Plumeria de Orris
Areej le Doré (2019)

DORE – PLUMERIA DE ORRIS (2019)

My previous exposures to soliflore plumeria (frangipani) fragrances have registered the note closest to the gardenia/tuberose family of heavy, unctuous, lily-like florals. I expected the Dore to be a combination of overwhelming tropical floral with suede-like orris keeping it from becoming too screechy.

The reality is quite different. This is very subdued. The orris is center stage with light whiffs of a sweet honeysuckle accord and the dry fruity apricot accord weaving in and out. The orris is not powdery suede, but slightly raw and harsh to my nose. Once this first impression settles in, there is little development, with the plumeria and apricot fading quickly, thus giving the lie to the scent's name. If I hold my sprayed wrist at arm's length I can detect the plumeria/apricot/vanilla accord, but up close, I only experience the orris.

Like all the Dores I have experienced thus far (this is the fourth), there is little or no projection; all wear close to the skin.

This creation does not impress me and I had so hoped it would. I love orris (Lutens' Iris Silver Mist is my favorite), but the rawness of this orris is off-putting, thus a neutral rating. Oh, and correct French would I believe have transformed the “de” to “d'” as the “e” is dropped before a second word beginning also in a vowel. A bit of carelessness here, as in the naming itself.

Plumeria de Orris goes on skin with a blast of orris featuring an almost dense powdery character not unlike one found in fine make-up, coupled with hints of underlying plumeria, coming across similar to slightly sweet coconut. As the composition moves to its early heart, the orris now comes on strong, taking the sole starring role, with the plumeria continuing to smell somewhat similar to coconut, but adding a gardenia-like facet as the florals sharpen as time passes, adding a touch of additional sweetness from a vanilla and creamy sandalwood tandem that stays far back in additional subtle support. During the late dry-down the orris loses is powdery facet (and its detectable plumeria co-star), finally ceding its focal role to allow touches of woody, lemony vetiver in the base to emerge as co-star, with the sandalwood remaining in support as a slight sweetener through the finish. Projection is average, but longevity is outstanding at well over 12 hours on skin.

OK, now we're talking... While Orris/iris focal compositions tend to be some of my least favorites, Plumeria de Orris can't be denied as a truly fine effort. The ingredient quality is fabulous, with extremely high quality ingredients used. While I don't have a lot of prior experience with plumeria (as the ingredient is too expensive for most perfume ingredient budgets), sniffing it here has been quite the education as not only does it smell quite good, its facets seem to shift throughout the development making pinning down any easy way to describe it quite elusive. My use of words like coconut and gardenia really don't do the plumeria justice, but the truth is in its implementation here it doesn't quite smell like anything I have sniffed to date, making the experience all the more exciting and unique. The vetiver and sandalwood driven base is skillfully kept in-check to meld perfectly with the remnants of the orris, making for an outstanding late dry-down. The bottom line is the $200 per 30ml Plumeria de Orris may not be *my* kind of composition due to its orris focus, but it most certainly could and arguably *should* be many others', earning an "excellent" 4 stars out of 5 rating and a strong recommendation to all orris/iris composition fans, and/or admirers of rare, unique smelling ingredients. Good stuff!

Mildly soapy yet barely indolic white florals arranged delicately over the apricot-tinted suede of orris butter, embellished ever so slightly with the creaminess of sandalwood, Plumeria de Orris bears the hallmark of a classic floral oriental, with emphasis on the floral aspect. Clearly this isn't something I'd recommend to the average guy.

Since I received my bottle 3 weeks ago I had taken my own sweet time with it and grown to enjoy it even more with every wear. Starting with 2 sprays I'm now averaging 6 to 8. It really blossoms with generous applications. Yet despite the oft-challenging quality of natural ingredients I am amazed at the level of balance and refinement achieved by Russian Adam here. It is almost unrecognizable as an Areej Le Doré fragrance, to be honest. Tag on some aldehydes and it could well be mistaken for a long forgotten vintage Chanel parfum from the good old days when each bottle contains more of the good stuff rather than fillers. Believe in the hype or don't, either way Areej Le Doré is bent on bringing the ‘fine' back to fine fragrances.

Projection and sillage are at a polite arm's length for the most part. Longevity is as usual with this house, second to none. As for the civet, alas, it isn't quite the snarling creature I was half-hoping for.

Still I'm excited to discover how Plumeria de Orris would evolve over the next year or so but at the rate I'm spritzing myself with this, I'm afraid I may never find out.

What I get from this is a flowery fruity orris glazed in honey scent accord. The exotic flower is the Plumeria, the fruity aspect is coming from the apricot and orris is the powdery violet tinged note.

It is light and beautiful and does lean towards the feminine spectrum but not so much that a man cannot pull off wearing this. But then it all depends on what your threshold is and where you draw the line.

There is a vanilla sweetness to the scent and when after a few hours the Sandalwood appears the scent starts to smell better and better. The Sandalwood seems to ground the scent and give it more body whilst making it more unisex.

As we move into the basenotes you can smell a slight resinous myrhh which does become stronger though this does not diminish the flowery fruity orris glazed in honey accord.

Also now and again you can smell a very slight animalic civet note but it comes and goes very quickly. It adds a slight animalic tinge.

Now the longevity is good with this lasting more than ten hours but the projection is about average.

I like this though I do feel that the orris dominates everything else and drowns out the Plumeria accord for a lot of the time. When it does show it self it smells very lovely!