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rim348166 – :
Oh. My. God. Where has this been all my life?!? This is simply exquisite. I got this as a free sample with purchase and I’m so glad they included it. Powdery, musky, sweet, delicate – I have not been able to stop smelling this since I dabbed some on from my sample bottle, and am now trying to find where I can get a bigger sample from, or even a full bottle. Orange, ylang-ylang, geranium and tuberose are there right off the bat, then after about half an hour the vanilla and sandalwood start coming through, with a lovely sweet woody warmth from the cedar and opoponax. For some reason, I keep picturing a beautiful vintage wedding dress; it’s satin, with a delicate lace trim around the décolletage – the lace is a soft cream colour and highlights the smooth, pale skin of the wearer’s neck and shoulders, and a lace handkerchief which carries this scent is tucked into the bodice of her dress. I love the history behind this scent, and the fact that they have been able to re-create it is amazing. Longevity is good – I got a solid six hours from a couple of dabs from my little sample bottle. Which I’ll be hoarding until I can get my mitts on some more of this stunning juice. Big love for this one, and it’s definitely on my need-to-have-this list. Gorgeous.
jason44 – :
you have not experienced real perfume until your nose has had the joy of embracing this masterpiece. This is probably the most complimentary review I have left after smelling hundreds of scents. A classic treasure to be found and hidden away for your nose only , worth every penny, on my must have list without a doubt.
n7201283 – :
Phul-Nana’s citrus and neroli character really does penetrate the entire way through the life of the perfume and that is – in part – thanks to the inclusion of benzoin. It grabs some of the bright characteristics and anchors them into the base of the fragrance.
sitric1 – :
I would be just grateful for the chance to try this some day. The whole line sounds mesmerizing.
ivan_alex – :
this fragrance is mysterious. don’t let the orange, neroli, or the bergamot fools you to think it’s fresh or the common brand, it’s not and never will be. this one is dark, evil, and sinful. and if im going to the 7 deadly sins it’ll be Pride, an evil Pride.
i can’t deny that i didn’t love the top note or let’s say loved it from the first sniff as it was citrus complex (not the summer common type of citrus). after few minutes the dark pack comes infront slowly (Opoponax, Benzoin, & the Tonka Bean) in order to settle up, then the geranium, vanilla & slightly tuberose shows a bit and mixed up with oranges and neroli to make quite acceptable mix. the sandalwood, & cidar shows up later a bit sharp with the help of patchouli to set the base note with the help of the amazingly used Ylang Ylang note here as the sandalwood here plays the role to hide the medicinal effect that the Ylang Ylang always brings as the measurements were set to 3:1 (sandalwood to Ylang Ylang Respectfully). the base note is just as amusing as the top note and quite different than the top note as well, the top note is citrus enchanting party, and the base note is an amazing charming dark sweetful bliss.
this fragrance is a major classic and an invention itself. this fragrance should have been named “The Illusive Mask of Pride”. about a year ago i couldn’t neither stand this one nor any of his other fragrances, but today i love 4 of them.
Edit (10th Jan 2014) i just sampled the Parfum (not the eau de parfum) and the top note was exactly identical to Dilmun by Lorenzo Villoresi for few minutes then the charms begins. and to be honest the Perfum doesn’t worth it as the eau de parfum, it’s ove 600+ and again it doesn’t worth it, the eau de parfum is just perfect.
note: the main drawback of all Grossmith’s fragrances is the spray, the top piece that sprays the fragrance. however, after few sprays that piece on top kind of wears down or melts, in another way the smell of it turns very metallic. this could be because of the quality of the spray itself, or maybe the fragrance itself is quite strong in away that the spray material can’t handle it’s strength or density. so i wish they take this into consideration cause this might ruin the essence as it has direct connection with the fragrance.
Edit (8th March 2018) Wow, after 3+ years i am still struggling with this fragrance! i can’t decide wither to go for full bottle or not! it’s just a bit harsh! the MAIN drawback of this mesmerizing blend is the dry down (the BASE note), it goes quite candy sweet, not really cloying but hits the boarder of cloying sweetness in away that makes it overly sweeter than the citrus it held! I can’t deny that i am still enjoying it but mostly not all the time because such sweetness isn’t for everyday use for me, it is for certain times use only. This remained one of the great fragrances i have witnessed and at the same time it remains one of the main fragrances that i can’t make up my mind on owning full bottle of it or not.
popersy – :
I’m not feeling on top of my game at all currently, and definitely not feeling especially articulate so I apologise for what I imagine will be a fairly badly written review!
But I wanted to leave a review as I am so surprised that only 12 people had reviewed this and only 30 people listed as having this. This scent is simply beautiful and I think would be well received by those who like classic timeless scents.
To me this feels unapologetic opulent and feminine. That said my husband (we’ll get him into perfume yet!) today commented how beautiful this was, and added a tiny dab on top of the Givenchy Pi decant he was wearing (I am making progress with him!) and it actually worked astoundingly well together to make a kind of floral masculine rich exotic heady aroma, that I have to keep going to his neck and inhaling!
To me this scent is perfect in all conditions – it doesn’t become cloying or heavy during summer, yet radiates warmth and beauty in cold weather. While it would be suitable for a posh night out it also works equally well on days like today where I have been home ill in pyjamas all day.
Basically, this perfume makes me feel good and smell amazing. I get a lot of ylang, bergamot, resins, geranium from this but it is one of those scents that seems to become more than the sum of its parts. I don’t feel inclined to analyse and breakdown the notes because such if the beauty that I just want to be enveloped by it, and stop thinking.
Good longevity for me, getting wafts clearly after 7 or 8 hours wear, and nice sillage too – I can still smell it and it leaves a pleasant yet not overpowering trail.
I really do love this perfume and I am surprised more people do not know it. That said the price point is somewhat offputting – £145 for 50ml is pretty steep. Yet, this is beautiful that it really is one of the few worth that price tag in my opinion and only really in line with some of the much more well known Tom Ford scents. I currently have a good size decant but will be for sure getting a bottle when I have the money!
Please try this scent, it is gorgeous! Don’t be put off by my poor reviewing skills!
urfinus – :
To me, this is one of those gorgeous ‘can’t stop-sniffing-your-wrists’ perfumes. Strong, rich, voluptuous, sweet in a non-sugary way. I get a hint of something like very nice bug spray for the first hour or so, but then bug spray is presumably perfumed with something that this beauty also contains.
This is an instant Love for me, pretty much at first sniff. Not for the faint-hearted.
250479 – :
I am reviewing this based on a tiny sample that was sent to me in a split recently.
On me this starts very warm – slightly heavy smell of burning incense, laced with powder and an almost unnoticeable sweetness. It bears an uncanny resemblance to Indian temples and the incense that they would burn all day long, which clings to your body and never quite leaves.
Stopping to think and disconnect myself from the memory of temples, I smell a spicy floral with a hint of zest, on a background of benzoin and resins. I get ylangylang in later stages with what seems to be an almost boozy twist, interestingly. The warm powder just lasts throughout, but I think it feels a tad lighter after a couple of hours.
I especially liked the end where opoponax (which I think is like a myrrh) comes through more, because it is more creamy with a dash of sweetness to lighten things up just a tiny bit.
This just did not work for me. It’s not ugly, by any means, but I couldn’t rid myself of the association to Indian temples, and I’m not sure I want to smell like that. That just goes to show how well done it is as an insence-y, resinous frag (IMHO), which is also kind of floral, zesty, and powdery. A shapeshifter, to some extent.
Definitely worth a try if you like deeper fragrances. I am also of opinion that this might wear differently in different seasons. Is this a strictly feminine scent? Probably not, although it is prominently feminine at times when the smoke-laced floral really comes through.
Sillage was good throughout, longevity was so-so, about 4 hours on me.
nicat1314 – :
I have a longstanding fascination with old perfumes, probably trying to recapture something from a hazy past. By my age, I should be nostalgic for the seventies, but the yearning is for times I never lived through. So this nostalgia is imaginary, sort of à la recherche du temps jamais vécu.
In my quest for nostalgic, retro perfumes (not talking here about vintage, these are ‘fresh’ bottles), this one seems the most authentic, uncompromising and best quality so far. For me, this really makes time travel happen. Not sure if anybody remembers an old film called Somewhere in Time with Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve where he ends up travelling back in time to 1912, to an Edwardian boudoir and to the lace covered bosom of a belle époque beauty. This is the scent of that boudoir and bosom!
Now coming back to reality, this is a potent, interesting and long-lasting fragrance. Starts with a bracing spicy geranium, with a bit of citrus to lighten the punch; this initial phase is much longer than the top notes we usually get these days. The next stage is fairly constant, a woody floral, slightly ambery mix, very tenacious and with strong projection. I would say that it is unisex, but as a man you need to be quite brave to wear it, while on a woman it would be less eccentric.
I had to buy the bottle and I usually wear it for my own sake, enveloped in its potency and capacity for dépaysement, in rêveries of other times. But I am getting bolder and started wearing it more often.
alleekkss – :
Received my sample today from LesSenteurs London. I was disappointed to find a mediocre scent; with nuances of Indian cheap attars which leave heady powdery trail- which in no way is pleasant. Opening is a bit similar to that of Shalimar, but then within a few minutes it takes a different route and converges to utter distasteful smell. 1 out of 5 for Phul Nana.
bitner37 – :
Three times now I’ve worn Phul-nana, and just as my fingers were raised to the keyboard it whispered to me that it hadn’t yet finished its restless transformation.
At first it meandered through loam flavored vinyards, making me pine for a smooth glass of red. I came back for more on day two, but alas- its affections had soured. I was left by myself in a room full of cobwebs, where I wrote it off altogeher as a fussy old lady who had seen her last eulogy. Never before had I smelled such a shrine to ‘who’s wearing perfume?’.
But I couldn’t resist and gave it one more visit. Ah, the good times are back. But let me be clear: this gal will not humor you. Her presense is bold no matter the day, and her suggestions have been around the block a few times. Narcissus rises to the forefront in this, and rightly so.
I’ll come back for more, I”m sure of it.
okx635intitytek – :
Today I made a trip to London especially to visit Fortnum & Mason where they have a Grossmith counter. Last week the BBC showed a great documentary about perfumes, in which film the Grossmith’s house revival story was featured. I love the whole ambience, the idea and heritage behind it, but have to say Phul Nana is a very “victorian” smell indeed 😉 Quite extraordinary olfactory experience, but to actually wear that perfume- thanks but no thanks.
DJ NEP – :
Phul-Nana is the fragrance I have been waiting to find. Breathtaking and unflawed, like the stately Baccarat crystal flacon, cast and relaunched straight from the original mould created in 1919 as part of the “Serie de Luxe” range released in 1920.
The house of Grossmith (one of England’s oldest perfume houses) has recently fallen back into the hands of the family of the original founder after being out of its ownership for 30 years. And with the reacquisiton, the original perfumes have been relaunched and ‘remastered’ (wonderfully romantic word for ‘reformulated’) based on the handwritten formulae in books rescued from the original Grossmith premises in London in 1940.
***
Apparently Phul-Nana was released when Jacques Guerlain was barely out of grade school, so you get the idea of the originality of this archetypal Oriental formula. Phul-Nana most definitely bears classic substance and would not be out of place amongst the likes of Shalimar, Coco and Joy.
However, I find Phul-Nana completely unpretentious. That’s not to say that loyalist of the aforementioned perfumes are not, but Phul-Nana has a little more of a chaste and pure botanic feel without the animal undertone.
There is a beautiful arrangement of piquant flowers courtesy of geranium and neroli with the welcome. Patchouli and sandalwood give this such a lovely palpable quality, which in combination creates the most sensuous accord.
Ylang-ylang and tuberose are seemingly animated and never languish heavily in the heart. A powdered touch of something rosey is also apparent (rose geranium perhaps).
Opoponax (sweet myrrh) is quickly becoming one of my favorite base ingredients and in combination with tonka and benzoin, give Phul-Nana an exotic, incandescent depth without ever feeling heavy. A breath of cedar for clarity; vanilla and bergamot are well balanced and give a perfect, gently sweet luminosity; while a drop of orange furnishes a feeling of familiarity, comfort and joy.
A very Indian feel indeed with a peacefully cultivated incensed accord, woven with immaculate flowers and high class opulence. I imagine Phul-Nana to be worn by a tender-hearted and dignified, high caste Indian woman, who has embraced British influence without being disloyal to her roots. Wearing this treasured and historically significant fragrance is a truly a joy for me.
Проня – :
The sweetness, freshness and then the aroma of flowers displayed together with the wood and geranium, opoponax, ylang-ylang, and the rest joined in rare harmony, produces a warm feeling, feminine, and truly special. I imagine that I am in a thick forest, while above, the tall trees flashing in the sun wait for me while I make my way. The serenity of a mountain, the sight of all that the picture gives me: rivers, waterfalls, trees, birds, flowers in the distance, flowers under my feet. And a stranger who comes, sits next to me, and then I understand it is a dream, or should it be, or maybe not. His hand takes mine and, together, we see the true essence of nature. In peace and serenity.
anibikiseasty – :
According to the fragrantica database, there is currently only 5 scent catalogues as Oriental Fougere for women on this website- I suppose that means it is quite a rare thing.
And the scent is quite rare itself, I am trying to think whether I have even tested anything like this, and I really cannot come up with anything.
Phul nana is a class in itself. Majestic, strong, but at the same time not overpowering. I dont know if the current composition is exactly the same one as the XIX century formula. But it is excellent. Evokes the excitement of traveling and discovering new lands, but it also is very, very elegant. Not quit the same period as Paul Scott’s novels about the end of the British rule in India, but it matches up to what I imagines it might have been, with posh officer clubs, travelling by train with posh suitcases in the blazing heat, dealing with unpredictable weather, and above all, inhaling all those amazing scents of the continent.
Phul Nana offers an exquisite take on ylang-ylang tuberose and geranium, patchouli is not overpowering, the whole thing is lined with a very delicate sweetness coming from vanilla and tonka bean, with a citrusy accord of orange. They are very subtle, the fragrance is neither sweet nor acidic, but slightly powdery, oriental, deep, woody. A real time vehicle, I can use my sample as a means of moving in time.