delacourte. This is based off wearing Smeraldo for about 4 hours. My skin eats perfume, so anything that lasts beyond a few hours is very good. I think the strength here is that this feels really natural, nothing synthetic in this composition. After the first fifteen minutes this remains very linear, but I love it so I’m not complaining. I can’t decifer the individual notes, I just get vague impressions: citrus, floral then woods. Projection is soft. Overall thumbs up, this is a gorgeous scent.

This another lovely from Sylvaine. I soon got the rose and something green and almost minty. A light fruity sweetness and a touch of tang. Fresh yet warm and green. Spring sunshine on a woodland glade. The yuzu and angelica bring something special to this lovely. Perfect for spring wear. The musk is evident but it softens the other notes and gives a creaminess. Sadly it stays close to my skin and longevity is poor. A matching scented lotion might aid longevity.

I tested all fragrances from the Musk Collection some time ago and fell in love with 4 of them. Smeraldo had to be the 1st one added to my collection because of its uniqueness. It just stole my heart. This it a green musky scent with a dominant angelica note. Smeraldo is very well balanced and blended to perfection. It's aromatic, slightly powdery and a bit sweet. I feel very relaxed when I wear it; this fragrance calms me down. It feels like a second skin...

This is nice unusual a sort of caramelized green forest grass fir mango imprisoned by caramel talc, almondy cottony vanillic tonka powdery notes plus this bitter green fruity caramel Soapy Intriguing I enjoy __________ But officially notes are: Yuzu Vetiver Angelique Lentisque Hawthorn Pear Rose Lime Cedar Leaf

I love the scent, unfortunately doesn't last longer than 4hrs and stops projecting after 30 minutes. Still, I got the bottle. Smells marvelous, relaxing and green, just wish it would have better performance.

Okay so...Let's review the musc collection from Sylvaine Delacourte and I have to say on the whole I found all three collections to be slightly lacking. At first I thought, good craftsmanship, realtive value for money, mild Guerlain derivatives but you could do a lot worse than to emulate Guerlain...however on balance for the few that are good there's some here (mainly in the Vanille collection) that are plain unwearable. This was my first outing in collection muscs and it's a cozy musk lovers dream come true I'd say. I'm in a phase of loving warm,clean, fuzzy, hazy, diffuse, collection of paint samples with names like 'Sugared Almond' 'Gentle slumber' and 'Cappuccino foam'. This is a gently swaying barley field of a fragrance but not before it opens with a positively fresh, juicy fig like note, giving a fruity and uplifting start to what is a lazy Sunday morning of a scent. I need to be sure not to run out of analogies because I've a feeling the entire collection is going to be like this. Descends into a touch of fruity aldehyde musk powder and a mild balmy amber and then BANG!!! Sweet, vanilla clouded, ambrette type of base but the heart is vaguely floral and sticks around. In fact the 'base' is fresher and less ambrette like as the drydown changes yet again to a transparent resin and almost aquatic, Angelique Noire. For lovers of low impact, pretty and personal musks this is a delight.

There are so many notes in this that my nose doesn't know, so this will be a lame review in that respect. I can't tell you about the angelica, mastic or hawthorn but I will say that I really like this. The initial spray is all about the lime and Vetiver, along with some very fresh green notes. Really woke me up this morning! It quickly settled into a cozy, soft, delicate musk with subtle sweet notes from the pear. This is somehow fresh and warm at the same time. I don't usually go for the fresh/green notes but it's working perfectly here with the soft musk. This is the fourth fragrance I've tried from the line. I've tried Vangelis, Florentina and Valkyrie and I definitely smell the common DNA, which is a winner for me. While not everyone is enjoying her take on musk or vanilla, it really suits me. I've been leaning towards soft, fluffy, cocoon scents lately and these have all worked in that regard. Also I'm getting better sillage and longevity with her scents than most other fragrances I wear. I can smell this at arms length and it's still going strong after 5 hours. I also appreciate the 2 ml sizes in the discovery sets. It's allowed me to try a single fragrance at least four times.

This is a light, sweet, pear-centric scent on my skin. The slight bitterness and astringency of herbal notes holds back the scent from veering into saccharine territory. I sense some rosy notes and citric freshness that adorn Smeraldo to round off the edges, but the pear is definitely the star here. How I wish this fragrance projected more! It is optimistic and cheery, but it dies down to a skin scent in half an hour.

I love the green powdery musk and herbal freshness that Angelica brings to this. I am realizing that I am a fan of this note because it shows up in a lot of stuff I love and when I’m not actively seeking it out. It's amazing. Seems like that may be a point of contention, so I'm not sure if this is a safe blind buy. But this is what I'd want to turn to for something green, fresh, lightly sweet, and clean.

drydown heavily reminds me of a slightly citrus French Lover by FM, likely from the angelica/vetiver/cedar. the opening is a little harsh, with an odd piney citrus, but 20 minutes later I'm in love. I'll test both this and FL side by side to see if it's worth it to just drop the money on FL instead.

Not a huge fan on first spray! It opens with a green note that leans screechy and unfortunately like some sort of counter spray. As it dries down, I find it being slightly more pleasant and loses that harsh quality. It becomes sweeter and slighter muskier; instead of just a chemical disinfectant scent, it’s now a slightly pleasant chemical disinfectant scent. I don’t dislike this altogether, but not the hugest fan!

I'm not a fan of this. It's a very strange composition. Too green. Too sharp. A weird sweet to dry aspect that I find nauseating. Like a bad food recipe, the ingredients don't mesh. I'm really sorry to be so harsh as this has a lot of notes I love, and I really want to be fair to this brand, but it just doesn't work for me. Fortunately, I only had to tolerate it for a few hours before it became a skin scent. When I smell where I sprayed it reminds me of Sage Machado's Sage, which I love. I wish this fragrance would have been more like that then there would have been no need for such a negative review. I will put this sample away to try again during a different season. Maybe I'll hit the jackpot and get out of it what other reviewers seem to be getting, in which case I'll revise my review. But as of now, I don't like this at all.

First spray is an old green, like green stems that were cut yesterday and sitting in a pile at the florists shop. Could be the heavy influence of Angelica. It's a bit nauseating at first. I wanted to wash it off but resisted in the hopes that it would evolve into the promise of a fresher musky green. It did not. Instead, dries down to a baby powder like green musk that lasts several long hours.

Pleasant and relaxing, but a bit too mature for me, I’ll revisit when I’m older.

Not a fan at all. Smells like a stale floral body spray.