Parfums de Marly
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Pink pepper and cardamom spark briefly before heliotrope floods the composition with its powdery, almost narcotic almond-cherry sweetness. Bergamot tries valiantly to maintain brightness, but it's already surrendering to the inevitable amber warmth rising from beneath.
Lavender and bitter almond form a brief alliance, creating a momentary aromatic-gourmand tension that's utterly captivating—Cherry Bakewell tart dusted with dried herbs. The jasmine adds an indolic richness that prevents the sweetness from becoming one-dimensional, whilst geranium's rosy-minty facets struggle to be heard over the amber accord's increasing dominance.
Sandalwood and vanilla meld into a creamy, woody sweetness that sits close to the skin, the gaiac wood adding a subtle smoky quality like incense at a distance. The oud remains polite and refined throughout, simply deepening the amber-vanilla base into something that feels expensive rather than challenging, sweet rather than meditative.
Pegasus Exclusif takes the original's almond-lavender fougère framework and drenches it in amber resin until it glows like molten caramel. This is Parfums de Marly's unabashed love letter to sweetness—not the sheer, crystalline variety, but something darker and more enveloping, where bitter almond meets vanilla-laced sandalwood in a haze of heliotrope's marzipan softness. Hamid Merati-Kashani has built a fragrance that walks the tightrope between gourmand excess and woody sophistication, though it occasionally stumbles toward the former with gleeful abandon.
The opening promises restraint with its cardamom-pink pepper brightness cutting through bergamot, but within minutes, that heliotrope begins its slow conquest, turning everything pillowy and almond-scented. The lavender and geranium heart attempts a traditional aromatic turn, yet they're so thoroughly sweetened by the surrounding amber and vanilla that they read more as memory than reality—ghosts of a fougère haunting a gourmand structure. The oud here isn't challenging or animalic; it's the smooth, woody kind that simply adds gravitas to the sandalwood-vanilla base without introducing any real darkness.
Add fragrances to your collection and unlock your personalised scent DNA, note map, and shareable identity card.
3.9/5 (153)