Eau de Parfum (2014)

"Soothing and comforting... blissful white heaven in a bottle." Helmut Lang EdP is a 2014 fragrance from the original Austrian brand by a creator of the same name. The brand is known for descontructivist and minimalist approach towards fashion and aesthetics, and the creator Lang went to New York City to establish its brand. After some time, he left his own brand and it was eventually acquired by Tokyo company Link Theory Holdings, and is still currently based in New York City. This fragrance is a reformulation of the original fragrance from 2000 in cooperation with Proctor & Gamble, back when the brand was not yet acquired by Link Theory Holdings. It was conceived by Maurice Roucel, a legendary figure in the perfumery world, and it became a cult classic especially after being discontinued upon brand acquisition. Since the debut of the reformulation, many have noticed subtle differences in the scent, and claim that the 2014 fragrance has been tailored to be more unisex, in contrast of the original one that was geared more towards female wearers. I didn't have the chance to truly test the original formulation, but as far as the reformulation goes, it's a perfectly unisex scent. One common comparison I often see is how this fragrance resemble Roucel's other more popular creation: Musc Ravageur by Frederic Malle. I can see the parallels between the two because of the lavender-sandalwood note; however, to me they are two essentially different fragrances, where MR is a musky tamed beast, whereas HL is a lush and heartwarming kitty. Among many fragrances I tried when I went to NYC the first time in Dec 2015, Helmut Lang was one of the very few that stuck to my mind upon first sniff. Unlike most 'clean' scents, HL sets itself apart with a subtle mix of patchouli, vanilla and sandalwood; and absence of white musk that plagues many of such fragrances. This renders the scent more creamy, fuller and heady without the synthetic feel; in fact, it's even addictive! But more importantly, it's the epitome of a comfort scent, one that puts the wearer at ease both physically and mentally. Upon second try after purchasing a full bottle from Die kleine Theatiner Parfümerie in Munich, I got imaginatively transported back to NYC and remembered what I felt when I first tried it. I get wafts of heliotrope and lavender, the latter being a key component in aromatherapy and a popular ingredient for bed sprays. Combined with vanilla, sandalwood and bits of patchouli, and I get pure comfort in perfume form, an image of clean and pure white bedsheets and linen. This perfume is perfect for slightly cooler weathers, preferably spring or autumn (although I think that thematically spring would be perfect). It's one of the best office daily-wear type of perfume I've come across, and even for wearing before going to bed. I stumbled upon this scent in a city, bought a full bottle two years later in a different city in another continent... and yet, my love for it hasn't changed one bit. Beautiful fragrance all in all. edit: I tested my bottle on paper the other day. It's bizarre; on paper, I get this mildly urinous note and I have no idea why. On my skin, this note is nowhere to be found.

Helmut Lang Eau de Parfum 2014 This scent is the embodiment of the quintessential Sunday. You’re at home, the weather’s perfect, you’ve slipped into your quality cotton sheets, you too are wearing cotton. Skin-to-skin, leisurely caresses, kisses. Breathe in hope, something lost, nostalgia, sex. Helmut Lang smells like comfort, sensuality, and an unspoken air of being up to no good. You’re feeling blissfully lazy and at ease, and you do whatever and however you please. You close your eyes, and you somehow drift... fields of purple lavender washes over you...lulling you into a lucid state. The lavender is clean, powdery, and along with heliotrope, diffuses a dreamy film of whites and beige. The effect is of sand, powder, paper and a lasting texture to the touch. A subtle green, herbal kick adds to the lavender, and that is rosemary. It awakens your memory, of the past, of the present, it brings your mind places. So does the musk. A skin-like, lived in musk is evermore present. Dirty/clean, new and old, oh the dichotomy, the duality it brings. You’ve definitely been to places, to people, with what remains of the Helmut Lang on your skin. Patchouli, sandalwood, musk suggest as to the night before, the passion and the aftermath. The after-sex. Your skin the day after has never smelled so good with jasmine, neroli, heliotrope, and lavender breathing life as your body’s heat intensifies in your daily activities. Helmut Lang settles into you just like second-skin. It meshes with your low-cut white blouse, or that unbuttoned white shirt, it becomes you for the day, and you become it. Helmut Lang Eau de Parfum is full of blurred lines, of that bead of sweat running down the décolletage, the hint of something you thought you knew, of possibilities of what you want it to be. Helmut Lang is something that’s hard to explain, something that is wildly suggestive, and maybe a secret best left untold. Until that time, I wish for the ‘future me’ to rock Helmut Lang Eau de Parfum like a devil in disguise, to anywhere and everywhere, with confidence and composure.

This was a re-release, and presumably slightly tweaked, version of the original 2000 rendition which I have not had the pleasure of smelling. But if people think this current version is inferior, then the original must have really been something else. I try really hard to avoid assigning perfumes a gender when I am testing them, but I still find things that I simply would prefer to smell on a woman than on myself. The more perfume I try, the easier it becomes for me to just smell fragrance and feel that it is something that works for me. Helmut Lang EDP was a little bit of a breakthrough for me in this sense, because the first time I wore this I decided that it was overly floral, and therefore a bit too feminine. But the beauty here is sublime, and once it seeps into you the enchantment unfolds. It opens with a soft explosion of orange blossom, lavender, and hint of heliotrope. Right from the beginning there is a foundation of borderline-clean musk, that adds heft to the ethereal nature of the flowers. I find it interesting that sites like Fragrantica don’t list musk as an official note; it is the back bone of this fragrance. A few minutes in, something really lovely happens in the heart. The orange blossom seems to bloom after the lavender and other aromatics recede, and it leaves this impression of fizzy orange flavoured musk that really becomes the soul of this fragrance. The powdery elements of the heliotrope never cross the line of suffocation, but you sense its presence as if the breeze had blown the odour back through an open window. It all comes to rest on a creamy cedar base – my guess is the atlas variety – and slowly dissipates like fog being burnt up by sunshine, as opposed to progressing through a series of accords to ita final resting place. This billowing perfume lasts on me a good part of the day and doesn’t project loudly, and yes, at first glance you might perceive it as something you are used to smelling on women. But all you manly men, sometimes you need to let yourself feel beautiful.

Oilier and more heliotropic than the more aerosolic EDC. It's a toss-up which is muskier, but anyway the musk is slightly different. More sebaceous and scalpy here and more semen-like in the EDC. For my money, the musk *is* similar to Musc Ravageur but you do not have to squint your nose so hard to perceive it here. MR smells like a rubber dog bone. There "gender" distinctions between the two formulas (EDC/EDP) have a wacky intelligence because the EDC does smell like a male secretion spent on recently hotel-laundered white sheets, and the EDP does remind me of a woman who perhaps wears baby oil for fragrance and snuck off to the gym for thirty minutes at lunch but didn't shower before sitting next to you -- not offensive, lovely, just something slightly tangibly glandular beneath another obviously clean smell. If you love this try out Piver's Heliotrope Blanc. It swaps the musk and lavender for fresh-baked sugar cookies. Or if you have a good funky white musk oil you like, do what I did and save yourself like over a hundred dollars and add a few drops to a bottle of Piver, some lavender and rosemary oil, and voila.

I think this has become my signature scent. Helmut Lang edp just always seems suitable for any occasion. There's an odd industrial/paint note that lasts for a minute or two in the opening that I can't quite put my finger on, but after that it settles into a soft lavender and jasmine baby powder kind of thing that is really pleasant. It doesn't seem to project very far, which is good for the office. Lasts around 6 hours on me. My wife is a little ambivalent about this one, but she says it smells nice enough. Probably not a compliment getter, but I dig it a lot. I've tried a ton of different designer and niche oddball stuff, and found a bunch of great fragrances, but at the end of the day I guess I just want to smell like a newborn baby in an artist's loft.