Goutte De Mercure

This has been a love at first sniff for me. I smelled it at the airport, and it stole my heart away to be the most perfect old-school powdery, however also having some contemporary crispness to it. I have been in search of the perfect powdery scent for years, and there is always something that slightly annoys me. I think this is one of the closest to perfection soo far. I don't understand all the hatred that this perfume gets. After all the comments, and my love for this, I had to buy it's predecessors, Ombre Mercure and the Extrait, and all I can say is the following. Yes, this is a simplified version of Ombre, and does smell a bit different to it's predecessor. BUT, it's not a bad thing; I much prefer GouttedM as it has a warmer, resinous base of benzoin and sandalwood. It makes it so beautiful. I think what makes it so narcotic to me is this juxtaposition of the pretty violet, warm sweet benzoin with something ugly and dead, orris root with patchouli, which add a very earthy, soil-like quality to the whole concoction. It is as if you went to the garden and dug out violet and irises, left them lying there and dying, then it rained. Now what you come back to smell it, and it is the smell of something beautiful, what is left of the flowers and the dirty filthy soil. Although, it may not sound appealing, believe me, I mean it in a good way. This is a masterpiece. Ombre Mercure and the Extrait have too much "dead" quality to me in comparison to the pretty, and thus they are more masculine and a bit less wearable for me, although I still like them, they also lack the touch of sweetness from benzoin which is less noticeable. Goutte de Mercure, however, is a perfectly unisex classy powdery fragrance. Finally, yes, all of the three mentioned are very similar to Amouage Opus III from The Library Collection. I know people say that a lot, however here the similarity is really astounding, although, all in all Opus III may be the new winner for me as it is a bit "juicier" from the violet and yellow flowers, however the price is a bit too much for me! All in all, if you like powdery frags, do check it out! I find Terry to be one of the most underrated niche brands!

If my memory serves right, this is a bit of simplified, easier version of Ombre Mercure. I love both of them. This is slightly sweet (resinous sweet) orris root and violet leaf. There is of course some similarity to similar perfumes, but this quite airy and soft for an orris perfume. +

Really a flanker between the original "Ombre Mercure" and the "Extreme" version both by Terry de Gunzburg both sadly discontinued. This one is a worthy substitute for all those who have been orphaned by the discontinued "Ombre Mercure" in 2016, when the maison chanced everything updating the brand in "By Terry" maybe addressing a younger audience. It's missing some of the duality the original has: it's more easy to wear, less heavy/cloying, a lots of flowers are missing (iris, ylang yalang, rose, jasmin) and the patchouli is more calm, less earthy, the sandalwood is softer, it's greener without being fresh or grassy. Still presented in a edp intense version but IMHO is not as powerful as the original one, maybe is the lack of evolution, the lack of oppositions that alternated over time on skin (floral / earthy), it is still a good perfume but not a masterpiece, a "like" not a "love". If you loved the original "Ombre Mercure" could be as good as a flanker could be. If you never tried the original but like powdery elegant scent with a solid background this deserve a try, reflects the current taste for simpler/lighter and "neutral / androgynous" fragrances.

It starts with a vintage blast but quickly the sharp violet leaf cuts through with the mellow orris. At this stage I almost bought a full bottle right there and then. I love orris, sandalwood and benzoin, so this should have been my dream fragrance. The dry-down is just a bit too powdery for me. The powder increases and gets a bit baby powderish with some Old Spice thrown-in. It returns its vintage feel during this spicy-powder phase.

Violet leaf heaven to me - unusual. The brand itself seems to produce many scents that smell of offshoots of themselves. Not always a bad thing, unlike the oud scents? This, however, is heavenly! A must try if you can get your hands on a sample. Powdery, violety, beautiful!