Perfume Pen Pals: Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle


Katie,

Re the Frédéric Malle line: which have you tried? I saw you praising Dans tes bras and Carnal Flower. How does Carnal Flower compare to Fracas? What about En passant? Noir Epices? L'Eau d'Hiver? Where do I go first? Second?

Dan


Dan,

I’ve smelled all the Malles, have worn many, and own some. And this is the third time in three days I find myself recommending Carnal Flower to Fracas lovers. I know you're not a Fracas lover, strictly speaking -- it's more like you have it the way you'd own a copy of The Grateful Dead's American Beauty that you never listen to. A classic that's not really "you".

Anyway, I prefer Carnal Flower to Fracas. Fracas is a thick, candied tuberose with a niff of rotting flowers. There’s an almost pissy smell to it that somehow ends up erotic.

Carnal Flower is fresher. The tuberose is greener -- there's earth in the smell. There's also a hint of coconut paired with jasmine that will please you, since you like your 70's suntan lotion scent. I find the whole thing gloriously hyper-real -- a pixilated tuberose.

Margaret, the elegant Frédéric Malle lady who travels from in-store boutique to in-store boutique like a couture sharecropper, nicely gave me a sample of the mind-blowing Carnal Flower body cream. When I wear it on my hands, it wafts up and blends with whatever incense or leather I'm wearing to turn me into Elizabeth Taylor in Butterfield 8.

So Carnal Flower is aces. It's also very "here I am!” -- and I don't know how you feel about broadcasting tuberose on all frequencies.

Noir Epices is deep, spicy, rosy orange. I once impulsively threw it on with my Santa Maria Novella Acqua di Cuba, and the husb was very impressed with the result.

En Passant is wet lilacs and musk. Aqueous. So pretty.

I'm wondering about Une fleur de Cassie. I have a sprayed-on blotter here, and it's nice: flowers with hygiene problems. I read that ladies are afraid to wear it out of the house. You know, in public. Now I’m keen to try some on.

Le Parfum de Thérèse struck me as a sketch for Diorella, and also seemed "old fashioned" and a bit "perfumey", though I liked it for its similarity to my old friend Diorella.

I think the thrillseeker in you would enjoy Dans tes Bras, and the beauty lover in you would appreciate Carnal Flower.

Katie


Katie,

Have you tried Lipstick Rose? That's supposed to be the sweet, artificial rose of the bunch. And it seems to really split people. I'm always fascinated by perfumes that split people. Or anything that splits people: Eyes Wide Shut, The Satanic Verses, Cher.

No, I'm not a Fracas lover exactly, but I do like it. And I like tuberose. I'm the only person on the planet who enjoys Tom Ford Private Blend Velvet Gardenia.

The blending of tuberose with coconut seems odd, though, only because I associate tuberose with cooler weather because it's so rich. Might Carnal Flower be the first summertime tuberose? (Don't answer that or I'll run up to Barneys and not get any work done today.)

I watched Frédéric Malle talking about Carnal Flower in this video and got excited:



He said it's the first tuberose that doesn't use Fracas as a reference point. And suddenly I leaned forward a little bit. I'm so susceptible to marketing bullshit.

Like at 3:25, when Malle says, "one thing I find a bit amusing..." and arrogantly puckers his lips in that special French way, I wanted to buy every single scent in the line! What is that about? Someone should study me.

Dan


Dan,

I just watched and very much enjoyed this clip. I cracked up when he says, "I try to classify fragrances in a much more simple, down-to-earth way", and the accompanying graphic is a hilariously obtuse London Tube map from Mars: blobs of colors; squiggly arrows going every which way!

Katie




Katie,

I actually paused on the “Perfumes Made Easy” chart to try to understand it. And it makes no sense at all. First, there are all of these colored blobs among the names and arrows. And then it declares that "Fresh" is the opposite of "Warm" and "Soft" is the opposite of "Streamlined" (I understand "chypre" better than I understand "Streamlined"). And yet because Frédéric Malle was talking to me, to me, I wanted to buy everything. Because I'm crazy that way.

Another Malle gem regarding the London Tube map from Mars (seriously, I've studied this thing like I'm on some complex archeological dig) is when he says people will be able to look at the diagram and know which perfume is for them "if they're honest with themselves" about what kinds of fragrances they like.

Frédéric Malle implies here that people aren't always honest with themselves when it comes to scent preference. But what's the advantage of lying about such a thing? And especially lying to YOURSELF? Based on that moment alone, I suspect Mr. Malle has a very dark world view. Which is all the more reason why I like him. Try to keep me from Barneys today! Just try!

Dan


Dan,

People lie to themselves all the time, but not usually about perfume. I’m going to have to start keeping an eye on myself.

Fred’s the best!

Katie

15 comments:

  1. Freddie Kreuger? Freddie Malle? Are they not the same person? Really? I mean, have you ever seen them in the same room together? I think not! The man is dark! DARK!

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  2. No wonder the perfumes are so expensive, they have to build all those fancy-schmancy smelling booths and refrigerators! (kiddin')

    I'm a bad perfumista - I've never smelled any of the Malles, or Lutens, for that matter. Maybe it's a good thing (for my wallet).

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  3. Dan and Katie, I lie to myself about perfume all the time. I also lie to others, as I kick the bottles of Rumeur and Bulgari Voile de Jasmin under the bed. "No, I'm not a cheap white floral fan at all! No, not me..." I'm trying to get to a place of owning my bad taste, but it's hard. Why admit to owning a bottle of Covet Pure Bloom when you could just as easily hide it behind the Gris Clair and the big honkin' bottle of Coromandel?

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  4. That's funny, Angi. I stick all my less desirables in the back, too. Look hard and you'll find some Diesel Fuel For Life, Marc Jacobs Grass splash, even a few bottles from The Gap. And I stand by all of them! Semi-privately.

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  5. Cheap Perfume Lovers Anonymous? And what is The Malle gonna do about them? I know! Make some real expensive cheap stuff. To finally become honest to one-self. Redemption is in the offing... Hail to The Dark Malle

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  6. ScentsofSmell, Fred is starting to seem more and more sinister. Just don't run into him alone on a dark night -- you'll never make it out his smell-booth alive!

    Angi, is it "bad taste" if you make a conscious choice to wear perfumes from the wrong side of the tracks? You've tried the debutante stuff, but you still wanna smell like a roadhouse good-time girl. That's "your taste", which can never be "bad", right?

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  7. Ha-ha, Berengaria: if I'm honest with myself, Mr. Malle, I'd like to pay a lot less for your beautiful perfumes!

    Patty - all kidding aside, you do have a treat in store when you get around to sniffing out the Malles and the Lutens.

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  8. I have Lipstick Rose. I bought it for the sense of humour: a perfume that smells exactly like a vintage tube of thick red liptick! But when I got it home, I realized the joke isn't funny enough for me to wear it a lot. Care to trade?

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  9. Krista, chuckles certainly have their place, but not always in a perfume. Unless you enjoy it as a "smell sculpture".

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  10. And what IS up with those smelly phone booths? I thought that you would step in and then be surrounded by a cloud of some lovely scent. But noooo - Msr. Malle spritzes exactly one spritz of his perfume and then you stick your HEAD in. I mean, come on, why build a whole box when just your head is going in? Why not save some Euros and build a HEAD-SIZE booth to stick your head into? I did enjoy the oh-so-French lip-pursing.

    Krista - I do like the idea of a lipstick-scented perfume. I sometimes get a whiff of a ceratin lipstick and it brings me back to my itty-bitty childhood and the Fuller Brush man bringing my mother some samples, including some tiny samples of lipstick. I can see the logic in having a perfume that reminds us of those memories. Demeter apparently got the memo.

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  11. ScentsofSmell, I think when folks clap eyes on the smell booths, there's an immediate expectation that you can go inside and hang out with your chosen perfume. I bet at the Malle office parties, they all get tipsy and try to see how many perfumers they can cram in a booth.

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  12. I smelt a few of the range, including Carnal Flower, in a booth in Paris, but managed to come out without making a purchase - the prices were dearer in France than at home, which seems crazy!

    I know it is very anal of me, but I do keep most of my perfumes in a beer chiller @ 10 C. Had the devil of a job to find one without Budweiser livery, I might add. : - )

    Oh and as for that unintelligible blobby map - I think it looks like something in vitro, and may grow other categories presently...

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  13. fittersniffer, Inspired by the Malle refrigerators, I, too, decided to spring for one of my own. But I didn't like the idea of storing my perfumes in Budweiser fridge or something with a team logo on it. And others were made for wine bottles and had those cylindrical contraptions. Finally, I found the perfect fridge: large enough to hold my entire collection, with a glass door, glass shelves, just like the ones Mr. Malle uses! Alas, it was too expensive and so I didn't buy it. Perhaps the only example of my perfume obsessiveness SAVING me money. At least for now.

    And I'm sure Mr. Malle would take your "in vitro" remark as a compliment, in that it recognizes the serious science he's attempting with all his little colored blobs.

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  14. Dan, you are absolutely right - mine is classed as a wine and beer chiller and I do indeed have to contend with cylindrical contraptions, though as you can see they are incipient rather than fully formed...

    http://www.johnlewis.com/230178898/Product.aspx

    Much like our blobby friends above!

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  15. fittersniffer, the fridge I'm eyeing features fully formed contraptions, but only on the bottom row. Where, I suppose, I could store wine. The rest is a paradise of flat glass shelves, on which perhaps I'll organize my bottles by their blob classification.

    http://www.danby.com/product.php?cod_prod=DBC514BLS&code=10

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