Odile

I blind bought this, and I am in complete love. I'm not against admitting defeat to a beautiful bottle, so honestly, I didn't care if I hated it.. but I absolutely love it. It doesn't smell of "tires" or "shoes" or anything like that to me at all. It smells like a fresh leather handbag, leather seats in a car. It's musky and sexy, perfectly unisex with a slight lean feminine in my opinion. Anise and dark bitter chocolate in the dry-down, but it doesn't lose its complex notes throughout. And it definitely doesn't read gourmand to me. This is sophisticated and fun and mysterious all in one. In a seedy bar with a beautiful woman, a motorcycle, some cocktails, black lace, and the stomp of a cigarette under a black heel. It's almost bdsm in a way, the latex and blood orange evoke an eroticism under it all. The "unconventional" notes don't deter it nor make it an unwearable one; they will change how you think about a leather note, a citrus, or even a chocolate. It's almost indescribable. The bottle is a bonus, but the fragrance is the star. Don't blind buy it, but for the love of god, smell it.

This one is going to haunt me. Smells like a sexy car dealership, of virgin black rubber and sculpted leather. Equally powerful is the slick Vantablack anise. Imagine the shiniest, gummiest whip of black licorice. The dark chocolate is the ninety-plus percent sort, bitter and rich enough to set hair on end. Meanwhile, the blood orange quietly brightens these deeper, oiler notes. Odile is clean and cool for a dark scent, with zero spice or rose. She also holds solid for at least six hours on skin, and over a day in fabric. I’ve never smelled anything quite like her. She’s hellaciously expensive, but in the grand scheme probably much cheaper than ghosting about the local Porsche showroom. Mental Snapshot: Night owl. Thinks star signs are trash. The most disciplined rebel you’ll meet, a true artist-athlete. Professional rally driver, champion pole dancer, sixth-degree black belt. Runs a half-marathon while watching Fury Road. Or Titane. Habitually late, but no event dares start without her. I mean, have you tried slithering into a latex catsuit before? tl;dr: vroom vroom 🛞 🏴

I find that almost all of Odile's listed notes are present and can share the stage fairly at some point during it's life on the skin, maybe with the exception of the somewhat weak blood orange. I'm surprised to see "sweet" as an accord. To me, Odile is uniquely bitter. It opens with a pungent rubber note that is not for the faint of heart. Thankfully, the sheer power of it is tamed pretty quickly, leaving behind an atmosphere reminiscent of a tire shop that now challenges the plastic-y licorice-like star anise. Both these aggressive and sharp notes are grounded by a warm, round, bitter chocolate and a leather car seat interior. Dangerous, fun, youthful. Dark and moody but also doesn't take itself too seriously.

I was not expecting to like this at all since I'm not particularly a fan of any of Odile's notes. Upon sampling, though, this is like nothing I've ever smelled before and I have to say I love it. It doesn't really smell like any of the individual notes to my nose; Odile is, to me, greater than the sum of its parts. It's comforting, musky and has a fresh facet as well. There is something about it that reminds me of diaper cream but in a really good way. There's no way to make such a comparison sound appealing, I know. Im also shocked that patchouli isn’t listed as a note here because I do detect its presence. Odile is a rich, sensual and addictive scent that is perfect for the cold weather.

Odile is like the more subdued younger sister of Purple Afternoon, which is one of my all-time favourite perfumes that i sadly pretty much only wear when i’m by myself because i’m too shy to wear strong scents in public. Odile wears much closer to the skin and is a perfect winter going-out scent imo. Both perfumes read as very powdery to me, this one a warmer and more youthful powder from the musk note, and Purple Afternoon a cold earthy iris root powder. If the essence of Purple Afternoon is wandering in a frozen wood communing with small animals and evil spirits, Odile’s is sitting in the window alone and slightly forlorn at a Christmas party.

I'm obsessed with this perfume and soooo wish I could find a good dupe because the price is unfortunately too steep for a signature scent. On my skin I get less musk and a lot of the leather, dark chocolate, and a hint of a cherry which is interesting because that's not listed in the notes. I've never found another perfume that has melded so well with my skin chemistry. It reminds me of Catwoman and also brings to mind cherry cordials or a dark chocolate version of those Terry's Christmas chocolate oranges. Very suitable perfume for December and I hope I can either find a good dupe or find $300 on the sidewalk to buy a full bottle!

sisters, not twins. sweet, sultry, animalic carmex with a hint of slick waterproof licorice. love her or hate her, she’s unforgettable. the notes are definitely accurate although the citrus is very muted, but dries down gracefully to a lingering delicate and musky bubble bath. projection is intimate but assertive. the $300/50mL price point is a pretty hard pill to swallow as someone with numerous expensive hobbies on top of fragrances but i’ll keep dreaming about odile and hoping a smaller decant comes my way.

an audacious burst . Rubber tires screeching on asphalt, anise curling through the air like an ink-black brushstroke on a blank canvas. the raw intensity of a Gerhard Richter painting, where abstraction meets rebellion. coolness of Vicks VapoRub, a medicinal clarity layered with the waxy familiarity of a carmine-stained chapstick. It’s an olfactory portrait of a motorcycle girl, her leather jacket a modern reinterpretation of a Cindy Sherman self-portrait, blurring the line between persona and reality.

I have a sample of Odile along with the sister fragrance Odette. Odile reminds me of my father's go-to cologne but with a lighter more feminine sultriness....the Black Swan Odile accompanied by her father Rothbart to the prince's ball to lead him astray from sweet and fair Odette. On me smells like a suede and bitter chocolate the rubber just serves to enrich those notes. Makes me want to go to the ballet.

One of the most delicious fragrances I’ve ever laid my nose on. Lacy black underwear peeking out from the waistband of a pair of flattering jeans smeared with motor-oil. I love the combo of rubber/latex with something a little sweet. Annabel’s Birthday Cake does this nicely too. I am one of the few who are financially illiterate enough to drop the money on this. Odile, you will be mine...if you’ll have me.

I love this so much, I love the rubber, suede and star anise notes so much (I used to HATE star anise). it reminds me of the perfume I could never get my hands on (CDG Garage 3) its a perfect blend of masculine/feminine and smells heavenly on day old clothes. I will be upset when I run out because of the steep price of this but I WILL be repurchasing no matter what. its sexy and intoxicating!

a seamless and delicate blend of rubber, chocolate, and suede with a slightly tart edge from the blood orange. a peculiar gourmand that teeters between benevolence and a painful wistfulness. pairs fittingly with smudged liner and a knowing smirk.

Delicious. It does smell "dark." Anise is predominant, but it's also a bit chocolatey and powdery. More potent than Odette, but I do wish it was longer lasting.

Reminds me of État libre d'Orange's "Fat Electricians" older androgynous brother. A smoother, sexier rubber.

the soaking wet cherry pierced into a manhattan rinsed with absinthe. a warm cheek nuzzled against leather. burnt rubber, snapped latex. cronenberg’s ‘crash’ (1996). the shock of a car’s seat contrasting with the temperature of skin. cigarette smoke filtered through cacao nibs crushed between teeth. chipping nail polish on a crushed can of pepsi. forgotten regret. the opening is an industrial clang, like heavy petting on a heap of tires and motor oil in a thick smog, but quickly it shifts into second gear, revealing odile’s downpour of sweet vermouth and orange bitters dripping from leather. boozy and bold with a hint of black licorice and bleeding ink. then, the real shocker: chocolate! the chocolate note in odile is not what most might assume it to be. it is not hershey’s, nor is it the chocolate you smell in mugler’s angel. have you ever had single-origin dark chocolate made with only high-quality cacao beans and a bit of sugar? yes, it is bitter, but it’s also complex, its taste often coming with a variety of notes like berries, coffee, and tea. think of amarena cherries coated in the darkest chocolate imaginable, sweating a little as it starts to melt. that is the chocolate in odile, and it does not overstay its welcome, eventually settling down into soft suede and warm, fuzzy musk like fur on hot skin, all with the smoothness of dark liquor. it is neither feminine nor masculine—it is both, each side of the coin gazing at the other with equal parts suspicion and awe. masculinity viewed through femininity, femininity viewed through masculinity. a dance! everything i have just said about odile sounds a little bit disgusting, and, well, it is! it's equal parts scrapyard romp and cocktail bar, but i *like* it (whether or not it’s worth $300 for a full bottle is a different question). bittersweet and darker than the night, darker than any fantasy. pair only with a black leather jacket or black pantyhose, only in the evening, only with smoldering eyes—or bust! going fast, too fast, slow down, no wait, don’t! songs for odile: black silk stocking by krisma, sex-eye-make up by the glove, warm leatherette by the normal, diamonds fur coat champagne by suicide, the hunger by winston tong.

I usually can’t stand leather notes in fragrances, and I somehow missed the fact when I was ordering samples that this was a leather fragrance. I guess because I was also buying a sample of Odette my eyes just skipped right over that fact. Somehow I don’t actually hate this, and I actually like it a lot better than Odette, which is odd. Especially because it also has chocolate, which is a note that can go sideways easily. But together, with the blood orange, it triggered a powerful memory of being a young child, sitting in my grandfather’s ancient car with a leather interior, eating an entire chocolate orange he’d bought for me around Christmas time. It reads as quite masculine to my nose, and I kind of regret wearing it on a 90 degree day, but I am glad to have a sample to revisit the memory with! Lasting power is about five hours, silage is relatively strong, but would probably be less so on a cooler, drier day.

This conjured memories of my great aunt in her leather jacket with a silver brooch and rings on every finger. It’s Christmas dinner at the local Italian restaurant, it’s dark outside and the leather has cooled under the beads of snow. I didn’t expect to like this at all since it hit me with such a piercing rubber. As it dries though, the musk, suede, and slight sweetness bring me a familial comfort that honestly made me emotional. As someone who loves the smell of tires and gasoline, this is addictive. The leather is a bit stronger than my normal taste and sadly, it kind of makes me sneeze. But the visceral transportation I get from this reminds me of what is so magical about perfume. It’s a genuine work of art, and I look forward to wearing it next Christmas.

I was able to spray a sample of this on myself to see how it wears on the skin. I really enjoyed this sprayed right from the bottle, but as it dried down and interacted with my skin rubber became the main note. Although it did phase through some of the lighter notes throughout the wear, it really reminded me of the smell of rubber pool toys or my father's garage. I got that subtle blood orange suede-y smell towards the end of its wear on my skin. Not sure if this would be something I would wear often if I owned a bottle, but I absolutely could not stop smelling this. It's certainly not for everyone, but is interesting nonetheless.

On first spray, I get a sophisticated, ladylike suede and leather (it doesn't read as rubber to me). And there's something lurking underneath...something sweet and slightly fruity? Quickly morphing through a diaper cream/wipe stage (as mentioned below, it's not exactly unpleasant) before settling into a musky, softly dusty cocoa skin scent. When I first sampled Odile, I didn't think it was for me but then I found myself huffing my wrists and searching for that musky cocoa scent.

need to stop getting samples of perfumes i simply cannot afford because what is the logic there. but anyways i really had to try this because i love courtney and marissa's work, and this bottle is divine... anyways onto the perfume. on my skin it starts off with this very striking rubber note and dries down to a really crisp leather. i think $300 for 50mL is a little crazy and personally i think you can get a similar scent for a lot less but all power to whoever can afford this