The Italian Job: L'Erbolario Méharées review

Bologna ~ Source: Gaspa via Wikimedia Commons 

Right, so my last post was all about taking stock of my SABLE (Stash Above & Beyond Life Expectancy) and taking active hypothetical steps to cut it back to a more manageable / less haunting quorum of some 30 bottles.  That was on the Friday. On Sunday, I received this text message from my Lush Flower's Barrow-wearing friend Jane, who does the merchandise for my favourite band - who happened to be playing in Bologna last weekend:

"I remember you saying about buying you some perfume here.  We've just walked past an open perfumerie and I wondered what you wanted?"

Which prompted the following shaming exchange:

"Oh, I say.  It was a specific brand called L'Erbolario, and the scent is Méharées.  Will try to find more info - there is a dedicated L'Erbolario shop in the centre..."

"If you can find its address I'll look.  It isn't the one we just passed."

Source: Fragrantica

Thirteen texts later, I was trying to steer my GPS-less friends towards the L'Erbolario store like some kind of rudimentary air traffic controller:

"Okay, if you have a square, Piazza Roosevelt is the right hand side, Cesare Battisti is the left hand side and Via Ugo Bassi is the top side - does that help?  So if you are heading north on Cesare wotsit turn right when you hit Ugo Bassi and it is a couple of doors down.  Or ask someone? 'Dove Via Ugo Bassi per favore?'"

(Reader, don't try those directions - or that Italian - at home.  I mean abroad.  I sent my friend and her husband round what could euphemistically be termed 'the long way', however, they were very sporting about it, explaining much later in an email that if I hadn't made them go round the houses they would have missed some splendid architecture and that all-important tourist attraction of a public convenience.  So all's well that ends well.)

There was a disconcertingly long pause after the text with all the directions, but I knew there must have been an orienteering breakthrough when I received this tantalising query:

"Is it the 50ml perfume?"

Quickly followed by:

"Done.  21.5 euros and it was all so lovely I have bought a Patchouly for myself. : D"

Jane's husband in triumphant pose outside the store

Well, that was a turn up for the books, as my friend is vegan and a Lush / Gorilla loyalist.

Anyway....without further ado I will have to explain myself, won't I? - what on earth was I doing making a purchase of a full bottle - even by proxy - when just two days previously I had compiled a list of my desert island collection of perfumes...on which L'Erbolario Méharées was conspicuously absent.  In my defence, I did think of including it, but Annick Goutal's Musc Nomade pipped it to the one and only 'cosy or naughty musk' spot.

So the only way that I can square this latest full bottle acquisition with my conscience is that it was:

a) cheap
b) purchased in fulfilment of a prior request - you know, like a will you forgot to revoke.  Sure I could have said: 'No, thank you, I am really not bothered anymore' when Jane texted me in the first place, but that would have felt churlish somehow, as she was over there, in situ, and all primed to do this errand for me.
c) I did say I would reserve the right to change my mind, so I will hereby effect a straight swap with Musc Nomade, to keep the numbers square.
d) I am allowed to be a bit bonkers - on any front, really.

Reprising a) for a moment, 21.50 euros is ludicrously cheap for a scent that is in fact a very creditable dupe of Frédéric Malle's Musc Ravageur.  I was first introduced to Méharées by Odiferess when we met up in Manchester last November - she gave me a sample and some moisturiser infused with the scent that she had knocked up herself using a neutral base cream! Champney's eat your heart out. ;)  Odiferess positioned Méharées to me as a Musc Ravageur copy, and the likeness is telling - for a fraction of the price.  (About a fifth, based on a 50ml bottle.  Just checked Liberty's site and it is retailing for £105 there.) The resemblance also caused quite a stir on the Basenotes men's forum - and they don't take any prisoners as we know.

My Méharées starter kit from Odiferess

Here are the notes for Musc Ravageur:

Top notes: lavender, bergamot
Middle notes: clove, cinnamon
Base notes: gaiac wood, cedar, sandalwood, vanilla, tonka, musk

All we can glean about Méharées is that it features myrrh and sweet date.  It does have a fruity aspect, certainly, and a distinctly spicy kick to it, though I would be hard pushed to name names.

The best way I could describe the difference between the two is to say that Méharées is slightly lighter, cleaner and more vanillic, whereas Musc Ravageur has more oomph - more of an animalic undercurrent to it - but the resemblance is still very marked.  Méharées is at the cleaner end of what a friend of mine would perhaps term 'rude business' musks, but rude it remains.  This scenario is qualitatively comparable to Lidl's Suddenly Madame Glamour as a cheapo copy of Chanel Coco Mademoiselle.  The Lidl perfume doesn't have the same patchouli-centred depth and heft to it as Coco Mademoiselle, but the scent itself is eerily close.  Yes, for those of you familiar with the Lidl copies of mainstream fragrances, just imagine that if Lidl brought out a me-too of Musc Ravageur called 'Suddenly Seduction' (because the titles are never too obvious), it would be very much in Méharées vein.  They just couldn't afford as much of the raunch factor maybe, whatever musk molecule that might be.  And that may even suit some people.

Source: osmoz.com

I also tested Méharées against Les Parfums du Soleil's Soir de Marrakech.  My own mini-reviews of the latter (here and here) - some four years ago when I had a limited frame of reference - liken this one to PG L'Ombre Fauve and Tauer's LADDM. To me now, Soir de Marrakech is more vanillic and gourmand, with a dark fruity twist that could also be from dates, though I see none listed.  I now actually feel it is firmly in our Musc Ravageur territory, but with an amber/patch/vanilla undercurrent that does still evoke for me a more delicate interpretation of the barnyard earthiness of L'Ombre Fauve..

Source: darmima.be

For Odiferess's (considerably more deconstructed!) take on Méharées, hop over to her review.  She is also reminded of Chopard Casmir, which I can definitely relate to 'atmospherically', though I find Casmir too plasticky for my taste.  Méharées is in another quality league, I'd say, which is all the more remarkable at this price point. Unfortunately the shipping, even within the EU, adds about 50% to the bottle price, so the best way to bag this bargain scent is clearly to take advantage of a friend passing through Italy...;)

Oh, and you can tell how much I like this perfume, because I could be bothered to put both its acute accents in. And lately I have found accent insertion far too tedious, and have been gradually phasing them out and hoping nobody would notice.


PS I should also mention that I am off tomorrow for a week, attending some gigs in Germany, and hopefully doing some high end sniffing in Berlin, where I will have the most free time.  I am not selling the merchandise on the tour this year - my friends have assumed that role on a more or less permanent basis - but the job of part-time BlueTack removal operative (from the sample posters) is always open to me, plus I may be called upon to do a bit of ad hoc interpreting and translation. ;)

Les Parfums du Soleil - Reprise

During my recent Belgian trip (documented in the December post "Choco Chanel"), I briefly tested on paper the Moroccan range of unisex eaux de toilette, Les Parfums du Soleil, for which the interiors and jewellery store Dar Mima acts as sole stockist outside Marrakech. Thanks to Erika, the proprietor of Dar Mima, I am now in possession of samples of five of the six scents in the line, which I have been able to re-test more thoroughly on skin.

http://www.darmima.be/

The perfumer behind this range, as I noted in my earlier post, is Abderrazzak Benchaâbane, a botanist and photographer. Benchaâbane's interest in scent goes back to early childhood: he was fascinated by his mother's collection of herbal remedies and by the perfume sellers occupying a whole street in the Aattarine souk. His love of scent was further nurtured during his botany studies by his tutor, Camille Peyre.

A turning point came when Benchaâbane agreed to undertake the restoration of the Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech, at the request of his friends Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, who had assumed ownership of the garden in 1984. Under the close supervision of YSL and Bergé, Benchaâbane was also commissioned to create a fragrance named after the garden, which was to symbolise the beauty, culture and way of life of Marrakech. This wish to capture the essence of his city in fragrance also informs the Les Parfums du Soleil collection that was to follow.

The five scents tested are set out below, with note listings, comments by the perfumer (translated by me!), and my own impressions.

SOIR DE MARRAKECH

Notes: jasmine, orange flower, green lemon, amber, musk, vanilla, patchouli.

"Marrakech is an evocation of the sun and of the East, a harmonious blend of the scent of flowers in town gardens and the aromas of its markets. Oriental and heady, Soir de Marrakech is the expression of people's way of life in the red city."

This was the standout beauty of the collection: it has a dark, sensual edge like PG L'Ombre Fauve, but the quiet gentleness of Kenzo Power. The floral notes are especially muted on my skin. I found this scent very wearable and have no hesitation in pronouncing it FBW. At 50 euros for 100ml, Les Parfums du Soleil, whilst clearly positioned as a niche range, are priced in line with high end designer perfumes such as Prada.

FESTIVAL

Notes: green lemon, bergamot, thyme, star anise, geranium, Damascene rose, Turkish rose, lavender, iris, vanilla, sandalwood, vetiver.

Couldn't find any comments from the perfumer about this one. I quite liked it - it was astringent without being acerbic, and the star anise, geranium and lavender gave it a distinctive character that would work well as a unisex scent - but ultimately it wasn't really "me". Closest scent to this would be Urban Retreat's Reverie, though Reverie is quieter and more of a skin scent by comparison.

L'AGDAL

Notes: bigarade, mandarin, green lemon, grapefruit, patchouli.

NB My translation is very loose here!:

"L'Agdal - evoking sun-drenched fresh, citrus aromas from this thousand year old garden founded by the Almouahades dynasty."

Initially, I found the very sharp citrus notes quite offputting, possibly compounded by the bitterness of the patchouli. I don't remember ever smelling patchouli in such a intensely citrus context. However, the far drydown was as pleasant as Festival, and more "mainstream" in its interpretation of citrus by this stage.

MOGADOR

Notes: ambergris, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, cedar, thuya wood.

"Mogador is a confluence of the trade winds, the aromatic riches of the forests around Essaouira and the scent of damp wood at the port or in the workshops of cabinetmakers. Woody, fresh and oriental, Mogador is a work of alchemy."

I did not care for this scent at any point. Mogador was like a rich, spicy, ginger cake - DSH Mahjoun springs to mind - with a strong and slightly rasping woody background that conjured up images of ships' hulls and barrels of rum! "Damp wood at the port" is a good catch-all phrase for it. The overall feeling of this scent is heavy, rich and brooding.

SULTANE DES COEURS

Notes: rose, jasmine, incense, vanilla, ambergris.

"Sultane des Coeurs is a perfume of refinement and seduction. Spicy and floral, SdC is a fragrant evocation of Oriental nights."

This was the biggest disappointment to me of the ones I tested, for from its name and notes it was the one I had most expected to like. I imagined an exotic floral-incensey number like OJ Ta'if or Kenzo Flower Oriental - or even Tauer's L'Air du Desert Marocain. There was a lot of incense and pepper, but I failed to detect the floral notes, or the vanilla and amber particularly. It just felt very grey and monotonal.

CASABLANCA (NOT TESTED)

Notes: anise, geranidum, sandalwood, iris

A sample of Soir de Marrakech is currently on its way to Katie Puckrik, who expressed an interest in trying it, following my enthusiastic description on her blog, Katie Puckrik Smells. I will come back and report her thoughts when she has had a chance to test it. Meanwhile, I am teetering on the brink of buying a bottle. My next work project may take me to Belgium, so let's see if I could make a detour to Bruges again...