Passerelle

Honeysuckle and wet foliage in your back yard or a city park. I find the floral and the green chase each other around all day, first one and then the other. I get about seven hours of staying power and a sillage of a little more than arm length. It's retains and may even have greater longevity and sillage in hot and humid weather-by which I mean about 90 fahrenheit and humid enough to break a sweat while walking briskly. While it's true I can separate the jasmine, rose, and paperbark with an effort, the overall impression is of a blooming, damp, honeysuckle where about half the blooms are just past their peak. If you're near the bush and there's a breeze you'll experience the green and the floral sometimes alone and sometimes together, and that's how Passerelle acts on my skin.

I love my bottle of this one. This is a close up on a bumble bee, buzzing with its nose deep in a flower, and absolutely covered in pollen all over. It's a really sunny yellow and powdery floral, with just the right amount of sweetness, waxy oiliness, and fresh green edge to keep it interesting. It lasts a really long time on me, as it shifts around in tone, and I find it's a real mood lifter... happiness in a bottle!

A lovely yellow-floral "greenish" perfume. The mimosa really stands out here, pillowed in winter sweet and honeysuckle. It is soft, fresh and plush with a green edge of petit grain. Floral fans will adore this one.

Have you ever watched a streetcorner card hustler working the crowd playing three card monte? It used to be big in New York in the 80s. It’s a spin on the shell-game. It’s a classic short-con. It's only three cards, right? No one's hands can move that fast, right? And those other nice-looking people win, right? (Ringers—the other part of the con.) It was endless fun watching the tourists fall for it. Passerelle is three-card monte with flowers. Granted, in perfumery flowers aren’t actually flowers, they’re ‘floral notes’. That’s the long-con of perfumery. The jasmine starts watery and sweet and the honeysuckle is a temperate climate’s closest thing to a tropical sensibility. Then the floral notes cycle through tones: sweet, then leafy, then rosy crisp, then cold and vegetal. It’s the floral three card monte. The heart notes begin when when a growing mimosa notes kicks in. Perhaps this notes was hidden underneath the shuffling of the headnotes, but I don’t smell the mimosa for the first 10 minutes or so of Passerelle. Maybe it’s simply the catch-me-if-you-can nature of mimosa. I often have a hard time identifying mimosa in a perfume. It seems to have an ambiguous quality, like a statement followed by a retraction. Sweet, but not entirely. Waxy, but not really. Powdery, almost. Unfortunately, the mischievous quality of the start of the perfume burns itself out pretty quickly and the Puck-like start of the perfume seems like a ruse. The perfume becomes undistinguished in the particular way that a mixed florals can grow faceless. A touch of green remains, but it is too sweet, suggesting that the freshness of the opening of the perfume was too much effort to maintain, and Passerelle threw in the towel.

What a stunning hit from Sooni. I often say that my chemistry amplifies green notes, so this wears fresh and clean on me. The green is chewy, not sharp; soft and not brassy. I"m reminded of Antonia's Flowers Absolu, which is another 'want to buy' Floral Green on my list. Longevity, when applied generously, is all day. Sillage is moderate. Fairly linear. I'd say it's similar in style to Apres L'Ondee, another spring scent with heady greenery. As for emotions, the scent evokes optimism, serenity, and hope. Could be worn anywhere, but best for day. NOthing here will offend anyone. It's truly lovely. And truly, I think I must buy...

I admire but don't personally like this fragrance. It's a bit too fresh to be a proper mimosa, and a bit too sweet to be a proper fresh floral. It doesn't strike a perfect balance. Instead, it makes me wish it were a little different, in any of a number of possible different ways. Almost.