Faces of Francis

I’ve been testing a sample of Faces of Francis for a couple of weeks now. To my surprise I have come to love it, and have finally purchased it. It is gourmand, and sweet, which I typically avoid, but the sweetness feels balanced. On my skin it smells softly like almond with a veil of incense, with the incense smell outlasting the initial sweetness and becoming woodier and warmer as the night goes on. Still, it has an ineffable complexity to me. Perfumes for me often conjure a landscape, or a space. The incense note (maybe that’s the grilled pistachio?) conjures a large grand space, though not cold like a cathedral. Rather I picture a warm & ensconced grandiosity, dark wood and red velvet, like an opera house. The scent also gives me an idea of a character, or maybe a scenario; someone elegant, gracious, restrained, even chaste, which somehow makes the scent sexier in a way. This decadent scent is a perfect special occasion winter scent; I plan to wear it to the opera and to old style restaurants. (I can’t imagine wearing this scent in hot weather, although the description given by Vilhelm would make you think it’s a summer scent.) Though it has an ambiguity that works well for any gender, I would be especially intrigued to smell it on a man.

I've tested Drunk Saffron and don't find this similar. I do like this, it has a smoky DNA I get from Dear Polly and Poets of Berlin (love those) but I don't get the same sweetness in this one as I do the other two to balance it out. On my skin it actually reads more masculine. I've asked my hubby to give it a try, I think it's going to turn out beautifully on him! I'm on the fence about this for myself. If anything, I may end up getting the 20ml. EDIT: I tried this a few times, just a little bit on my skin then would wash it off as something "not me". Yesterday, I tried it before the hubby & I hopped in the car and I don't know if it was just the fact that it was like 65 with no humidity or the airflow of the windows down, but this fragrance bloomed into something that it hadn't been the other times before!!! The wafts I was getting was woody, sweet and savory scent. While I still don't think it's anything like BR540 or Drunk Saffron and still very much a relative to Dear Polly, it morphed into a love. I was certain my first FB from this house was going to be Moon Carnival or Dear Polly... C.O Bigelow is having a %20 off $100 and up Labor Day sale so I grabbed a bottle!

To begin with it goes without saying but I’ll still verbalize it:) that clearly all the reviews are subjective to their own experiences of olfactory taste and talent. IMHO when I read reviews of this fragrance, YSL baby cat, Rosendo Mateo 5 - all it makes me think the people who describe rubber and petroleum notes that are repulsive to them simply do not have developed nose to identify the actual fine notes of each fragrance. I adore all of those as well as queen of the night. It is such a loss not to appreciate those masterfully curated fragrances. But again, we all have our own genetical talents, as well as childhood exposure to nature that let us discover and understand more in the world of scents. If you never grew up on a farm or/and gardening for living during summers you’d never be able to identify many many notes. They are unknown. So it goes into the bucket of repulsive. Love this perfume. So complex, mystique and earthy. Not for everyone, especially if your nose is “young”.

Imagine floating in a warm bath of pistachios and cream, then suddenly someone throws you a long, slender, blackened twig. You grip it tightly in your hand and out wafts the aroma of vanilla. You look up as crocus blossoms drift down from above, a red and violet splash of color against the white surface of the tub. Now lower the vanilla bean in your hand into the warm cream bath and there you have Faces of Francis by Vilhelm Parfumarie. Some might be initially turned off by the initial blast of aldehydes, but that passes so quickly and mellows out into the sweet pistachio that sticks to you like baklava on a warm day. Sweet and creamy but not cloyingly sweet and perfect for the spring or fall or winter nights. So versatile that it is unisex for a man who embraces their masculinity but is not defined by it. For a woman, all the time.

I went through a period of wearing this scent to do readings at one of my favorites cafés last October and I decided to wear it again today. There is something bookish and sophisticated about this, but the unique blend of notes adds a playfulness that I just adore. It's sweet but not cloying, warm but assertive, unusual and familiar all at the same time. I don't get much of the toasted quality of the pistachio unless I'm up close to the skin, but this still has a delightful hum, especially in the colder months. As some have mentioned, there is a distinct, almost synthetic rubbery note, perhaps from the aldehydes--I'm not sure because I haven't worn a lot of aldehydic fragrances--but it actually heightens my enjoyment of the fragrance. I was on the fence at first but I've grown to love this in all its bizarre complexity.