Etro

When I ask for a bit of complexity in a fragrance nowadays, SAs direct me either toward expensive ouds or rose and patch combos nowadays. I’m OK with these but often find myself remembering older fragrances that offer more variety. Royal Pavillion is one of them. To me, it sits at a transition from shining, clean and amicable yellow florals – beloved Vicolo Fiori and Champs Elysees- to florals with a bit more dirt, albeit in a restrained way. It starts with a melange of flowers – rose, violet, ylang ylang, mimosa and violet. I mostly detect a slightly bitter ylang ylang and a sweet mimosa, which I think is a nice contrast. The heart is softly woodsy. Again, I get a lot of contrast from sweet florals and darker vetiver. My favorite part is definitely the drydown which surprisingly has civet – I’m often afraid of civet. Etro is animalic for the shy, like myself. Royal Pavillion is strictly a cold weather fragrance for me as heat makes it more sweet than I’d like it to be. It is both approachable and confident. And quite interesting. I don’t think I will buy it again because I want to try other things but I would always wear it if someone gifted it to me. Good sillage thought not a powerhouse. Good lasting power.

This is a warm, spicy fragrance that is marvelous in its restraint. When you think of a spicy oriental perfume, typically wildly exuberant scents come to mind. Certainly when you look at Rajasthan's bottle, you expect a certain vividness. The bold paisley print calls out for a vivacious fragrance, but it is a mismatch. That aside, I really like Rajasthan. It opens with almond and rose edged with a hint of pink pepper. It is initially a bit powdery but that dampens with wear. The drydown comes out very slowly and in tiny stages. Each stage reveals a little bit more amber, a little more musk. Ultimately, you wind up with a smooth, mildly spiced amber and musk concoction that is both alluring and soothing. Really, my only complaints revolve around the packaging. The Etro bottles only come in 100 ml sizes, which is just kind of ridiculous when you have a lot of perfume. I prefer to buy 50 ml or less. Second, as lovely as the bottle looks, it's not very well made. I've had it for about 6 months and the front label has developed dark patches, presumably from the adhesive. That's a touch disappointing, but not enough to dampen my enjoyment of the perfume itself, which is excellent.

Why do they say on their site that the perfumes are made of natural ingredients when there's Lilial in the composition (butylphenyl methylpropional)? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilial Also, is there any violet extract in the compound? If not, the ionone in the ingredients is synthetic. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionone They do say their products are made from "natural" ingredients, but as long as they don't clearly state that ingredients as the two mentioned above are "a natural component of the essential oils" they used to make this perfume, I don't buy it.