Since it bowed out of circulation a few years ago, Francis Kurkdjian’s Absolue Pour Le Soir has been high on many people’s lists of the perfumes they’d most like to see back in circulation. Well, I think it’s safe to conclude that sometimes wishes do come true, because it has just been re-released, and I was delighted to be able to review it in a recent episode of Love At First Scent over on YouTube. I also covered new scents from Roger & Gallet, Maison Crivelli and Eau De Boujee, as well as presenting a showcase review of some of the original Le Labo compositions from the brand’s launch in 2006. Here are links to all the reviews, followed, as per usual, by timestamps and some further reflections on some of the fragrances: Roger & Gallet Cologne Twist review — Maison Francis Kurkdjian Absolue Pour Le Matin and Absolue Pour Le Soir 2024 reviews — Eau De Boujee Verdant, Queen, Quir, Gilded and Infleurno reviews — Maison Crivelli Oud Cadenza review — Le Labo showcase review.
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Quir 5:45
Queen 10:22
Verdant 14:42
Infleurno 19:28
Gilded 23:31
Ambrette 9 (Michel Almairac) 6:29
Bergamotte 22 (Daphne Bugey) 11:45
Fleur D’Oranger 27 (Francoise Caron) 14:57
Iris 39 (Frank Voelkl) 18:52
Jasmin 17 (Maurice Roucel) 23:59
Labdanum 18 (Maurice Roucel) 27:13
Neroli 36 (Daphne Bugey) 30:35
Rose 31 (Daphne Bugey) 34:08
Patchouli 24 (Annick Menardo) 38:59
Vetiver 46 (Mark Buxton) 42:34
Tubereuse 40 (Alberto Morillas) 46:01
The Noir 29 (Frank Voelkl) 48:51
Oud Cadenza (Jordi Fernandez) sees Maison Crivelli in the auto-pilot mode that it sometimes adopts. Its date-and-leather combo is well executed, but it’s also the sort of Arabia-flirting concoction we’ve encountered many times before from other brands. Their Tubereuse Astrale from earlier this year is a far more interesting piece of work. On the other hand, Roger & Gallet are on anything but auto-pilot, even though their Cologne Twist is essentially a reworking of their classic cologne. Here, Karine Dubreui-Sereni turns up the lemon at the top and the woods and Cashmeran in the base to give us a charming take on the age-old eau de cologne structure.
I am so pleased that I’ve finally managed to smell Pia Long’s work for Eau De Boujee, the brand she founded with Nick Gilbert. I go into greater detail about their scents in the video, but I urge you to seek them all out and to pay particular attention to Verdant, Gilded and the brand new Infleurno. The former isn’t just green: it throbs with a vitality that makes you think you’re being seduced by coils of stems and vines insinuating their way into your very being. The latter is a dazzling evocation of neon-bright, strobe-lit florals — like some cosmic garden centre from the set of Tron. And Gilded is, quite simply, one of the most striking incense compositions I’ve had the delight to encounter for ages, framing its central note with rich, golden hues of saffron, pear and ginger. What’s more, with each wearing, it yields new surprises.
Many of the gaps in my Le Labo reviews were addressed in a showcase video, during which I covered Bergamotte 22, Rose 31, Vetiver 46 and many others. The standout was Iris 39, Frank Voelkl’s unexpectedly warm-hearted take on a material that’s usually presented in an austere, funereal light. Here, thanks to a huggable musk note in the base, as well as rose and a retro-inflected violet, the effect is anything but haughty. Indeed, it’s positively life-affirming… but I gather the scent has been discontinued, so I guess it couldn’t sustain its existence, despite its innate optimism.
And now the paragraph you’ve been all waiting for: the two Kurkdjians. I can’t comment on Absolue Pour La Matin‘s similarity to the 2010 original, but I can say that it is now an extremely pleasant, highly wearable aldehydic-woody affair, not a million miles away from Chanel No. 5 Eau Premiere. As for Absolue Pour Le Soir* — it is unquestionably back! The current version is perhaps a touch sweeter and less animalic than the one so many of us fell in love with fourteen years ago, but it is the same beast. Indeed, when you compare the two on a blotter, you’d be hard pushed to detect much of a difference between them. Perhaps, back in 2010, its lecherous growl was simply too much for the world. Let us hope that current buyers give it the love — or should that be lust? — it so richly deserves.
Persolaise
* Please click here for my original review.
[Reviews based on samples provided by the brands in 2024, with the exception of the Le Labos, which were obtained by me.]
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