parfums mdci: 2 posts

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

I love the idea of an abstract gourmand, a fragrance that subtly suggests an illusion of something delicious and tantalizing without making its gustatory references overly obvious. Parfums MDCI La Belle Helene starts from this premise: a hint of mouthwatering dessert woven into an elegant oriental composition. La Belle Helene is a perfume inspired by a classical dessert, Poires Belle-Hélène, which was in turn inspired by Offenbach’s operetta La belle Hélène. Just as the great chef Auguste Escoffier interpreted Offenbach’s lighthearted parody in his own manner, perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour pays his personal homage to Escoffier’s sublime combination of poached pears paired with vanilla ice-cream, chocolate sauce and candied violets. La Belle Helene is a story of rosewater poached pear set into an elegant oriental backdrop of amber, incense and vetiver.

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

After first inhaling Enlèvement au Sérail from Parfums MDCI, I envisioned a slender figure wrapped in voluminous furs. The image was rendered in sepia tones, misty and soft, hinting at the tenderness of this classical composition. It immediately evokes the sumptous sensation of the grand French perfumes that makes me feel as if I am gliding across a mirrored ballroom dressed in a silk gown. When a fragrance makes one feel like a princess out of a Tolstoy novel, or perhaps, a Ballets Russes dancer, how can it be ignored?

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