La Fenice

In autumn La Fenice is beautiful. It has a beautiful, juicy and mysteriously sweet start. The scent is rich and multilayered. I feel hawthorn and almond blossom, vanilla and tonka beans also mandarin which makes it more vibrant. But the notes are well blended - it is hard to recognize them. Also summer performance is different to winter and spring one - it is then sugary vanilla to the point of too much. The scent obviously likes colder weather. It is a dreamy cloud of goodness today. I am satisfied. I nearly disliked it because of its summer, sugary performance - it was too sweet and structurally different, vanilla totally took over. Now I am back to loving the scent. After many hours I was enjoying the vanilla-tonka-cedar dry-down - warm, enveloping and sweet in an elegant way.

Such a fairy like, feminin, sweet and delicate, soft, fragile, creamy and powdery floral, what is almost a floral-gourmand. And it's almost full of my fav notes too. Creamy- more silky-milky vanilla, happy powdery heliotrope, lush modern not too indolic or green nor bubble gummy just perfect tuberose ( which is not overpowering the fragrance just makes it bewitching.) + Delicate almond blosssom, nectary hawtorn, and sweet tonka+ one of my fav citrus: the fresh-sweet juicy mandarine. As a gourmand lover like me, it's a perfect choice for spring. If you love the vibe of Kilian - rolling in love, Xerjoff- dama bianca, Nicolai - Kiss me, Marly - Cassili or Etro - Heliotrope than it's totally worth a try.

La Fenice is a ‘soft life’ vanilla scent; nuanced, mature, ethereal, hazy. Don’t be put off by the florals; after the opening this is mostly honey, almond and vanilla. The hawthorn in this smells more like honey than the honey note in many fragrances and it lasts most of the wear. In the opening the orange is very sweet, not sharp or tart. I can pick out the tuberose a bit, but it’s not prominent. I prefer my vanillas to be different and interesting, and this fits the bill. There is no artificial sweetness- nothing cloying. It smells very natural, a sweet powdery vanilla. I typically do not like powdery notes, but this doesn’t bother me.

To me this is a somewhat linear powdery floral almond scent with a kiss of musky vanilla. I feel like it would be suitable for most weather except for the hottest days of summer, and I feel it especially wouldn’t wear well in humid heat. It is airy enough, I think, to work for warm days. It really reminds me of springtime in particular. To me this fragrance is a casual floral-print sundress or a lightweight cream/white sweater, jeans, cute ankle boots, and a minimal gold chain necklace - elegantly simple, softly feminine, grown up but not too mature or vintage.

I blind bought La Fenice recently, after hearing Demi Rawling raving about it a few weeks ago and let me tell you, I am not disappointed! It’s a gorgeous, soft, powdery, white floral perfume with a prominent almond-cherry nuance and a creamy vanilla base. It opens beautifully with honeyed, sweet hawthorn and mandarin oranges before drying down into a beautiful blend of tuberose, almond and vanilla. It’s one of those fragrances that smells very pretty, feminine, elegant and alluring but different without losing its very likeable character.