Happy Easter everybody, I hope you've all been enjoying yourselves during the weekend! I've spent a few days with my in-laws, always nice to get out of town, get properly fed and get some help with the kids. The only complaint I've got is the weather. We had a lovely spring thing going on but then something went terribly wrong. Both on Thursday and Friday it was snowing so our view out the window consisted of dainty little spring flowers, trying bravely to stand up while covered in an icy layer of white snow. Poor little things! For compensating the cold outside I've been reaching for something warm and cheery, namely, ELdOs Fils de Dieu Du Riz et Des Agrumes, which must be one of the longest perfume names around.
It starts off with a very green and Asian feeling citrus accord. There is lime, zest of lime, ginger and shiso. I love the intro. It makes me wonder why there are no green Asian style Eau de Colognes (or are there, and I'm just not aware of them?). I'd love a perfume that was like this on and on and not just for the first 10 minutes like FdD.
But what comes next is not bad either. When the citrus fades there is rice pudding and not just any rice pudding. It's an Indian rice pudding where premium rice has been boiled in thick coconut cream, a drop of rose water added, along with a small cinnamon stick, half a scraped vanilla bean and a few cardamon pods givng the final dish just a hint of well integrated spice. At times I get a hint of something smoky as well. This is clearly a dish that will soon be crated in my kitchen!
During drydown the spices and rose disappears from my skin and I get more of a savory, plain rice smell. I'm also thinking I'd love a Christmas Edition of FdD. In Sweden it's tradition to eat rice pudding on Christmas, either with milk, cinnamon and sugar or with whipped cream and orange segments. I can imagine a FdD flanker (not that ELdO are known for making flankers, but anyway) with an orange intro and stronger spices during the heart and drydown. Yum, that would be nice...
In all, FdD is a lovely and easy-to-wear scent. I find it's both relaxing and energizing. It's unusual as it's about rice, Ormonde Jaynes Champaca is the only other rice scent I know of and that one's a floral-rice, this is a light oriental-rice. As an extra bonus, both my mother-in-law and sister-in-law both loved it!
Official notes (from Fragrantica):
Top notes: ginger, coriander, lime and shiso.
Heart: coconut, rose, cardamom, jasmine, cinnamon and rose.
Base: tonka bean, vetiver, musk, amber, leather and castoreum.
