Tag Archives: aqua allegoria

The Perfumed Dandy’s Sunday Scent… Aqua Allegoria Anisia Bella by Guerlain 

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Well, what passes for a heatwave in these parts has taken us by surprise today.

Twenty six degrees Celsius (I did day a heat wave in these parts!!) and almost unbroken sunshine.

It had your Dearest Dandy out and about enjoying physical exercises of all manners.

What to wear in this weather though? Apart from some rather fetching powder pink short trousers and mint green short sleeve shirt that is…

In the end I settled on this rather splendid scent, a near decade old sometime feature of Guerlain‘s pared back fragrance line.

Aqua Allegoria Anisia Bella.

Too often anise is mixed up with too much of the unrelated liquorice and a whole lot of sugar to create candy store scents that can be cloying to say the least.

Not so here, instead we are offered a green and even moderately sharp rendition of the white flowering star that is both palate cleansing and heat assuaging.

As the initial bite of the prima donna herb subsides, a cast of light florals and mainly greens: a full cassis note and brisk basil, seem to take turns centre stage in an intriguing olfactory version of a modern ballet, all technical verve and puzzling narrative.

This is a perfume The Dandy can imagine many people finding less than pleasant: brisk at the beginning, decidedly cool throughout and with rather an independence of mind.

However, it is precisely these air-conditioned and unpredictable qualities that I find so refreshing on a day that passes for the height of summer in London.

Oh, before I leave you, a quick aside…. these new “Dandy Picks” on a Sunday are to become a new “thing” here.

From next week on The Dandy will be highlighting a perfume of my own picking each week that has caught mine nose.

The emphasis will be on newer scents and the works of smaller and independent line… and I can assure you we will be starting with a right royal treat!!

So I do hope so to see you all on Sundays in the future for a few surprises!

Yours ever

The Perfumed Dandy.

The Perfumed Dandy

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The Perfumed Dandy’s Surprise Scent Aqua Allegoria Nerolia Bianca by Guerlain

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Aren’t surprises the very best thing?

Today The Dandy was about his affairs, readying some scenes from the Americas for your delectation, when there came a ring at the door.

And who should it be but a gentleman bearing flowers… it was a delivery man not an admirer I should add… but nevertheless this unbidden bouquet has quite made my day.

The arrangements of pinks and greens has assumed a pride of place in my sitting room, and I thought I should accompany it with the last gift I received…

An hefty spray from a generous flacon of Guerlain’s Aqua Allegoria Nerolia Bianca.

Indeed, all this seems quite appropriate as the Aqua Allegorias are proving to be something of a summertime surprise, nay revelation, to The Dandy.

Much that one reads about Guerlain‘s fragrant waters declares them simple and fleeting and natural as though all of these were self evidently self defeating qualities.

Yet, to The Dandy‘s way of thinking there’s a time and place for perfumes that are all three of these things.

Quite besides, not all of the allegories are all or any of these things, at least not at once.

Take the latest, my Nerolia Bianca, it is a wonderful rendition of the bitter orange tree entire, not just the fruit, but the flowers, the leaves, the trunk, the wood and the soil surrounding it too.

It is a complete and precisely painted portrait of a complex plant.

Opening as tart juice, it passes through a mildy astringent but very green heart to a warm and floral arboreal conclusion.

The perfume’s quiet progression goes unnoticed by some and the scent is mistakenly thought to be linear. Simplistic. It isn’t.

As I am increasingly discovering Thierry Wasser’s work at Guerlain, Aquas Allegoria included, demands more attention than it seems currently to receive.

Beyond flat as glass surfaces of apparently straightforward ideas lie depths of subtlety and fractions of intelligent tenderness.

I think I may be hooked.

Perhaps dear readers one day you will recommend a preferred Aqua Allegoria for my full consideration, only Laurier Reglisse so far features among the five hundred fragrances you have put forward for my perusal.

Until that time they must remain a private pleasure for high days and holidays.

Yours ever

The Perfumed Dandy.

The Perfumed Dandy

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Heavens! It’s 20 scents more one never knew a man could wear?! The Perfumed Dandy’s Library Catalogue #7

Has The Perfumed Dandy mentioned that since starting out on his amazing adventure in the Wicked Wild West that is the World of Women’s Perfume he has amassed from dear readers an astonishing array of now over 500 suggestions of once forbidden ‘female fragrances’ that you consider fit for a gentleman to wear?

Well, The Dandy has most certainly mentioned it now!

Being ever one to share both the love and the wisdom, I have taken it upon myself to spread cognisance of these suggested scents far and wide each Saturday (this week Easter arrived and so the post has been delayed until now).

Such is the premise of our weekly peek inside the The Perfume Dandy’s Library Catalogue.

What follows is the seventh installment of ’20 scents one never knew a man could wear’ that may tickle either your fancy or your funny bone…

If you would like to further the cause of one of the fragrances, getting it a step closer to the dizzying heights of The Perfumed Dandy’s Hit Parade kindly respondez-vous to this post.

Alternatively if you believe you have the perfect perfume for The Dandy but can’t see it listed below simply visit ‘Suggest a new scent or recommend an old one’ to put the name forward.

Allons-y!!

1. DSQUARED² She Wood

The original She Wood from a brand that seems to inspire almost religious devotion among some.

Violet, heliotrope and cedar, is it as straightfowardly lovely as it sounds?

2. Dior Cruise Collection Escale a Portofino

The Dandy has heard people speak of the Cruise Collection in hallowed terms, and the perfume they always point to as the fines seems to be this one.

Reading like a complex cologne formulation bordering on an aromatic, this one reads like a light but intriguing beauty, is it?

3. Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Laurier Reglisse

A true cologne based on bay, bergamot and galbanum.

But is it a perfume fit for a laureate?

4. Guerlain Eau de Cologne Imperiale

Really? The Dandy has a real question as to whether this can be regarded as even marketed to the ‘fairer sex’.

Unisex, no?

Any thoughts?

5. Calvin Klein Secret Obsession

Is The Dandy alone in finding this flacon strangely wondrous? Like a decidedly lovely relic of the 1970s.

Please, please let the contents be better than those of the current version of this personality disorder of a perfume!

6. Elizabeth Arden Blue Grass

Did you know this is apparently one of Queen Elizabeth II’s standbys? Surreal, but The Dandy has it on good authority to be true.

Is it my patriotic duty to give this aldehydic near fougere curiosity a spray?

7. Givenchy L`Interdit

An all time classic one is always led to believe.

A favourite of one of the most beautiful women who has ever lived.

Any reason why it’s now to be avoided?

8. Bill Blass Basic Black

The Dandy knows a certain someone who is often to be found on these parts who can’t stand this… is the feeling universal?

9. Jean-Louis Scherrer Jean-Louis Scherrer

A greener than green, oakmoss heavy, aldehyde. My this sounds divine.

Why had The Dandy never heard of this before? Had you?

10. Joop! Joop! Le Bain

An 80s floriental powerhouse that goes heavy on the vanilla.

Will someone save The Dandy from this fate?

11. Tom Ford White Patchouli

White flowers and patchouli, though apparently not overpoweringly so.

The Dandy really can;t get excited about this, is there any reason why he should?

12. Cristobal Balenciaga Rumba

Honeyed leather married with oakmoss and array of fruits and flowers, mostly a prominent plum

It sounds intriguing, but equally as though it could go terribly awry.. Good? Bad? Ugly?

13. Kenzo Flower by Kenzo Oriental

The amazing success of the original flower led to a whole bouquet of flanks, with blooms of variable quality.

Is this a stunning stem or drooping head?

14. Fifi Chachnil Fifi Chachnil

Putting appearances aside, this seems to have all the makings of a scent to cross the gender divide.

Does, in fact, the central tobacco note render this one too ‘macho’ for many a modern woman?

15. Guerlain Insolence

Guerlain‘s “need” to “go after the younger market” is well documented and exemplified ably in La Petite Robe Noire.

Before that there was Insolence, is it really the act of desecration its name would suggest?

16. Gucci Gucci Rush

My goodness, this was just everywhere in the 1990s and The Dandy remember quite a few men wearing both this and the white “male” one…

Has the rush passed with the first flush of youth or has this stood the test of time?

17. Thierry Mugler The Taste of Fragrance Womanity

From the house of a 1001 flankers…

Can one even be bothered? Should one even be bothered?

18. Thierry Mugler The Taste of Fragrance Angel

This one, apparently, adds more chocolate to the original…

Why?

What next? Sands to Arabia?

19. Arquiste Flor y Canto

Technicolor tuberose in a surround screen floral experience.

Not so much a bouquet of blooms as a floriculturalist’s fantasy.

Is The Dandy man enough for this one?

20. Etat Libre d`Orange Tilda Swinton Like This

Long before Herr Lagerfeld clutched Tilda to his betweeded breast, The Dandy was an enormous fan of this great Scottish icon.

Surely nothing that Tilda likes could possibly be anything less than brilliant?

What a wonderful niche note to end our selection on.

Now, I know I’m repeating myself but… If you would like to further the cause of one of the fragrances, getting it a step closer the dizzying heights of The Perfumed Dandy’s Hit Parade kindly respondez-vous to this post.

Alternatively if you believe you have the perfect perfume for The Dandy but can’t see it listed below simply visit ‘Suggest a new scent or recommend an old one’ to put the name forward.

Yours ever

The Perfumed Dandy.

The Perfumed Dandy

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