I've finally gotten around to testing Fifi Chachil's eponymous fragrance, and I've realized that all my searching for the perfect tobacco scent was an eyes-too-big-for-my-stomache situation. I kept trying tobacco scents and never found the right one. Tabac Aurea is lovely but too sweet, La Via del Profumo's Tabac is too butch, Hilde Soliani's Bel'Antonio is too brooding ... you get the picture. An all-out tobacco scent is something I really *thought* I should like, because I love the smell of a pipe-tobacco store that I used to visit in Harvard Square. I didn't really want a tobacco scent, though. I wanted the tobacco backdrop setting the stage. This is why I love Habanita, and that's -- O-KAY.
Fifi Chachnil edp is straight-up pin-up girl in the top notes, but the coriander keeps it from straying toward the gooey, and its green-spicey tartness bridges the tobacco with the rest of the girlie notes. It doesn't rely on the amber except to create a slight angora-sweater fuzz around that tobacco. The only thing that is a tiny bit disappointing is that in the far drydown, I get mostly amber, not the lovely melding of amber and tobacco that I smell earlier in the scent's development. I love the juxtaposition of tobacco and rosy floral, and I think I can put my tobacco hunt down for good.
Some other reviews of Fifi Chachnil are at Perfume Smellin' Things and Legerdenez.
1 comment:
Being a fan of tobacco woven in...and while I am one who can enjoy Tabac Aurea, I understand how it might pitch too sweet for some...you have definitely piqued my interest in the Fifi Chachnil. Re-piqued, I should say; I have (had?) a small sample vial, but don't recall getting tobacco out of it. Some scents, though, I think do better spritzed than dabbed. I'll have to seek out a better portion.
There's a tease in the "green-spicey tartness" that you mention as a bridge, too, come to think of it.
Post a Comment