Elie Saab Le Parfum

This is the first perfume from Elie Saab, the designer responsible for some of the last decade's most beautiful couture gowns. He is the man behind Halle Berry's Oscar dress and Katy Perry's wedding dress. His couture house sells more gowns than any other couture designer. I love the flowing gown featured in the advertising campaign for the scent, which looks gorgeous against the urban landscape.

This perfume has been two years in the conception, and went through 279 trial versions before the 'nose' behind the scent, Francis Kurkdjian settled on the final version. Kurkdjian has created some of the most well-known and iconic scents on the market: Narciso Rodriguez for Her and Le Male by Jean Paul Gaultier.

Kurkdjian wanted to try and capture some of Saab's  design philosophy when creating the scent: "With Elie Saab, it's about the mixture of opulence and light effervescence. His gowns are sophisticated, but almost immaterial. The fragrance needed to radiate that same airy, solar, warm feeling with that same big trail."

The scent contains the following notes: orange blossom; jasmine; patchouli; cedar and rose-honey. I am not a fan of overly floral scents, as I like a fragrance with some depth. Therefore I really liked the fact that this was a woody-floral, thanks to the cedar in the blend. I found that this scent was a great mix of floral and woody notes, with a definite warmth to it. I had planned on wearing this for a couple of days to trial it, but ended up wearing it all week. I found that this also had good longevity and lasted approximately 6 hours.

I am a sucker for gorgeous packaging, and I *loved* the Elie Saab bottle. The scent is in a glass bottle which at first glance has a classic vintage feel, but on closer inspection has a contemporary feel, with it's cube-like shape. This ties in with the scent, which I think has a classic feel to it.  The bottle looks beautiful on my dressing table, especially when the light catches it, and certainly ties in with the "radiant femininity"  and "ode to light" concepts that Kurkdjian has spoken of.

The scent comes in 30ml, 50ml and 90ml sizes. If you would like to try this scent, then you can purchase it from most perfume retailers, including Escentual. At the moment, Escentual are offering a free 30ml body lotion with the purchase of any Elie Saab fragrance over 50ml.

The vintage feel of the bottle inspired me to take a photo of a couple of pieces of vintage jewellery that I recently re-discovered in my closet.

Have you tried this scent? If yes, what did you think?

Fine Print: I was sent this perfume by Escentual for review purposes.