Most likely the query anybody who writes about fragrance will get most is to call your “High 5 or 10 or 25” Perfumes of All-Time. For these of us who spend our time attempting all the pieces new we are able to get our nostril on in addition to discover occasions for our favorites it’s an unattainable query. I normally say one thing like I’ve sufficient hassle naming my High 25 for a given yr a lot much less the High 25 ever. This elicits a mixture of reactions however principally disappointment that I can’t level them to the best possible fragrance on the planet. Heck possibly I’m a bit of upset I can’t do it both. There’s a totally different model of this query although which I’ve had a solution for since 2007, “What’s your desert island perfume?”
To me it is a a lot totally different question than title the perfect fragrances ever. When requested what I’d need to put on on a desert island it means to me a perfume that might not be boring as I wore it each day. A perfume that might be comforting and energizing. A perfume which might be an olfactory Friday to my Robinson Crusoe or Wilson to my Tom Hanks. A perfume which might remind me why I needed to get off the island. For me that perfume is 2007’s Frapin Caravelle Epicee.
I realized about Caravelle Epicee one morning in 2007 when a Basenotes member “Two Roads” listed it as his Scent of the Day adopted by the be aware listing: coriander, cardamom, clove, cumin, nutmeg, allspice, thyme, gaiac wooden, patchouli, sandalwood, amber, and tobacco. He generously despatched me a pattern and some days later I’d put on it for the primary time however not the final time.
Jeanne-Marie Faugier
Jeanne-Marie Faugier is the perfumer underneath the Inventive Course of Frapin’s David Frossard. Caravelle Epicee interprets to Spice Ship and I’ve all the time seen it as an olfactory panorama of the maintain of a 17th Century Dutch East India Firm ship simply after it has unloaded its cargo after returning to its European port from a visit to the Indonesian Spice Islands. As you possibly can inform from the listing of notes above it is a veritable smorgasbord of spice. Mme Faugier is ready to hold what may have been an unruly cacophony as a substitute tuned to politeness with an nearly genteel façade. That is why I describe it as standing within the maintain after it has been unloaded as a result of the spices appear to achieve a sure stage after which by no means get rather more intense. After the spices there was clearly some tobacco additionally within the maintain and then you definately odor the wooden of the ship because the patchouli, gaiac, and sandalwood mix to provide that accord. I additionally all the time get a tiny trace of an aquatic accord which captures the water simply on the opposite aspect of the hull.
Caravelle Epicee has all-day longevity and common sillage.
There you will have it and at last I’ve put this down in print so the following time I get requested this query I can simply ahead them this hyperlink.
Disclosure: this evaluation relies on a bottle of Caravell Epicee that I bought.
–Mark Behnke
