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SMELLYTHOUGHTS
l'enfant terrible of niche perfume critique…
Category Archives: Etat Libre D’Orange
Etat Libre D’Orange – Don’t Get Me Wrong Baby (I Don’t Swallow) & Encens et Bubblegum
Don’t Get Me Wrong Baby I Don’t Swallow opens with a high-pitched, vinyl-like layer of screechy aldehydes, enhanced with a bizarre soapy/starchy smell that gradually unfolds into a lily of the valley. I like lily of the valley, I can’t say it’s too delicious here though, a little bit plastic-y and flat – it throws off a pretty pungent hair-spray vibe.
The lily of the valley is paired with a lilac, jasmine and orange blossom – and whilst that sounds like a rich bouquet, it’s all flattened into a waxy texture that glues to your skin like a bad suntan lotion. A hint of a metallic note (expected with ELdO) joins in the heart leading to the drydown.
At the bottom of the fragrance sits a smidge of patchouli, maybe an amber/vanilla?, and that waxy, synthetic floral accord. A marshmallow note (also found in Divin Enfant and more successfully in Love By Kilian) joins in, that’s neither appetizing, or accurate – instead it adds a slightly fluffy texture to the already light (yet sticky) fragrance.
Sounds pretty bad ‘ey? Actually, it’s ok. It’s a very generic, cheap laugh of a fragrance that I’d happily wear from time to time. Not a standout in the line, nor do I recommend it – yet it manages to be a better clean floral than most others out there.
Encens Et Bubblegum starts with an unexpected hit of pink pepper, a heated spice with maybe a touch of ginger and a semi-realistic bubblegum note. It’s not actually as sweet as you’d expect, and the pepper definitely makes it more “perfume-y” rather than gourmand. The bubblegum has a stale, papery texture with a strong waxy, peach note that reminds me strongly of Crayon by Demeter (a fragrance I can’tbelieveI wore a lot when I was 18). The pepper burns off quickly and the wax-crayon vibe just gets stronger as the bubblegum accord disappears.
There is a slightly fruity smell going on in here, the peach I already mentioned along with a cheap strawberry/raspberry smell that again, isn’t sweet or edible. The waxy texture I’m guessing could be lily of the valley after smelling it’s use in DGMWB(IDS). There’s also a touch of jasmine and magnolia I think – something adding a pretty grim floral touch.
What pierces through everything is the metallic note that just about holds an incense accord. It’s definitely not an incense I’m used to in a fragrance, the ELdO signature instead bridges the gap between the “bubblegum” and the “incense”. The fragrance dry down remains pretty linear, the wax crayon accord pairing with the fruity/floral gross-ness, overlaid with a metallic intensity.
Unfortunately, I don’t love it like I wanted to, but still – an interesting fragrance in the Etat Libre D’Orange lineup.
Encens et Bubblegum 50ml & Don’t Get Me Wrong Baby I Don’t Swallow 50ml Etat Libre D’Orange – £52.50 http://shop.lessenteurs.com
The Afternoon Of A Faun – Etat Libre D’Orange
The Afternoon Of A Faun opens with one of the best turkish delight (loukoum) accords I’ve smelt. A rich turkish rose, powdery iris and a hit of bergamot. In all these loukoum fragrances they add a huge dose of almonds and/or cherries – neither of which I associate with the sweet (that’s more nougat to me)… rose, powder and citrus… perfect!
There’s a spiciness in the opening too, a slightly spicy and fruity black and pink pepper along with a subtle immortelle underneath. This spice works perfectly with the loukhum accord but due to the higher presence of florals rather than foody ingredients (and not much sweetness) – it stays away from being gourmand and is instead: mouthwateringly fragrant.
A frankincense and myrrh begin to join in, slightly bitter, resinous smoky – all that lovely stuff, that just makes that turkish rose better and better. The iris keeps providing a lovely and lighthanded dose of powder throughout – completely rounding out any sharp edges and making The Afternoon Of A Faun both light, and super smooth on my skin. The immortelle never takes over, but is detectable throughout – dry rather than syrupy, with the spice subtle – similar to it’s use in Like This but just a little more potent. The “fuzzy” texture most closely resembles Archives 69 in the Etat Libre D’Orange lineup, and I find a fair few similarities between the fragrances – but this is undoubtably easier to wear (and nicer!). They both have a subtle metallic incense, a “pink berry” aroma that here seems to be a sideline of the rose, and a peppery spice. There’s a lot of textures going on and a list of florals that whilst is pretty straightforward to read (rose, jasmine, iris) it is somehow presented quite abstract.
The turkish delight accord breaks down a little becoming less familiar and less gourmand but the rose note staying true to the opening. However, as the bitter resins gain in strength, that familiar metallic note of the house signature, and a subtle leather note intermingle with the more delicate powder of spicy florals, the whole thing gets a little more “perfumey” and less edible. The drydown is light but rich, an unusual combination of spice, bitterness, resins and iris powder – the memory of pale pink florals and fruit just about in view.
The Afternoon Of A Faun seems to get a lot of stick, I’ve read hardly anything about it and none of it has been positive – well, I really enjoy it. Thankfully a very generous reader sent me a 10ml miniature of this so I’m very grateful… so thank you! (you know who you are) 
Definitely a great release from the line, in beautiful packaging, and a name that I absolutely love. I’m growing to really really like this one and consider it a must sniff for any ELdO fan. Recommended
The Afternoon Of A Faun 100ml EDP Etat Libre D’Orange – 119 Euros http://etatlibredorange.com
Archives 69 – Etat Libre D’Orange
Archives 69 opens sweet, and fizzy – with soapy aldehydes up top and a sherbet candy underneath. The soap entwines with some sweet orange, and slowly begins to give way to some pepper spiced fruit.
The fruits start bright and berry-like, playful and immature, before they get dense and a little “stodgy” – bringing to mind the prune-y/date-y fruit of Feminite Du Bois. This sweet, sticky fruit is counterbalanced in weight by a continuing translucent fizz – that no longer smell like the aldehydes – but a spiced floral fruitiness that hovers above the entire composition. The peppered spice also smells like it has a hint of ginger in it? Maybe even cardamom – it’s subtle whatever it is.
An “off” camphorous vibe comes in once the aldehydes fully disappear, its bizarre becuase whilst there is patchouli in the drydown - the camphor doesn’t seem to be coming from this, it’s like its own being. It brings with it a metallic edge, that I pretty much consider Etat Libre D’Orange’s signature. A smidge of smoky incense joins in, heads up top, and quickly becomes a leading player along with the remains of the now, slightly nauseating berry note. As I have already said (I just have to reinforce this becuase the description sounds so heavy) – all these dark notes have a great lightness to them, they are verging on translucent and the fragrance still manages to bring to mind the colour of its label.
The floral that trails through the heart of the fragrance is listed as “orchid”, I have a lot of orchids in the house, and I can’t smell them at all – so, I’m not gonna lie and say I smell orchid specifically, maybe I need to smell some EO.
As it begins to dry down, the subtle patchouli is sweetened by some benzoin, but the most prominent are the musk and the incense. The musk blended with the florals gives Archives 69 a slightly dated, classical feel, but with the fizzy of berries up top adding an extremely modern edge. The incense that starts so metallic, has a bitter resinous facet that is more obvious in the drydown. It’s a big bucket of textures, that somehow, is pulled off very well.
Unfortunately I don’t find it anywhere near as interesting as I hoped it would be (good job I didn’t blind buy this as I planned), but it is still a solid fragrance in the Etat Libre D’Orange lineup and definitely one of the most accessible. A playful fruity floral with a metallic, resinous and camphorous vibe throughout, nice.
Archives 69 50ml Etat Libre D’Orange - £74 Les Senteurs
Tom Of Finland – Etat Libre D’Orange
Thanks to my glorious pal Steve over at The Scented Hound, I have a big bag of smelly goodies in front of me and didn’t know where to begin. I thought I’d take it easy and start here… actually jumping ahead of myself, recently reviewed Love by By Kilian was in this mix… anyway, I have tried Tom Of Finland before, but never on skin. So this is an easy place to start
Tom Of Finland is a gorgeous leather from the start. It opens with a fizzy aldehyde, similar to that used in Rien. It isn’t soapy, but texturizes the top notes of lemon so that they almost become a bright aura, rather than citric.
The leather is present from the start – a really soft, luxurious suede, fluffy and smooth – similar in style (but much quieter) to the leather used in Cuir Ottoman.
Once the aldehydes settle, up comes a hit of safraleine - an aromachemical that smells like a relatively flat (but nice!) leathery saffron. When I smell the aldehydes and then the safraleine I can’t help but thing of my beloved Comme Des Garcons EDP 2011, and then when I think of this, I detect a muskiness to Tom Of Finland – the similarities become quite uncanny. However, Tom Of Finland is pulled much more into it’s leather territory with the lack of floral notes (I’m not counting the subtle hint of powdery iris in here) and it’s suede note pushed into the foreground.
The suede note becomes plasticky, with an almost vinyl-like feel; Comme Des Garcons Skai is brought to mind – and underneath that is a papery note of old books, similar to that in Desperado by Smell Bent (which is also a leather saffron)… oh man I keep making comparisons, sorry!
The thing is, Tom Of Finland does smell like a mashup of other things, but it does manage to hold its own identity – just.
A slightly “off” amber, and a hint of salty vetiver in the base, along with that white musk from the heart, pull Tom Of Finland into a few moments I find a little off-putting. The leather falls very flat, the saffron turns slightly when it comes in contact with the “gray amber” and salty vetiver. Whilst it actually still smells like a good, synthetic almost avant-garde style dry down, the mashup of ingredients seems to distort the flow, if this makes any sense…
However, it does manage to pull itself back together in the drydown, where the suede remains longer than expected paired with a soft vanilla, vetiver and a hint of smoke. The vetiver/vanilla bringing to mind Fat Electritian by ELdO…
Anyway, I do enjoy most parts of Tom Of Finland – it goes a little off track for me about half an hour into the fragrance where I don’t enjoy it quite so much – I find it quite vegetal. But I’d happily recommend it to someone looking for a light leather. I don’t think it quite fits the image being presented, it needed a whole bunch of birch tar, pump up that plastic note and add a hint of the iodine-like metallic note of Secretions Magnifique in the base and it would have been perfect! Still, a nice safe fragrance
Tom Of Finland 50ml Etat Libre D’Orange – £59.50 Escentual
Like This (Tilda Swinton) – Etat Libre D’Orange
A bright neroli and citrus fruits open Like This, with a delicate hand though, the subtlety is instantly noticeable. Before no time at all, the citrus fruits are mellowed as a “pumpkin flesh” accord fills up the top. I can’t quite say it smells exactly like pumpkin to me, but it brings to mind warm sweet vegetal substance, orange in hue just like intended - slightly buttery and dense, it could be pumpkin, it could be sweet potato, it could be butternut squash – whatever it is, it is lovely and comforting.
The sweet fleshy notes of pumpkin give off flashes of honey, and a little bit of ginger spice comes in. The ginger is thankfully nice and tame, it doesn’t hit the back of your throat but adds more auburn warmth to Like This. The sweet warmth carries on as immortelle joins quickly after. It adds a little spice (it’s famous curry note) but falls far more on the maple syrup side, with the ginger replacing it’s usual overpowering spiciness. The “pumpkin”, delicate ginger and sweet immortelle completely replace the citrus of the opening, and from here on are the main players in the heart of Like This. It’s cosy, warm, quiet and close to the skin. Sweet, but not too sweet, spicy, but not too spicy – it’s pretty much the “juuuuuust right” of the Bear’s porridge… of fragrance…
Like This is pretty much a whisper of sillage - which is actually very pretty. To everyone else, I think it would pretty much smell like a delicate sweet spice – gourmand, but not overtly foody. Some floral notes (rose) add a little “perfumey” quality to it, and a powdery heliotrope is only just present – amongst the dusty texture of the ginger, it’s almost unidentifiable.
In the base, clean musk comes in, which helps anchor it into your skin making Like This smell very human and to me, a little “furry”…
Apparently there is vetiver in here too but it’s very tame, just adding the slightest earthy edge (maybe dragging the pumpkin accord through the fragrance for a little longer).
Ok so that sounds like a pretty positive review, I didn’t quite mean it like that… Like This is a nice fragrance. I know it is considered an absolute masterpiece by many – I don’t quite get that… at all. It’s nice – but I wouldn’t choose to wear it. For me, it’s a very simplistic fragrance, nothing in it is a challenge, it’s very “pretty” and easy to like, and also very quiet and unobtrusive. All qualities which will appeal to many, just not myself. It is impressive that such challenging notes have been tamed to a point where they are so easily accessible – maybe that is part of the Like This appeal. Unfortunately it begins to smell very generic after an hour or so on my skin…
That’s pretty much my expression during the drydown.
Poor Tildzzzzz.
Anyway… Pleasant.
Like This 50ml Etat Libre D’Orange - £74 Les Senteurs
Juxtapositions: Etat Libre D’Orange – Fat Electrician & S-Perfume – S-ex
I have a lot of samples I really want to review, but I actually don’t like, and am worried I won’t have enough to say about them. So, this is my piss poor attempt to group them together I actually think I could have got away with this one a bit sneaky without mentioning… but anyway:
My micro-theme of juxtapositions, joins these two fragrances together. Basically, the themes of both of these fragrances shouldn’t really go – but they do… (to some people at least).
I don’t want to go into detail about their personalities just yet or I will have nothing to write about and my plan will have failed before it’s even started. So I’ll just start …
I love Etat Libre D’Orange, but I’ve said before with a murmured slur that I actually don’t like that many of their fragrances (considering how big their line is). But I do love the brand, the marketing etc etc. I really don’t want to be one of those people who say “their fragrances don’t match the marketing”, but at times, this is undeniable.
Anyway – Fat Electrician… I love the name let me start with that, and I reallllllyyyyyy wanted to love the fragrance. I want a bottle, I want people to ask what I’m wearing and say “Oh it’s Fat Electrician” :’)
I knew all along this was a vetiver, and my experience with vetiver before my blog was minimal, actually no, it was non-existent. I have since tried some fantastic vetiver’s… but I haven’t bought one yet, none have caught me enough – but I have a much greater understanding of it.
So I read that this is supposed to be a vetiver to capture the hearts of even those who don’t like the note, so even though I probably should have tried this a little earlier on, I thought “It’s never too late”
Fat Electrician is quiet, I can literally pour half my sample over my arm and I have to lift my arm up to smell it. But, that’s not really an issue of mine, I have found that with most vetivers.
Ok, so it opens with an instantly recognizable vetiver note, slightly salty, a bit skanky (I find vetiver to have quite a nasty odour if used correctly if that makes sense – I like it grubby!), green and rooty and pleasant in that muted way that makes vetiver so recognizable. However, in perfect balance with it, actually maybe even swaying in the favour of, is vanilla. A creamy, smooth vanilla that isn’t sickly sweet, and instead has the bizarrely repulsive “eggy” quality that I constantly seem to pick up in vanilla’s (mostly in Mona Di Orio’s eggfest Vanille). It’s a very interesting combination and somehow it all kind of works… for about five minutes.
After the five minutes, the metallic edge of the vetiver (and ELdO’s metallic signature), and the sheer blandness of the not-quite-sweet-not-quite-anything vanilla, all distorts into a sharp, yet lactonic tea-leaf sort of smell. It’s interesting but obviously simple. It is the matter of balance that makes Fat Electrician interesting, constantly wondering whether the fragrance will fall on the vanilla side or the vetiver side… to be honest, I don’t care what side it falls on, it’s uncomfortable for me either way.
Oh and if it couldn’t get much worse, there’s a nice blob of myrrh in the base, the breathy kind. The myrrh and vanilla with the metallic edge, create a similar sensation to Jasmin et Cigarette’s unappetizing “bad breath” stench that remains muted, unsettling and a little too close for comfort.
An interesting fragrance, but it doesn’t work for me I’m afraid.
I should love S-ex I really should, it is everything that I should hunt for in a fragrance – a juxtaposing combination, an attempt at an artistic name, and an avant-garde feel, all wrapped up in a bottle that looks like medical equipment and a brand name to match.
I was going to just write this review without explaining the juxtaposition beforehand, but I will. The reason I will is because without my knowledge of this prior to me testing this fragrance, I’d have had no clue that there was much unique about this.
So, S-ex is meant to be an almost animalic leather, overlaid with contrasting notes of aquatic Calone. If that makes sense you’ll understand why it shouldn’t really work…
S-ex opens with a real musky note laid over a true to life plastic accord. It is the type of plastic accord that I desperately craved in Comme Des Garcons’ Skai, only it is toned down here, and is blended with a whole bunch of other notes to make it not so important and exciting.
You know what, I have to take back my words a little bit, I did dismiss this the first few times I tried it, but I’m kind of understanding it now. So, if you’re familiar with “Calone”, it is basically an aroma-chemical that has an aquatic/melon type of vibe, you can smell it in numerous designer fragrances along with some niches who focus on the note, such as Humiecki & Graef’s Skarb (at least I think that’s what it is). Calone is really prominent here, but just like the marketing promises (and I’m really getting for the first time), underneath this is – dare I say – a fecal leathery musk. It is like a perfect poop wrapped in cling film (the plastic accord is still going strong).
I also get some notes not listed – a metallic accord (not that they have any need to list that), and berries? Like, red berries, which give it a futuristic jammy note.
As it wears, this jammy plastic note comes forward, and the melon notes of the Calone die down – as does the fecal musk. It becomes a lot cleaner relatively quickly, and instead it becomes a recognizable, almost cheap smelling aquatic fragrance, plasticky undertones smother some subtle red berries and clean white musk. If you didn’t know what this fragrance was, and sniffed it at this point (half an hour later?) it wouldn’t be something you would have thought an avant-garde niche creation.
To be honest, I was just captivated by the first ten minutes and I thought I’d embarrassed myself and was quickly falling in love with this! But no, the drydown has let me down, but the first half hour is great fun, if you’re in with the joke – if you’re not it’s a pretty unappetizing and nondescript fragrance.
The leather actually keeps popping out which is nice, it is a complete contrast to everything else going on but it does work. S-ex doesn’t ever blend into a seamless fragrance, little shards jut out here and there of leather, musk, plastic, fruit, melon; All together however, it creates a fragrance fuzz not too dissimilar in feel to Comme Des Garcons’ Odeur 72 for example.
Definitely worth a sniff, and a very interesting fragrance if you explore it in-depth (as I have just learnt). But I’d still pick 100% Love over this any day.
And may I say, that post turned out much larger than expected :’) I enjoyed that!
Etat Libre D’Orange Fat Electrician 50ml - £52.50 Les Senteurs
S-Perfume S-ex 50ml EDT – $110 Luckyscent
Putain Des Palaces – Etat Libre D’Orange
I LOVE ELdO.
I do, but, I actually don’t like THAT many of their fragrances…
Hmmmmm.
I like everything else about them let’s say :’) I love the bottles, the combinations, the playfulness, the crude names and descriptions. But, blogger after blogger has chimed in their say about the Etat Libre D’Orange brand and their controversial marketing, so I’ll leave the majority of my opinion out of this review
Putain Des Palaces (Hotel Slut) is a fragrance I tried very early on in my niche exploration. Checking back at my Luckyscent orders, back in the day I ordered a sample packet of just PDP, Rien, and Costume National Scent Intense. A strange three choices – and exactly that, only THREE choices. I now place much larger more varied orders than that these days haha. Anyway, back then I wasn’t too sure what I made of this, I thought it was very “pleasant” and very “safe”, but I craved it ever since.
So in my last batch of Luckyscent samples, I included this – it is the first fragrance I have bought more than one sample of. I have kind of fell in love with it now…
To me, Putain Des Palaces opens almost fizzy aldehydic – instantly “pink” with a little buzz of citrus and then a fluff ball full of face powder iris, delicate violets and young rose. It’s feminine, soft, and creates a huge fragrant pillow around you – lovely!!
There’s a clean/dirty musk underneath, which stays on the clean side for me, along with the subtlest of leathers to provide a little stability to the delicate, sheer floral dust of the top and heart.
The fragrance reminds me of Vivienne Westwood’s fantastic Boudoir which I wore solely for years. Not particularly in scent, but feel. It has that dirty vibe to it despite there being nothing particularly dirty in there. Maybe this reviewer on Luckyscent sums it up much better than me: “Ol’ French ho’ fo’ sho’!”
There’s nothing particularly shocking, daring, dirty, or (dare I say) particularly original about Putain Des Palaces, despite the raunchy name, but it is a beautiful composition. Delicate and easy to wear (maybe not so much for a guy but hey!), PdP remains pretty linear. An array of soft powdery flowers, mainly violets and rose, a lipstick/face powder accord atop some soft musk and rounded with some creamy “rice” type notes, similar to that of Kenzo Amour and ELdO’s more recent Fils De Dieu.
Definitely full bottle worthy for me and it’s in the top 5 of my currentl “To Buy” list.
Putain Des Palaces EDP Etat Libre D’Orange 50ml - £52.50 Les Senteurs
Serge Lutens – Muscs Koublai Khan & Etat Libre D’Orange – Secretions Magnifiques
sTwo fragrances, and two completely different expressions of sexuality through perfume.
Many people consider Muscs Koublai Khan a deeply sexual and “skanky” fragrance through the animalic musks and soft flowers. Secretions Magnifique’s approach is far more aggressive, with notes of sperm, blood, saliva and sweat, ELdO seems to go for the… S&M approach we’ll say.
These two are complete opposites yet drawn together by the same ideas and concepts, and that’s why I find them fascinating. I doubt Serge Lutens realised that this fragrance would be so unbelievably influential, and a prime reference in the category for animalic fragrances; the two different approaches in marketing from both brands have led to these being mini fragrance celebrities in the perfume world. Comparing the two? Kind of impossible – but they share blood, maybe evil twins or something. Anyway, here’s my brief lowdown of possibly the two most talked about perfumes of all time.
Muscs Koublai Khan opens with a beautiful, unidentifiable sweetness, and quickly, up rise the stunning mix of animalics, with civet and musk dominating. It is absolutely breathtaking, and one of the most comforting openings I have ever experienced in a fragrance.
It is so comfortable and easy to wear instantly, and I feel like I need to throw my head back with wrists to my nose and just roll around for a while!
After about 3 minutes or so, the famous “poopy” note comes in. Now, I didn’t pick this up, for my first 10 wearings or so, so don’t be scared by it. The only way I managed to identify this very, very slightly, fecal musk, was after sniffing Brent Leonesio’s Untitled No.8 as that was the moment I understood what the word animalic means and how musk can smell fecal. The fecal note in Muscs Koublai Khan is completely welcoming, it is bizarrely cozy and in-offensive. It feels so natural, and it “becomes you” so quickly, that it seems to change your mood, thought patterns, and movement.
The gentle fecal notes gradually disappear over the next ten minutes, although if you can clock onto them, you may faintly smell them in the rest of the fragrance’s life, but it is more of a memory than it actually being there. The musk goes on, and on, and on, with some baby soft rose petals floating in it also. There is the most subtle of spices which are practically unidentifiable… maybe the most miniscule bit of cumin? I’m not sure, basically this is musk musk musk, and the most beautiful I have ever smelt that’s for sure.
Hours down the line, this is a wonderful skin smell. I keep using all these words “beautiful” and “wonderful” and such, but this fragrance just clicks, and it really does make you feel sexy. Muscs Koublai Khan is not aggressive, it is not rude or skanky, it is mysterious and dazzling, whilst feeling like an arm wrapped round you.
I will have to own a bottle of this one day, but for now, my sample has lasted and lasted. I’m sure a bottle will last me a lifetime.
It seems cliché of me to write such a gleaming review of this, but it is a fragrance that actually lives up to its hype.
A complete masterpiece.
Maybe it’s just because I’m used to it after so many sniffs, but I actually really enjoy the opening of Secretions Magnifiques. It is almost unbearably metallic and sharp. It is the kind of effect you get (if you ever did this when you were a kid) where you rub two spoons together really hard and then sniff them – It’s harsh, almost dizzying. I’m not sure what chemical makes this metallic note, but there is definitely a ton of aldehydes which make it sparkle of your skin, similar to Rien though, they don’t particularly smell aldehydic.
There’s a sour note which creeps in after a couple of minutes, but it still feels metallic. I don’t like this sour note as it kind of triggers my gag reflex – it smells like a small chemical explosion. The fragrance starts to become extremely salted, and bizarrely aquatic, but with a strong metallic note dominating.
A creamy note appears from underneath, along with a touch of sandalwood I believe, but it doesn’t calm the scent down at all, instead it creates a complete contrast with the metallic note. The combination of an unidentifiable cream and super sharp metal is probably what turns most people’s stomach.
Some slight iris provides a tiny floral edge, although it is a computer generated flower and is completely overpowered by everything else going on. To be honest, there’s not much more to Secretions Magnifiques after that – the metallic sharp/sourness does begin to settle down and the scent becomes a lot more wearable later down the line. If I’m honest, I think if the name was different, along with the marketing image of an ejaculating penis being changed, this fragrance wouldn’t have any sexual connotations, but there is something human about it. Although the fragrance doesn’t resemble anything we smell on ourselves or with our partners, there is something oddly attractive about it. If I bury my nose right into my wrist, it’ll pull back in disgust, but hovered from a few centimetres away, it is bizarrely attractive.
Every now and again, I will open my sample packet containing Secretions Magnifique, just to give it a sniff. At these moments, I don’t find it repulsive, uncomfortable or unwelcome, instead I feel slightly calmer after it. On my skin is another story, whilst I do get this effect to an extent, it is just all too powerful. I think if this fragrance was just cranked down a few notches, it would actually be much more effective. I would want Secretions Magnifique to open with the same nose burning metallic edge, but drying down much quicker to the iris/coconut and metallic marine notes softly scenting the skin. If it were like this, I think it would have a completely different reputation and may actually succeed in what it attempts even more. But maybe I’m wrong, I think ELdO know how generally unappealing this fragrance is, and don’t believe it needs to be altered, I’m just seeing it from a consumer point of view.
Anyway, I’m going slightly off topic here and am not taking this fragrance as it is.
Secretions Magnifique is an experience. Similar to MKK, SM lives up to its reputation. But take it for as it is and pay attention to what you are actually smelling, not what the marketing is telling you to.
There is something bizarrely human to Secretions Magnifique, and I think that’s why so many people are scared of it.
Serge Lutens Muscs Koublai Khan 75ml bell jar – 130 Euros sergelutens.com
Etat Libre D’Orange Secretions Magnifique 50ml – £52.50 lessenteurs.com
