Divine Vanille (Essential Parfums) presents a vanilla fragrance without excesses of garnish or distraction. It honours the complex material and builds from it - never working against it. Respecting its floral tones, as well as its smoky ones, Divine Vanille is pure and delightful - totally true to its name. Subtle additions including osmanthus, cinnamon, and tonka bean develop vanilla’s complex profile. While Sin & Pleasure (BTSO) is a hedonistic embrace of vanilla: sugar-coated, confectionary, and turned into caramel and nutty praline. A tender and soft powdery touch of almond is essential here, as well as the gentle melting warmth of ylang-ylang. As the fragrance progresses, a serious backbone of patchouli and oud ensures longevity and intrigue.
Celebrating the balsamic depth of vanilla, Harvest Mouse from Zoologist feels like autumn: its blend of hay, malt, chamomile and clove lends a soothing spiciness, while benzoin, opoponax, peru balsam, and sandalwood create an ambery blanket as soft as cashmere. Vanilla blends and blurs, bridging these two impressions. Comfort can also be found in Frustration (Etat Libre d’Orange). Its warm and spicy profile the result of rum and chestnut notes that have been lightly spiced with cumin and cinnamon, and set against a solid base of vetiver and labdanum. Boozy and glowing with warmth, temptingly oily but dry, woody, and smoky at the same time, Frustration is a seriously mature gourmand - its vanilla aspect essential to its balance.
Memoirs of a Trespasser by Imaginary Authors perfectly showcases a vanilla fragrance stripped of its typical gourmand associations. Here the wrinkles of this product turn into grains of wood. Impressions of clay and charred oak barrels work with the balsamic depth of guaiac and sweet myrrh. An earthy-woody fragrance redolent of being by the fireplace, vanilla offers a softening counterpoint to an intense dryness. Althair (Parfums de Marly) works on the opposite principle, favouring exuberance. A delicious vanilla-infused praline is carried high up the atmosphere on the back of tender orange blossom and bergamot. The result is familiar, working with an addictive tension between smoky and sweet, heavy and light. Althair is smooth and balanced.
