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Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Angel Garden of Stars by Thierry Mugler

Thirteen years after bringing upon us the great Angel, Thierry Mugler introduced Garden of Stars, three floral versions of the classic, Angel Lily, Angel Peony and Angel Violet. I do not wear Angel often, it is a difficult scent for me to pull off, but I do admire its dark gourmand composition; it is undoubtedly a masterpiece and one that launched a thousand scents. I must admit that I thought that the new trio will not be original enough to actually justify their existence. I still find it somewhat ironic that, after receiving much acclaim for creating a non-floral composition, Mugler decided to add flowers to the blend.

I will start with the one Garden of Stars scent that confirmed my misgivings, Angel Violet (Top note: Violet Green, ‘Crystallized Sugar. Middle note: Violet, Woody Notes. Base note: Patchouli, Vanilla Notes). For some reason I expected to like it the most, but then I always imagine I would like violet fragrances and I am often wrong, perhaps the sad fact is, violets and I don’t like each other all that much after all. Do therefore take what I say with a grain of salt, but the fact remains that, on my skin, there is nothing left of Angel in Angel Violet, just dusty old violets that dry down to something reminiscent of the scent of sweaty skin…Angel Violet had a certain dull powderiness that I found rather disagreeable.

Angel Lily is a different story altogether. The image of lilies dripping with chocolate comes to my mind whenever I smell Angel Le Lys (Top note :”Dew” Note, Green Stem. Middle note: Nutmeg, Lily, Honey. Base note : Patchouli, Vanilla Notes) . The chocolate note is much stronger in this composition than it is in the original. Chocolate and lilies flourish side by side for quite a long time, which I found to be a great and unusual effect. The luminous cool scent of lilies and the dark warm scent of chocolate are stunning together. Unfortunately, Angel Lily dried down to a rather pale, vague smell of lilies more than anything else, thus somewhat spoiling the effect. Still, it is a lovely scent and I wouldn’t mind owning a bottle of it at some point.

I also like Angel Peony, in which Angel’s heady gourmand notes are made softer by the sparkly and delicate peonies (Top note : Airy Notes, Stem Green. Middle note : Peony, Pepper, Floral Notes. Base note : Patchouli, Vanilla Notes ). This is a pretty scent, no other word can describe it better. Pretty in a pink but not overly girly kind of way. Whereas lilies pick up and showcase the chocolate note of Angel, peonies emphasize vanilla and patchouli. This is a warm and soft composition, and I like the fact that does not lose its complexity in the drydown, the way Angel Le Lys does.

Angle Lily, however, is my favorite “Garden Angel”, despite the fact that I am not a fan of lilies in perfume (or indeed in real life) and regardless of the disappointingly bland drydown. I admire the way it contrasts the cold incandescent lilies and the warm opaque chocolate note making it possible to smell them simultaneously, side by side. I found the new floral versions of Angel to be significantly softer and thus much more wearable than Angel The First (or Angel The Terrible, for some people). They don’t last on the skin as long as their formidable ancestor, neither do they leave a fearsome trail of sillage. Like it or not, Angel has Presence and Charisma, both of which were sacrificed in the Garden of Stars to perhaps make the new scents more wearable (less feared?). As I mentioned before, I am unable to pull off Angel as often I would liked to, so for me this is a positive development.

Angel Garden of Stars scents are strangely expensive. They can be found at Nordstrom Online, $60.00 for 0,8oz each.

Next, the scents that remind me of my icon, the incomparable Marlene Dietrich.

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16 Comments:

Blogger Anna, Fair and True said...

When (if) you do run out of perfumes you still have all the after shaves to review. And after that detergent scents perhaps.. ;)

5:52 AM EDT  
Blogger edina monsoon said...

Interested in what you think of JPG...I love the smell. Although against my better judgment I've switched temporarily to burberry. Nice..but somethow it doesn't quite give me the feel-good-factor.

6:39 AM EDT  
Blogger Marina said...

A, why must you torture me so! :-) I am not worried though...there are too many perfumes out there for me to ever run out of something to review...
Which fragrance do you like , A?

9:42 AM EDT  
Blogger Marina said...

I must shamefacedly (is that even a word?) admit that I don't remember JPG. I must revisit it. A fragrance that gives someone the feel-good factor is always worth a try.

9:43 AM EDT  
Blogger NowSmellThis said...

Angel is not my cup of tea, and I didn't love any of these 3 either. I think Thierry Mugler's Cologne is the only TM I am destined to own.

11:34 AM EDT  
Blogger Marina said...

V, I wouldn't mind a bottle of Lily, but it has to be a gift or a huge bargain. It is rather expensive, isn't it, I don't really understand the reason behind the price, maybe the bottle is the part of it...

12:33 PM EDT  
Blogger Marina said...

R, I can't imagine any of the Angels being your cup of tea either. :-) Cologne, yes. :-)

12:34 PM EDT  
Blogger Anna, Fair and True said...

At the moment I'm mostly using Lancôme's Qui and Ralph Lauren's Ralph Cool. I also have Calvin Klein CK One in my cupboard and some very old Lancôme Trésor bottle which used to be a favourite ages ago.

2:54 PM EDT  
Blogger Marina said...

Love Oui, such a versatile easy to wear scent!

3:21 PM EDT  
Blogger katiedid said...

I found the trio very disappointing overall. There's little resonance in them for me. The violet was too musty for me, too. The lily I found sickening, weirdly sweet and gross. And this is coming from someone who likes Poison and its sweetly sickening lily. For some reason, it's surprising to me that the lily is your fave of the three. I thought the peony was not too bad, actually, but not great. However, it struck me that it's a nice peony with a little depth I think. I wouldn't choose it for myself, but I wouldn't mind it on other people.

4:25 PM EDT  
Blogger Marina said...

I must say I am surprised myself that I liked Lily. I loved the contrast between the lilies and the chocolate there.

4:36 PM EDT  
Blogger Kristen said...

Aggghhh! I thought I was the only one who had the same feeling about Angel Violet. I liked it for the first five minutes, but to my horror, it began to morph into something that smelled like B.O. as it dried down. I didn't even give it a chance to develop further; I ran to the sink and scrubbed it off with some lovely L'Occitane soap!

10:54 PM EDT  
Blogger Marina said...

It was a scrubber for me too, I don't what was so unplasant in it. I can't blame it on patchouli, because there is patchouli in the other two Angels and I didn't mind them nearly as much.

9:37 AM EDT  
Anonymous viagra online said...

Definitely smell the fragrance is exquisite three, goes very well with people of quiet character .. or perfect for people on the sign of Pisces ...

12:59 PM EDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The lily I found sickening, weirdly sweet and gross!!!

1:00 PM EDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Love Oui!!!

1:03 PM EDT  

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