Ella
Arquiste (2016)

From a distance this would seem Another White Floral. Another Beautiful, Girly Girl, CreamFluff.
Up close find a Billowy Expanding Cloud of Gorgeous Feathery Jasmine, filling the lungs and Narc-ing the Brain Cells. Plummy Fruit gives a Boozy sweetness.
Stand back slightly, feel the Vetiver, Patchouli Earthiness sculpted into the folds of her Rosy Silky slip.
Notice as the interweave of Cardamom, Carrot and Honey releases an ever so Yeasty Doughiness.
Civet makes an appearance momentarily to introduce a voluptuous emerging Venus.
Triple Milled Loveliness lays down a soft Powder.
Think Roudnitska Lustiness, Robert Sculpting and Polge Elegance.
Marvelous Scent This!!

Effortless retro chic

Ella is a casual yet chic, ultra-femme, retro-green fragrance. Opens with a satisfying hit of galbanum that's balanced with a smoky, welcoming, ever so slightly animalistic warmth that blooms nicely on the skin.

It's what I wished the Tom Ford vert series was, but in comparison, the Fords are simply trying too hard. If Ella is on the Studio 54 guest list and dancing languorously on quaaludes, Vert de Fleur is still preening outside in a loud dress, hoping she'll get in this time.

High, bright, frisky and pretty. A cross between a girl and a woman. A kind of 70's floral chypre-ish type.

Its ethos reminds me of Diorella (though not it's construction or genre), that playful irreverence. Ella is a more floral fragrance, more sensual, a bit of a tease. I appreciate its lack of powder - when I wear this outside in cool air (32°F), which highlights powder in a fragrance, Ella stays clear and bright (its florals are heightened by cool air). So there's a certain lightness to it that beguiles and creates a more youthful quality, from clearness and lack of powder. A swirl of cigarette smoke adds to this fun.

Ella's not heavy or serious, something the more hot vanillic fragrances of the 70's usually were. I think Ella just has too much air in it to qualify, though really this fragrance can go anywhere it wants. Ella escapes a big woody-amber-musky drydown, so for me it stays true to its ethos. It's sensual more than sexy, though sexy is there too. I really enjoy wearing this fragrance - it's pretty, not a diva or self-serious, and I like it's sense of fun.

Where have I smelled this gorgeous scent before? Why, in the 1970s, of course! Arquiste gets this part just right--it IS a throwback scent but not to the thumping beat of a glitter ball-bedazzled disco. Aviance, Magie Noir and Babe had that sewn up. No, this is a ladylike floral--rose, jasmine--with some obligatory funk in the form of Civet and a swirl of cigarette smoke. Ella evokes the "nice girl" scents of that time--the Anais Anaises and Chloes and Rive Gauches of the day, with freshly washed hair and a ciggie in the ashtray of the VW Golf (don't tell Daddy!). Just as the house's masculine counterpart El smells great, but misses the sweaty gyrations of the discotheque, so too does Ella only halfway deliver on her promise. Pero, no importa--this is great stuff, a quality niche fragrance from another time, right on trend for today.

Aldehyde notes mixed with floral notes and tobacco. Meant to invoke memories of 70's disco's. The aldehydes are very sparkling together with the bright florals, but the cigarette is bracing and I would have liked something that acts like a bridge between them more.

I think you can find more 'pretty' tobacco in ELDO Jasmin et Cigarette, but personally I prefer ELDO Putain des Palaces. It's more dry and smoky and less cigarette. Both are smoother and blended nicer ( better bridge between the pretty and cigarette)