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Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Messe de Minuit - Etro - Review

When Sweet Diva asked me to pick an Etro for her to try, immediately I knew it must be Messe de Minuit. The one Etro that really stands out, a masterpiece of swirling scented memories and melancholy days.

Messe de Minuit is a very woody, musky sentimental smell for me. Maybe the sadness for me is associated with my great aunt that is now passed, my namesake. The fragrance takes me back. Her house along the Ohio River had been though a great flood. It always smelled damp and musky, added to by the piles of old books with crumbling pages. A bittersweet memory. I cannot but catch the mere whiff of this scent and I am transported back; sitting on the piano bench in the living room looking up at the high ceiling and the large chandelier. There were stories of finding a chairs hanging there after the flood. As a child I was in awe of the big house that stood the flood and sweet gentle woman who lived there.

This is a melancholy fragrance for me, it transports me, haunts me. I don't wear it often, it makes me too sad. Yet I love the memories it provokes.

Notes: Orange, bergamot, tangerine, labdanum, incense, myrrh, cinnamon, patchouli, honey, amber, musk, vanilla

Click here to read Sweet Diva's Review: Today’s Sample: Etro Messe de Minuit

Available at: Lucky Scent

Photo: LuckyScent

4 comments:

priscilla said...

What a lovely review, Victoria. I feel that way about Frederic Malle Carnal Flower--it smells just like my grandmother's house. My husband loves it, but I can't wear it...it makes me sad.

Marina said...

What a wonderful review! I adore Messe de Minuit.

Caitlin Shortell said...

My grandma's house smelled of this particular San Francisco apartment building smell. Inside, there were faint smells of perfume, dietetic candy, and a waft of her cigarettes.

Anonymous said...

This is one that I would like to own. Someone sent me a decant years ago from POL, and it was a most melancholic scent, but so compelling...

This will be one of my purchases in 2007.

I've owned Etro's Ambra and Vicolo Fiori. I should have purchased the Messe de Minuit!