Le Parfum

This is going to be an amble through a decade of perfume, but hopefully an informative one. So - hang in there or skip altogether. Either way, you're welcome. :) After 14 or so years of admiration, I finally have this lovely fragrance to wear and enjoy! I have yet to test a good dupe oil, so this time I saved for a second-hand bottle of 'the real'. Sometimes it pays, sometimes it doesn't. The scent approximation of certain fragrance profiles is much easier and more authentic than others, I guess. For instance, I've come across fantastic dupes of JPG's Classique at ALL price points. And though uniquely themselves, not a single bad one have I smelled. But I digress.... (Even as I write this, a new and rather satisfactory looking 'inspired by' of Le Parfum has been released. It is called Pendora Ecstatic Le Parfum by Paris Corner. Lovely bottle, and it's getting excellent reviews. Yet where I live it is almost as expensive as 'the real'..... Naturally, it's totally up to your location and preference.) For longevity: I have to admit that my fragrance-swallowing skin makes a skin scent of Le Parfum after four hours. Happily for the first two hours, ONE spray is enough! I can spray more later. Sillage is good, and that is my first consideration. :) The scent is sharp in some ways, but also slightly sweet, like a real honeysuckle vine. The green patchouli here is like that in Coco Mademoiselle, as is the 'tone' of the scent itself, elegant and perfectly balanced. CM is aquatic and awful on my skin, however, while Le Parfum behaves gorgeously and never leans aquatic. Whenever the sharpness seems a bit much (highly weather related) I get out AK Love, Anne to layer - which gently sweetens and adds a 'friendly' pink note to my powerhouse floral. It's a perfect fix, and I suspect there are other layering wins just around the corner. Florals are a dream to layer, IMHO. For description: A luminous white floral with a honeysuckle/orange blossom vibe, almost like a more mature and sophisticated version of Avon's discontinued Honeysuckle or Jo Malone's Orange Blossom. (These two are quite alike, I have tested or worn both and Love them.) Le Parfum contains the cedar/green patchouli note of CM, which strengthens and deepens an otherwise simple floral. I recommend highly. Conversely, if Elie Saab SHOULD have been wonderful on you but wasn't, check out Jo Malone's Orange Blossom or dupes thereof. It's charming and lacking that mean-green note. For summary: Avoid if you dislike possibly soapy/mean white florals or green, fresh patchouli. Otherwise, a total winner!

Elie Saab Le Parfum. Radiance in a bottle! Elie Saab’s first perfume, and arguably the best. This and the Intense share the same character but just like different moments of the day, they have particularities. Le Parfum is the day. That shining sun that starts bright and as the day progresses gets more blinding. Light! The orange blossom, which is the star in all of the line, begins sweet and honeyed, touch of honey to give it more body. But as it wears, the jasmine comes into play. Just like the suns rays become hotter and the light more blinding, so does the perfume become more ‘intense’. I wouldn’t say shrieky because it doesn’t. But picture a scorchin day with the sun reflecting everywhere and the light becoming blinding that it alters your view of your surroundings. This is Le Parfum. But, it stays pleasurable and beautiful all the way. Sweet orange blossom with honey, a more piercing albeit beautiful jasmine adds light and a soft woody background anchors it for hours. Le Parfum Intense is when the sun sets. The orange blossom in the start is way heavier and the honey adds up noticeably making it sweeter and heavier. The ylang adds creaminess and a heavy cream texture; the coolness of the night begins to creep in and the smells around you become more noticeable. The hidden ‘Eau de Cologne’ character of the morning hides behind the miel des fleurs character of the night and brings forth a mesmerizing headiness. There’s also an undisclosed spiciness that smells like ginger, like a sexier Classique while being simultaneously more heady. I’d go for this version if I could only pick one. Both are very orange blossom centered. Heavy, heady, intoxicating and sweet. The oils used are of quality. The interplay of the notes which are basically the same, offer a different character that showcases their qualities perfectly. In a sea of fake florals that are just a facade for more sugar and gourmands, Le Parfum and Le Parfum Intense ring true to their quality of a narcotic floral. If you’ve lived in a Mediterranean country you might be familiar with that feeling of white stone, that in summers past, used to reflect the light of the sun and transmit a blinding whiteness to your eyes and a cool warmth to your skin, without that burning heat we experience now. Summer heat used to be different; it was warm. Now it burns. Les Parfums are the former, with that joyous feeling of what lies ahead. Both have excellent sillage, radiance and longevity!

The fact that Le Parfum is still getting many reviews years after its release should tell us something! I was looking for my 'recent' review, only to find it buried amongst the more recent, always a good sign when it comes to a fragrances popularity. :) So.. to update my previous review.... I enjoy Elie Saab, even though there has been a little reformulation since its inception. The longevity has definitely been impacted. My sample of years ago was perfect on me in the hottest of weather and projected like a beast. Today's is also strong at first, if short-lived, but seems to evaporate and smell rather different on/to me in the heat. However, it performs Beautifully and smells fantastic in brittle, ice-cold weather! It smells rather more like the original and also projects amazingly. It is exactly the right season now, with traces of snow on the ground and more soon to follow. Gorgeous, Golden summer in the ice! Absolutely five stars if not for longevity. There are high quality dupes now (most notably one from the middle east in a near-perfect edp spray bottle), but where I live a tester or second-hand Le Parfum edp costs more or less the same price. As a moderate or budget scent - depending on your pocketbook! - this is a good value in top notch quality. Recommended to all who love orange blossom based florals of complexity. It smells rather expensive and mature, without being fusty or dusty. I could not wear Coco Mademoiselle, despite my admiration for it, and this delivers the same sort of sophistication without the green/mean overdose Coco M. becomes on me. They could be beautifully dressed, chic cousins of considerable means. To me, Le Parfum smells more beautifully fitted out and also more feminine. ENJOY!

I got this beauty almost a decade ago and just loved it back then and considered it my favourite perfume, a signature even. Then something happened and I felt I grew out of it and instead of the harmonious and elegant composition something smelled too harsh, even nauseating. Most likely the honey-jasmine-orange flower mix. There was maybe 2-3 ml left in my bottle and the liquid turning cloudy, I considered just tossing it a long time ago. But I'm so glad I didn't, and instead tried it on again this summer! The warm summer weather would round the scent up beautifully and now I smell the same gorgeousness I first fell in love with years ago. It's funny as back then I remember considering this first and foremost a spring/fall scent and too heavy for the hottest summer. However now it's almost 30 degrees celsius outside and I'm loving it. I wouldn't be surprised if I was to find it screechy again during colder, drier season but for now, it's perfect. Will have to buy another bottle. I'd be curious to try out the flankers, too, although I don't think the original can be easily beaten. Some people talk about it being too mature for them – I understand where they're coming from, since Le Parfum is definitely not teenager's first perfume by character, however I consider it a uni-age fragrance. ;) I'm in my mid-twenties, obviously loving it, but apart from that I could comfortably pull it off in my late teens. That being said, I think Le Parfum would equally suit a more mature lady. This scent is clean, timeless, approachable feminine elegance and has much more to do with the _style_ of its wearer than her age.

The Architecture of Light: Elie Saab Le Parfum The world does not simply wake; it ignites. There is a moment at the peak of the morning when the shadows of the city retreat, surrendering to a white, blinding brilliance. This is the realm of Elie Saab Le Parfum—a fragrance not merely bottled, but woven from the very fibers of the sun. The Solar Ascension The journey begins with an explosion of Orange Blossom. This is not the dusty flower of the earth; it is an electric efflorescence, crystalline and ethereal, captured at the exact second it meets the light. It is a surge of pure, gilded energy that clears the "blur" of the mundane, announcing your presence with the authority of a solar flare. The Ethereal Heart As the initial brilliance settles, the scent transforms into a sprawling, architectural Jasmine. It is the "Queen of the Night" forced into the day, its intoxicating, creamy sweetness rendered translucent. It feels like silk catching the wind—a Sanctuary of Grace that floats above the noise. You don’t merely enter a space; you transcend it, draped in a silhouette of light. The Ambered Horizon The dry-down is where the light finds its anchor. A syrupy, Solar Honey melds with the structural strength of Cedarwood. It is a "gilded" embrace that lingers on the skin like the memory of heat. This is the scent of absolute radiance—a honeyed trail that ensures that wherever you go, the light follows. Elie Saab Le Parfum. Luminous. Absolute. Iconic. Step out of the shadows. Become the Sun.