Swing Feather and Rosca Ametlla by Nolença

Nolença is a new French perfume brand that does not claim luxury nor it create false promises. Its marketing is direct and honest - it offers accessible fragrances an environmentally friendly packaging created by young promises of the current perfume industry.
The line does not stand out especially for its originality, but offers pleasant, affordable and very easy to go fragrances.
A collection of a fruity floral with a woody base - DDD, an iris that dances between clean and dirty - Swing Feather, a gourmand that plays the maturity game - Rosca Ametlla, a green orange blossom with citrus and light woody details - Et si ce Matin... and a mixture of different teas with smoked sparkles - Le Thé is Nolença`s introduction letter of on a market oversaturated by repetitions, copies and opulence just for the love of opulence (even I have keep on repeating myself with the oversaturated market).
My favorites - Swing Feather and Rosca Ametlla.

From the first time I smelled Swing Feather, I had in mind the photo taken by photographer George Barris to Marilyn Monroe on the beach. The black and white image of the impeccable "imperfect" woman - taken a few days before her death - smiling brightly face against the wind having her blurry nakedness intentionally covered by a semi-transparent sheet that embraces the frame of her curves. Small particles of wet sand caress her feet in a timid attempt to adhere to her white skin dressed in a fleeting tan, while the lost waves crave the warmth of her salty skin desperately trying to reach the ground she's stepping on. The air is contaminated by the smell of her natural beauty. Touches of dust. Driftwoods. Clean clothes sticked to "dirty" skin.  Soft as a feather in the wind.

A fragrance by Patrice Revillard dedicated to the iris and built around a heart of indoles, cumin and a mixture of clean and (slightly) animalic musks that give the impression of sun-dried skin, between drops of sweat and seawater. The indoles, used in small quantities, give it floral sweetness, while the cumin aromatizes and soils with its warmth bordering the carnal.
Airy, sensual and mysterious, Swing Feather is an ode to femininity reminiscent of the timeless elegance of Infusion d`Iris.

Rosca Ametlla by Mylène Alran and Sidonie Lancesseur. Childhood remembrances filtered through a rosquilla that takes us through Andalucia and Catalonia, through streets fenced by orange blossoms and patios decorated in colorful tiles and pots, combined with the evocative image of the Spanish woman - strong and powerful, but sensitive and emotional - the woman of Almodovar's Volver.

"Your life is yours, yours is your love',
Under the mocking look of the stars
With indifference today they see me coming back.
Return,
With the withered forehead,
The snows of time
Silver my temple. "

  On February 3rd the pilgrimage of San Blas is celebrated in Spain and one of the most consumed sweets on this occasion are the San Blas rosquillas, some sort of donuts covered with sugar glace that gained popularity at the end of the 19th century. Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, covered in a rich glaze and dominated by the unmistakable aroma of the anise. The noses recreate in Rosca Ametlla the smell of the donuts of San Blas bidding for a gourmand that doesn't transpass to the cloying side thanks to the bitterness added by the petitgrain, the orange and the almond that combined with the graceful mischievousness of the badiana provide the composition the scent of a pink grapefruit. It can be a bit overwhelming at this stage, especially as it is an unusual combination of notes, but the calm comes minutes later and the composition - just like on top, is sweet and slightly spicy, but more subtle in this phase - it is wrapped in a dusty cloud of almonds enriched with heliotropin, cinnamon and tonka bean that give it a vanilla and lightly powdery fragrance that remains this way until the drydown.
Rosca Ametlla is a different gourmand and, consequently, offers a new and interesting olfactive experience.

(Sample set by courtesy of the brand, the opinions are mine and honest.

Nolença offers through its website (at the moment only in French and with transport in a limited number of countries) the set of samples at 10 euro, the travel format of 15ml at 23 euro and the Eau de Toilette of 50ml at 60 euro.  Available in the EU from September.)