Persolaise Review: Oud & Menthe from Cartier (Mathilde Laurent; 2019)

As an intellectual exercise, Mathilde Laurent’s new Oud & Menthe for Cartier (an addition to the brand’s well-regarded but shamefully expensive oud range) is fascinating. How does a perfumer link two notes that, in many ways, could be seen as occupying opposite ends of the olfactory spectrum? Mint is cool, leafy, bracing, airy and rather too closely associated with the prosaic realms of toothpastes and shower gels. Oud is fiery, woody, animalic, overwhelming and indelibly assimilated into the air conditioning system of every shopping mall in Dubai. What could possibly connect the two?

Well, in the absence of any detailed press notes, my guess is that Laurent opted for two bridges: honey and sage. The former reaches out to the oud and finds common ground in the barnyard facets they both share, which then ties in with the urinous aspects of the sage, whose herbal dimension brings us round to the mint. A neat, satisfying solution, at least on paper.

In practice, I’m not entirely convinced that it’s successful – the herbal, honeyed elements perhaps dominate excessively and take us too close to the familiar territory of Roadster and L’Envol. And the liberal use of musks in the base – notably Laurent’s much-loved Cashmeran – lends the whole a predictability that is the last thing one hopes to find in what should be a piece of work notable for originality. But it’s certainly not devoid of interest. And it opens the door for someone else to come along, take the idea and execute it with greater aplomb. Fingers crossed, we won’t have to wait too long for that to happen.

[Review based on a sample of eau de parfum provided by Cartier in 2019.]  

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