Liberte Boheme

Liberté Bohème is a vibrant, green floral that is on the sweeter side. This perfume seriously makes me nostalgic for some of my oldest childhood memories. I grew up mostly in the city, but there was a brief couple of years when we lived in the suburbs. We had scorching hot summers but we had shaded green lawns, a deck in the back, a flowering magnolia tree in front, and lots of space to run around and play. I swear that Liberté Bohème is the exact scent of the front lawn while my dad mowed it. I can hear the sound of the lawn mower so clearly when I smell this, and I can see and smell the piles of freshly cut grass scattered all over for my dad to rake up. So it evokes childhood memories from a time when I would describe my life and my spirit as feeling totally free; unencumbered by life's responsibilities; not yet jaded by perceived failures nor broken hearts. I hate to compare Liberté Bohème to another perfume, but I want to give a reference point, as it is not the type of green that I encounter often. I feel that Hermes' Un Jardin Sur le Toit (my favorite of the Jardin series) is the perfume that comes closest to Liberté Bohème. Both perfumes have sweet pink roses in common. Both perfumes are green, but Liberté Bohème seems strictly green, while Un Jardin Sur le Toit smells like a combination of fruit, roses, and tangy citrus along with the fresh green notes. As a matter of personal preference, I prefer Liberté Bohème. Sillage is not huge, not cloying, so it's really clean and fresh for warmer weather. I get about 5 hours of wear before I feel an urge to touch-up. I honestly don't notice much musk nor woods. The perfume wears quite linear on me, but considering the fact that I really like the fragrance from the get-go, I am very glad it does not mutate into anything other than the scent of my carefree childhood. As I mentioned, Liberté Bohème is truly green. Roses do not overpower nor dominate as I feared they would. There is no sharp hyacinth, narcissus nor lily-of-the-valley to give the perfume a false sense of greenness and tip the balance towards floral. It seems as though all of the "green" perfumes I encounter these days include one of those (potentially and frequently) sharp, screechy floral notes. It is not an evergreen fragrance, either. Liberté Bohème's beauty lies within its ability to remain simply GREEN. I think it's absolutely beautiful, quite possibly the perfect, simple, green perfume. Since it smells so natural, any gender can wear it with confidence.

[JUNE 2021] This was a bit disappointing (but for my reasons on why I bought it, otherwise keep reading!) because I was expecting more florals but this is definitely very wet and very green. In a way it's like lotus water, or spring water, but specifically the smell of dew drops on a dandelion once it stops raining and becomes sunny again. This makes it an ethereal, but very overly light perfume. I didn't like Hermes' Garden... Toit perfume because it was too citrusy but I can tolerate this because I do kinda like Liberte Boheme's aquatic cut-stem aspect! Liberte Boheme is especially what you want if you like the smell of freshly-hydrated dandelions post-rain, now evaporating with a kiss from the sun, and especially the smell of pure lotus (flower and leaves only, minus the temple spices otherwise lit or adorned around it.) Also, this perfume is quite white-musky. It's my least favourite note because it reminds me of fresh ironing and laundry!! Gah. I don't need my perfumes to smell like fuzzy, damp cotton when I'm already wearing cotton. But luckily it has enough tarragon and tomato leaf (not to mention aquatic flowers) to put it back to wet-grass, lotus-pond hyperreality. I would not blind buy this unless this is what you're looking for. I would however recommend blind buying Patricia Nicolai's Weekend In Normandy if you want this fragrance less wet, more hot and pollen spring-like (YMMY if you're already not fond of Liberte Boheme's overly wet, airy lightness. Nicolai's Normandy might be overly spring herb-spicy.) Also $288AUD (shipping incl.) for a full bottle performance of Liberte Boheme like this is, to me, not worth it! I would definitely blind buy Louis-Marie's Bousval, which is much much cheaper than this and more like what I'm looking for (hot, warm summer grass! and the smell of tiny yellow wildflowers.) And I would also instead recommend DSH's Divine Garden if you're here purely for hyperreal garden-of-eden florals, which is not what Liberte Boheme is about. If you came here hoping to "upgrade" from the green-prettiness of Ormonde Jayne's Prive, you will not find it in Liberte Boheme unless you want a perfume that specifically smells very aqueous, aquatic, wet... like dandelion dew drops, lotus flowers, or spring season river water (maybe if you *really* wanted to smell like the running creek water at the hillside from the opening scenes in Spirited Away? But even then, I think Ormonde's Prive or DSH's Venus & Cupid is more what you're looking for if you want the experience of that flower field from Howl's Moving Castle... which Liberte Boheme, again, is not.)

I am just testing this fragrance after buying the Au Pays de la Fleur d'Oranger discovery box...I find Liberté Bohème really pleasant for summer days. It brings me the same kind of pleasure as wearing other soft herbal, good-quality fragrances, such as Eau du Sud by Annick Goutal - it must be the common basil note, which I am very fond of. I would recommend LB to anyone who wants to smell clean, fresh and refined at the same time.

Now this one is a clean floral roses with a slight rancidity from the jasmines. Slightly greeny from the tomato leaves, basil, and kind of dirty from the musc, but after all it's sweet fresh clean floral roses.