Prada has released a new pair of his and hers fragrances. Called La Femme Prada and L’Homme Prada. Both were produced by in-house perfumer Daniela Andrier. I wasn’t expecting much from L’Homme Prada because in the press materials it was mentioned it was Mme Andrier returning to that neroli/iris/cedar axis she believes makes up a men’s perfume. In trying it this is more like a flanker of Infusion D’Iris which had its own sort of flanker in Infusion D’Homme and now L’Homme Prada completes the trilogy. I am not sure why Mme Andrier keeps tilling the same soil for L’Hommes while finding new things to say for La Femmes. La Femme Prada has a nod to the Prada past while finding some new things to say.
La Femme Prada and L’Homme Prada are meant to be mirror images. If you own both bottles they go together to form a circle with the men’s side having a black leather coating and the women’s a white leather coating. Because I had tried L’Homme Prada first the mirror image part worried me. There is no mirror here these two fragrances are distinctly different. It seems lately Mme Andrier has found having a little more presence in her compositions to be a desirable thing. Most of the Olfactories and Candy are examples of this. La Femme Prada also has a heightened floral presence. Mme Andrier uses a mixture of notes to tune that floralcy into something quite nice.
Daniela Andrier
La Femme Prada opens with a very expansive frangipani which provides a tropical garland accord. She supports the frangipani with tuberose mainly along with a little ylang-ylang to enhance the tropical facets. At this point I liked the nice floral accord. Mme Andrier then begins to transform it first with spice and beeswax. The spices provide contrast to the very sweet florals. The beeswax provides a lightly honeyed nature which is quite appealing underneath the flowers. The base uses the push and pull of vetiver and vanilla as the latter turns the sweetness of the florals into something more confectionary while the vetiver provides a sturdy foundation.
La Femme Prada has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.
La Femme Prada is the better of these two releases simply by virtue of Mme Andrier finding a new voice to her compositions. I would really like for her to find the same inspiration when it comes to her next perfume for the L’Hommes.
Disclosure: This review was based on samples provided by Prada.
–Mark Behnke
