Odeur 71

newer niche perfume enthusiast here and this is my first proper public review of a fragrance that i have posted because this scent is so, so deeply intriguing to me that i need to say something about it. i will say that i am typically a photorealistic earthy/woodsy and/or dirty aquatic kind of person. i eagerly use up any realistic, nature-evoking perfumes that come my way. Odeur 71 is basically on the complete opposite side of the perfume spectrum. i discovered this while on a search for scents to make me smell inhuman in a "biblically accurate angel" sort of way. Odeur 53 was a recommendation, which led me to 71. while looking through a perfume decanter website i asked a friend to make a decision for me between a sample of 53 and 71 and they chose 71. i don't regret the choice, though i wouldn't say this fit my original goal (it was a welcome detour). this is my first avant garde scent and i was not let down (i do fear that this will lead me down a rabbithole of similar CdG and adjacent perfumes, however). i am deeply infatuated with anything 2000s and i will say that Odeur 71 feels so Of Its Time to me but in a retrospective, romanticized/nostalgic way. it's like sitting by the fountain of a dying mall and playing with the leaves of the plastic plants. it also reminds me of my father's old office building... if someone had spruced it up with more plants so that they would cover up the faint scent of printer ink on warm paper, droning machinery, and kind of musty carpet. a liminal space full of life. i really wish i got more of the synthetic/inorganic notes but i'm fascinated enough without them. but man, i wanted more of that hot lightbulb note! i'd love to get Warm Bulb by Clue Perfumery to compare notes, and also because it feels like up my alley. i noted that though i applied it to my wrist, i got some of it faintly on my finger and from there it almost smelled like a mainstream men's cologne but in the best way possible (as i dislike most mainstream masculine colognes). it's like if a man were Not Quite A Man. like if you had seen a man in the distance and upon drawing closer to it, realized it was some sort of entity pretending to be human. in more definite terms... overall, the perfume comes off as just a bit bitter to me, but mostly green. the green is barely medicinal/herbal, almost tea-adjacent but not quite. i thought that i might be turned off by the lettuce juice and bay leaf notes but it adds just a slight bit of humidity that i really enjoy and evokes some sort of "sterile" greenhouse, which feels like an oxymoron. i have smelled Odeur 53 on paper and i remember feeling like it was similarly bitter and synthetic (in a pleasant way), and more ozonic and sort of like drinking tasteless sparkling water (i may revisit this thought when i get my hands on a sample of 53). 71 is like if you crushed and mashed a bunch of leaves into that sparkling water and got the juice from the leaves all over and heated it up, which sounds deeply unappealing, but i enjoy it. wearable? definitely, though it's not conventional at all. it's an intimate scent on me, and i typically prefer fragrances with more projection, but any stronger and i could see myself getting a headache. longevity is okay (and better than i expected), but i wouldn't be shocked if it doesn't make it past the 6-7 hour mark on a wonky spray unlike some other perfumes i own. a 7/10 perfume, one of the more Me scents i have in terms of aesthetics, and i could see myself wanting a larger size of this in the future.

Since as long as I could remember, I have had a curiosity for the banal, the overlooked. I clearly remember the peculiar little things I did as a child: pushing my Matchbox cars alongside the baseboards and imagining they were the walls of freeway underpasses, enjoying the rhythm against my hand running along wainscoting, using the shelf under an end table to hide small collectibles and charms, and playing a spring door stop protruding from the wall as if it were an instrument. Boing! This extended to smell as well, of course. I noticed that distinct aroma of disturbed dust as the carpet was vacuumed. I'd poke my nose in the battery compartments of electronic toys and note the oddly acrid smell. There were distinctions made between the smells of Crayola, Avalon, and Prang crayons (I had become quite the crayon connoisseur. I was quite fond of the odors emanated from cassette and VHS tapes as well. There were clear signs of a lifelong fascination in those earliest years of my life. Odeur 71 may be regarded by some as an oddly natural-meets-synthetic incense by way of drop ceilings instead of cathedral arches, or a rather indistinct farrago that never really materializes into recognizable perfume. Indeed, the notes listed are rather dippy, but yes, in fact I do sense hot dust, and yes, there is that odd battery compartment smell, and Xerox fumes, among the smell of ball-point pens and even ditto ink (those over 40 may remember that). Yet there is also the fascinating smell of the natural that is rendered artificial: think plastic hyacinths coated with the scent of real hyacinths, or a true geranium-scented fake geranium plant. What immediately popped to mind from childhood was this flowers-in-a-pot decor made of lucite, with distinct wire stems that were pliable, so that the flowers could be arranged differently. The flower pot part was a translucent dark orange. I will now reactivate my childhood imagination and pretend that Odeur 71 is the specific smell of that flower pot part.

I got the chance to blind buy this at a very good price and jumped for it as it had been on my mind for some time. Though this fragrance is very subdued and gentle with something of a formal Japanese aesthetic, it is also revelatory in its associations (if not it's rather limited development). For me, right from the outset - and this was a real surprise for me - I get immediate associations with Yatagan (of all things!), which a very light metallic and 'burned out electronics' vibe begins to permeate through. I should add that were it not for my knowledge of the notes, I may not have had these associations at all. With Odeur 71 the success of the marketing may well have added to a subliminal appreciation of the fragrance. I would concur with other reviewers that this is not as Dadaist or 'anti-perfume' as the notes suggest. In fact this is an eminently wearable fragrance - though clearly with only barely reasonable longevity and projection. The concept can't help but remind me of Japanese cosplay teenagers in the Akhihabara district of Tokyo. There is a fascinating and enthralling juxtapositon of ideas here, but there is also a lot of light-hearted fun...and everyone gets home safely at the end of the night. Alongside this, what I get from Odeur 71 is green bamboo and incense...and some more green. (The bay leaf may be understimated in the note votes.) Sometimes a whiff of smokiness comes through, but this is very light. All said, I think the associations with Yatagan come from the green/incense combination both have, though they go in different directions. I am looking forward to wearing this more in the Spring and even Summer because I believe it will project more. It deserves this. A very good fragance - not just a concept - and well recommended for men who want something different in the warmer months.

Here’s the deal with this stuff. If you look at the note pyramid above, you'll see natural smelling components except the ink (but, even then, I feel ink note is not petrochemical, but rather derived base of some plant extract). This exactly what the perfume smells like—very natural. However, there is another aroma I get. There is airy fresh quality to this perfume which can at times be like sweet smelling plastic or light floral... Is that you hyacinth? Ligh bulbs? Uhhhhh? Not getting that yet, but my nose will be on ‘lookout’ for that one. I would say this fragrance is biased towards the masculine end of the spectrum. The first day I wore this in my biology lecture class someone said I smelled really good. So fellas, this may not your first choice as a panty dropper but women do like it. If you spray lighty, longevity and projection will all be low. Circumvent this by over spraying. Then projection is good to excellent and longevity is good (around 6 plus hours). NOTES: • This perfume does not really take well to clothing. Spray it on your skin. • The sprayer has a very short squatty travel resulting in so-so sprays that can sometimes dribble. • I paid 140 USD from Lucky Scent, but you can get this from Barney's for 135 USD. In any case, the price is fair considering you’re receiving a 200ml bottle with fabulous complexity and originality. • Perfect for all seasons and occasions. If you need something dramatic, spray more. A soft intimate moment? Spray less. • Personally, I feel fresh but manly; yet comforted, while modern. Avant-garde? Sure. But not because its so sci-fi, rather the combination of mainly natural accords is rare. This one is not as bananas as its hyped to be with wacky Dadaist accords, but if you want a clean floral woody fragrance this is a must try. —Enjoy

Countains: electricity, metal, office, mineral, dust on a hot light bulb, photocopier toner, hot metal, toaster, pen ink, pencil shavings,, the salty taste of a battery, freshly mowed grass, incense, wood, moss, willow, elm, birch, bamboo, hyacinth, lettuce juice and many more... It's like an experience of walking through an industrial frosty landscape or being in a sterile white and green room. Basically, it is a reformulated version of the previous "Odeur 53", bringing the aseptic clean and cold notes of it, and, simply blending them with more "down to earth notes", more physical and less ethereal, but never natural. Odeur 71 is the sweetness we all smell when we smell things we feel silly about smelling and liking in our everyday existence: the funny sweet smell of cellotape or a hot computer or tv. The opening is very similar to "53 " but this time, the same present fake lemony note in the previous, is much more prevalent, rounded off with the same grey yet clean aura. There are too, hints of ink and hot dust accords. The composition is much more variable in this version, getting more natural, with green light notes (lettuce juice and bamboo) , ghostly woody notes, and a nice soft touch of sterile hyacinth. It’s even has little vague hints of sperm too, ( I didn’t recalled it, my partner did eventually), I don't even dare to keep striping it anymore. A lot of things that aren't typically fragrant have a smell now and we know those smells are here. We just want to sit down and enjoy them.