Smooth, sultry and confident, Madame M is a fragrance to dance the night away with.

Listed notes

Bergamot, cardamom, pear, hedione, jasmine, cocoa absolute, carrot oil, cedarwood, patchouli, cistus, labdanum, vanilla, benzoin, tonka bean, ambrette, musks, cashmeran.

Top notes

As soon as you spray Madame M by Astrophil and Stella, a sharp, focused beam of scent is noticeable. This is how the bergamot makes itself visible. It’s shiny and warm, and with the pear accord the two facets seem to glow together. Behind that is a sense of polished wood, dusty and dry but nevertheless burnished. I imagine an old door, worn smooth by the touch of thousands of hands. It’s dark and the door is open a crack so that around it, a halo of soft, golden light can creep.

There’s a story here, hiding in Madame M. It’s one of those fragrances which you can practically smell the imagination seeping out of. The sort of scent which beckons you closer with a gloved hand and leads you into flights of fancy and otherworldly realms.

Heart notes

Once the pear accord and the vitality of the bergamot start to recede, Madame M becomes both calmer and sweeter. A vein of something runs through the scent which is bright, sweet, but almost metallic. It has a treacle-like quality, but without the syrupyness that could overpower a subtle and nuanced fragrance like this. It’s almost like a scented version of amber tree resin, oozy, flowing, and again, possessed of that sense of something glowing or radiant like we noticed at the start.

There’s a definite sense of mystery about the middle phase of Madame M, and the ingredients in the fragrance contribute to that by not standing out in their own right. Instead we get a deliberately diffuse picture of worn, polished woodiness, a heady floral tone, and a sense of dizzying intoxication. If it hadn’t been inferred before, I might start to imagine that Madame M herself is a woman of some renown, perhaps responsible for an underground, illicit drinking establishment or house of ill repute. The impression that the scent gives us though is that she is powerful and confident, at home in her establishment which is lined with wooden furniture and bars of the highest quality, perhaps the odd, opulent bouquet of flowers placed here and there. This is a place lit by candlelight though, and there are shadows in every corner.

Base notes

The base of Madame M becomes a throaty vanilla purr. It’s faintly smoky and almost a touch papery. It’s as if you have finally gained an audience with Madame M herself and, whilst your heart is in your throat, she surveys you from beneath her lashes, dispassionately.

The vanilla winds itself around the benzoin like a cat around legs, and the two together form a sinuous and fluid sense of movement in the base of the scent – which by this point has changed significantly from the place in which it started. A musky depth joins the vanilla and benzoin and completes the picture with a plush texture, somewhere between velvet and fur.

Madame M is a rather intoxicating scent, it draws you closer, but at the same time it feels powerful, dangerous even. It’s the sort of scent which you’ll either fall in love with or run scared from, but if it speaks to you, it’s going to whisper such secrets.

The other stuff

The perfumer for Madame M was Natalie Feisthauer.

The longevity of the fragrance is good, lasting six to eight hours following application. The sillage, or projection of the scent is solid. It seems to project further on paper than it does when wearing, going to about handshake distance or thereabouts, but it could well be further than that depending on your skin and the conditions.

Madame M is a scent which works well evening into night, and it is the sort of fragrance which could be worn year round. It’s performing nicely in the warmer temperatures we have at the moment, but seems to come into its own when things cool off a little towards the evening.

The brand

Astrophil and Stella are a really cool, Italian brand who are producing some really nice, interesting and yet very wearable scents at the moment. Their presentation is beautiful, with the ruby red bottle of Madame M being a particular delight.

Astrophil and Stella use well know and well respected master perfumers for their creations which are cheeky, interesting and unique.

Buy it

Madame M is priced at €160 for 50ml of extrait de parfum. You can find numerous stockists on the boutique finder on the Astrophil and Stella website.

Header image by bess.hamiti@gmail.com from Pixabay. Images of the product by The Sniff.

We were very kindly gifted a bottle of Madame M by the brand, our thanks to them for their generosity.