Enchanted Forest by Bertrand Duchafour for The Vagabond Prince 2012 + GIVEAWAY

Hey Niche Nerds,

I know, I know. It’s taken me ages to write this review. There was so much chatter about it when it first came out that I wanted to let the dust settle. I was also deeply ambivalent about the fragrance and still am but having spent some time with it now, and having two people’s opinions that I respect highly with me as I’ve smelt it was interesting too, so welcome to

Enchanted Forest by The Vagabond Prince 2012

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Pink pepper, aldehydes, sweet orange, blackcurrant (flower, fruit & leaf), hawthorn, rum, wine, rosemary, davana
Heart: Blackcurrant buds absolute, CO2 blackcurrant, Russian coriander seed, honeysuckle, rose, carnation, vetiver
Base: Opoponax resinoid, Siam benzoin, amber, oakmoss, fir balsam absolute, Patchouli, castoreum absolute, cedar, vanilla, musk

The first time I smelled Enchanted Forest was with Denyse of Grain De Musc and The Perfume Lover (available softback soon) at Jovoy in Paris early in 2013 and I found it interesting and a nit naughty, with a slight kitty litter accent that made me smile. Of everything we smelled that glorious sunny winter day it was Enchanted Forest that I kept the strip of and went back to over the next couple of weeks till it lost all memory of itself.

Photo Stolen MorgueFile

Months went by, as quickly as they do, and other fragrant launches and tests mounted and I forgot about Enchanted Forest until we started doing a Sample Round Robin here in Australia, along came a generous sample of Enchanted Forest that I swapped out for 3 or 4 things that I had here in the swap box. I put Enchanted Forest in the MUST TRY AGAIN pile and forgot completely because I went to Scentsation in LA and then India (bragging is a disgusting habit and I am fully ashamed). So yesterday I was having lunch with Catherine du Peloux Menagé, the producer of Sydney Perfume Lovers (a meet-up group), who is an avid fragrance lover and has started a business helping people choose a scent through education and interest rather than showing them gleaming ad copy bullshit: she is clever, fun and lovely and I wanted to take some fragrances for us to try over lunch, as we do. I pulled out the Enchanted Forest to get Catherine’s take on it.

Photo Stolen MorgueFile

So what did I smell? Sweet fruity opening that reminds me of very ripe melon or guava, it’s bright, fizzy and in your face taking the modern fruity fragrance by the neck and giving it a shake till its teeth rattle. All the green herbaceous notes slotted in here stop Enchanted Forest from being a so so SO sweet train wreck. Though  it opens both sweeter and neon brighter than I would choose, once the initial screaming opening sequence calms it is surprisingly wearable. I get no real cat but can understand the sweetness could be a public urinal far enough away that you can smell only the sweet but not the disgusting, make sense?

Honeysuckle often skews nasty on me but here it plays along well with the others, I get a little Ribena syrup through the middle section, a sweet blackcurrant children’s cordial that was responsible in Australia for more dental bills than all the other sweet stuff put together. I don’t get coriander, rose, carnation or vetiver, I do get booze through the middle and down into the base and the vanilla comes in giving a pudding vibe. Resins come through but I miss so many of the things that they write as notes: woods? No not really. Patchouli? I don’t know. I think my nose is too poorly tuned to catch a lot of what’s happening.

Enchanted Forest is intriguing and I have been wanting to spend some alone time with it. This is a statement fragrance, fun and ebullient. It is a modern fruit take on Giorgio Beverly Hills (though only by comparison, not scent) and I can imagine it on big haired, shoulder padded women with high heels, nipped in waists and peplums (anyone been looking at fashion lately?). They are ready to make an entrance and unafraid of fragphobes and the boorish who feel that less is more. It’s exciting, naughty and possibly the next step in frag evolution if we could just get it on the kids who’ve been wearing celeb fruitchouli (as they get bored) then it may be the perfect gateway scent.

Further reading: Kafkaesque, The Fragrant Man and The Muse In Wooden Shoes
LuckyScent has $180/100ml and samples

What did you think? Have you tried it? Would you like to? well, here’s your chance….

Photo Stolen kbaird

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

There are 2 prizes this week. Each winner will receive:

1.5ml Enchanted Forest Manufacturers Carded Sample
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

All you need to do is be a follower, tell us how you follow and leave a hello in the comments! EASY PEASY!!

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Enchanted Forest PERFUME SAMPLES GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p2fQBU-1Ld #Perfume #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 28th July 2013 11pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and Jin will pick a winner.
The winners will have till Wednesday 31st July 2013 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE,

Portia xx

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