La Perla edp - A dainty basque-ing shark of a chypre

La Perla basque - source: eBay

There have been a few posts knocking around the blogosphere lately, discussing what stage people are at in their perfume trajectory - eg the frenzied acquisitive stage or a more jaded plateau stage, typically hit around the five year mark.  Well, I would describe myself as very much in that later phase, for I wouldn't necessarily cross the road to sniff the latest fragrance release unless I was pretty sure I was going to be blown away by it.  Nor do I expect any major perfume epiphanies at this point in my life as a perfumista - any more than I expect to fall madly in love again.  Oh all right then...never say never.  ;-) And that is also how I felt the other day when my good friend Gillie - my scented mentor in the bonkers herb garden challenge - mentioned that she had received a perfume sample as a gift with purchase. This happens to me from time to time, and I always accept gracefully, sometimes rehoming the sample in question if it is something Herbal Essence-y from Clarins, or one of those disappointing inbetweener perfumes like Valentina by Valentino.  On this particular occasion Gillie handed over a sample of La Perla edp, which she had doubtless been given with an underwear purchase, though I was naturally too polite to ask outright.  For La Perla is of course an Italian design house specialising in lingerie and beachwear, and La Perla edp is the brand's first foray into the fragrance market.

On its very irritating website, so typical of high end fashion brands, there is lots of flash gimmickry and sideways scrolling images hovering right over the bit you want to read.  The print is in a tiny font, white out of black - yes, even worse than my blog! - but I did manage to decipher the following background to the brand

'The designer Ada Masotti opens a corset boutique in Bologna with a promising name - La Perla. The name was inspired by the jewel-like case with red velvet in which th e first products were delivered.'

Asa Masotti, possibly wearing a corset of her own fabrication - source: nonsoloborse.net

Interesting mix of tenses there.  And I have never seen an oyster with a red velvet interior, but we'll let that minor point go in the spirit of poetic licence.  Over the years La Perla gradually expanded its range, adding coloured underwear as well as flesh toned garments, introducing bodies made entirely of elastic lace and so on, and then in 1986 its first perfume was born.

I was interested to read the company's commentary on the bottle, designed by Pierre Dinant (not to be confused with the Belgian town of that name).  Its shape is described as 'winding'(??) and evocative of the feminine figure.  The fragrance itself is intended to encapsulate the essence of the La Perla brand, namely 'luxury and seduction'.  Now I have yet to meet a woman with a physique remotely like the La Perla bottle, though I do find its curves most pleasing.  As for the the scent itself, there I am in complete agreement, for I was completely smitten with La Perla from the first sniff.  This is because it niftily manages to combine two of my favourite genres in one - a wispy, soft skin scent and a subtly raunchy 'pulling scent'.  I must say I haven't found two note listings the same, but this one from a retailer called 'Clickfragrance' grabbed me as much as any...:-)

La Perla edp notes: carnation, freesia, osmanthus, light citrus floral notes, coriander, pepper, cardamom, jasmine, rose, patchouli, oakmoss, sandalwood and musk

Source: bijouperfumes.co.uk

There are very few reviews of La Perla edp, but The Non-Blonde was impressed, and likens it to 80s diva scents such as Fendi and Paloma Picasso.  I can totally see the connection with Paloma Picasso - I am not sure I have ever tried Fendi in fact - and when you compare the notes (from Fragrantica this time), there is some interesting crossover in terms of their chypre base and the presence of carnation and coriander.  However, it is important to say that La Perla is a very quiet scent, the quietest, most delicate example of a throwback chypre you could possibly imagine.  And it is a long time since I smelt Paloma Picasso, when I will have found it jolly scary on account of its multiple whammy of animalic notes.  But these days I am much more game with respect to the 'business end' of small mammals.  I am speaking metaphorically, obviously.

Paloma Picasso notes: coriander, angelica, carnation, aldehydes, ylang-ylang, jasmine, hyacinth, oakmoss, patchouli, sandalwood, vetiver, tobacco, castoreum, civet and musk

Source: theperfumestop.co.uk

Hmm, even the Paloma Picasso bottle has that two-tone, vaguely ovoid bottle shape going on...

Go on then, how does it smell?

Word associations that spring to mind when La Perla hits the skin are 'cool, silky, feminine, light floral, mossy, ever so slightly plasticky'.  Now normally I am very anti-plastic notes in a scent, and have gunned down large swathes of the Givenchy and Jean-Paul Gaultier ranges on that very account, but a hint of plastic doesn't bother me here and it is moreover quite fleeting.

And now here's the interesting thing about La Perla.  It starts out girly and feminine, a wisp of elasticated lace if you will, a silken strap of a scent, but gradually a more animalic base asserts itself, and though there is none listed, it most certainly smells like CIVET to me.  During my googling of the notes, I came across an intriguing thread on Basenotes, in which Olfacta of Olfactarama (who is blogging again, in case anyone missed that) asks if other members have encountered a civet note in La Perla - which she herself doesn't particularly care for, I might add.  She appears to be the only one who detects it, mind, but I get a pronounced note as the scent wears on, indeed on one particular wearing the civet base (phantom or otherwise) persisted until the following morning!

And what is even more noteworthy is the fact that I didn't mind.  I wanted to keep sniffing my wrist when it got to this nice but naughty stage.  This is the scent of 'finished business', rolls in the hay, getting to fifth? base, and what might euphemistically be termed 'special cuddles'.

Source: facebook

So in summary - a new lemming and the need to revise my Basenotes moniker.  For from now on, I should be known not as 'VM I hate civet', but as 'VM I appear to have discovered a sneaking affection for civet and am as surprised as the next man'.