The Different Company is a delightful French perfume house that launched back in 2000, which makes it of very great and venerable age in the niche perfumery world. It was originally headed by the equally venerable, even famous, perfumer, Jean-Claude Ellena. He became so venerable that he retired, and now TDC, as it's known by perfumistas, is headed by his daughter, Celine Ellena, who works with a variety of perfumers. She now has 29 fragrances in the collection. I'm doing mini-reviews of my three current faves: Une Nuit Magnetique, Santo Incienso, and I Miss Violet.
I love Une Nuit Magnetique (by Christine Nagel) in part because it's an amber/oriental, and I own a ton of those, and also because it's the only blueberry perfume in my collection. It might be just about the only blueberry perfume in the world, excepting Demeter scents, they must have a Blueberry Muffin. Soft, radiant amber merges with mouthwatering blueberry, and a little piquant ginger suitably accents the whole. It's comforting without smelling like a blueberry cobbler, and works well in all kinds of weather. Even hurricane weather.
This is the one I wore during Hurricane Irma. I needed olfactory comfort real bad, and frankly, the smells that go with a hurricane, especially the aftermath with no electricity or running water, are not pretty. Une Nuit Magnetique got me through. Sadly, I now have trouble wearing it because it reminds me of Irma! So be careful what you wear during natural disasters, I've warned you.
Santo Incienso, from 2017 and signed by Alexandra Monet, highlights one of my favorite woody scents, palo santo from South America. Palo santo has an incredibly powerful odor, and it really wakes me up! It is so intense and unique, in fact, that it's very hard to work into a perfume. It takes over the operation like Al Capone at a flower show. Santo Incienso was a happy surprise; nutmeg, a variety of resins, and petigrain are added. You can't really pick them out, but it modifies and tames the palo santo, which is still very much the star of the show. It doesn't last very long, but it's bracing and original. Well done.
This little number is quite the shy violet, which is very odd, because it's by Bertrand Duchaufour, who is not known for retiring, subtle perfumes. It's quirky, though, and that fits his style. Lovely green violet leaf and flower joyfully burst out of the bottle; within about 15 minutes, a soft suede and contemplative iris take over. If you've tried his Cuir de Nacre for Ann Gerard, imagine it with a vivid, green-violet intro, and you've got the idea. It's not a clone, but it's definitely a riff on the same theme. The opening reminds me very much of The Unicorn Spell (remember that one?) without the green bean. After the first quarter hour, I Miss Violet wears very close the skin, and it's gone after a few hours. That's not considered a minus, anymore, it seems, and most of us want our perfume pretty subtle by the time we get to work. At any rate, it's a lovely gem.
