Maison Margiela By The Fireplace (1/3)

Third pick from my Maison Margiela discovery set. Luckily the weather was a bit cooler, so it felt like the perfect time to try it. The bottle says it’s meant to smell like woodfire and chestnut.

The opening is the best of the 3 I’ve tried so far. Everything felt smoothly blended until the dry down. It has cloves, pink pepper, orange blossom, chestnut, guaiac wood, juniper, vanilla, Peru balsam and cashmeran. I could not pick out individual notes as much as I could feel the proportions shifting. The opening leaned lighter and more floral with sweet spices from clove and pepper. As it dried down, the spices softened and it became a sweet, smoky resin.

I’m genuinely glad that a SWY-type scent finally lasts on my skin. If you didn’t know, SWY fragrances rarely last more than 2 hours on me, and that has been true for every fragrance from the line. This one, despite being an EDT, lasted longer on my skin than all the SWY fragrances I’ve tried combined.

I expected to be disappointed with the performance, but this one really surprised me. It has been around 10 hours since application and it is still on my skin. Overall performance is roughly 10–12 hours, which is crazy for an EDT. Projection was solid at around 2-2.5 feet, becoming close to the skin after hour 5. By hour 9, it turns into a proper skin scent.

By far my favourite from the set and easily one of the best winter fragrances I’ve tried. It is sweet, spicy, fuzzy, resinous, nutty and woody, all blended seamlessly. The vanilla is done beautifully and is incredibly addictive.

It makes sense why I love it so much. This was created by Marie Salamagne, who was also behind YSL Muse, still my highest-rated fragrance. It feels like a full-circle moment because a Maison Margiela rep gave me a sample of Muse.

I’m giving this a 9.4/10. I am nitpicking, but I still feel it is slightly overpriced and the profile lacks some complexity. That said, if I were to buy something from the house so far, it would be this.

Also going forward should i post a picture of the samples i try or stick with google images?

2 comments