Luxurious in its apparent purity, like a crisp white shirt: minimal and transparent. Yet beneath, lies an undercurrent of mischief. A sense of warm skin tone and clear-cut sex appeal that unfolds as it lingers. For those who believe that seduction is found in cleanliness and perfection, here is a cologne designed to renew its wearer with every splash.
An overdose of extremely refined bitter orange essence (or “bigarade”, as they say in Provence), embellished with cardamom and pink pepper on a woody base of hay and cedar, heralds a new generation of “eaux”.
An initial impression of innocence and flower-shop freshness disperses to reveal a more lustful tuberose: these dark and spicy notes surrender in turn to ones of milky comfort, enhanced by white musk, to draw out tuberose’s aura of lingering sensuality.
Erotic flower.
Carnal Flower contains by far the highest concentration of natural tuberose in the perfume industry.
An overdose of refined essence of bitter orange (or “bigarade”, as they say in Provence), embellished with cardamom and pink pepper on a woody base of hay and cedar, heralds a new generation of “eaux”.
A simple formula for an air of clean sophistication.
Cologne Bigarade is also available in a more concentrated form as Bigarade Concentrée.
Unlike other white flowers that exude opulence, magnolia’s scent is citrus-fresh.
Carried by a woody undercurrent, a magnified citric balance of bergamot, lemon and grapefruit tunnels into focus towards darker notes of oak moss and patchouli in an olfactory representation of sunshine and its shadow.
Musc Ravageur enhances the magnetic aspect of musk with amber, vanilla, patchouli and sandalwood, at the total exclusion of floral notes.
Having caused a scandal when the perfume first appeared in 2000, Musc Ravageur is now celebrated in all its sensuousness as the Sistine Chapel of the soft Amber tradition.
At a party on Paris’ rive gauche, a woman’s fur coat is lifted from her bare shoulders, exposing her neck to the candlelight. Aware of many eyes upon her, she pauses, smiling to herself, before emerging like a conqueror from the shadows.
A sensuous body of lavender is warmed by patchouli, amber and vanilla, and transformed by notes of pineapple and mandarin.
Bright and lush, mysterious and provocative, Synthetic Jungle is a stylized landscape in technicolor greens. An ode to cult perfumes of the 1970s, Synthetic Jungle offers a modern vision of nature reimagined.
Flipo retained the opulent basil of the original composition, along with a recomposed bouquet of hyacinth, lily of the valley, natural jasmine, and Ylang Ylang oil.
To modernize and sharpen, she then added synthetic black currant and styralyl acetate, effectively putting the bouquet through a glossy, sparkling filter.
Flipo simplified the Chypre and leather notes, resulting in a cleaner, more streamlined accord. Finally, she added patchouli.
The moon plays a leading role in conducting the rhythm of life in the Middle East, her ethereal appearance hailing the beginning and end of all festivity. Yet in Arabic, invoking the moon is also an allusion to romance — ‘my moon’; an adoringly grandiose term for one’s beloved that speaks of beauty and eternal devotion.
Exuding a warm, opulent quality, rose, oud and frankincense meet a surprising abundance of ripe red berries. In subtle evocation of the fruit-flavored shisha enjoyed across the region, the profusion of redcurrant and raspberry notes adds sweetness and color.A potent new moon.
Uncompromising, bold, filled with enigmatic charm.
Based on master perfumer Maurice Roucel’s personal cologne, Uncut Gem is an unapologetically manly scent, diamond-hard and absolutely fresh. Clear, spicy top notes of ginger, bergamot, mandarin, angelica root and nutmeg lead you to the sensual fire within: a leathery accord, vetiver, frankincense, generous amounts of amber, and a musk that vibrates with the skin. This is a scent that plays with the tired codes of masculinity while extracting their telluric force to create something beautiful and irresistible.
Maurice Roucel started his career as a chemist at Chanel’s Fragrance Laboratory in 1973. A self-taught perfumer who describes himself as “an explorer wandering amidst formulas”, his style is that of a sensuous aesthete and his signature is generous composition, in which he retains only what is essential.
In the Middle East, a promise made between two people is accompanied by the strictest honor code.
Frédéric Malle celebrates this principle with a promise of his own, whose beating heart is made of two precious varieties of rose: rose essence from Bulgaria and rose absolute from Turkey are lifted by apple, pink pepper and clove, and bound to a sensuous base of patchouli, cypriol and labdanum; an accord as unbreakable, and invisible, as a vow.
At the fore, an emphatic reinterpretation of rose; pure, streamlined, uncompromisingly modern. Blended with a unique extraction of timut pepper, geranium bourbon and a note of cassis for freshness and spice.
Yet a quiet storm lies beneath: vetiver and cedar forms an earthy bed of dark, mysterious leather with IsoButyl Quinoline at the center – an intensely bitter molecule, largely forgotten since its use in the daring perfumery of the Jazz Age.
At once sparkling and sober, a recognisably floral composition is shadowed by a dramatic, yet controlled sensuality.
Musk is notorious for having two faces: the pure and the wicked. Accentuating its binary character produces a perfume both innocent and irresistible, split between a clean cologne accord of lemon, bergamot and orange blossom, and a seductive white musk accord.
A show of innocence is not the perfume’s only source of trickery: its staggering concentration of musk overcomes the transient nature of an eau de cologne and renders the perfume indestructible.
A moment of closeness full of promise and the addictive feeling of mutual dependency.
Cashmeran, which performs like a vibrating musk, is crowned with violet, warmed by heliotrope and imbued with the saltiness of moist skin. Sandalwood adds a milky softness, and white musk, a clean magnetism, evoking the scent of someone you couldn’t live without.
A warm cloud of iris, hawthorn and heliotrope pervades a transparent sea of bergamot and hedione to make a paradoxical “eau chaude”; a subtle, intimate expression of personal comfort.
A 1950s prophetic masterpiece that was kept hidden for half a century for being ahead of its time, worn only by the perfumer’s wife, until now.
Prune fuses the modernity of cucumber and melon notes with the elegant classicism of rose and jasmine, blurring the perfume to the point of obscurity and rendering its ingredients unidentifiable.
