Oeillet Bengale
Aedes de Venustas (2014)

Oeillet Bengale is a very refined and well balanced carnation. I don't get the old lady vintage vibe from this carnation. It's sweet but not sickening. I was hesitating from trying , I was expecting an overly sweet & feminine scent but it's not.

Fragrances with lots of focus on spicy notes aren't usually what I prefer, but they're so mellow, so velvety smooth here that I can't help but enjoy them. Dominant notes are the big Carnation along with strawberry, spiceness from the turmeric, mild and well balanced cinnamon, mild pepper & cardamom, faint benzoin. There is also a faint powderness.

Pleasant, safe and wearable. It's a modern-classic. I won't be buying this however. Despite it's exotic charms It doesn't grab my soul and make me scream "I must have this juice right now and buy two back up bottles straight away" like (most of) the one.

After an initial opening reminiscent of O'Driu Ta, probably the Strawberry, this falls apart and ends up being a Generic Floral yawner using clove to dig out of the muck.
Go with the better ride offered by Youth Dew.

I'm not sure what's going on with this. It smells, to me, like an elaborate incense fragrance that the perfumer grew frustrated with but they released it anyway; it's super disorganized and confused. It reminds me a little of Jubilation XXV with the sound turned way down. It's floral, fruity, frilly, slightly creamy, perhaps a little spicy, yet it somehow manages to not smell like much of anything in particular except something from the past. Compared to the bitter blast of AdV's first release (the rhubarb one), I can't help but wonder if the line has any cohesion at all. It's not a hideous scent, but it doesn't have much in the way of character. A placid, slightly creamy/floral incense that won't offend, but won't turn heads either. It lasts well, but that just adds to the confusion, really.

Great, much more significant than artisan´s new pale new edition of oeillet sauvage. understated, elegant. not loud, not into the eye, just velvety and classic.
This might not be a signature scent or something overly complex, it is linear, simple and powdery. Who loved the old oeillet sauvage will love this

When a melange of floral notes is so imbued with cloves, it cannot but recall classic evocations of carnation – Oeillet Bengale is no exception. However, it is also thoroughly modern in the sense of being light and airy despite the serious spicing (the turmeric particularly is a lovely earthing touch), and that makes it easy to wear as opposed to its more overbearing cousins.
There are lovely hints of green and berry fruit peeking out and enlivening the central spiced floral accord, but also an underlying lipsticky note that at times reads like iris and at others like plastic. Ultimately, what matters is that the whole hangs together with ease and without pretension, but some may long for a bit more ambition. Gets considerably duller and one-dimensional a few hours in.

A scent vaguely reminiscent of many classic floral-fruity fragrances, revisited with a “cheap niche” mood (I mean quality-wise cheap). Which means: ready-made synthetic bases and accords, a bold metallic aftertaste, a general sense of plainness, with no dimensionality and the feeling it's all heading nowhere. Basically there's flowers (a dry and earthy plastic rose, carnation, and possibly also ylang to me), fruity notes, something greenish-vegetable, patchouli, cedar and sandalwood on the base and a discreet spicy accord in which I smell mostly cumin, cinnnamon and pepper. It soon evolves and settles on a generic, dry floral-leafy-woody blend, slightly powdery too, with no praise or blame, with a vague floral accord which is so synthetic and tamed-down that it could be anything. Lasting for hours, identical to itself (ah, these naturals...). I wouldn't say that at least it is pleasant, because it smells actually even a bit tacky. Linear and cheap. Complete indifference.

4,5-5/10

As far as I understand, Oeillet Bengale was actually supposed to be a rose-inspired scent (being Oeillet Bengale a specific variety of rose) but, as a matter of fact, I read it more like a carnation fragrance…and a good one at that.

The opening is a bit off-putting with a messy spice melange and super sweet, kind of fruity notes. Eww…

Fortuntely, the fragrance immediately takes a different route by introducing a very nice carnation note supported by incense and other resins. Spices finally find their places while other resins provide a kind of vintage vibe enhanced by smooth, cosmestic-like, floral patterns. It's good because it's never too clovey, never too sweet or soapy and, honestly, when it comes to carnation-centered fragrance, that's quite a lot. Overall, I find Oeillet Bengale to be a solid bridge between classic 80s style feminine orientals and modern perfumery.

Probably not my favorite style of fragrance but if you like the genre, this is together with Come Des Garcons Carnation and JAR Golconda, one of the best carnations currently available on the market. Pretty tenacious too.

Awesome scent..smells like a clone of Le LAbo Rose 31 and Serge Lutens Vitriol d'oeillet lasts forever..Very intense with the incense and quite smoky