Sel D'Azur by Yves Rocher

 

Photosource: Scent Studio (own copyright)

With Nouveau Genre and Sable Fauve in my collection, I am excited to try other fragrances from Yves Rocher.

They have changed a lot since I tried them first many years ago.

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Sel d'Azur has a fresh marine opening with citrus at the top. Soon the fragrance loses its airiness and becomes a citrus aromatic. Which citrus? Do not ask me, Sel d'Azur is one of those fragrances where the notes are undefinable.

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According to Fragrantica, the top note is grapefruit, at the middle is Virginian cedar and at the base, Haitian vetiver. Do I smell cedar in particular? No. Maybe vetiver? No, not really. The fragrance is just an accord of freshness, citrus, slight aromatic and woody notes.

I sprayed some more and now I get the grapefruit, but it is fleeting. Sel d'Azur alludes to summer, it really is a fresh and beachy scent, I just wish it had more power. The longevity is poor and the sillage very intimate. 

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If I could be very critical, I would wish for a more juicy grapefruit and a more prominent vetiver or cedar, one or the other would suit me fine, I just need a fragrance to be more charismatic than this.

Do not get me wrong, it is nice, but it's lack of charm is what makes this fragrance nothing more than "nice".

Nomade by Chloé

Photosource: Scent Studio (own copyright)

I have a part time job where I sell perfumes along with having my own business on the side. I feel like I have to get that out there, because I keep saying I'm done with designer fragrances, but I end up trying them anyways. I have the option to smell many fragrances during a shift, which is why I keep falling for trying new ones. I still have that glimmer of hope that I'll find something I like...

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I was sampling many fragrances one day and reached for Nomade, when a customer asked for something richer and sweeter. Trying it with her, I found myself liking the scent that suddenly filled the room. It was sweet, spicy and mystical.

I made a sample for myself and was looking forward to trying it at home, properly.

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Sadly, Nomade disappointed me like so many other fragrances have.
I do apologise, it's never my intention to talk down on these perfumes, but Nomade has a very generic designer sweetness at the opening. I don't know how else to describe it.

Maybe it's because I fell in love with niche fragrances (the ones that are a bit quirky) and started exploring them first, but I have found that the designer fragrances I have tried and reviewed have the same safe scent profile.

Maybe I just like smelling weird, who knows!

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After dry down on paper, a quite interesting fruit and floral mix appears, but

as per usual, this fragrance had been blended through a Nutribullet and it is difficult for me to find individual notes to pinpoint.

On skin, the sweet opening is accompanied by the fruitiness immediately. Almost instantly, the scent also becomes more rich, but not deep. Nomade is not fruity fresh, but rich fruity, if that makes any sense.

I have sniffed Nomade straight from the bottle many times and I found it to be different from the other designer fragrances, which peaked my interest.

I swore off designer fragrances after my streak of bad experiences (let me be dramatic, please), but I kept sniffing Nomade and thought there is something interesting to explore here.

Minutes in and the fragrance is just "nice" on my skin, which is very unfortunate. I had high hopes.

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I had the idea that this could be my spring to summer fragrance, but with this dumb luck I might as well just go straight to summer scents...