![]() ![]() ![]() The effect is, of course, entirely dependent on Malle furnishing top quality materials. Likewise, in French Lover / Stormwood, the very formlessness of the structure focusses the attention on the subtleties of natural content. Maybe he's got one of those Japanese teapots - with purely functional shape and subtle blends of colour, which - at their highest - show us that form and content are not separate qualities, but rather, as Susan Sontag pointed out - it's more a case of Yang form and Yin content 'melding together in permissive alliance'. ![]() The scent works because Pierre Bourdon appears to have grasped a Zen kind of minimalism. By giving the same work two different names - in different parts of the world - Frederic Malle doesn't rule out either interpretation it is he who names the juice, not the perfumer ambiguity is all. Or, if you are more inclined to culture than nature, there is the 'Homme Chic' of silver grey suit, cardamom coffee, potted plants and pale decor.īoth are possible both have adherents. It hints - at things you think you know the humid sous-bois of the forest floor, decaying leaves, green and sappy stems peeled of their bark. Like a Mark Rothko canvas, there's no image to pick out here but plenty to feed the unconscious.įrench Lover doesn't pronounce - like many perfumes do, it suggests. A pale blend of galbanum and harmonic naturals : incense, juniper and natural Exaltolide, they create an indistinct foggy thing which seems to be all surface and no depth. With French Lover he's done something that few have tried and fewer have achieved, the Minimal Perfume. He may look like a Belgian accountant but Pierre Bourdon is a perfume genius. If it must be placed geographically how about Nordic Lover). Surely one of Bourdon's very best.ĩ0/100 (and no I didn't deduct marks for the silly name - there's nothing particularly French here. There is some family resemblance to Coolwater, GIT and Malle's GPM - this one almost has a minty freshness without the overdose of mint found in GPM. When worn in Spring it feels made for Spring: ditto Summer, Autumn etc. If you want to 'picture' the smell look up images of Angelica because this smells exactly what that looks like! Some ultra-Clean incense adds to the development. It's quite herbal and borders on medicinal, almost bringing to mind notes of lovage, dill and the piquant pimento. ![]() It's not so much the woodland floor but more the leafy layers around eye level. The green feel becomes gradually more damp and very slightly dirtied (musk) and darker (woods, Vetiver) - like foraging in a lush green woodland, precipitation in the air. U get the Angelica and other green, clean botanicals such as juniper. Classy but not too try-hard, fresh yet unique. Wow! If I were to commission my own scent it would end up very much like this (which I suppose is the whole point of the Malle Line). But just slightly stronger than a skin scent.īut if you want your perfume to "dominate" from you - then you might need to skip this perfume. Longevity is solid, definitely over 10-12h. It projects for an hour or two, very moderate. Projection and longevity are probably one of the weakest from the house. Quality should not be mentioned when it comes to Frederic Malle. It’s not a classic woody perfume you'd expect to smell when you see the notes. Woody, slightly spicy, wet and cold smell of the forest after the rain - when the aromas start to evaporate from the soil. If you are in the USA, you will find French Lover under the name "Bois D'Orage".Īnother interesting fact is that this is the last perfume that Pierre Bourdon created.įrench Lover might be one of the safest picks from the house. The story is verified from a Frederic Malle book I bought in Paris. It's not a secret that French Lover was kind of a collaboration and that the inspiration was ASLP. Malle asked JCE to share the initial idea and concept of the formula with Bourdon so that he could complete it and put his “final touch”. Malle called JCE and asked him if he could advise him on who could do the job instead of him and JCE recommended Malle's longtime family friend - Pierre Bourdon. So he was not allowed to give his formula to Frederic or to work with Frederic anymore. JCE worked on the formula for several months and he almost finished it - however at the time he signed the contract to be the exclusive nose for Hermes. Frederic Malle asked JC Ellena for a stronger and more intense version of Angelique Sous La Pluie. ![]()
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