Botrytis Ginestet for women

@vigilante_squirrel
What a nice review! You make me tempted to order it blindly. This fragrance sounds like "me".

$110 ,100ml. Maybe I should sample it first.

Sooooo sultry, warm and luscious! A gorgeous fragrance with buttery honey and warm fruit (raisins drenched in cognac, dried figs, sweet dates!) in the forefront, just delectable! As it dries down the musk comes into play, and honey and musk were made for each other! Love this fragrance!

Sure it's sweet, but this Sauternes is complex
Layer upon layer of honey and exotic fruit, make it a spectacularly complex dessert wine.
YUMMMMM!
isn't that what "SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF"

I love dessert wines, particularly those made from botrytis-affected grapes, so I cannot resist Botrytis. I find Ginestet Botrytis to be very, very similar to the basenotes of classic Escada Collection, but Botrytis has none of the cherry topnotes or hints of cola. Botrytis connotes honeyed-tobaccoey notes here and there, but it very quickly develops the intoxicating aroma of a late-harvest dessert wine, with aromas of honeysuckle, caramel, and crème brûlée. The lasting power is superb, and this scent seems to dazzle everyone when they smell it on me.

This is lovely! I love honey in perfumes (I like Back to Black by Kilian and Miel du Bois by Serge Lutens)but this is different. It is honey, fruits and lemon for the most part; very sophisticated gourmand fragrance. My partner noticed that I was wearing something new right away, and he loved it. It is sweet and the amount of sweetness is just right, very comforting. I could wear it all day long, simply amazing!

this has been my all-time fave since it first came out. my boyfriend goes wild for it (i go heavy on it- especially after an argument!) it's a gorgeous, decadent bath of dessert wine & honey, mostly. i can still smell it the next day. it's absolutely *intoxicating* and worth every penny.

My signature for years was Escada Collection. I almost paid $300 for it on eBay, it's so rare now. After reading some of these reviews, I ordered a sample of this to compare, and I am stunned at the similarity. They don't even have the same notes, but they smell nearly identical. The only difference I can detect is that this perfume seems slightly less rich than Escada. I think the plum and caramel notes in Escada make a difference. Still, this is close enough that I am thankful I did not purchase a $300 bottle of Escada Collection. Now the only issue is how to get ahold of a full bottle of this.

This is a piece of art, IMHO. The very first sniff reminds me strangely of JPG-s Classique EDP, but with lower sillage. After a while this similarity is gone, and all I get is a wonderful, spicy, warm honey and yes, there is a wine-like feeling, too. It's not too sweet, but very comforting, cozy in colder weather, I just want to eat (or drink) it. Unfortunately I don't know Sauternes (which fine wine inspired this little gem) but in Hungary we have a very good dessert-wine, called Tokaji Aszú and when I wear Botrytis it reminds me of this one and I have a very familiar feeling to it. On my skin longevity is pretty good for an EDT (6-7 hours), but sillage is close to skin. I wish there'll be an EDP version, because the price is pretty high...sigh...

Simply WONDERFUL!!! Ohhh this is SO PERFECT!!! My new favourite!!! I now it's hard to find, but definetely TRY IT if you can!!! AMAZING

i love this perfume. i had a sample and just received my full sized bottle. on my skin i don't notice much change to the fragrance over time but i love the scent. on me it's all honey and fruits. a lot of people compare it to escada collection, i thought it was similar as well until i did a side by side spray of each. the opening is similar but collection dry down is much darker and spicier at least on my skin. botrytis stays all sweet and honey. i love them both, they're just different.

This scent meshes well with my body chemistry-on me it is mostly amber with a hint of honey and fruit, very pretty and warm. I really like it and can't wait for cooler weather to wear it more often.

I was hoping to find a sister to Micallef's Note Vanille, only less boozy, more suited to wear to work. But Botrytis is not it. It's too sweetish, syrupy, thick and 'yellowish'. It smells almost toxic. Indeed, like someone puts it, like fruit that has been left to go yeasty. The vanilla escapes me. It's all about fruit and syrupy dessert wine.

I wish this perfume had lived up to its description but it really was far too sweet for my liking, and left me feeling a little queasy.

Today I am such a lucky one to be able to try this scent! I have a duplicate sample from a very talented scent artist online.

This is so beautiful. It is soft and heady at the same time. I smell sweet honey (amazing how just the right fragrance oil can actually replicate the scent of sweet honey!)

It smells like a nectar filled flower on a warm day! I can actually smell a powdery pollen smell,also a bit of rich dried fruit,like dates and raisins. I also get a hint of sweet flowers,some type of white lovely flower warmed with the pollen and nectar.

I wish I had purchased the full bottle! Maybe next time when I have a little bit of "fun money"!

I am so grateful that I would not have to spend even close to $110 for a bottle of this (not for the "dupe"). I would never be able to afford it then.

My goodness! In a word, decadent! I get a smell like fine whiskey sniffing straight out of the bottle, so I was a little apprehensive about this little jewel. Boy, was I mistaken. I get at first, honey, and the dried fruits. After about 20-30 minuites, the white flowers developed which cut the sweetness and lent it elegance and sensuality. It's hard to explain the way this beauty is comforting and sensual at the same time. I about dismissed botrytis as a cloyingly sweet mess, but it is overall a scent of pure excess, and gluttony, well composed. It lasted all day. I applied this morning and it has developed well, I catch a very slight powdery note, but it did not last long. A scent of seductive, sexual sweetness!

It smells pretty much like the notes described.

It's honey, a whole lot of honey. It's definitely dried fruit (raisin mostly). Those are the dominant ones but there is a touch of white flowers to lighten it up and make it a bit more sunny. The amber is so far in the background it's hardly worth mentioning.

Although it is not listed, I also get a bit of raw tobacco and dry wood.

If you want to smell like a honey drenched raisin in the sun then this is the one for you!

just one sentence about this!

i am gonna eat myself!

if I survive, will come back with a more detailed review :)

The good news? This does not smell boozy.
The bad news? It does not smell boozy.

Honey, spices, dried stone fruits & raisons, a hint of white florals and more honey. Yet none of these notes can really prepare you for what you will experience when you try this strange fragrance.

I can see where Ginestet was trying to go with Botrytis. It does have the concentrated, fermented, syrupy sweetness going on but without any hint of alcohol to give it 'zing' (as in a real dessert wine for instance) it just does not deliver the goods for me. That is not to say it isn't enjoyable nor that is isn't an excellent quality perfume!

I must say though, on my skin one spray of Botrytis on just one wrist has relentless sillage and longevity. It floated around my person, calling out like a siren on the rocks, for at least 6 hours. Even at this price point, you will find value for money here.

I am with Doc Elly. I was consulted more by my preconceived notions about the fragrance, along with the favorable reviews. I was at the same time excited and a little afraid when I ordered a sample. I was excited to discover my honey HG, and I was afraid of it (since it's pretty expensive I heard). But actually, the most informative piece of advise is the name of the perfume itself, botrytis, the noble rot which gets the grapes from which some of the finest wines are made later. This is what it actually does smell on me, sweet grapes a step away from becoming a very fine dessert wine with amber and a slight hint of dried fruit in the base. My first reaction was "hate" but this is only because I was expecting honey and it wasn't there for me. Upon a second wearing I like it better, but it's already Botrytis I'm smelling, not "a long-awaited honey HG candidate." I'll need a third wearing of this.

I suppose I should never have any preconceived ideas when I try a perfume sample. However, the name and description inevitably set up some sort of expectation that, more often than not, isn't met. With Botrytis I was expecting the sweet, floral, nutmeg-like scent of Muscat or a late harvest dessert wine. Instead, it's a scent that starts off with a characteristic light yellow, prickly, raspy sensation that makes me feel like I need to sneeze, then settles down into something like my recollection of Chopard Casmir, which I wore for a while when it first came out. At the end of the day it's still going strong with a synthetic plastic-y smell. I think that somewhere in the mix there is a grape-like scent that I catch a whiff of now and then, but it's buried under all the other stuff. I don't really dislike the perfume - it just didn't live up to my high expectations.

I like this one quite a bit which is understandable since I tend to really like amber fragrances. It has sweetness to it that agrees with me tinged with a bit of floral. This is not a smokey amber scent, not really any aggressive masculinity to it which if was present could make this fragrance even sexier. Even so, I can still see a man being able to wear this scent. Alas, I don't think it's original enough and for the price ($110) not really worth purchasing though I'd wear it in a hearbeat if gifted it. I own B&BW Sensual Amber which smells enough like this (not as sweet though but that can be achieved by fragrance layering) that costs 1/4th the price.

It's a beautiful scent, a precise honey, spiced and laced with flowers--
A _not-too-sweet_ honey scent where you can smell the pollen that goes into the honey, and the honeycomb. The lasting power is decent, not amazing.
I find this scent a gourmand but I prefer a touch of honey to smelling like an elegant queen bee.

With a scent so well-made, I would sometimes hang onto my 1 ml sample and find the occasion to wear it, but everyone who likes the smell of honey and spiced bread should try this, so pm me if you want to swap for my sample.

If I ever had to bargain with the devil over a perfume, I would probably go for Botrytis...

It does not look so promising just from the notes, I assumed it would be a sticky sweet fragrance. Yet, the images I see before my eyes while desperately sniffing my wrist (trying to inhale as much of it as possible, and not to miss anything!), exceed my hopes and dreams.

For me Botrytis, despite being launched just last year, is a fragrance of what I associate with my favourite periods of history and novels. The New York elite from the novels of Edith Wharton (Ellen Olenska would have surely seduced Newland Archer with this fragrance only, if not with her intelligence, this would be the captivating scent in the castle of Countess Carmilla, this would be the scent of Polish noble women in the XIX century).

It looks a more complex than it would seem. It is sweet, but classy sweet. Botrytis is a mature fragrance, but matching not only mature women. Confident, elegant, aware of her beauty, maybe a bit decadent, surrounded by luxurious objects, wearing long, richly ornamented dress with corset and lots of laces... this is how I see in my head an ideal Botrytis wearer.

Botrytis stays all day on me and I'm happy to say my DH also wears and loves it and it lasts forever on him as well. Our chemistries bring out different notes but it smells fabulous on both of us.

I can't add anything to the descriptions here, but I'll say ditto that it is the most warm and wonderful scent we've ever found and may there always be a big bottle of it on the dresser!

Bought mine at luckyscent.

This Gourmand of a perfume reminds me of the scent of the local vineyards as you walk up and down the rows of vines with over ripe fruit which has been affected with the Queen of all fungus known as Botrytis. This amazing bacteria turns the fruit into some of the most exquisite dessert wines in the world.Whether in France or as far away as Australia this is a very revered practice. This perfumes sums it up beautifully. The honeyed topnote warms the fruitiness of this scent which is balanced well with a hint of white flowers to calm down any oversweetness there may have been. All this softens seductively with the amber on the drydown. This is one experience, just like sipping fine congnac, that you don't want to miss.

It is fascinating to me that some of the most interesting & staggeringly well-crafted perfumes I have tried lately have all come from houses more often known for their fine wines or cognacs. There are many similarities between fine wines and fine perfumes, so perhaps we should not be at all surprised by this development. I should like to write more about this another time, but for now, let me describe this incredible scent...

Breathing in the top notes of Botrytis distinctly reminds me of eating hot, buttery toast slathered in Fireweed Honey. This delicious honey is, coincidentally (following our alcoholic theme) known as "the Champagne of honey" for its richly aromatic nature & excellent quality. The honey tastes quite strong, not at all sugary sweet, more of a spicy character with hints of the exotic.

So it is with this fragrance - a richly honeyed Oriental that just sings in harmony on the skin. Nothing is overdone, everything in moderation, and yet creating such powerful feelings of comfort, warmth & sensuality. Wearing Botrytis is like seeing the world through amber tinted spectacles, or drinking a subtle, fruity dessert wine from an amber goblet: everything is warmer for its touch.

This lasted very well on my skin and, to my absolute delight, got warmer & fruitier as the day went on. The dying notes, the last few hours, were pure plum tobacco for me (though these notes are not listed, this is the distinct impression I got). This part reminded me of Frapin's 1270, though not as dry. There are almost elements of Casmir, too, in the fruitiest peak of heart notes with the vanilla base peeking through.

A definite for my Want List!

Botrytis by Ginestet is one of the lovliest perfumes I know. I think this scent is warm and comforting.

A burst of floral honey...lovely, rounded and totally like a dessert wine to me. Reminds me of an Australian dessert wine I love: Brown Brothers' Orange Muscat and Flora. It softens to a sweet powdery honey, but not sticky sweet honey and I also get soft woods and musk. Unfortunately though, it fades away too fast for my liking. If it wasn't for that I probably would think about actually owning a full bottle of it!