The world of niche perfume is like a vast ocean. Either you are a skillful swimmer who knows their way in the water or if you don’t swim well – you’ll easily get overwhelmed and drown eventually. I don’t like that more and more fragrance brands appear out of nowhere – almost like mushrooms after the rain. They make lots of buzz around themselves but they have no roots and praise the uniqueness of their compositions. It’s become almost a cliche. So if I find a brand I never heard of, I like their story and fragrances are more than good, it’s like finding a pearl. Today it’s Ormaie.
On my skin L’Ivree Bleue starts with a mouth-watering mandarin note. It’s a happy smell of sweet’n’juicy pulp blended with an aromatic, exhilarating scent of the zest. It doesn’t take very long until the perfume turns more dense and syrupy, which results in giving sort of a candied effect to the mandarin. Rum gives this scent a golden and liquory hue that on one hand offers some booziness and sweet facet of sugar cane & molases on the other. To my nose it doesn’t smell very gourmand. My nose also picks a faint anisic scent in the background and a creamy floral tones of lily.
Heart of the composition takes on a floral path after some time and that’s when L’Ivree Bleue unveils its complexity of powdery notes. Placing violet and iris in the spotlight the perfume first warms up from the lights intensity. Iris has a very plushy feel to it in this Ormaie fragrance. It has a softness and delicacy of something fragile but at the same time it’s like a spine that holds everything up. The scent itself makes me think of a cosmetic powder and when violet adds some of its more charm – which is also powdery but in a more sweet, candy yet fresh way, the make up feel is real.
Ormaie L’Ivree Bleue is like a kaleidoscope at this stage of development. Each whiff is slightly different, more sweet, less sweet, more iris, less violet and so on. If this perfume was compared to a stage performance, it’s drydown would be the most intriguing part. The lights are down, only some small ones are still lit. It’s half-dark and cocoa is lurking somewhere in the shadows. It brings a thrill of mystery, an adult gourmand vibe – hot, roasted and finely powdered. You could almost paint your body with the bronze tan of this smell. It’s addictive and irresistible in the best possible way.
But the temptation is not over yet. You have to give in completely. Thick & extraordinarily balsamic benzoin adds another asset to this composition, turning L’Ivree Bleue into a gooey paste of perfumed goodness. Darkness of vanilla, or rather its pod, slowly oozes from the pores of your skin when you wear it. Patchouli creates a depth of the scent so that it almost becomes a void you want to toss yourself into. Before you know it only this scent will be on your mind, in every thought of yours. There’s no turning back from something this good. You are lost in this endless pleasure…
L’Ivree Bleue from Ormaie is a rare example of when the perfume immediately speaks to me and the review writes on its own. It’s been a while since I experienced that feeling. It’s quite the unusual perfume and I can’t think of anything alike. It is a bit Shalimarish (my new word in dictionary) on the iris but all in all it’s a very original perfume. I like the way it engages ones senses. Apparently the scent is meant to evoke exoticism of Gauguin and the jungle themes of Rousseau. L’Ivree Bleue is an eau de parfum available only in 100 ml bottle (pretty one though). I don’t know who’s a perfumer.
Chemist in the Bottle 