On a cool, windy Michigan morning, I have decided to comfort myself by wearing the lovely Myrrhe Ardente by Annick Goutal. It is described as follows:
Myrrhe Ardente (Perfervid Myrrh)Myrrhe Ardente is the most gourmand of scents and, to my nose, the most original too. It starts with an overdose of vanilla, which evokes vanilla ice cream then segues into a complex liquorish-y impression with a Maraschino (cherry liqueur) nuance and green herbal undertones. There is the coolness and oddness of aniseed on a woodsy leathery background.Natural myrrhe has a coldness and freshness about it and here the sensations have been reinforced with mentholated nuances. It also evokes wormwood and the drink derived from it, Absinthe. It is an interesting even captivating contrasted composition offering an unexpected soft green, slightly misty and medicinal character.The perfume through this association has a magical quality like going back in time to a 19th century Parisian café and smelling the absinthe-y breath of Verlaine half-stupefied before a glass of the green faerie. The café bar or comptoir shines in the shadowy light of a gloomy café. It smells now a little bit of dragée or sugar-coated almonds.It is a fascinating scent, difficult to place. The mind travels from a kahvehane or coffee house in Istanbul where Pierre Loti is smoking a shisha wearing babouches to a dingy café beloved by sublime drunks like Verlaine and Rimbaud. The scent becomes more powdery and feminine but is still infused with this strange oblique and mysterious aura. It smells a bit of hay.The perfume presents affinities with Serge Lutens Douce Amère, but it is completely different at the same time.
I remember the first sniff of Myrrhe Ardente. It is rare that I have an instant love with a fragrance, they usually have to grow on me, but not this one. I felt regal, as if I was wearing a dress of the softest satin with a lovely Pashmina cashmere stole around my shoulders, as I sipped warm buttered rum while sitting before a beautiful fire in my fireplace. This is a fragrance that I will love for a long time.
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