Perfume Pen Pals: Dude Smells Like a Lady



Katie,

It's often pointless to talk about a perfume an hour after first applying it, but my Geranium pour Monsieur arrived today from Frédéric Malle and I'm just so baffled by it. It's like a post-modern Comme des Garçons scent for men with broad shoulders. It's minty and planty and herby out of the bottle but then it shifts into a cool sheen, like the little green plants hopped onto a space ship. So far, I'm loving it!


Also, I love the description on the box, which is so obviously written by Malle himself: "Geranium pour Monsieur delivers the long lasting freshness that most men want. It is a sophisticated alternative to the all-too mundane fern-type smells that dominate men's perfumery." First, if this is what most men want, why is men's perfumery dominated by what presumably most men don't want? Are men not honest with themselves? And, second, isn't it marvelously French that in describing your perfume, you immediately slag off every other perfume? I'd avoided these Malles for so long, and only at your urging did I investigate. And I might be going out on a limb here, but I believe, if I'm honest with myself, they're changing my life. My friend Beth keeps asking if I feel weird wearing Malle's En Passant, which she says is the most utterly feminine thing she's ever smelled (she claims men can pull off aggressively feminine scents, but the quietly feminine ones seem more problematic). And so I wore it to my dentist appointment today, to make a point, but I took a cab there and suddenly felt a little self-conscious in front of the cab driver. I didn't want to offend him and his hyper-masculine Middle-Eastern oud-y sensibilities. And yet no one should be offended by En Passant. If anything, En Passant should be offended by the cab driver!
I understand what Beth means theoretically, that a quiet feminine scent will be perceived as somehow more feminine than a loud one, but in reality a quiet scent is quiet and thus gives off only a shadowy impression. But I can't say for certain because almost no one has ever noticed what I'm wearing without my prompting. Except when I'm wearing Chanel Coromandel. Everyone notices Coromandel. Here, virtually verbatim, is an exchange I once enjoyed in a supermarket in rural Oregon (where I lived for two years) -- Checkout clerk (female): Are you wearing cologne? Me (male): Um, well, yeah, I guess it's cologne. Checkout clerk: What cologne is it? It's somethin'! Me: Coromandel. Checkout clerk: Coro Man, what was that? Me: Coromandel. Checkout clerk to bagger: Coro Mantle? You heard of that one? Me: It's by Chanel. Checkout clerk (again to bagger): Ooh Chanel! Bagger: Ooh Chanel! Where'd you get Chanel? Me: Um, in the Chanel boutique. Checkout clerk: Where's that? In Bend? Me: No, in San Francisco. Checkout clerk (again to bagger): San Francisco? He's wearing Chanel from San Francisco! How about that? Checkout clerk, as I'm walking out, to another clerk: That guy was wearing some Chanel cologne from San Francisco! Now I may have been a little paranoid, but I always sensed an edge to these kinds of encounters, like someone was about to pull me behind a dumpster and kick my teeth in. Thank goodness I got out when I did. Dan
Oud Little Tree via

22 comments:

  1. amen...if I have learned anything along the way in my scent journey and from following you Miss Katie....smell like you want to smell.....I seeem to be attracted to a lot more scents that are considered feminine. I don't know if it is my imagination but they seem more complex and interesting. Sometimes the men's fragrance are just too damn.....One thing ......so it may be uneasy sometimes when you walk out the door smelling like a guy named Sue but I think it is worth the fight....viva la fragrance

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  2. Dan, speaking as a former Oregon resident, the "Where's that? In Bend?" had me cackling. Ah, yes... the bustling metropolis that is Bend! (They do sell the Les Exclusifs in dowtown Portland now, though. Oregon came up in the world a little the day that happened.)

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  3. Kitty, Bend IS a bustling metropolis to the citizens of Sisters, which is where I lived for two years. Portland? That's a whole other world.

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  4. sur le minty accord de Geranium PM, perhaps the thinking was to continue l'investigation de mr man's medicine chest a la rive gauche's shaving soap/cream. moi, I spit it out along with the colgate toothpaste accord that seems to have been an inspiration.

    a la recherche: I picked up a bar of soap at the nach-all food sto' labeled "mint/clove" then put it back immediatement in quell horreur discovering that this combination of two love notes turns out to be that same to me hated creme de colgate menthe!

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  5. I doubt that the cab driver minded smelling En Passant on a guy in his cab. They get exposed to much stranger things. But imagine the scene if you wore it to the grocery store in Oregon.

    Checkout clerk (female): Are you wearing perfume?
    Me (male): Um, well, yeah, I guess it's perfume.

    See what I mean?

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  6. Le Marquis, Dan can handle a goodly amount of crème de menthe in his elixirs and unguents, it seems. I seem to recall mention of Heeley Menthe Fraîche in his stash as well. I agree that mint in a fragrance crosses a line of sorts, although I will admit to enjoying the sweet minty smell in that Aveda Rosemary Mint shampoo....


    melisand61, En Passant, Coromandel, they'd all scream "screamer" to the locals, no matter how you'd label it.

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  7. onesmalldog -- ha, that's a thing: what perfume's worth getting into a fight over?

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  8. But more importantly, what did the cabbie smell like?

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  9. I love how Malle ragged on every other fragrance out there too. Very French. But I don't know about his assertation about fresh ferns. Maybe it's because my dad's fresh cologne was always lime based.

    I think of fern as a componant of a more classically feminine scent, even though I can not cite one single example of such.

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  10. And isn't Portland metro smallish? at 2 million...?

    Dan, Does this Coromandel have a lot of Vanilla?
    I've seen it characterized as Vanilla patch pudding upon application. I don't do frags with any vanilla in them.

    I'm playing with a couple of patch frags, (Knowing full well that I certainly don't even approach knowing the gamut of that patchy universe.) I was looking at Borneo 1834, mostly in reviews in comparison to the Coromandel, and I'm wearing Jacomo de Jacomo heavily jacked up with Frank and Myrrh, Oud, Cedar, sandalwood, Elemi, Guaiacwood, Black Tea, Vetiver, Ambergris and Labdanum. -It's a private blend that I make for myself. And it makes the J de J into a long lasting frag as well. Do you have impressions of either J de J, or the Borneo?

    Paul

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  11. Just went by Chanel today and sniffed Coromandel, alas they did not have a sample and my arms and hands has already been sprayed. Before Chanel, dropped by Etro and got a sample of their patch - seems promising even though I have a problem with patch in general - Borneo 1834 made me want to cut my arm off! Why is it that Etro gets so little love on the blogs?

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  12. Paul: It's all relative. Sisters, Oregon, at 100, is metro non-existent. Though it does have its own post office. Often with shockingly long lines.

    Coromandel doesn't strike me as vanilla-centric. It's a sweet, sparkling patchouli with more air under its wings than Borneo 1834 has. And I could be wrong but I think its sweetness comes from its amber/benzoin notes and not vanilla. I've never worn Jacomo de Jacomo.

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  13. Paul, Borneo, with its thuddingly dense chocolate/patch/amber sweetness, strikes some as a barf-y concoction (vomit being the one "magnificent secretion" that can't be prettied up.) Coromandel does have more white space in its composition, thankfully, with an appealing aromatic kick-off that gives lift to the earthy patch and cozy leather-sweet benzoin.


    Anonymous, I LOVE Etro's fragrances! I remember being shocked when I first went into the boutique and saw that there were 20-odd fragrances in the line. They do seem rather underground, even among niche bunnies who live to sniff out every obscurity.

    I've got Santal, Messe de Minuit and Shaal Nur in my collection, but there are gobs of others that I'd love to wear on a regular basis if I had them around.

    When you're able to, do give Coromandel a wearing, because it has one of the very best progressions and drydowns of any perfume I've smelled.

    (By the way, you weren't on Rodeo Drive today, were you? The Chanel and Etro boutiques are across the street from each other there.)

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  14. Oops, I meant to type Sisters has a population of 1000, not 100. I don't want the mayor angry with me. (Assuming, of course, the town has a mayor.)

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  15. I was wondering about that, Dan. With only 100, I'd guess that at least 92 could smell your Coromandel without stretching a nostril.

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  16. I thought Cormandel is marketed as a male fragrance.
    As for Geraniums Pour Monsieur, it is also pour c'est Madame aussi, even thought I never thought I would like a mint. When it gets hot, nothing seems more refreshing.

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  17. None of the Chanel Exclusifs are assigned a gender, in the best "anything goes" niche tradition. That makes the reaction of Dan's olfactory audience in Oregon even more telling. The checkout clerk wasn't responding to a violation of a marketing directive, she was reacting to Coromandel's plush opulence emanating from a big handsome man. Dan might not look like a dandy, but he probably smelled like one in Sisters, Oregon - a place where they don't have a word for "dandy." Well, they do have a word, but it's not "dandy."

    Re Geranium PM: most of those Malles, whether designated for him or her, all share a certain plushness, and I don't see why men should be the only ones enjoying Geranium PM. I'm not the biggest mint tolerator, but I do enjoy it in the rosy Geranium context.

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  18. Dan, I've been wondering what would have happened if you had answered the question "Are you wearing cologne?" with "Yes, do you like it?" followed by a big smile. What do you think? Perhaps you both missed out on a nice little bonding situation there.

    Weather permitting I'm doing a lady smells like a dude tomorrow. Have purchased Chanel Egoiste after Katies recommendation of it and deeHowe's as well. But I can't really understand why it's being marketed as a man's man's man's scent. On me it's pleasantly dry, soft woody rose - and I like it! Will be interesting to see if anyone identifies it as coming from the other side of the aisles at the department store.

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  19. Marie, By the time of my fragrance encounter, I had stopped looking for rural bonding situations and was just nervously hoping to survive. The clerk was perfectly pleasant, but I have other stories, none of which are appropriate for a civilized perfume blog. (I was called that Sisters word for "dandy." And other words, too.)

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  20. Fair enough :-)

    I hope there are advantages to living there besides being kept on your toes in a dance like a butterfly, sting like a bee manner.

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  21. Dan I loved your story. LOVED IT! I have just gotten into Chanel les Exclusifs myself. However I did take a challenge over at Fragrantica to try some "women’s" classics. So far I love Gres Cabochard and folks here in my little town really seem to like it. Then I moved on to Bal a Versailles and wow! This monster may not smell like it did in 1962 but it is pretty spectacular. It is drawing raves from the populace. No one has said “Dude is that perfume?” it’s more like “Wow you smell great!” So this dude is rocking the "like a lady" thing and it has opened up all kinds of fragrance possibilities for me. I even ordered Tea Rose by Perfumer`s Workshop on Katie's recommendation as an air freshener for the apartment. And you just know I am gonna test it on me...just to see how daring it might be.
    Oh and yes, my little town is, San Francisco... lots of Dandy’s here and that is just dandy with me.
    Cheers!
    Lanier

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  22. Thanks Lanier. SF is my little town, too. Rural Oregon was one of those decisions I immediately regretted and I can say with complete certainty that no one there is using Tea Rose as an air freshener. Though, in fairness, the country air is awfully fresh already. They have it all over us in that one category.

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