New Perfume Review Penhaligon’s Racquets- Carbon Fiber Cologne

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One of the best things about discovering the perfume forum Basenotes were the swaps. You would read someone’s thoughts on something you wanted to try. You would contact them and see if you could work out a swap of something you had for what you wanted to try. What these often turned into was not only the desired choice, but a couple others thrown in. I don’t remember what the target of the swap was, but the extra has stuck with me for years.

That was 1989’s Penhaligon’s Racquets Formula. It is an odd hybrid I think of as barbershop chypre. It has a lively lemon, lavender, and vetiver top accord freshened with florals. This is on top of a classic oakmoss chypre base with incense. It was discontinued around 2012. I was sorry to see it go but my bottle is still half full. Which is why I was interested to receive the announcement of a reboot of sorts called Penhaligon’s Racquets.

Fabrice Pellegrin

The press release mentions the older perfume calling this version, “a daring reinterpretation”. When I looked at the description, I was skeptical. Upon receiving it I was wondering if this was as interesting to those who love woody citrus as the original was to me. Perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin serves that up.

It opens with a noticeably synthetic lemon. It is fresh but it also carries a little heavier quality than other sources of lemon. This is followed by indole-free jasmine to add some of that lift back to the lemon. It then goes to a duet of synthetic woods as Ambrox and Woodleather form the base. Surprisingly, the lemon is strong enough to resist the two big woody ingredients for a while. Once they win it becomes a very dry leather over the latter stages.

Racquets has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.

As I wore this, I was thinking of how tennis racquets have changed. Back in the days of Racquets Formula they were wooden frames. Now they are high-tech carbon fiber. Racquets felt like a sleekly modern citrus woody perfume. It isn’t going to replace Racquets Formula but for those who enjoy this style I think Racquets is going to be a summer favorite.

Disclosure: this review is based on a sample I purchased.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Diptyque Ilio- Summer Trifle

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I hear it all the time, we want perfume to last for a week on my skin. Yes, a slight exaggeration except that sentence at the end of every review is important to a lot of readers who care about longevity. I am not one of those. If a perfume can go off like fireworks on my skin and fade away just as fast; as long as its good, or fun I’m happy. This becomes especially true in the summer months as it can sometimes be a benefit to have the fragrance you sprayed in the morning to have faded a bit by the late afternoon. It can also be a refreshing experience to spray some more on at the same time to cool your senses down. Diptyque Ilio does all of this exceptionally.

Fabrice Pellegrin

Diptyque is going all out celebrating their 60th anniversary. Ilio is part of what they are calling the Summer Essentials collection. Besides the Eau de Toilette there is also a hair mist version of Ilio. Another way to enjoy fragrance in the warmer months. Everything about Ilio is familiar to those who enjoy Mediterranean style scents. Perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin makes one change in a nod towards the current trend towards transparency. Which in this case is a plus.

It begins with the refreshing green of prickly pear. This is an ingredient that doesn’t get enough spotlight. Here it shows off its refreshing green scent profile. There is also a bit of citrus and floral as part of it too. This is given a boost through one of the non-indolic clean jasmines. I often compare the effect these have to forming a floral soap bubble for the other ingredients to float upon. That is true for the prickly pear. It seems to form pale green spirals on the surface of the jasmine. The last note is something different in this kind of concentration. Orris completes the trio of keynotes for Ilio. This is a light dusting of powder along with a sun-baked earthiness. The latter is the part I find so interesting. The usual carrot-like rootiness is turned to an opaque dried earth. it is as if that soap bubble has just landed on the dry ground.

Ilio has 6-8 hour longevity and average sillage.

I wore this on a couple of pretty hot days. I applied it liberally and often over the time I had it on. It checked all the boxes I have for a summer trifle of a perfume.

Disclosure: This review is based on a sample supplied by Diptyque.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Yves Rocher Voile d’Ocre- One of the Cornerstones

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When I look over all of the perfume I have tried over the years there are some ingredients which seem to form the cornerstones of perfumery. When it comes to flowers it would be jasmine and rose. Patchouli is certainly one. When it comes to woody notes sandalwood is definitely one of them. One of the commonalities to anything I would put in this category is it can stand on its own. It can be a perfume all by itself. I have examples in the perfume vault here at Colognoisseur HQ. Most of those are expensive. It didn’t used to be that way. There was a time not that long ago that all these foundational pieces of perfumery could be found economically. At least in the case of one Yves Rocher Voile d’Ocre is bringing that back.

Ane Ayo

It was a funny thing as I read the press release while waiting for the sample to arrive. It told me this was meant to capture a citadel on the edge of the desert using two ingredients: cedar and sandalwood. Then I was told it took two perfumers, Ane Ayo and Fabrice Pellegrin. I was thinking this sounded like two Michelin-starred chefs combining chocolate and milk into chocolate milk. Once I received the sample the need for two noses became evident because there is a third synthetic ingredient which is a little bit cedar and a little bit sandalwood. Creating the right balance using that is not as easy as it sounds.

Fabrice Pellegrin

I think the third unnamed ingredient is Iso E Super. It is because the perfume overall has that desiccated quality it brings which is also reminiscent of the desert milieu they were aiming for. It also is the kind of synthetic ingredient that can be made more vivid through the addition of judicious amounts of natural ingredients. That’s my guess of what is going on here.

Iso E Super has this inherent dusty earth quality to it which is where Voile d’Ocre opens. This sets the desert backdrop. The natural woods are added in next. The raw almost green of cedar adds some life back to the dryness of the synthetic background. The sandalwood harmonizes with that arid aspect while also adding in a woody sweetness. From one of the ingredients a spicy piquancy is there also a milkiness which I’ll attribute to the sandalwood.

Voile d’Ocre has 12-14 hour longevity and average sillage.

This is probably my new “best bang for your buck” sandalwood perfume. The perfumers do an incredible job of using one of the cornerstones to create a new woody edifice at the edge of the desert.

Disclosure: This review is based on a sample supplied by Yves Rocher.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Diptyque Essences Insensees 2019- Tiare Tiara

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Soliflores are at their best when the keynote is a special version. It is why it has mostly been the place where small independent perfumers shine as they can source small exquisite batches. To everything there must be an exception and Diptyque has once again proven they can also play this game with Diptyque Essences Insensees 2019.

The Essences Insensees collection was debuted in 2014 with the concept that they would release soliflore perfumes highlighting a particularly good harvest of a keynote. In 2014 it was mimosa, followed by jasmine in 2015 with the last one being in 2016 for Rose de Mai. This appeals to me as there must be years when a harvest of a specific flower must be better than other years. Which means the task of the perfumer is to find a way to display that keynote in all its glory. Diptyque has asked perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin to be the man behind that for this collection. In 2019 he is working with a harvest of tiare flower from Tahiti.

Fabrice Pellegrin

Tiare is an interesting floral to highlight. Called the “Tahitian gardenia” it sits firmly within the white flower family. I would put it in between the familiar gardenia and tuberose. If you’ve ever seen a movie with people wearing lei in Polynesia it is tiare which is the flower on them. For Essences Insensees 2019 M. Pellegrin highlights two of the characteristics of tiare which have always stood out to me, the sparkle and the creaminess.

Tiare has this ineffable sparkle which makes it different than other white flowers to me. M. Pellegrin uses a set of ozonic notes to highlight that. It is a fresh sea breeze that glides over it all. A touch of baie rose highlights the subtle green thread which runs through this tiare. As the tiare becomes more of the focal point M. Pellegrin turns it towards its more floral aspects with some frangipani. Then the creaminess is brought forward with vanilla forming an almost custard-like finish.

Essences Insensees 2019 has 8-10 hour longevity and average sillage.

If you are a fan of white flower perfumes Essences Insensees 2019 is one you should try for its unique take on the genre. It is a tiara of tiare.

Disclosure: this review is based on a sample provided by Diptyque.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Diptyque Eau de Minthe- Termin(t)ator

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As a child one of the few alcoholic things I begged for from my parents was Crème de Menthe. I would ask to have a drizzle on my ice cream or to sip a small amount over crushed ice. I craved the coolness of the mint over cold things. To eat, or as part of a cocktail, I still enjoy mint. I even drizzle some Crème de Menthe on my Ben & Jerry’s. (Pro Tip: put it on Chocolate Fudge Brownie) I don’t know why it is such a problematic ingredient in perfume for me. It is one of those ingredients which needs to find the right concentration. Alternatively it can be part of an interesting effect which was what I found in Diptyque Eau de Minthe.

As soon as I saw the name, I recoiled a bit. This was going to be a perfume which featured mint as a keynote. I expected not to enjoy what perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin had put in the bottle. The press release mentions the name comes from Greek mythology. Minthe was a water nymph who was having an affair with Hades; until Persephone found out. As is the norm in these tales poor Minthe was turned in to the herb mint. When I read that I’m thinking some classic type of perfume. Which shows why press releases are not predictors of the perfume they promote. Eau de Minthe was much more sci-fi than mythology.

Fabrice Pellegrin

One of the tends in perfumery is to try and smell “natural”. I put that word in quotes because it is also mainly PR speak. I understand what it means. What it translates to are perfumes which do not embrace the overtly synthetic. Eau de Minthe chooses an un- “natural” approach.

The boogeyman I was worried about most wallops me right out of the sprayer; mint. This is the mint scent of every antiseptic you’ve ever smelled. It is the kind of mint which usually has me looking for a cosmetic wipe. Except M. Pellegrin embraced those hard aspects and encased them in a synthetic heart of rose oxide and geraniol. He turns the mint from mouthwash to something subtly metallic and even more stridently green. I liked it. This was the mint of the android coolly calculating possibilities. The final ingredient is a patchouli fraction which also fits in to the whole synthetic vibe. An engineered version of a common perfume ingredient.

Eau de Minthe has 12-14 hour longevity and average sillage.

I suspect there are going to be people who try Eau de Minthe and keep it at arm’s length. This is not really a crowd pleaser type of fragrance. There are going to be a few who will love the sleek modernity of it all. I admire the choice to go in this direction by Diptyque., While this might sound like damnation via faint praise; M. Pellegrin got me to enjoy a perfume with a high amount of mint in it. There is a part of me that want this Termin(t)ator to tell me “I’ll be back!”

Disclosure: this review is based on a sample provided by Diptyque.

–Mark Behnke

Flanker Round-Up: Mr. Burberry Indigo and Azzaro Wanted by Night

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Sometimes it is hard to tell what the reason is for a flanker’s existence. The two choices in this month’s Round-Up do not suffer from that.

Mr. Burberry Indigo

I think the marketers have decided that the word “sport” added to a fragrance name is no longer a sales aid. What they have seemingly settled upon in its place are colors. The sport style of fragrance definitely has a place and within the Mr. Burberry line of perfume Indigo is code for “sport”.

Perfumer Francis Kurkdjian freshens up the Mr. Burberry style with a traditional cologne duet of rosemary and lemon. It diverges with a heart of mint and violet leaves. It comes off as a cool heart accord. Just the thing after a workout. What makes me like this the best of the Mr. Burberry releases is the use of oakmoss in the base which provides a more aggressive green to offset the heart accord. Some amber and musk combine with the oakmoss to finish this off. This is the kind of versatile perfume which is a good choice if you’re looking for a “sport” perfume.

Mr. Burberry Indigo has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.

Azzaro Wanted by Night

When I reviewed Azzaro Wanted last year I remarked that it was an outlier in the idea that consumers wanted something lighter. It was closer in style to the original hairy-chested Azzaro pour Homme. If you had asked me to guess which direction a flanker of that would take I would have said lighter. Well Azzaro Wanted by Night goes way in the other direction in what almost seems like a throwback to the masculine powerhouses of the 1970’s.

Perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin completely reworks the pyramid in Wanted by Night. This is less a flanker than a different perfume which shares a name. Cinnamon provides a simmering heat right from the start. A nice parade of ingredients follow that up, as cedar and tobacco take the lead. The cinnamon doesn’t get lost as cumin gives it a boost to match the other two. I have to mention this is a huge powerhouse of a men’s perfume. It seems out of place in today’s market. There’s a lot of press nonsense which came with my sample claiming this to be a “seduction perfume”. Not sure about that unless you catch a DeLorean ride back to the 70’s.

Azzaro Wanted by Night has 10-12 hour longevity and above average sillage.

Disclosure: This review is based on samples provided by the manufacturer’s.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Roger & Gallet Neroli Facetie- Autumn Companion

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In my little town in Maryland I am a known quantity in my local post office. They even accentuate the word “perfume” when asking me the contents of a package I am sending. When I go to pick up one of my packages from Europe they will joke with me that it was making the storage area smell good. When I arrived to pick up my latest package from England the woman behind the counter mentioned she really liked what she was smelling. I did too. I told her there were a lot of things in there but I’d let her know what it was. This is always a difficult moment because I worry that it is one of the expensive ones impossible to get in the US. When I got home the smell of neroli and something else arose from the box. I was thinking what neroli perfume I had asked for then it hit me; it must be Roger & Gallet Neroil Facetie.

In England, Roger & Gallet is essentially a drugstore fragrance available in the outlets with a perfume section. Roger & Gallet is one of those brands which has been taking a break not releasing much new since 2015’s Fleur de Figuier which was another example of the great perfume this brand can create. In August of this year they released a five-fragrance collection called Extraits de Cologne. I knew I was going to have one added to my latest care package. I chose Neroli Facetie because it combined the neroli with immortelle in the note list. With Fabrice Pellegrin as the perfumer I felt like it was a pretty safe blind buy.

Fabrice Pellegrin

M. Pellegrin interpreted the idea of extraits de cologne as providing a construction of airiness grounded with a few deeper notes. The neroli reaches for the sky but the immortelle keeps it from drifting away.

Neroli Facetie opens with the neroli out front. It is expansive and given some texture with angelica flower. Petitgrain intensifies the citrus effect while the neroli finds itself melding with the maple syrup beauty of immortelle. M. Pellegrin uses the immortelle with a light hand which allows it to keep the neroli on top. Ylang-ylang is also present but it is almost irrelevant to the neroli and immortelle. The base is vetiver spiced up with some angelica seeds making a nice circle with the angelica flower in the top accord.

Neroli Facetie has 8-10 hour longevity and moderate sillage.

I’ve already made a sample of Neroli Facetie to give to my postal worker with the good news that this will eventually be available in the US. This has been a congenial companion for these early days of autumn.

Disclosure: This review is based on a bottle I purchased.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review L’Artisan Parfumeur Au Bord de L’Eau- Focus on the Herb

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Cologne is arguably the oldest form of perfume. Ever since Jean Marie Farina created it in 1709 it has inspired numerous interpretations and continues to do so. That original cologne was lemon, rosemary, and cedar. The variations generally focus on the citrus or the woods; the herbal heart is less enticing to would-be modern cologne designers. Which is a bit disappointing because the perfumers have many more herbal ingredients at their disposal than M. Farina did. When I received my sample of L’Artisan Parfumeur Au Bord de L’Eau I found a cologne which thrived by focusing on the herb which started it all.

Au Bord de L'Eau by Claude Monet

Perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin was not inspired by M. Farina instead he was thinking about Claude Monet’s painting of the same name. The name roughly translates to “by the water” and I expected it to be an aquatic style of perfume. When you look at the painting above you should not notice the water and instead notice the deep green hues elsewhere because it is that which comes closest to defining the perfume named after that. M. Pellegrin creates a typical cologne architecture with many of the classical ingredients except the star of this is rosemary.

Fabrice Pellegrin

M. Pellegrin opens with lilting lemon accord buttressed with bergamot. M. Pellegrin creates a citrus tinted cloud which drifts across the early moments. Then the rosemary arrives with brio. It shoves the citrus out of the way which requires M. Pellegrin to sandwich it with orange blossom and violet. The metallic violet acts like a container for the rosemary while the orange blossom softens the acute edges. Au Bord de L’Eau remains with this accord for much of the time I wore it. I found this remarkably refreshing on the summer days I wore it. The rosemary at this concentration carries a verdant aromaticity which the florals accompany. The base is a mix of usual musks which add some depth to the heart accord in the later stages.

Au Bord de L’Eau has 8-10 hour longevity and average sillage.

I can’t say I thought Monet while I was wearing Au Bord de L’Eau. It would be hard to find anything very Impressionistic about this cologne. Instead it was another innovative artist who I thought of a lot while enjoying Au Bord de L’Eau; M. Farina. I kept thinking this might be what he came up with if he was designing cologne today. By focusing on the herb M. Pellegrin found something worthy of the original cologne.

Disclosure: This review was based on a sample provided by L’Artisan Parfumeur.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Boucheron Neroli D’Ispahan- Soliflore Arms Race

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In the last eighteen months, I have received eight different collections from well-known brands focused on soliflores. I am not sure what set off this latest competition among brands but it has become a persistent force in fragrance. I can believe that it is thought among these brands that simple perfumes focused on high-quality single materials will have appeal to those wanting their perfume easy. For the most part this has been the case. There hasn’t been skimping on the focal point notes but no-frills perfumery can lack for the presence of those details. The latest version of this is the six-member collection called Boucheron La Collection.

The analogy I use when approaching these kind of fragrances is of a single note which acts as a diamond in the middle of a setting where a few tiny gems enhance the overall effect. Boucheron La Collection has done a good job of using ingredients which qualify as olfactory diamonds. The five perfumers who worked on the six perfumes have also crafted fine settings for these raw materials to shine within. Except the problem is the subtle grace notes don’t really change the equation that whatever is on the bottle is essentially what you will be smelling for the length of time these last on your skin. The orris in Iris de Syracuse is lovely. The oud in Oud de Carthage is darkly compelling. Amber D’Alexandrie is a golden amber. Vanille de Zanzibar captures the depth of vanilla. Tubereuse de Madras is a creamy version of that white flower. These are straightforward, nice, and no different from one or more from the previous seven collections.  There was one which I enjoyed the most; Neroli D’Ispahan.

Fabrice Pellegrin

I have recently become much more interested in neroli focused perfumes. One reason is excellent neroli has a green counterbalance to the floral nature. For Neroli D’Ispahan perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin sourced a neroli which displays that. A dual-natured note like neroli is a good place to begin with a soliflore because one ingredient acts like two. This is what happens here. M. Pellegrin sets up the neroli front and center. To that a pinch of green cardamom, elemi, and ginger buck up the green. Baie rose, labdanum, and patchouli do the same to the floral side. None of the notes listed in the last two sentences persist for any appreciable time. They are there to add the sparkle to the gem that is the neroli in the heart, which they do.

Neroli D’Ispahan has 8-10 hour longevity and moderate sillage.

I have a hard time believing the marketplace can bear the amount of luxury soliflores that are now out there. Especially since they are sort of indistinguishable from each other. There is no brand identity at play in something as facile as a soliflore. Which makes for a problem when brands want to claim the space as the most luxurious soliflore. The consumer will show whether there is an appetite to keep this soliflore arms race on its current trajectory. Boucheron La Collection, especially Neroli D’Ispahan, is the latest launch; I sort of hope détente is not far off.

Disclosure: This review is based on samples provided by Boucheron.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Agonist White Lies- Normal is Overrated

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Sometimes, a brand which has been about being totally different must feel like throwing in the towel. These brands probably tire of writers, like me, saying I admire the perfume but I wouldn’t wear it. The Swedish perfume brand Agonist has a lot of these kind of perfumes. Despite my wariness to spend more time with them I have admiration for their ability to make fragrance on their own terms. When I write that I want something different it should be right on the bleeding edge of being wearable. Which made the latest release White Lies perplexing because this is a fairly straightforward niche spring floral.

The Agonist creative team of husband and wife Niclas  and Christine Lydeen  continuing to work with perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin decide to create a snappy white flower dominated fragrance. There is nothing here which is dramatically different from many other spring florals. Which makes it stand out among the Agonist collection while not necessarily among the overall niche fragrance sector. All of that might lead you to think I didn’t care for it but I did for a couple of reasons. The use of boisterous white flowers as the centerpiece of a spring floral is different from the plethora of roses. The other reason is there is a quite zippy fruity top accord that I enjoyed much more than I usually do.

Christine and Niclas Lydeen

White Lies opens with a tart sparkly lemon, a juicy raspberry, and sweet lychee. This forms a fruity accord of contrasts that was like a gourmet Sweet Tart. Then the white flowers arrive with jasmine and tuberose taking the lead. They are well-balanced within White Lies. The nice choice is to add heliotrope to provide a powdery softening of the two co-stars. The base is a standard patchouli, ambrox, and vanilla ending. Woody with a touch of sweet.

White Lies has 10-12 hour longevity and above average sillage.

If Agonist was planning on White Lies being their “normal” fragrance within the collection; they succeeded. The only thing that is bad about it is despite enjoying it I’m just as unlikely to wear it as some of the more avant-garde offerings. Not because it isn’t good but because it isn’t different enough. I understand the desire to just give the consumer what they want. Hopefully the next Agonist release will go back to giving the customer something to think about.

Disclosure: This review was based on a sample provided by Agonist.

–Mark Behnke