I like the frangipani flower, and not just for its luscious scent. I like that it's a flower named after a person, and one who was responsible for dissolving fragrance absolu in alcohol, thus totally revolutionising the craft of perfume making.

So today I'm trying out Ormonde Jayne's Frangipani. My first reaction is a great big WOW. The top notes are absolutely delicious on my skin. For a while I almost felt like licking my wrist because the scent was that scrumptious. The top notes are linden blossom, magnolia flower, lime peel, and boy does that lime work with the florals. Absolutely enticing, at least to my nose. Fresh and definitely tropical. Yummy.

The heart notes are white frangipani, jasmine, rose, and tuberose absolutes, water lily, plum, and green orchid oil. I have to say, I'm not the biggest fan of tuberose. I have experienced perfumes that use it well, however, and this is one of them. I often find tuberose to be pretty overwhelming. That's not the case with this scent, though. In fact, the heart notes combine to have an almost gardenia-like effect on my skin. It's quite beautiful, and certainly floral-tropical. Gorgeous.

The beautiful heart notes give way after a reasonable length of time to the base of amber, musk, cedar, and French vanilla abolute. I'm not a big "vanilla" fan (as many of my reviews have noted), but the vanilla here is a creamy, subtle part of the base, so it's not too overpowering. In fact, the thing I detect the most is the amber, which suits my sensibility fairly well (I love a nice amber note). The musk is very soft, and, in fact, I find the base generally quite subtle, and very close to the skin.

My overall reaction to this perfume is that it is, like all of the other Ormonde Jayne fragrances I've tried so far, exceptionally well-crafted and elegant. I'm a big fan of florals, so this fragrance really works for me, and it works on me, as well. I get pretty tired of fruity florals, but in this fragrance, the fruity notes are a nice addition, not too sweet or too fruity. They add a nice splash of freshness in the top notes, and the plum in the heart notes just nicely rounds out the blend.

This is a floral fragrance I could and very well might add to my permanent perfume wardrobe. That's how much I like it.

Ormonde Jayne describes this perfume as a "dark, spicy oriental", and it certainly is that. Definitely dark, almost moody, and, well, it's certainly spicy. And while I will say that this fragrance is beautifully crafted and elegantly balanced, it just doesn't suit me very well.

I was completely overwhelmed by the top notes, and not in a good way. The top notes are davana, pink pepper, coriander seed, and bergamot, but I can barely detect the bergamot, and the pink pepper is just barely noticible on my skin. Mostly I am overwhelmed by the coriander and davana, and my reaction to it is... phew. If I wasn't well familiar with the development of fragrances, I might have been tempted to go and wash it off, that's how overwhelming I found it.

Once the heart notes start to develop, though, the fragrance is much more pleasant on my skin and to my olfactory senses. Iris, sambac absolute, pimento berries, and bay are the middle notes of this fragrance, quite an unusual combination (something I do appreciate in any perfume). The first heart note I could really detect was, unsurprisingly, the iris, but the bay was actually quite interestingly notable, as well. I have to admit, I don't know what pimento berries smell like, so it's hard to say what effect they have on the blend, but I do admit that I find the heart of this fragrance intriguing, and certainly more pleasant than the overwhelming top notes.

I do like the base in this very much, and, happily, they last a good long while. The notes are incense, patchouli, myrrh, Chinese cedar, and gaiac. I'd actually love to get incense that smells like this. It's sufficiently mysterious and just spicy enough without being too over the top. Very well done.

Unfortunately, for me the perfume doesn't really work, and that makes me a little sad, because I'm always interested in a well-crafted perfume with a unique character. You definitely won't smell like everyone else if you're wearing Orris Noir! I certainly recommend giving this a test run if you're interested in a well-crafted, moody oriental.

The first Ormonde Jayne perfume I'm sampling (chosen at random) is Sampaquita, a solidly crafted floral blend with a bit of a citrus kick at the start and a musky/mossy base.

Top notes are lychee, grass, oil, bergamot, and magnolia, and my first impression was that it was familiar, but not too familiar. It's a really nice, rich combination, surprisingly so for top notes, which tend to be rather light and wispy in most perfumes. This is quite beautifully clear, and I like it, particularly the grass oil in combination with the lychee (I'm not the biggest fan of lychee, generally, but this is good). I'm also not finding myself overwhelmed by the bergamot. I quite like bergamot, but a lot of perfumes that use it in the top notes smell like a cup of Earl Grey tea. Not so this blend.

The top notes lingered for some time before gracefully and elegantly giving way to the heart notes of sampaquita absolute (apparently, the sampaquita or sampaguita is the national flower of the Philippines, so there you go, learn something new every day), freesia, muguet, rose, and water lily. The first note of the heart that I could detect was the muguet, mostly because I like it and I can almost always notice it in any blend, but it's not overwhelming. The more the heart notes develop, the less obvious the muguet becomes. The jasmine-like sampaquita note is subtle but detectable, as is the rose. The note I most notice is the freesia, not really my favourite floral, but this is a quite sophisticated blend, and none of the floral notes are especially overwhelming to me or on my skin. In fact, the blend of heart notes is extremely well done, and once the heart is fully opened and developed, they work together in perfect concert to create a delicious, unique, and sophisticated floral character. On me, it's an intense floral that's quite close to the skin.

As the heart notes gave way to the base notes, the fragrance got even closer to the skin. The base notes are musk, vetiver, moss, and ambrette seed (also known as musk seed). I detect primarily the musky notes as the floral heart notes recede, with just a hint of the vetiver. The base is sensual and earthy, and, on me, very subtle. The rose heart note seems to linger the longest into the base, and then the base dries down nicely into the rather long-lingering base notes.

The entire development was very "close to the skin" for me, so if I were wearing this perfume just to wear (rather than to test/review), I'd make sure to put it in multiple locations and in sufficient amount to create good sillage, though I must say, the close-to-the-skin fragrances are very nice for summer wear or for wearing in a situation where you'll be in close proximity and you don't want to overpower with your perfume (office, threatre, etc.).

Overall, I'm fairly impressed with this fragrance, not so much for the specific notes, though I do like them, but for how really well-crafted it is. It's exquisitely balanced, the stages degrade so gracefully and elegantly! The notes are not particularly uncommon or rare, but they're expertly arranged. This is a high quality fragrance, from top to bottom, with unique character and tremendous elegance. Beautiful.

I received a package from the U.K. today, a sampler of perfumes from Ormonde Jayne. I've been very uninspired lately with regard to reviews (all the new perfumes coming out that I've tried leave me pretty cold, and I'm tired of writing reviews that say, basically, "Eh, whatever"). I'm really looking forward to do some reviews of these fragrances.

I will note that the packaging is extremely lush. The perfume came wrapped in an absolutely gorgeous subtly sparkly paper (dusky olive, with tiny gold flecks, really beautiful), in a beautiful rich black velvety pouch with a dusky olive satin lining. The entire presentation is just really luxurious and lush. I am hoping that the perfume is as delicious as the packaging.

So, tomorrow, I hope, I'll have some new perfume to write about (today I'm already wearing perfume, and I like to do a review with clean skin and a "fresh" nose).

I'd like to personally thank the nice people at Ormonde Jayne for this lovely sample set. As a perfume lover, I'm delighted, and as a perfume writer, I'm so so pleased to have something new to write about. Life is good.