Sorry, long review because I'm excited.
Today is my first time trying Guerlain Parure parfum. I've been very keen to try this for a long time, but I've been hesitant to pay $10 for the 0.25ml sample. (That's what I ended up doing anyway.) It seems like there's a consensus among perfumistas that this is a masterpiece. When I've tried scents like that in the past, sometimes I've fallen in love right away. (PoL is an example.) Other times, I recognize that the scent is very good, but I just don't like it. (Sycomore, Invasion Barbare, for example.) Parure is absolutely in the former category. It's a chypre in the mold of Mitsouko, but much more complex, and with rose playing a leading role. It's also plummy instead of peachy. It opens very bitter and fusty, in classic chypre fashion, but the dark plum really fleshes it out. (IME, in the earliest chypres, that bitterness at the top isn't really rounded out. It's like a rock song without a bass part. Coty Chypre is really like that.) The heart, to my nose at least, is all about the rose. The drydown introduces some very pleasant amber and leather notes. (Although I felt like I got a dose of the leather right at the very top as well.) Needless to say, I'm a big fan.
EDIT: I've read that Leonard de Leonard is similar to Parure, although I think people are referring to the edt. There are definitely some similarities, and Leonard de Leonard really is a beautiful fragrance, but it's no substitute for Parure.
