As the weather cools one of my favorite comfort scents is that of tobacco. I grew up with a dad who smoked a pipe. One of my earliest scent memories was going with him to the tobacconist. The place smelled wonderful. When my dad would open his leather bag to fill his pipe the scent would slither out into the living room. I would lean in to get a good sniff. There is a lusciousness to tobacco that perfumes which feature it don’t often attempt to evoke. Pierre Guillaume Animal Mondain does go for it.
Pierre Guillaume
Animal Mondain is a member of the Black Collection which is the rebranding of the previous Huitieme Art Parfums. That group has some of my favorites by M. Guillaume because they are streamlined to feature a single ingredient. I wouldn’t describe them as soliflore-like because the supporting ingredients have more presence. They more resemble scent studies as the central note is interrogated by the others. In Animal Mondain tobacco is the one in the chair.
When tobacco is used it generally plays off the dried leaf and the mentholated narcotic quality of it. The source of tobacco in this fragrance is different. There is a humidity to it reminiscent of it being removed from the container at the tobacconist. It tamps down the addicting quality for something more inviting. The difference is evident right away as coumarin is used as the first ingredient. The hay-like quality provides a dried grass effect without going as deep as the tobacco might. To this a contrast of green pear leaves are there to add in an alternative to the missing mentholated thread. It gets even more supple as honey weaves its slightly animalic ways through this. It is a languorous effect which increases in intensity over an hour or so. At that point, the honey has displaced the coumarin. An accord of polished dark wood is where this ends.
Animal Mondain has 12-14 hour longevity and average sillage.
This is that luscious tobacco I enjoy. M. Guillaume can coax that aspect from just a few well-chosen partners. By using this kind of streamlining he can create a maximum tobacco.
Disclosure: This review is based on a sample I purchased.
–Mark Behnke
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