Marina Barcenilla of MB Parfums
Marina Barcenilla of MB Parfums is no stranger to the world of fragrance, notably natural perfume. As a two-time FIFI award winning perfumer, and winning a Sustainable Luxury Eluxe Magazine Award for Best Natural Perfume Brand, vivacious and talented Marina is best known in the UK, her adopted homeland. We suspect that’s all about to change and all of us in the U.S will be hearing much more about her and her aromatic creations.
Liz Rose of Avé Parfums. www.aveparfum.com digitalized by Robert
As of October 2017, the MB Parfums collection is now available in the USA exclusively at Liz Rose's www.aveparfum.com in Asheville, NC. Although solely a web-based business, AveParfum.com will be having a Pop-Up Shop in Asheville this holiday season. (Please contact them directly for information.)
MB Parfums Collection digitalized by Robert
The range is comprised of six perfumes, along with candles, award-winning bath & body products, and room fragrances. The collection represents a good variety of scents and each carry a vivid “sense of place” based on memories and voyages throughout the world. The perfumes are:
India: (UK FiFi Award-Best New Independent Fragrance in 2016). Warm and spicy. Cardamom, coriander and rose with a floral heart on an amber and sandalwood base.
Patchouli Clouds (Beauty Shortlist Award 2017). Warm and exquisite. Soft patchouli, Moroccan rose, Indian jasmine, white woods and spice. All supported by a base of sandalwood and frankincense.
Under The Orange Tree: Warm, sweet and powdery, bitter orange and orange blossom combined with a jasmine heart on a base of vanilla and amber.
Spring Rain: Fresh and aromatic. An herbaceous rose on a bed of tree moss, frankincense and white woods.
The Perfume Garden: (Finalist-Fragrance Foundation Awards) Floriental. Citrus and rose infused orange blossom, with a sandalwood heart on a base of ambergris and resins.
Black Osmanthus
And my favorite, the 2017 Fragrance Foundation Award-winning sleek and mysterious beauty Black Osmanthus…
“I watched the white flower become as dark as the night sky, the sweet fragrance of nectar-covered petals turn wild and unpredictable, innocence shattered. With deep velvet and warm leather my seduction began with a dangerous touch of the Black Osmanthus. A provocatively spiced floral heart of osmanthus and jasmine is enveloped by the jazz club smokiness of dark wood, leather and rum. An extravagant saffron and myrrh accord enhance the carefree, risqué, dangerous aroma.”-MB Parfums
Ruby Rose for Urban Decay
Black Osmanthus rests solidly in the camp of gender-fluidity, the butch/femme aspect creating a constant sexual dichotomy. With the preponderance of the smoky leather notes, this is a perfume that could just as well pair with a black leather biker jacket and the perfect worn-at-the-crotch Levi’s as with a tight leather bustier with knee-high vinyl spiked heels! It’s a sexy, saucy, and all together naughty scent that fragrantly pushes and pulls throughout its development.
Ruby Rose via Instagram
It is at times that forbidden leather bar back room, or the mixed scent of 21st Century flower-child ravers at either Coachella or Glastonbury (home to Ms. Barcenilla’s perfume atelier).Music Festival or Rave especially when the florals come forward to mix with the leather led by the dusky and powdery osmanthus, supported at various times with the tuberose, jasmine, and a healthy dose of beautiful oakmoss. An altogether intriguing, provocative, and distractingly erotic scented dance. Black Osmanthus may very well be the perfume you reach for when a special friend spends the night expecting breakfast at around….oh say….noon?
Notes: Black wood and smoky leather accord, osmanthus, tuberose, Indian jasmine, pepper, oakmoss, patchouli, sandalwood, myrrh, saffron and West Indian rum.
Disclosure: Thank you SO much to Marina Barcenilla for supplying my samples. The opinions are my own.
-Robert Herrmann, Senior Editor
-Art Direction: Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief
Thanks to Perfumer Marina Barcenilla and www.aveparfum.com of Asheville, NC, we have one Deluxe Sample Set of all 6 MB Parfums for one registered reader In the USA, so be sure to register if you have not done so. To be eligible please let us know what appeals to you about Robert’s review of Black Osmanthus, which of the fragrances sound the most appealing. Draw closes on 11/15/2017
We announce the winners only on our website and on our Facebook page, so like Cafleurebon and use our RSS feed…or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume.