Milky Mango Wood

Pivoine opens with a smell of aldehyde, some patchouli and a hint of chocolate. The chocolate disappears very soon and the scent becomes a little soapy and sharp. Then comes the heart notes with peony, pepper, patchouli and rose. Peony and pepper are prominent, makes it more like a spicy-floral scent. At this stage, I might not think of Angel if I smell it blind. However, it continues to evolve into a dark chocolate drydown though it's not listed, like a ghost of Angel. I actually like the heart notes a lot. Peony touched by spicy pepper, tender but with characters. And it's less close to the original than La Rose version IMO. The sillage and the longevity is among average and less good compared to its colleagues from the same house. It's an interesting interpretation with classic Angel elements, but you might need to like pepper to appreciate it better.

The Angel fragrances seem to go on forever. One can easily lose track, especially since most scents have the same or similar basic structure and differ only in the details. But that doesn't matter; it's still great, and I enjoy testing a fragrance line and paying attention to the differences. Now comes an Angel scent that bears a strong resemblance to all the others, particularly the original (EDP and EDT) Angels, but this time it has stronger pepper notes, at least at the beginning. The scent: The fragrance starts off very Angel-like with the familiar honeyed note. Soon, you can also smell the initially quite strong pepper. Light floral notes in the background hint at the lily of the valley, and there’s also a slight sweetness lingering in the background. Only in the heart note does the naming become clear, as the scent here now strongly resembles (peony) roses, still accompanied by the usual gourmand notes, which, however, are weaker and thus not as piercing. Later, the typical known notes from this line are added: a bit of patchouli and a little vanilla, although the vanilla is quite weak. Occasionally, the pepper makes a brief and faint appearance, but you have to press your nose against the sprayed area to even perceive individual notes like the pepper later on. Longevity and sillage: The longevity is quite good; the scent should stick to the skin for about eight hours. Probably even a bit more. The sillage is okay at the beginning, but far from as strong as one is used to. I also had the feeling that the sillage decreases more quickly and falls back to an average level. In any case, one should not expect something as strong as the Angel EDP. The bottle: This bottle is also identical to the other three fragrances from this Mugler line (La Rose, Le Lys, and Violette Angel) and looks great with its star shape (both the bottle and the cap). Here with Pivoine, the perfume liquid and the cap are pink. So now the Angels are also spiced with pepper. And it doesn't even smell bad. The scent is just okay, but somewhat weaker than other Angels. The basic structure of every Angel is present in a slightly subdued form, but since the other fragrance notes smell good and strong only at the beginning and become weaker later, this scent feels a bit insignificant compared to other Angel fragrances. It can be worn at any time, in any season, as it is, as mentioned, not so intense and thus not overwhelming. If you are looking for an Angel scent with a true rose fragrance, you might want to check out La Rose Angel, which smells good of roses but also has a chocolate scent after a while. If you like Angel but find it too piercing, you might want to consider this as an alternative to the EDT, provided the pepper doesn’t bother you. Overall, it’s a nice scent, but due to the weak sillage, it also feels somewhat insignificant, despite the Angel basic structure.

I can be relatively brief about this perfume, but this review 'deserves' it, as it made me test it several times over a few weeks; it certainly 'spoke' to me in some way and, above all, left me quite confused for a while :) I don't wear it, as it contains a patchouli-pepper note that induces quite a headache; a note that somehow wasn't harmoniously blended as I would have wished, because then it would be a wearable angel for me, which hardly reminds me of its 'family.' It is indeed very floral -fresh-, much more so than gourmand and too sweet ... Let's put it this way, when still tamed IN the BOTTLE (and the bottle actually fits perfectly with the scent VISION that this peony angel evokes, before my inner eye ...) and capable of releasing only a few scent molecules, I fell in love while repeatedly sniffing at the spray head (as I said, I usually approach a scent very cautiously, especially Mugler's, LOL): Ah, finally ... a shimmering, clear scent, lush white and also bright pink peonies, once very gently with lush hanging flower heads on a clear, rather cool June night. Above it, a wide starry sky ... the clarity I hoped would uplift the senses and prevent headaches - well, this clarity comes from the pink pepper, which should moderate the sweetness and keep it elegantly in check. But, oh boy ... A mini-spray on my forearm and the image changes dramatically for ME immediately: NO, what is THAT, where has the wonderful floral scent gone? From the shimmering cool, gentle, and bright tone, it turned in no time into a glaring and clattering sound that was hardly bearable ... yes, that hits it, not just a radiant but a glaringly clattering loud glass angel on the skin, an angelic dominatrix! The scent clings and screams now, too loudly for me; the glorious floral scent simply cannot compete with the sharpness and this loud undertone that now takes over. Thus, Pivoine Angel becomes immediately ... unbearable for me. And that is very, very unfortunate ... it is quite linear anyway, but it could have been wonderful; it just missed that chance, at least on my skin. And I do love peony scents, completely unsweetened! Wait ... yes, there is a trick :) After applying very discreetly, rinse MULTIPLE times with clear water, so without soap ... LOL ... then it actually becomes beautiful again, floral, GENTLE ... and it shimmers again, with this pure tone that is so well captured in the bottle design as clear violet light and that tempted me to the first spray. But, this can't be how it works :), a perfume shouldn't be meant to be diluted ... therefore: no, no purchase. But definitely interesting to test, still the most interesting among the floral angels in this then-limited flanker garden of Thierry M....

PIVOINE ANGEL is a *very* floral and nongourmand take on the original ANGEL, with peony dominating from the outset and through to the fade away. The classic ANGEL vanilla patchouli drydown never manages to overtake the heavy floral sillage, which will appeal only to those who love peony! This is the same somewhat aggressive peony featured in EL PLEASURES and FERRAGAMO, in addition, I believe, to another Olivier Cresp creation which I find utterly unwearable, NOA FLEUR. In PIVOINE ANGEL, the peony note does not, however, make me cringe, so I may have made unjust accusations in the past about "synthetic peony"--not that it was synthetic (which it probably was and is) but that it made me ill. Still, although I can wear PIVOINE ANGEL, it's my least favorite of the Jardin d'étoiles and I won't being adding this one to my collection, since I am about peonied out. Of the four, I prefer LA ROSE (though it sometimes smells like orchids!) and VIOLETTE.

This is perhaps not as pretty as the other fragrances in the Garden of Stars range in my opinion, yet still it's not something that has left me unimpressed. Pivoine Angel is rather strong from beginning to end. Rich with patchouli, pepper and peony, this fragrance is more bold than pretty. What makes this fragrance stand out over and above the other scents in this series is its lack of sweetness. Pivoine Angel is quite raw and simplistic, the vanilla is barely there. The drydown is the only relief from this very busy and loud fragrance, which turns surprisingly soapy and musky on my skin. Although the lasting power is well above average, this lasted the shortest out of all the scents in the Garden of Stars series.