ANNICK GOUTAL MUSC NOMADE: Musc Nomade is an excellent piece of work from the Goutal Les Orientalistes series. I’m not certain why I’ve ignored it up until this point, but it has a casual, semi-sweet charm that takes the sometimes difficult to wear musk and makes it a no-brainer for any occasion.
The scent is fairly linear, so you’re not going to run across any delightful (or undelightful, for that matter) surprises radiating off your skin several hours later. It is what it is, from start to finish, but what it is is a white musk that’s injected with just enough ambery notes (tonka, labdanum, almond) to counterbalance its soapy tendencies, leaving you smelling clean, yet warm and easily approachable.
The gourmand almond element particularly distinguishes Musc Nomade from the majority of its white musk competitors.
Re: “easily approachable” as a descriptive term for a slightly gourmand fragrance — I find that “yummy” and “easily approachable” can often be interchangeable; take, for example, cupcakes: definitely yummy, and certainly very (very!) easy to approach. You don’t even have to sneak up on them . . .
Musc Nomade employs a similar tactic. It lulls the wearer by sitting comfortably on the serving platter of the skin, waiting patiently to be devoured noticed, if not complimented.
CZECH & SPEAKE FRANKINCENSE & MYRRH: Opens with that fresh pine & mint-like one-two punch of true frankincense, then warms by degrees, finishing up with a way musty, after the service Catholic church smell (that would be the myrrh mixed with cedar and sandalwood).
This is an old-school incense fragrance and unlikely to please a post-modern crowd, but Czech & Speake is a self-styled old-school perfume house with traditional looking labels and a deliberately crafted country gentleman image, even though it introduced its first fragrance only about twenty five years ago.
It reminds me a bit of Regina Harris’ Frankincense Myrrh Rose Maroc, except that the Czech & Speake doesn’t have any of that amazing rose that sits at the heart of the Harris fragrance. The one advantage of the Czech & Speake is that it’s a spray cologne and not a thick oil, though I don’t consider that a whole lot of advantage over the long haul.
Summary: Musc Nomade wins by a K.O.
OFF TOPIC:
Art photo for the day:
A glass vase on the kitchen table. The afternoon sunlight hit it just right.
{ 6 comments }
LOVE Musc Nomade…took me a while to warm up to it (I had a hard time even smelling it at first), but now i covet a bottle.
Right. I’m beginning to think I unfairly overlooked the 4th release in this series.
Love that pic! Do you remember Astro Pops back in the 70′s? They were those suckers that were a slender cone shape? The vase in the picture looks like a wet Astro Pop. Very cool.
Oh and as for Musc Nomade, I wish I got the same scent you did. It burned my nostrils when I spritzed it on to sample it.
Dawn
I remember AstroPops! And yes, you’re absolutely right. Now that you’ve mentioned it, I now see a bright, wet AstroPop in front of the blue sky.
And Musc Nomade burned your nostrils? Wow. It went on so smooth and tame and nearly sweet for me. One of these days, if we ever find ourselves in the same room, I’ll spritz some on and you can let me know if I’m perhaps completely unaware of how I walk about the earth, scorching the nostrils of everyone I pass . . .
ROFL you walking nostril burner! Hmmm, wonder what I could wear that would burn your nostrils? Spellbound perhaps? ;0
Have a good day.
p.s. I really wanted the Musc Nomade to work because I love musk perfumes. When I sampled it, I was so disappointed that it didn’t smell the way I expected it to. I know it’s billed as a unisex fragrance, but I found it to be a bit more on the masculine side. I still have a sample left, so I’ll spritz it on my hubby to see if smells different to me on him.
Crossing my fingers and hoping it smells fan-frickin-tastic on the hubby, otherwise I’m faced with a serious case of rethinking . . . and I really hate to waste my time thinking.