Route Mandarine

My concentration spam is larger than that of a kitten but not by much. Which means that the rather fabulous samples I got months ago at Fragranze fair are not all reviewed.
Route Mandarine is a soft oriental, somewhat similar to the discontinued Opium d'Été. I mean, it is similar in concept and well, there's cinnamon, muguet and vanilla. Ylang-ylang in the top notes is very prominent and combined with cinnamon and muguet, it gets a mellifluous quality. Mellifluous is not a random nice word, after only a few minutes the fragrance turns to honey soli-... something. (1) Or honey with a dash of that Tesco smothie that made me sick the other day, it was mango and something (2) and there's a touch of a fruity zing in the scent. The citruses do not demonstrate as citrusy in a lemon cologne, there is a bit of bitter petitgrain that reminds me, as petitgrain does, of uncleaned litterbox from five metres afar. Orange is that touch of unripe strawberries - I should get some education, maybe these contain the same thing.
And... the fragrance works best in hot weather. Just now I'm sitting in my Florence place, sweating profusely, and the fragrance that had appeared not really bad but not entirely excellent got much better in heat, getting somewhat close to Asja.

Erm... I've been struggling with this review for more than a month. I've ran out of the generous sample so just a brief summary: this is a lovely oriental and it goes to my wishlist. Enough said.


(1) Soliflor means single flower. Similarly, and excuse my dog Latin, soliradix would be a single root, a vetiver thing, for example, and soliherba would be anything made of the parts above ground of a plant, a green cologne. The more knowledgeable among us can play this to infinity and beyond but thinking of it, I wouldn't venture into the territory of anal glands.
(2) The reason for my sick was not Tesco but the idiotic idea of drinking fruit juice in the morning when every cell of my body calls for triple dose of caffeine and stomach lining is still deeply asleep.


Top notes: Egyptian geranium, Florida orange, bergamot, Italian mandarin, clove, Ivory Coast citron, cinnamon and ylang ylang.
Heart notes: Patchouli, Bulgarian rose, muguet, Egyptian jasmine, orange blossom, Indian sandalwood and Haitian vetiver.
Base notes: White musk, vanilla, amber, Spanish labdanum, Indian ince.

Anse Turquoise

Manuel Canovas started in 1963 as a conpany producing printed fabrics and wallpapers.

In 2007, a line of scented candles and fragrances was launched and the generous lady of Beauty San, the Italian distrubutor flooded me with their samples upon hearing that I'm a perfume blogger (1). I sniffed it but somehow didn't bring myself to give it thorought attention until recently

The Canovas Fragrance website only offers information on the scented candles, explaining their inspiration thusly:

There were many inspirations that prompted Monsieur Canovas to create these elements for home: his French childhood, Indian art, refined colours, the perfection of Japanese graphic arts and geometry, nature, American folk art and his travels to the Far East.

I suppose the same may be applied to the perfumes: a pêle-mêle that may be interesting or lead to a disaster. When I read the notes for Anse Turquoise, I expected the latter because muguet and caramel sounded at least suspicious. The result was however pleasing.
At first, there is the proclaimed magnolia and muguet but soon enough, another tangy, almost adstringent note that I seem to associate with tuberose (or jasmine) and bergamot resurfaces. And, obviously, caramel. It is not strongly present but the sweet buttery something juts from under the heap of flowers, rendering them more rounded. Sometimes the scent seems to be almost buttery.
Oddly enough, the drydown gets almost metallic - I guess it's caramel and the citrus notes combined that create this effect.
The inspiration is the Goa fabric design - green canvas with orange corals and pink seashells, as well as the Port of Gustavia at St. Barth. I somehow associate holiday fragrances with myrtle and similar fresh notes, such as Hyle or Agave, this one could work rather well.

The whole fragrance line of Manuel Canovas, Les fantaisies parfumés, can be obtained from the Canovas Fragrances site and at various retailers for $95 for a 100 ml bottle of eau de parfum.
Notes for Anse Turquoise:
top notes: magnolia
middle notes: citruses, ylang-ylang, Ceylon cinnamon, muguet, tuberose
base notes: caramel, amber, Peruvian balsam, oakmoss

Picture taken from the Canovas Fragrances

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(1) laugh if you wish