Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

In an attempt to lend their image a bit of rough, Jo Malone London have hired Tom Hardy as the face of their Cypress & Grapevine cologne (credited to Sophie Labbe). I did my best to endure its abrasive profile in a recent session of Love At First Scent episodes, which also included reviews of L’Artisan Parfumeur Il Etait Un Bois (Caroline Dumur) and the new Montblanc Collection quartet. Here are links to all the videos, followed by further thoughts on some of the scents: Jo Malone London Cypress & Grapevine reviewL’Artisan Parfumeur Il Etait Un Bois reviewMontblanc Collection (2024) review.

Black Meisterstuck (Jordi Fernandez) 5:32
Vetiver Glacier (Nathalie Lorson) 10:42
Extreme Leather (Juliette Karaguezoglou) 16:34
Patchouli Ink (Fabrice Pellegrin) 20:50

What the Montblancs lack in originality, they more than make up for with elegance and, considering they’re positioned as a high-end range, relative affordability. (At the time of writing, a 125 ml bottle costs £125 in the UK, which is by no means dirt cheap, but is more reasonable than most other ‘exclusive’ releases.) The two I’d particularly recommend are Extreme Leather (iris and Tuscan-Leather-style suede conjuring an image of a weather-beaten face emerging from a trek amongst the dunes) and Patchouli Ink (which sees Pellegrin taking his cue from the fuzzy, scifi tannery notes of Le Labo Patchouli 24 and making them darker and more incense-y).

I hope the folks at L’Artisan Parfumeur allow sufficient time for Il Etait Un Bois to find some fans. At a time when most releases tend to operate at the louder end of the spectrum, it’s difficult for the whisperers to make themselves heard, but this particular example of the latter deserves more than a cursory appraisal. It isn’t easy in perfumery to make a creation appear simple and simultaneously render it compelling. Somehow, Caroline Dumur has achieved this balance here, using cedar, musks, vetiver and a more-ish buckwheat accord to forge a piece that shimmers in and out of view as it develops. I’d say the clue to understanding it lies not so much in the Bois but in the Il Etait (the French equivalent of ‘once upon a…’). Like a fable whose true meaning can be grasped only in the twilight between sleep and wakefulness, it is subtle, quiet and haunting.

Persolaise

[Reviews based on samples provided by the brands in 2024.]


If you’ve enjoyed this post, please consider supporting my work
by ‘buying me a coffee’ using the panel below.

Thanks very much indeed.

Montblanc Patchouli Ink review by award-winning perfume critic Persolaise, 2024

Discover more from

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

I love hearing from my readers, so please feel free to write a comment or ask a question.