Now that summer seems to have finally passed, I can start enjoying my spicy perfumes. Spice heavy perfumes might be my very favorite style of perfume, but they are best in colder temperatures. It is one of many reasons I look forward to fall. Perfume companies also are aware of this dynamic and so I get new spicy perfumes to consider this time of year. The latest to catch my nose is Comptoir sud Pacifique Eclats d’Amandes.
Comptoir sud Pacifique is one of the long-time perfume producers few know about. They have a very narrow corridor of distribution. I have always kept an eye on them because when you can find them there are some excellent perfumes within the collection. For 2019 Comptoir sud Pacifique wanted to try for a gourmand style. Working with perfumer Vanina Muracciole they produced two perfumes. The first Vanilla Café hewed closely to the South Pacific tropical vibe characteristic of the collection. The one which captured my attention because it was all gourmand without the island milieu was Eclats d’Amande.
Vanina Muracciole
Mme Muracciole chooses two interesting keynotes in cinnamon and almond. Cinnamon is a tough ingredient to use well. Too sweet and it smells like red-hot candies. Pull back on it and it just smells woody with no fire. Find the sweet spot and cinnamon causes a perfume to simmer. That’s the kind of cinnamon here. By pairing it with the nuttiness of almond she allows that quality to tease out the woodiness of the cinnamon. It is a kind of cinnamon not encountered often in fragrance, but one I enjoy. Tonka bean provides a toastier almond as it mixes with it. Cedar arrives to continue to amplify the woods in cinnamon. It heads to a sandalwood base given some character with some heavier musks.
Eclats d’Amandes has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.
Eclats d’Amandes is just the kind of spicy perfume to ease me into the autumn. The choice to interrogate the woody facets of the keynote spice without losing the fire makes it different than most cinnamon based perfumes.
Disclosure: This review is based on a sample provided by Comptoir sud Pacifique.
–Mark Behnke
