One of the great pleasures of the recent Esxence in Milan was my first opportunity to meet Etienne de Swardt, the owner and creative director of Etat Libre d’Orange. As he calls himself on the website “Troublemaker & Perfumer”. He is most definitely one of the Bad Boys of perfume and that is his charm. While speaking with him I felt there was always a barely suppressed laugh behind his smile. He is definitely in on the joke, he is actually the joker incarnate. As we sat down for him to show me the latest releases I was ready for the typically double entendre name followed, usually, by a perfume that is very good to spectacular. He slid across the table a brochure which had this on the front, “We’ve given you decadent, we’ve given you outrageous and now we give you nice.” This is the tag line for the new Cologne (A Nice Scent).
Etienne de Swardt
M. de Swardt told me this was the fragrance he would like to use as the gateway fragrance to the rest of the collection. Because of the style of that collection this is not a trivial task. He asked perfumer Alexandra Kosinski to collaborate with him on Cologne. As I’ve written about previously we really are in the middle of a Colognaissance and Cologne fits right into this reinvention of the venerable form. Mme Kosinski goes with a spine of citrus/floral/animalic but it is done in a very Etat Libre d’Orange way. Yes Cologne is nice but way down underneath it all lurks the rogue who sticks his head up at the very end.
Alexandra Kosinski
While cologne as a perfume architecture is pretty straightforward what separates the newer modern colognes is the choices made to fill out that architecture. For Cologne Mme Kosinski makes an inspired choice to start with blood orange supported by bergamot. Blood orange adds a tinge of bitter underneath the juicy sweet and it really is made to be a cologne ingredient. The heart is a floral transition of orange blossom and jasmine. Mme Kosinski keeps the florals on the light side but what I liked was she didn’t use versions of these notes that were bereft of their indoles. Beneath all that loveliness there is just a tiny hint of something less wholesome. This leads to a base which is definitely meant to let the more primal urges become more apparent as Mme Kosinski combines a leather accord and wraps it in musk. It is not a boisterous version of these notes but it picks up on the indoles and shows that even A Nice Scent can be a little dangerous.
Cologne has 4-6 hour longevity and average sillage.
I am looking forward to this summer to let many of these new colognes I’ve been reviewing the chance to come out and play in the heat. I’ve been sending some time arranging all of them on a shelf for the sunny days to come. When Cologne (A Nice Scent) becomes available in June this will go right to the front of that shelf. M. de Swardt and Mme Kosinski have succeeded admirably in adding to the burgeoning Colgnaissance and to creating the perfect introductory fragrance for Etat Libre d’Orange.
Disclosure: This review was based on a sample provided by Etat Libre d’Orange at Esxence 2014.
–Mark Behnke
Editor’s note: If Cologne (A Nice Scent) makes you want to explore the line more check out my Etat Libre d’Orange 101 article for five I think you should start with.
Recent Comments