Nez à Nez- Immortelle Marilyn

Marilyn Monroe is as immortal as it gets, and she seems to be on everyone's mind lately: we have the TV musical Smash (a guilty pleasure, though I could have lived without the karaoke), Michelle Williams on Weekend With Marilyn, there was a TV mini series ,"Blonde", a fictional biography based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates, and now we also have a fictional bespoke perfume, Immortelle Marilyn from Nez à Nez.

I wanted to raise a cynical eyebrow and perhaps not to like Immortelle Marilyn, but it was impossible. I was smitten from the first time I tried it. Marilyn Monroe according to Stephane Humbert Lucas, the creative force behind Nez à Nez, is sweet, nutty, soft and just a little heartbreaking. It fits.

The opening of Immortelle Marilyn is juicy red raspberry, tangy and sweet. This note melts nicely into the big  and soft immortelle heart that is a bit dryer and more nutty than the usual maple syrup accord it creates, thanks to a generous dose of hazelnuts. I don't think it's cloying, but those who dislike immortelle in perfume are not going to come around. The deliciousness is somewhat tamed by a iris. I wish this note was even more amplified than it is here, but I shouldn't complain. We're given plenty of it, both the buttery aspect and the dry and powdery one, and since the iris here is not sweet at all, the gourmand notes are balanced and kept at a tasteful level.

Then there's leather. Soft, smooth and buttery, the leather note in Immortelle Marilyn whispers softly and absorbs some of the other notes into its folds. Did Marilyn borrow a leather jacket from one of the guys and wrapped it around her curves? This is a very feminine and sexy perfume, captivating and forever young.

Notes: Immortelle, Raspberry, Hazelnut, Ylang, Iris, Leather, Nutmeg, Musk.

Immortelle Marilyn by Nez à Nez ($165, 100 ml EDP) is available from Henri Bendel in NYC and Luckyscent.