Roberto Greco Rauque, Aesop Ouranon, Crivelli Oud Stallion and other reviews – 2023

From exploding stars to imploding bodies — there was no shortage of curious concepts and bold ideas in the perfumes I reviewed in episode 416 of Love At First Scent, which featured new releases from Matiere Premiere, Le Labo and Aesop, as well as an extraordinary Christopher Sheldrake composition for Roberto Greco. Here’s a link to the video, followed by the full lists of scents covered, with timestamps: Roberto Greco Rauque, Aesop Ouranon, Crivelli Oud Stallion and other reviews.

Mizensir Pallisandre Night 5:28
Le Labo Lavande 31 13:45
Aesop Ouranon 17:35
Matiere Premiere Vanilla Powder 23:17
Andrea Maack Supernova 27:20
Frapin Bonne Chauffe 32:25
Roberto Greco Rauque 38:07
Crivelli Oud Stallion 45:50

There’s not much point dwelling on Lavande 31 (the less said about its crassness, the better) or Vanilla Powder (an aggressive brute that couldn’t be any further removed from its name). Mizensir Pallisandre Night, Andrea Maack Supernova and Frapin Bonnie Chauffe all play the ‘pleasant scented wallpaper’ card pretty cannily, but it’s hard to imagine anyone falling deeply in love with them. As a revisitation of the overdone leathery-oud scent, Crivelli Oud Stallion is attractive, extremely well put-together and almost entirely contrived. Aesop Ouranon is one of the better pieces we’ve had from the brand for a while: a chalky, dusty incense that conjures visions of tanned feet sinking into camel-coloured sands. Its drydown may rely too heavily on synthetics, but what comes before is well worth sniffing out. 

However, by quite a margin, the absolute standout of this selection is Roberto Greco Rauque, composed by none other than Christopher Sheldrake of Chanel and Serge Lutens. On the surface, this is yet another greenish, tobacco-y leather (with more than a whiff of a dense mushroom forest). But that description provides no sense of the slinky, stealthy manner in which this retro-loving seducer operates. It may channel the broad-shouldered assertiveness of 80s masculine powerhouses like Chanel Antaeus and Guerlain Derby (pumping out all those resins and powdery balsams), but the fact that it keeps the volume control at a lower, more acceptably 21st century level enables it to come across as timely and relevant. That said, although it doesn’t shout, it certainly knows how to get what it wants. Think: Habanita and Coromandel locked together in a cigarette-filled afterglow that is as relaxed and languorous as their encounter was frenzied and animalic. But don’t think for too long, because sadly this stuff has been produced in a limited edition of only 500 bottles. 

Persolaise

[Samples of the Crivelli, Mizensir and Matiere Premiere were provided by the brands in 2023; the rest were obtained by me.]

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