Faberge Cavale

Imagine a brutalist IBQ leather merges with an exhilarating green-herbal woody chypre-amber hybrid: this would approximate Cavale. It greets the nose with a grand kitchen sink of galbanum, citrus, and herbs and ushers it into a decadent and sumptuous wild, brimming with resins, patchouli and gold, ashy, steamy leather. It is certainly a progression from Gres Cabochard and Estee Lauder Azuree, but Cavale also seems like a bridge between the early 70s post-hippie liberation and late 70s escapism and excess. It's a chypre that, deep in its dry down, verges towards the rich ambers that would come into vogue (once more) just around the corner. Relatively scarce, this one is for the collectors, but it's worthy of visiting if one has an insatiable yen for perfumery of this time period. If one were to look at this through a spectrum from chypre-green to an amber-orange, this is a curious and wonderful and uncommon hue in between.

The only comment I can make is: 😍. The only reason it is not among my signatures is because I find it very difficult to buy, many of the departure bottles I had I received in return, but it's getting harder and harder to find, and when I find it the collectors refuse to give it from heir hands at any price or perfumes change.

Cavale is a very interesting vintage fragrance, a green chypre. If you like Azuree or the old version of Aliage you could like her as well.

Cavale is a luxury Faberge from the 1970's, when Faberge was seeking to get its perfumes back onto department store perfume counters, after decades of intentional popularization and mass marketing. (The other exclusive 1970's Faberge was Partage.) Cavale is just right for me: a herbal, leathery chypre. I acquired a bottle a while ago and it reminds me of vintage Cabochard EDT (in the black and white twig patterned box). Cavale's leather is softer, but it is still a leather of the tangy sharp isobutyl quinoline type, not the softer smoky vanilla-y kind. Cavale is very nice, but I prefer Cabochard, since it has much more depth. But the Cavale bottle is undeniably gorgeous. If you wear vintage Cabochard or Bandit or even modern Azuree, Cavale will not seem unusual, but it is surely unisex according to current tastes. A bemused Basenoter says he isn't sure who was meant to wear Cavale, but he says it's definitely masculine in his opinion so he will wear it himself, but Cavale was definitely marketed to women, as vintage ads prove. Given the obscurity into which both Cavale and Partage have fallen, I'd have to say that Faberge's attempt to be both upscale and popular at the same time was not very successful. It's a difficult game to play, as we can tell from the ceaseless efforts of contemporary luxury brands to keep us convinced us of their exclusivity. After Faberge became so well known as an accessible brand in the 60's and 70's, it may have been impossible for it to reclaim its status in the luxury perfume market.

I have this, in pure perfume, in a little rounded silver bottle. What stands our for me is the galbanum and leather (a prominent but soft leather note). Mint, just a hint of it too make it fresh. Also, I could swear that there is marigold there too? This is really a treasure! One of those perfumes that brings a broad grin to my face every time I put it on :)