Van Cleef & Arpels Encens Precieux, 27 87 Per Se, Arcadia London and other reviews – 2024

I presented a mixed bag of delights over on Love At First Scent the other day: new releases from Montblanc, Van Cleef & Arpels, 27 87, the UAE-based brand Arcadia and a special, vintage bottle of Youth Dew parfum. Here’s a link to the video, followed by timestamps: Van Cleef & Arpels Encens Precieux, Montblanc Legend Blue, Arcadia London, 27 87 Per Se, 27 87 Mosaique and Estee Lauder vintage Youth Dew review.

Montblanc Legend Blue 2:06
Van Cleef & Arpels Encens Precieux (Jordi Fernandez) 11:12
27 87 Per Se (Shyamala Maisondieu) 20:40
27 87 Mosaique (Gael Montero) 31:36
Arcadia London 37:16
Estee Lauder Youth Dew (Josephine Catapano) 46:06

The Montblanc is everything you’d expect from a contemporary, mainstream masculine housed in a blue bottle: woody, ambery, generic. The Arcadia moves from its striking pear opening to light, inoffensive woods (think: a good deal of Iso E Super). Thankfully, it doesn’t resort to spiky abrasiveness, with the result that it ends up coming across as a sort of distant cousin of an Hermes Jardin scent. The VC&A ends on pretty much the same, lava-injected incense note as it begins. And Mosaique is not dissimilar, albeit with the addition of a fermented plum. But perhaps surprisingly, the one that has lingered in my mind more than any of the others on the list (apart from the vintage Lauder, of course) is Per Se. Yes, it becomes more and more overtly soapy-synthetic as it develops, but as an iris that could have been constructed by androids working in a hermetically sealed chamber somewhere on the dark side of Saturn, it’s unexpectedly compelling. It’s not something I would wear, but I’ve welcome the opportunity to get to know its strange, part-welcoming, part-frightening personality. If this is the smell of the future, I’m not sure whether to feel reassured or alarmed.

Persolaise

[Samples provided by the brands, except the Estee Lauder, which was obtained by me.]

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