Ma Liberte

'Vespertine dreaminess' is such a beautiful and apt description from alphairone below. Yes, it's a lavender fougere, but this doesn't come close to describing the effect of this perfume. Yes, it is dreamy. It's hazy and mysterious. It's deep and soft and complex, and when I wear it, it effuses: curling up off the skin like a sigh. It's impression is of sun streaming through clouds, bulcolic - like the song Cirrus Minor, by Pink Floyd. I've had a really hard time writing this review and finding the right words to describe this perfume, because like my all time favourite perfume, Kerleo's 1000, it will not easily yeild its secrets to you. The best of the Patou's seem to occupy liminal states, sitting at sensory threshholds which cannot easily be comprehended or categorised. This is one of those. It evokes both dawn and dusk simultaneously, earth, and heaven. It's bucolic, earthy and pastoral, but also celestial, mysterious, and numinous. It's both incredibly familiar, and ineffable. Like 1000, each wearing reveals something new - the exquisite quality of the natural ingredients used imbuing it with life. It responds like a living thing to temperature, time, and climate. Another contradiction is lavender itself: common herb of country kitchen, strewn across rugged tables and stuffed into pillows and drawers. Humble and plentiful, friend of bees, and famous for it's nervine, calmative properties. It grows as happily in a moist and temperate cushy garden border as a hot, harsh rocky crevice. Divine healer, herb of dreams, clothed in royal, priestly purple. Described as 'the mother of essential oils' for its ability to care for a multitude of problems - whether of the body, mind, or soul. Consider St Frances of Rome, a wealthy wife and mother whose service of the poor included not only washing and mending their clothes, but folding them with lavender. Aromatherapist Valerie Ann Worwood said lavender perfectly balances the masculine and feminine traits within us all, making men gentle, and women strong. Legendary saint, healer, visionary, musician, artist and poet Hildegard Von Bingen wrote in her book 'Physica' that lavender 'makes thinking and disposition pure' and 'curbs very many evil things and, because of it, malign spirits are terrified.' A favourite plant of monasteries, lavender is said to have been the spikenard spoken of in the biblical story of the woman with the alabaster jar: -- 'While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” Matthew 26:6-13 -- If this is true, then lavender was with Jesus at the precise moment of redemption - the moment where death passed into life, where flesh transformed into spirit, and darkness exploded into light. It was his ever-present companion at the threshold - with him on the cross and in the tomb. Mixed with the tears of the woman, it heralded the moment of freedom for all humanity - Ma Liberte (My Freedom), indeed. One wonders if Kerleo was familiar with the legend... It is the perfect fragrance for this time - a time passing through the threshold between doom and redemption, between rapture and tribulation: a great and terrible day. Ma Liberte, maranatha. -- Lavender lavender That makes your linen sweet; The hawker brings his basket Down the sooty street: The dirty doors and pavements Are simmering in the heat: He brings a dream to London, And drags his weary feet. Lavender lavender, From where the bee hums To the loud roar of London, With purple dreams he comes, From raggéd London slums, With a basket full of lavender And purple dreams he comes. Is it nought to you that hear him? With the old strange cry The weary hawker passes, And some will come and buy, And some will let him pass away And only heave a sigh, But most will neither heed nor hear When dreams go by. Lavender lavender! His songs were fair and sweet, He brought us harvests out of heaven, Full sheaves of radiant wheat; He brought us keys to Paradise, And hawked them thro’ the street; He brought his dreams to London, And dragged his weary feet. Lavender lavender! He is gone. The sunset glows; But through the brain of London The mystic fragrance flows. Each raggéd alley knows, The land he left behind him, The land to which he goes. - “Lavender”, Alfred Noyes 'We all have an image perhaps of what the afterlife will be like, but one thing is almost certain, there are no man-made chemicals in heaven' - The Fragrant Heavens, the Spiritual Dimension of Fragrance and Aromatherapy

Ma Liberté! Vivid lavender fields, the purple flowers imbued with the piquant sweetness of aniseed and the velvet mystery of heliotrope. A feather soft vanilla infusion, with leathery and animalic tonalities, enriched with skin hugging musks, softens and enlivens the composition making it alluring and kind of electrifying. Jean Kerleo sure left his mark in the house of Jean Patou, and Ma Liberté is one of his last creations before exiting to form the Versailles Osmotheque. Ma Liberté, which was at the time considered an inferior Patou, and which time has given it its rightful status of masterpiece, starts with a very true and vivid lavender. Slightly herbal and medicinal, but with a sweet ‘violet candy’ aspect that is offset with some spiciness. While my nose tells me anise and heliotrope are wrapped around, the effect is like smelling a freshly bottled fougère! Vivid, energizing and invigorating. A tonic for the senses! The lavender never really goes away, but it slowly fades into a rich vanilla tincture with some spicy nutmeg and cloves, that marry perfectly with the warm and slightly dirty musks. The whole effect, just like in all Patous, is of rich tinctures and infusions in which the best of notes are added. The heavy basenotes don’t take away from the lighter notes, but instead form a spine in which the rest of the notes can anchor. In a way, Ma Liberté smells universal, genderless and timeless, although I can easily see it as a 70’s creation. Maybe that’s why it never took off. And while modernizing Moment Supreme, it had to be reincarnated a third time, Pour Homme Privee, to take off and make the latter a highly sought after (and expensive) unicorn. All while Ma Liberté bottles still abound on the secondary market, most still sealed and in very good prices. Like all Patous, quality is off the charts, and sealed bottles shine like freshly bottled ones. Sillage is radiant and longevity even in edt form is remarkable. A Jean Patou perfume made prior to the sale of the house to P&G is a masterpiece, an investment, but most importantly a voyage to a time when quality was the driving force, marketing was a far away term and Patou was up there with Guerlain, Caron and Lanvin. Even better than them, and that’s saying something! For those who miss the Patou pour Homme Privee and even the more elusive Patou pour Homme, Ma Liberté is a very worthy alternative. While not a clone, it heralds the same quality and many olfactory traits that make it a standout among vintage perfumes. A solid 10/10 yet again! Review based on a 200ml edt from 1987.

when i spray this perfume i remember my dad..it has a masculine side to it as in obsession ck..i like it a lot.. its a harsh.. crisp scent.. full of arrogance.. strength.. and masculinity..its a confident perfume.. so strong and tall.. its got a nice citrusy top.. and a mellow middle notes of hmmmm i cant really pin point but it turns powdery musky and for sure woody.. and in the base i can smell old men s perfumes .. the ones u used to sneak and sniff from your dads perfume chest ...its a perfume full of character ..strength and harmony..it carries a lot of memories within its notes.. ma liberte or my liberty is a perfect name for this fragrance ..for it truly carries freedom within its notes and accords.. its so free.. its meant to be used by a liberated woman.. who doesn't care to smell like a rose.. a woman who can go out there and be better than all her male partners..who excels in life.. and work.. and who will always be remembered for her integrity and single mindedness .. to me ma liberty represents freedom of though.. freedom of expression.. freedom of speech.. freedom from pretense...i can smell it over and over and never get tired.. its as if i want to drink it.. its not a skin scent ..it doesn't envelop u ..u have to hold on to it.. with all that strength its not cloying or sticky ..its harsh and strong yet amazing in so many ways..the dry down is wonderful.. edt 50 ml perfume ratting 4.2 out of 5 bottle rating 3.8 out of 5 a unique scent woody musky oriental harsh crisp day or night preferably night work or pleasure a signature scent

I know this was created for women but this reads very masculine to me. This is a traditional male herbal woody scent. Very lavender dominate, clean, crisp, soapy w/ a freshly shaved and well groomed smell. I can understand why some women would like this one for themselves because it reads "someone who is put together, competent, and strong." Any women who would wear this would project an air of confidence, and even toughness. I do like this perfume but it just isn't me. I am more in the very traditionally feminine camp, many of my friends say I would've made an excellent 1950's housewife LOL. This is a very feminist female type of perfume, which I have nothing against, it just isn't me. I think it would smell much better on my husband and I will gift it to him. Edit: 4/17/23 My husband is wearing this today and I am wearing Libre toilette. These fragrances compliment each other brilliantly. It's funny I can see myself wearing this now and it is funny how perception shifts. I thought this was to masculine 2 years ago and now I see this perfume as unisex. It is precursor for the YSL Libre line and Hiram Green's Arcadia. Not dupes but all of these fragrances are a must have for lavender lovers. Lavender is tricky, it has to be done properly to be enjoyable and Patou's Ma Liberte is a well-executed unisex lavender. So classic, fresh, huge throw and longevity. Polished and sophisticated while remaining a bit rustic and rough around the edges. I may seek out a full size of this for my Patou collection. The more I smell it the more I enjoy it.

MA LIBERTE, the freedom of wild nature. There's nothing like this, has never been, will never be!! "MA LIBERTE" is the free (and most of all UNTAMED) nordic nature. Bottled Wilderness.Mysterious with capital "M" spring-herbals. Cloves and wildroses burst like spring in the topnotes. The heart of a mystical lavander woodsy cinnamon cedar & sandalwoods. This scent is taken out of the most northern Nordic WHITE MOSS WILDERNESS!!!! A sauna in the deepest woods of Finland. The one & only true scent of real freedom! Heated herbs, and burning fresh spring Björk(Birch)-wood with it's spring-buds thrown on the saunas hot stones. The scent of this exact STEAM !!!! This is freedom. Clearest sweetwater fjordes of Norway, the pulsating magical hot springs of Iceland. And the crisp spring-air & Waters, combined earth, the ground-soil of the cleanest nature of Sweden. A saga - more than a fragrance. Ancient and close-to-heart. This is one of my signature scents. Like an older, wise ancestor to Guerlain's "Jicky" edp. "MA LIBERTE'S" bolder & deeper. MYSTIC !!With added dark vetiver and white moss. THE leader through the whole scent, lavender from bright innocent jasmin-rosebuds-lavender top - down to "MA LIBERTE'S" woodsy earthy lavender-base.