Fragrance Girl

Arriving home yesterday after a long weekend away, there were two packages waiting for me on my doorstep — both containing perfume samples. A massive thank you to both London Make Up Girl and FlavourFanatic for making my home-coming so fragrant. As a result I've got different perfumes on each arm, and have been having a great time with some lovely new sniffs.
The biggest success for me has been Ormonde Jayne's Ormonde Woman. It's an absolute delight. It's one of those fragrances that makes you feel like you've tasted chocolate for the first time, when all you've ever eaten is salad. Ormonde Woman is rich and multi-layered, deeply intense and gorgeous.
Ormonde Woman is ultimately an amber fragrance, but done in an extremely subtle way. For me, just a smidge too much amber and any fragrance becomes a scrubber. OW is one of those fragrances that you want to bury your nose in. It's very similar to West Side by Bond No. 9. But I haven't yet done a direct comparison to see just how similar the two are.
It's great when a perfume totally defies expectations. I was expecting Ormonde Jayne fragrances to be similar to Dityque or Annick Goutal — focusing on green, galbanum and blossom. But the two Ormonde Jayne fragrances that I've smelt so far have been warm and rich and sensuous.
Defying expectations the other way is (untitled) by Maison Martin Margiela. I was fully expecting to love this. But sadly it's not one for me, it's all woodsy and cedar. If you like Serge Luten's Feminite Du Bois, then (untitled) might be a good one for you to try.