


It combines this botanical and animal aspect which is the heart of the story, it has the addictive scent of sugared almond and vanilla but it is also quite smoky. It's the roots that are extracted from the plant, and it took us 10 years to register the ingredient and be able to use it in perfume - and now it's exclusive to this new Mugler fragrance. It was used for many years in Chinese medicine. The heart is a (still loud) tropical floral with plenty of vanilla, lots of green, and a lingering hint of something like wintergreen. Many reviewers mention the lovely note of rhubarb early on, but I hardly notice it until the toothpaste subsides a bit, then, yes, there is a fruity rhubarb, very green, very sharp, a little sour and a little tart. The opening is also unusual - it smells like a blend of camphorous toothpaste 2 and tropical flowers, or more precisely, a perfume intended to evoke tropical flowers, since it has an overtly synthetic edge. The double overdose is supposed to be composed of tiger liana and rhubarb leaf (other notes: orange blossom, bourbon vanilla and wolfwood), and perfumers Daphné Bugey, Amandine Clerc Marie, Christophe Raynaud and Marie Salamagne have whipped up a green oriental that fulfills the excessive requirement, at least: Aura is loud. The Mugler folks assure us that we are back to overdose:Īll MUGLER fragrances are excessive and addictive, and AURA MUGLER is built on a dual pulsation, a double overdose. It does not seem to have sold very well.Īnd now we have Aura. I found it likable if not as interesting as it should have been, and certainly not as interesting as Angel or Alien. Womanity (2010) broke with tradition, perhaps - it struck me as relatively subtle, and seemed to go for contrast rather than overdose. If I had found it more appealing than I did, I probably would have tried more of the flankers. I did not love Alien but I didn't really hate it either. The success of Angel is often attributed to its unusual (at the time) overdose of patchouli and candy Alien followed in Angel's footsteps with an overdose of jasmine, vanilla and cashmeran. I thought Angel Eau Sucrée was fun and I thought Angel Muse was fantastic, but I didn't buy either of those either. I really like a few of the flankers, though, and have almost bought Angel Liqueur de Parfum any number of times. Their debut fragrance, 1992's Angel, was a masterpiece, but not one I want to wear. I have an ambivalent relationship with the brand's feminine pillar fragrances. Aura is the latest pillar from Thierry Mugler (I know, I know, it's Mugler now, not Thierry Mugler, but my brain is not quite ready to make the switch).
