For the last eight months, the Annick Goutal Les Orientalistes coffret has been whispering my name — I would hear it just after the television had been switched off, the blankets pulled up around my neck, the hum of the air conditioning lulling me into sleep:
“Naaathaaaaaannn . . . I’m still heeeeeeerrrrrrrre!”
Mornings, I would get my cup of coffee, sit at the kitchen table, power up the laptop and check the Aedes de Venustas website to find that, sure enough, there it still was, the Annick Goutal Les Orientalistes coffret, a limited edition white leather box containing three gleaming, gold-metal clad bottles of Ambre Fetiche, Myrhhe Ardente and Encens Flamboyant in the pure parfum (extrait) formulation.
I would sigh, stroke my laptop’s LCD screen for a brief, tender moment, then move on with the rest of my day until, once again — nighttime, the television off, the blankets wrapped and tucked just so, my head nestled into the pillows:
“Naaaaaaaaathaaaaaaaaaannnnn . . . “
What finally nudged me from dreamy contemplation into decisive action was a discussion over at POL about how the Les Orientalistes series is beginning to disappear from retailers’ shelves — and I don’t mean that people are buying so much of it that they can’t keep it in stock, either. Neiman Marcus no longer shows the LE series on their website, Bergdorf Goodman no longer shows the series on their website, Nordstrom doesn’t carry it and Macy’s doesn’t seem to carry any Goutal at all (at least, not online).
Saks and Dillards are still showing the Les Orientalistes series for sale, but that’s a big cutback in retail outlets, and what with the fine fragrance industry as a whole reporting profit losses so far in 2009, well . . . “submit order” suddenly moved to the top of my priority list.
But really, can you blame me?
I’d previously only tested the EDP versions of the series, and in the extrait (pure parfum) formulation, they come across softer, smoother and less heavy. I could easily wear these throughout the summer without feeling like I was overdoing it at all.
I have the Ambre Fetiche and Encens Flamboyant layered as I type this, and the waft of scent is pretty close to what I’d objectively define as gorgeous. It’s a shame that Goutal didn’t make the extrait version as widely available as the EDP. It would be even more of a shame if the Les Orientalistes EDP series disappears due to a lack of sales, but I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that demand holds up . . . and I now have my coffret, just in case.
Maybe now I’ll finally be able to get some sleep.
