By Dane
Theo Fennell is a british jewellery designer who creates, lets say, "interesting" objects such as sterling silver cozies for your favourite flavour of Haagen-Dazs or bottle of Heinz Ketchup. For his eponymous scent, however, all kitch seems to have been left aside.
A strange creature Scent is. Christophe Laudamiel has managed to create a most unusual accord that bounces back and forth between lady-like prettiness and vulgar raunchiness. Somehow a rare balance was found, and the result is something truly remarkable.
Scent opens with a sparkling accord of florals (rose), spices (saffron), and what seems to be something mildly effervescent (aldehydes?). While the body of the scent is mainly the floral-spice mix, the drydown peaks its head through now and then and gives hints of what's to come. The mildly sweaty cumin-saffron accord is a good introduction to the radiant and utterly skanky musk in the base, which to me is the star of the show.
Musks tend to have the unusual trait of smelling different at close range than what you smell from afar. I sprayed a tiny bit of Scent on my arm mid-afternoon, and throughout the evening I continued to catch hints of something very beautiful, yet slightly disturbing (no, it wasn't just me.) I have a feeling this will be a similar situation to Lutens' Muscs Koublai Khan, where some of us smell a dirty animal, while others smell a sweet rose. Not necessarily easy to wear, but definitely worth trying.
Year: 2007
Perfumer: Christophe Laudamiel
Notes: Saffron, Lily, Rose, Orchid
ps - thanks for the sample Erin!
This is a polarizer...
ReplyDeleteBut I'm totally with you.
I adore it, and it purrs sweetly for me [ thank you, Louise, for your gift !].
Only two perfumes have made me turn my face away in disgust: this one and Must de Cartier. For wealthy people who will spend lots of money to smell unwashed. Who predicted that trend?
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of polarizer is SCENT? a 'NewBoyinTown' Bomb type, like when ANGEL was born? I'm a bit afraid of the kind of polarizers that first are moving in mysterious ways, such as 'one of a kind' (sort of bizarre) and if you get a bit distracted, just few years later here you are a big Hollywood Blockbuster. I had an awful experience with ANGEL: I knew that was a very unique fragrance from the very beginning, I can't deny it. But while I was getting whiffs of it, turned my stomach each time. In these days I still didn't know it was possible to hate a smell so much, but WOW... Is SCENT 'that kind' of frag?
ReplyDelete