Michel Almairac: 12 posts

I keep misreading Bottega Veneta Eau Légère as Eau de Lingerie. Perhaps not such a strange mistake considering that it’s a silk slip of a perfume.  Sheer and delicate, it wears close to the skin, and just like a beautifully crafted lingerie, it makes me feel sexy and alluring. Designed as a variation (read, flanker) on the brand’s debut perfume, Bottega Veneta Eau de Parfum, Bottega Veneta Eau Légère has a similarly elegant character.

Elegance is something I fully expected from Bottega Veneta, but I didn’t anticipate anything interesting from its flankers. Brands rarely spend enough effort to develop original ideas, and since the rewards for flanker launches are small, perfumers often have few incentives to try very hard. Bottega Veneta Eau Légère is neither avant-garde nor trendsetting, but it’s made well enough that it stands on equal ground as the beautiful original. It only depends whether you prefer rich and glamorous or gauzy and sophisticated.

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Star rating: 5 stars–outstanding/potential classic, 4 stars–very good, 3 stars–adequate, 2 stars–disappointing, 1 star–poor.

It is rare that a movie sequel outshines the original. More frequently, the plot feels strained, the characters tired and the ideas bland. In the case of flankers, the perfume version of cinematic sequels, the same holds true. The original Chloé—the 2008 original, I mean, not the 1975 bombshell–was a lychee spiked rose that smelled simultaneously sharp and cloying. Given this inauspicious association, I did not think that its flanker L’Eau de Chloé would be different. And how wrong I turned out to be! L’Eau de Chloé is a spicy green chypre, with a bold rose note. It has enough retro glamour to wear like a full length ball gown and enough modern simplicity to feel as comfortable as a silk slip.

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Star rating: 5 stars–outstanding/potential classic, 4 stars–very good, 3 stars–adequate, 2 stars–disappointing, 1 star–poor.

To all those fearing doom for today’s perfumery and saying that there can be nothing good under the sun, I say—smell Bottega Veneta Eau de Parfum. Here we have a big “prestige brand” launching its first fragrance that by all accounts should be either a copycat or a predictable crowd pleaser. Instead, it is a sophisticated, polished composition with a voluptuous character. Bottega Veneta Eau de Parfum intertwines leather and violet notes into an intricate accord that feels like warm silk on the skin, and—in a rare occasion of marketing concept matching the olfactory idea—evokes the sumptuous feel of Bottega Veneta’s classical intrecciato woven leather.

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Star rating: 5 stars–outstanding/potential classic, 4 stars–very good, 3 stars–adequate, 2 stars–disappointing, 1 star–poor.

Smelling Gucci Rush is like looking into a kaleidoscope: while the colors remain the same, the shapes and effects they produce change depending on the angle. From one perspective, Rush is a fruity chypre, with a nod to the baroque loveliness of Guerlain Mitsouko and Jean Patou Colony. From another, it is a thoroughly modern fragrance with its radiant accord of florals and transparent moss notes. When I finally think that I have it figured out, it presents yet another twist–a patchouli-jasmine note reminiscent of Diorama and Diorella. Yet, Rush is more than the sum of its parts and its distinctive character and strong signature make it one of the best fragrances created over the past decade.

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Star rating: 5 stars–outstanding/potential classic, 4 stars–very good, 3 stars–adequate, 2 stars–disappointing, 1 star–poor.

The fifth Armani Privé fragrance, Cuir Améthyste, does not engage in any subtle interplays. In fact, subtle is probably the least appropriate adjective to use in describing this fragrance. From the dense tangle of powdery violet notes to the opaque vanillic-ambery base, Cuir Améthyste moves with a heavy step.

It might be surprising to discover that Cuir Améthyste is composed by Michel Almairac, the same perfumer who created the serene minimalism of Bois d’Encens and its more ornamental sibling, Gucci Pour Homme (2003). …

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