Needle In A Haystack: Habanita Parfum by Molinard
It’s Needle In A Haystack time! Please note the image on the left: every week Marina provides me with an image for our joint project. I don’t know how she does it but she’s clearly a genius. Today’s sample drawing looked liked this (Mr.Aromascope can attest, if necessary): container with samples was dumped on the bed, vigorously shuffled around, head looked up at the ceiling, hand was stretched in the general direction of samples, and a sample picked out in slow motion. “An easy one!” was what followed. Molinard Habanita in parfum!
Writing about Habanita proved to be simple and complicated at the same time. Simple because the scent instantly transports me back to my childhood. I’m sitting in the kindergarten cafeteria, it’s lunch or dinner time, with about 20 kids around me, all starving and equally ready to throw a tantrum and dump the food about to be served (not another kasha!) when all of a sudden we all behold The Drink. Dried fruit compote! Oh the fuss that occurs (mixed with utter adoration) - the hysteria, practically. That’s what Habanita is to me - the much loved and cherished and never allowed to be shared dried fruit compote. The complicated part consists of actually not getting any associations the scent was inspired by. Havana? Cigars? 1921? I give it complete credit, of course, but to me it’s akin to detachedly admiring an old painting (much like I admire the bottle). Habanita is gutsy, savory, beguiling, charming, and decidedly old-fashioned. Originally created as an accessory to cigarettes, it’s a fleshy mix of pipe tobacco and baby powder. It’s a bit more complex than that (especially in parfum) - a sultry, dusky fruity-floral in top notes with smoky, resinous powder in the drydown. Habanita should be worn with caution - it is potent. I love Habanita as much as I loved my compote, and that’s what it will always be to me.
Habanita features the notes of bergamot, peach, strawberry, orange blossom, rose, ylang-ylang, orris, lilac, heliotrope, leather, vanilla, cedar, benzoin. I highly recommend trying the parfum concentration which is much smoother and more dense. It can be found at various perfume etailers as well as directly from the Molinard online shop.
Please be sure to check Marina’s draw of the day.
Image source: molinard.com
18 comments April 19th, 2007