Poivre

Poivre (Not vintage but sort of modern formula reviewed-but discontinued-Please Ressurect! I had a chance to sample the old true vintage Poivre. It was dry, hot spicy opening with the florals to soften down the fiery opening. It was truly a force of nature. Im reviewing modern Poivre extrait, its discontinued now as of this writing and the balsamic spicy florals take over Poivre than the fire breathing dragon of yesteryear. Its soft, well blended and beautiful. A purring kitten. The florals are just exquisite, with a layer of spices underneath. A mystery soft leathery tone surfaces, and wears like elegant cashmere. This is for the grand dame, elegant over 40 crowd. It lacks sweetness or anything modern. Im a bit disappointed I did not get anything of the firey opening, but it could also be due to storage and age. I had to really dig up this 10ml of the extrait. (ITS FRIGGIN RARE) This is gonna make your wallet scream. Is it worth it? Yes for some people and absolutely not for others. Side Bar: Is it close to Carons new release Poivre Sacre? No. The Pepper, Insence and woods are sharper and scratchy. PLEASE RE RELEASE THIS!!!

The vintage sample that I tried begins with a slight peppery note, but within seconds it changes to cloves. However, it’s not just cloves from the spice drawer, there are other notes in there softening and expanding on the clove theme. That expansion does not just create a carnation scent, either, it’s something bolder and better. There’s wood, there’s a little bit of resin and incense, and it all fits together perfectly. After about 2-3 hours it dries down to a light skin scent that persists for another few hours. It’s surprising to me that this perfume was created by a mainstream house in the 1950s, because it could easily be a modern niche fragrance, and one of the better ones, at that. If I bought full bottles, this version of Poivre would be FB-worthy. However, I understand it's probably been reformulated, so none of this may apply to the current Poivre.

Poivre was launched in 1954 during the time when most perfumes and fashion aesthetics were well-mannered. I assume it was quite ground breaking to use pepper in women's perfume back then. Its advertising was "Parfum de la femme moderne". It is still very relevant today and definitely unisex. Its dry hot pepper and clove opening is explosive and sexy while the prominent carnation note lifts up the spiciness of the perfume. Later the slightly sweet opoponax softens it a little. There is some similarity to Bellodgia which is gentler and spring like. I always think it is a cold weather perfume. Have tried it this summer and is totally wearable. Great alternative when I don't want citrus or white floral. The vintage parfum lasts 6 hours on my perfume eating skin.

I don't normally like to make blind buys, mistakes can be so expensive! But I will go headfirst into the House of Caron. I've only been disappointed once: the dreadful Fluer(no "S") de Rocaille. I can't imagine "Poivre"("pepper") would disappoint anyone. A blast of pepper, cloves, and Caron's iconic carnations from start to finish. A common complaint about Carons is that they have a smell-alike quality and this magnificent creation doesn't quite make a getaway. A bit of Carons characteristic soapiness comes in at the drydown. But it is faint and lends a bit of softness, it does not overwhelm. The warmth and spiciness of "Poivre" would make it a great Christmas go to. By all means add this to your perfume wardrobe.

Peppery -- oh yes it is! But it is much more than this. Warm, like hot milk with honey, though not sweet, spicy, and flowerish at the same time. It is extremly comforting scent for the cold weather. I don't know why, but it has an extremely positive effect on men -- at least my husband and two colleagues, including my boss. Regardless of this, I would be buying it again and again. On my list of best ever greated fragrances, together with l'heure blue, sous le vent, jicky and cuir de russie.

I love this scent. It was recommended to me by the clerk at the Caron shop on Rue Montaigne to wear with the Tabac Blond I had purchased. She was right. Worn together they are complimentary and complex. I do find the Poivre to be short lived on me in winter, but I do get a couple of hours of scent.

Peppery and sexy! I tried to buy it last year while in NY Bergdorf, but I was told they were sold out and it was only in France at that time.

mmm..ok. Familiar and universal. Historical perfume that delves into memory. It opens with a quick slap of pepper, allspice, then again spices, nails and a giant and eternal carnation. In the middle there are floral notes, roses, jasmine but above all ylang. It reminds me of the typical Cadonett hairspray smell, mentholated shaving foams with tuberose and mild moist amber scents of baby wipes. This brings together three whole generations.A universal unisex that will become the iconic standard of clean, freshly ironed and starched laundry scent. This is like heavy white cotton. I most appreciate the long drydown where vetiver pops up, carnation softens and stays sweet and cozy like sandalwood. A nice journey through time, a bargain if you have inherited that well-preserved bottle, with a mystical touch and oriental taste, with a dense, full and true juice. If you just remember the good old days you can opt for a similar vibe in Guerlain's more modern Lui or many other offerings. But of course ... it's not the same!

Tried it and loved it! Firstly the peppery side comes along with another spices and a soft sweetened in the background. After a while, carnation make it more present. It reminds me a lot of Myrugia’s Maderas de Oriente!

I keep trying it again and again and l love it,but it just doesn't last that long. Perhaps base notes are so soft one can't feel them after that lovely pepperiness...

I got a sample of the new version in it's perfume concentration and this is cloves dialed up to eleven at the beginning. Once the cloves have calmed down a little bit, maybe after 45 minutes or so, there's suddenly an almost camphoric notion and the fragrance starts to remind me of red Tiger Balm. Not bad if you like the smell of red T. B. It also reminds me of incense sticks. Interesting, but I could also understand if someone found it off-putting.

This fragrance isn't worthy of the Caron name. The first note was sharp pungent black pepper followed instantly by the medicinal scent of oil of cloves, the toothache medicine we used as kids and now contained in the OTC preparation Ora-Gel. Reminding me of toothache didn't do much to impress me. The initial scent is very harsh, even although the pepper moves to the background quickly and the clove takes over. After it dried down a bit, I could smell a touch of sandalwood in the background, but no real carnation at all, and I love the spicy scent of carnation. There may be a tiny bit of floral there, but it is overpowered by the sharp and unpleasant clove scent. After about forty five minutes, I smelled a touch of baby powder and vanilla, but the vanilla is what makes most fragrances cloying and I don't like it. Poivre kept the vanilla down to the minimum I can tolerate in a fragrance, so that was a plus. Spicy scents are my absolute favourite - Opium is one I have used for decades, and the only one so far that doesn't turn sickly sweet and cloying on my skin after a half hour or so. But Caron's Poivre smells heavily like oil of cloves and a concoction I made containing it when first experimenting with essential oils years ago, consisting of clove, pepper, sandalwood, jasmine and a drop of ylang ylang. Poivre also didn't last long on my skin, but the scent was much better after about thirty minutes. But still, the clove overpowered. I'm glad I just bought a few samples. It would do better marketed to men.

Straight clove. Disappointing.

Poivre reminds me of a botanical carnation oil that I used to wear in high school. Years later, I realized that this oil most likely did not contain any actual carnation, because carnation extract is extremely pricey and rare (despite the flower's reputation as "common"). Most carnation perfumes have traditionally been made with some combination of black pepper, clove, vanilla, and rose or ylang ylang. Poivre incorporates this "doppelgenger" carnation note -- perhaps along with a bit of precious carnation absolute. Poivre is ideal for clove lovers or spicy carnation lovers -- it is heavily laden with spices. The hot pepper top note is a bit shocking initially, I must admit. As Ron Burgundy, on the hilarious movie "Anchorman," exclaims (upon smelling his co-workers pungent cologne): "It stings the nostrils!" I also pick up on notes of carrot and celery: this isn't unpleasant, just very unusual and distinctive -- a bit like a pot of vegetable stew. This, along with oakmoss and vetiver, provides a very earthy undertone to the spices and sweet floral notes. Despite these other notes, clove is what remains most prominent throughout the drydown, along with the very recognizable Caron powdery note (from Oppoponax and a bit of Sandalwood, I imagine). I'm not sure this is a perfume I would wear regularly; I like clove, but prefer it in lighter doses. I accidentally spilled my high school carnation oil inside my purse one fateful day, causing a clove-carnation overdose from which I have yet to fully recover. Poivre is an intriguing perfume and worth a sample, if simply for the experience and the fact that it provides a little a peek into 1950's fragrance history. And if you love spicy carnation scents, it is a must-try!

I tried a sample today of the modern version and kept asking myself what it reminded me of. Then it came to me: Royall's Bay Rhum - it is almost exactly the same, with perhaps just a bit more vanilla. I have had visions of 'Poivre' being a kind of holy grail of perfumes - a classic, a hard-to-wear (which is fascinating to me), exceptionally rare. I love black and pink pepper scents, and I think I mistook the name of the perfume to actually mean that it smelled 'like pepper'. Instead, it is (basically) a carnation/clove kind of scent... something like what you'd find in a gentleman's cabinet. It has a very aftershave-y quality to it. It's linear, doesn't last too long, and a bit ordinary. I was really hoping for a bit more.

(Parfum review) I"m going to believe that my parfum sample is recent, and NOT what was put on the market in 1954. Why this was reformulated I can't say, but what I can say is that I could walk through the eye of a hurricane and stop to pick out a Caron, and this ain't one of them. When Poivre was reformulated someone simply opened their kitchen spice drawer, unscrewed the lids from the pepper and clove jars and mixed it with a little water. I'd be less harsh with my review if this were an EDT, but as a parfum I have to keep it real. Caron needs to be called to task on this one.

I believe I have a huge bottle of this perfume. If you have a vintage Poirve please send me your contact info so that I might send you a sample to see if indeed this is what this mystery perfume is. I have been mind boggled for 15 years with a 1910 dorflinger vintage perfume bottle full of this mystery juice that my grandmother had left me. She was very wealthy and I know this is not a cheap perfume. Thank you in advance for your help in this mystery. Fill free to also email me at terriep1118&gmail.com Terrie

I love this one! Very Caron-ish highest quality smell - par excellence! Peppery, spicy, but also rounded by warm carnation, rose and jasmin. After around 20 minutes new notes - some of them are Sandalwood and Tuberose appears. It keeps gently changing and never stop surprising me. I have EXTRAIT - I LOVE this parfume! Simply gorgeous and not like others!

(Pure Parfum Review) I think Tabu smell like an Egyptian incense and Poivre smell like a Medieval incense. Spicy, dark and misterious, Poivre is the most complex spicy fragrance I have ever smelled. While I really like the smell, I simply don't feel this fragrance is easy to wearing it. So Poivre must be applied in small quantities.

Just tryed a decant sample. Very sophisticated. A bit to clovery at first but perfect for a luxurious night out. The smell of opulence with a sexy slick twist.