L'Agent

One sniff. That's all it took. One sniff, and BAM. I have never hit the "Love" button as fast - or gone from a stranger to a lover. And then, from a lover to a worshipper. The first 15 minutes I just walked around the house, sniffing my wrist (and leaving a wonderful scent trail behind me, what a sillage!), trying to decide what this reminds me of. "I know this, I know this, I swear! But who would wear something like this? Where have I encountered this before?" Until it hit me. This doesn't remind me of some other perfume, nor a person. This reminds me of a place: a catholic church, just like some of you have mentioned. The incense, myrrh (at first more medicinal, later blending beautifully with the first mentioned), and something that to my nose is the leathery scent of black ebony (possibly the rosewood, sandalwood and labdanum combined?)... and then the musk and rose and amber, as the skin and clothing of the churchgoers. I'm not a Christian, mind you, a mere "spiritual being having a human experience", but my love for old churches goes well beyond any religion. So, fast-forward to the "one hour later" mark, and my love has gone from "wow, this is exceptional" level to the "if my soul had a scent, it would be this" level. My purchase may have been inspired by all those reviews claiming this to be THE perfume of pure sexuality, but to me, it seems, this is already something more. "The perfume of heavenly creatures", or maybe I've just been drugged? Maybe this is the high? Hopefully sometime soon I'll come back (down) and give you a better review, but right now I'm out of words. Or drugged by a lingerie company. Speechless, nonetheless. D'accord. I don't mind: this is that little piece of holiness I've been given. To quote the Fragrantica users astrogenic and Jitterbug Perfume Lover (since these were the reviews that sealed my decision on purchasing this perfume!): "AP's bottles may resemble hand grenades, but L'Agent is no ordinary hand grenade... It's a holy hand grenade. Just as on earth, there are battles afoot in heaven, and occasionally the angel's arsenals are dropped from the sky in a plea that we join their army. I accept the calling." & "I once heard a modern mystic say that if you pray for true love, you should also pray for reverence and perseverance because you’re going to need it because true love is not for the weak; neither is this perfume. This is not the perfume for a fickle fleeting lust, or some erotic indulgence, this is anointing oil for a serious and sacred sacrament in the ancient mysteries." And to think, this is just a perfume...

L'Agent was a blind buy for me, as I found it for a good price and really enjoy Agent Provocateur and, to a lesser degree, Maitresse. When I first sniffed the bottle I was worried; it's very incense-spice-woody, a bit darker than most scents that I gravitate towards. However, I gave it a chance and the dry down was surprisingly warm and comforting. Some of the harsher notes I often smell in similar fragrances are missing in this; it has an almost dusty quality to it, the way the best incense has when burned. It's got enough warm wood, amber, and spice to keep it from being completely one dimensional. I often feel like incense-heavy scents lean on an anise note I dislike, but I don't detect that in L'Agent. Sillage is mild to moderate, definitely not overwhelming, and it lasts on my skin for 6-8 hours, longer than most fragrances last on my skin. As Venusta has stated, this scent shines when layered with a floral! The florals in L'Agent take a back seat on me, and while I'm very cautious about layering scents (it usually backfires for me), this one just begs to be paired with a floral, as if there's a blank space in the composition. I've been wearing this with Stella by Stella McCartney and I adore it. That bright, sparkling rose softens L'Agent and makes for an incredibly feminine combination. If I had a good tuberose in my collection, you can bet that I'd be trying that combination next! L'Agent on its own is bold, but adding in more floral gives it a very sensual quality. As someone who rarely wears the same scent twice in a week, I've been reaching for this combination really often; I end up craving it. This may have pushed the original Agent Provocateur fragrance out of its long-held position as my favorite from this brand!

I love Provanzano's AP frags even since the I had to go to great lengths to get the og ( not to mention, expense, it used to be a premium range sold in just a few places in the UK ) but never reviewed any. I'm doing this now as I've just posted a pic, and found myself reading divergent reviews and comments about ISO super. The confusion can be explained: a few years ago the owners of AP (Joe Corré son of the late, great Viv Westwood and Malcolm Maclaren and his missus, Serena Rees ) divorced and sold off the rights to the perfume line. Up to then they'd been produced in Italy by Selective Beauty on behalf of the brand. This continued for a while until Designer Fragrances took over. Following the divorce, they restructured and the perfume arm went to Interparfums in 2013, who moved production to the US, slashed prices and started churning out ( imho ) inferior flankers. They appeared to keep the ogs as they were for awhile but then started cutting corners and tweaking formulas. It's easy to tell: if it's Made in Italy for Selective Beauty then you have the a first formula; at the other extreme any bottle or flanker that came out after 2013, is not going to have the quality and pedigree of the earlier ones , Provanzano' having departed before that. So ..it depends: are you smelling the OG Made in Italy , it's the one Made in the US or...is it the last iteration distributed by EA, this recreation being an update with more of the popular aroma chemicals, the version that's, now it's discontinued, has become Miss AP. ( It also explains the confusion there, too: some thinking it's the same as L'Agent others similar but different !)

Okay, I'm new to this whole fragrance thing, so I blind bought a bottle thinking it would be a nice way to familiarise myself with the incense note. I hated it, it smelled weird and loud and I washed it off right away. Thought about either tossing it or giving it to someone, but didn't, because I had read once on a Finnish fragrance forum you should not get rid of purchases that initially seem like failures, so I put it in the cupboard where I keep my very humble collection, and placed it behind all the other bottles and packages. Until I decided to give it another go after 5 months, and try to understand and maybe identify some of the notes in the composition. Now that was a good call, since this is the fourth or so night I have spent with my nose glued to my wrist. The trick was letting it settle in peace, and after giving it about a half an hour on my skin it became this delicious, almost sweet smoky treat. Can't really tell apart the notes, I'm too much of a n00b for that, but it smells amazingly good. I think, as a man, I'd easily be able to use it if the situation is right, and it's not the sillage power house on me some have experienced it to be. During this evening I've put on more a couple of times already just to feel the opening over and over again, and I think I need to do that once more. I think I'm hooked. EDIT: Here I am, almost a year later still surrounded by a cloud of L'agent, this time layered with a sweet amber. I seriously need to get a back up bottle or three, this is so good, and will always be the perfume that taught me an important lesson about not trusting my initial reaction to a scent. <3

This is my new favorite for this autumn, a discovery, a miracle, an ode to the incense! To the sensual, sinful incense. Ordered it without testing because the price was very affordable (I think it's totally underrated), received it, sprayed it on my wrist and ... the time stood still. A wonderful, intoxicating, balsamic, hugging and naughty scent. Unique, dark, thick, feminine, tempting and seducing. A thousand kisses deep... The opening has a certain vintage vibe (white flowers, a dominant rose, fresh cut greens, a bit of expensive wood, a light aldehyde veil), that's correct, but it's a kind of a modern vintage. I feel some fresh, damp vetiver too (like in "Encre noire" by Lalique, a bit masculine, teasing, deep nuance. Then the perfume changes, it becomes sweeter, I feel a wonderful myrhh, incense and wood mixture (and a lot of sensual, well done musk), the flowers are still present, but not dominant. The base is velvety, mysterious and gets darker and darker. I feel also some dark, warm, aromatic honey notes (not listed) which mix with all that woody and incense heaven and remind me "Chergui" by Serge Lutens ("Chergui" is sweeter, more woody). And I am drowning in this. No regrets, just letting it happen. This perfume makes me think about an extraordinary sect members (beautiful men and women) who come together to make love like art, to discover and experience their sensuality, about something secret,forbidden but still so attracting, tempting. About something that silently whispers dirty things in your ear and makes you desire... I've already ordered another bottle of this, that means a lot.