Fou d'Absinthe

Snow flakes like Lalique crystal lace falls on the city catching a glint of glitter from the Eiffel Tower search light as it sweeps the sky. There is a cool blotter paper grey tint in the East behind the Louvre, a herald of the coming day. Finely crafted Italian shoes crunch the icy sidewalk as I walk alone up the gentle rise that is the Champs-Élysées. The city is asleep on this Christmas morning. I pass Guerlain’s festive windows that cast a glow of amber on the snow banking around the door. On I go up toward the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile. Fouquet’s is closed and the red awnings flutter their scallops as I pass as if to wave me on. The street glints and sparkles, the naked sycamore trees festooned for the holiday in no more than a negligee of colored lights. It is all lonely and lovely and cold. Not where I should be on this Christmas day in Pairs. Not were I long to be. The wheels of the cab spatter darkly stained snow up from the gutter as it carries me into Place Pigale. The spray hits the side of Le Cupidon nightclub as we spin past the multitude of “le sex shops” that line the Place then roar onto Rue Houdon. A few lights in the houses are on now as my cab snakes and turns north to the heart of Montmartre. Within moments I am released from the smoky cab onto the Rue de Cardinal Dubois. There it is only an angel’s fight of stairs above me, As I pull my overcoat close against the cold morning, Paris awakens behind me. Sacré-Cœur, its absinthe white walls meet the snow and melt the flakes to wash the sacred heart clean. I am almost there. Once Behind the church I pass la Place du Tretre now devoid of the many painters of postcard Paris. It looks in the snow like it must have a hundred and thirteen years ago, when it was young and the painters were creating a new art. Sliding on the icy cobblestones I turn down Rue de Calvaire and there it is. The old street lamp lights the way across the tiny Place du Calvaire in front of the little café where I know I can get the best Absinthe in town. A small group are seated inside they turn to greet me. “Joyeux Noël!” they shout and raise their glasses in toast. They have been here all night waiting for me. A very slight man in a tall hat offers me a glass of cheer. “Merci,” At the fist taste of the Absinthe the calendar slips backward and it is Christmas day 1899. The little man who gave me the glass now offers me a chair at his table, “Merci, Toulouse, and Merry Christmas my friend.” Here in Chez Plumeau it is the best Christmas imaginable. Fou D’Absinthe by L’Artisan Parfumeur is the perfect fragrance for Christmas! A festive if dangerous drink, good friends and wonderful smells, it is all here in this wonderful perfume. The fragrance is light and close to the skin on me so it is the type of perfume I must revisit, which I don’t mind at all. And if you have the body cream that in conjunction with the perfume makes it last longer. So a low silage and longevity make it a perfect scent for the office, or the office Christmas Party! Fou D’Absinthe (Crazy Absinthe) opens with a sensuous deep blackcurrant and the balancing act of the pungent and sweet angelica. Here is where the sinful fun begins. The wormwood note, the very thing Absinthe is made from is here meandering and slithering its way into the soul of this fragrance. What would Christmas be without a toast or two of the forbidden brew? In the middle notes Christmas morning opens like festive packages one after another. There is sharp ginger as in the cookies, a pot of patchouli bubbles with a pinch of pepper, nutmeg and cloves. On the top of the Christmas tree a lovely licorice lick of Star Anise. In the dry down we get to the where the Pagan and the Christian meet. Raw resinous fir trees and Pine needles of the Druids and their winter solstice ceremonies meet the catholic incense from the cathedral. The ending is magisterial, solemn and reflective. So in its way Fou D’Absinthe is anything but crazy. Rather it embraces all the joys of the season and then, just like Christmas it is gone at midnight. But then again...New Years Eve is just around the corner. FIVE GOLD STARS *****

i remember one evening last winter on the tube (london underground) during rush hour, i was crammed into a crowded carriage like any other evenings. most of the time the crammed journey is smelly and uncomfortable. but on that day, luckily for me, the man standing in front of me was smelling of something nice, not the cheap deodorants or sweat that usually plague crowded spaces like this. he was taller than me and my nose was around his chest height. as the wind gust in through the little door window i can smell this gorgeous fresh piney spicy scent coming from him. adding a guy's body musk, the smell was very sexy, alluring and unique. it left a great impression on me and sometimes i regret not asking him what he was wearing. but i guess as luck would have it, a few months later i discovered l'artisan parfumeur. i read about fou d'absinthe online and thought the name was interesting. when i went to the store to smell it, it immediately reminded me of the guy on the train. im not sure if he was wearing this actual perfume or something similar, but doesnt matter because this smelled to me like the sexy pine. this is a scent on the masculine side, mainly due to the lack of any typical feminine notes such as floral or gourmands, but as a girl i wanted to wear it anyways. i think this scent will be very sexy on a guy, but not so much on me. which doesnt matter because i wont reach for this when i want 'sexy' anyways. i will reach for this when i am tired of smelling sweet like flowers or fruits or gourmands. this is a great cocktail of greenery which in turn delivers a pure clean freshness not commonly found in perfume. this was also my first perfume from l'artisan and i have developed more and more love for their scents overtime. though fresh scents is usually associated with day, i find it a little sharp and even boozy for day wear. i think it is better for nighttime because i think the woods comes more alive at night, and this is no different. it smelled more fitting for the nighttime surrounding, amplifying the chilliness. the longevity of this perfume is good, but on me, the projection is decent, it becomes more of a skin scent after a few hours. regardless, i love this perfume.

Opens with a strong rubbing alcohol scent immediately after spraying. Once the alcohol burns off it develops into a very masculine vetiver accord strongly reminiscent of Terre D'Hermès. I like it immediately. As it further develops, a green note starts to take over. This is where it diverges from TdH. The green note is hard to describe. It's very earthy like the smell of soil or uncleaned freshly-picked mushrooms. I'm guessing that's the angelica. It's an acquired taste and can be off-putting to some. Initial projection is several feet. 15 mins later the earthiness has calmed down significantly. Now I'm getting bitter wormwood with hints of ginger, pepper and cloves. They're working on behalf of the wormwood rather than alongside. There's also a hint of incense. The wormwood smells green but it's heavy and slightly bitter. The greeness doesn't smell like a cultivated vegetable or bright and vibrant like the cannabis accord in Balenciaga's Florabotanica; it smells more a wild plant from a dense forest. 20 mins: scent has significantly contracted. The contraction has revealed a very well blended perfume. It smells like a classy man's scent - if a little old fashioned. I imagine a 45++ gent wearing this. Again, the similarities with TdH is undeniable. The wormwood could almost be a stand-in for TdH's earthy vetiver. 40 mins: So far I'm getting none of the licorice accord I associate with absinthe, the liquor. My guess is this frag focuses more on the green and herbal aspects of absinthe. 1hr: It's a dead ringer for Terre D'Hermès at this point. It's the same kind of classy (if old-fashioned) nicely blended woody men's cologne that made me fall in love with TdH. As I am with that, so I am with this. 4hr 15mins: No change since 1 hr mark. By now it's a very faint skin scent. Total longevity is probably around 4.5 to 5 hrs. UPDATE: Amazingly, after 9 hours there's still traces of it left on my skin. It's very faint and scattered but it's definitely still there. Projection and sillage was abysmal after the 1 hr mark. UPDATE 2: Still there after 12 hrs but so faint that, practically speaking, it's gone.

I would hope to augment this review after more trials (so far just a strip test, a wrist test, and one full winter weather wearing)... As others have said, this is a very nicely blended and appealingly contemporary 'masculine' fougere. For me, pine kept light by way of spicy herbal freshness, defines the opening. It might have been this, in concert with a subtle hint of currant, that made me half-imagined a juniper berry note. This transitions into a warm, slightly caramellic lavender/tonka fougere accord supported by an undertone of woody notes and a hint of incense. Something I admire is the way the skin-prickling chilly pine top is kept separate from the sweet, resinous base by a breath of green vetiver. The whole reminds me of two things: one is Caron pour un Homme, a distinct yet archetypical sweet fougere composition that marries cool, anisic lavender with a warm vanilla as if by slight of hand, using musk, amber and almost toasted tonka note to manage the overlap; the other is Ralph Lauren’s Polo, which, in the vintage formulation produced by Cosmair, had a similar coniferous herbal brightness with a smooth, almost boozy transition to a grassy yet rich vetiver and patchouli base. In fact, if you remove the overtones of heavy tobacco and leather chypre accord that tend to date the old powerhouse, there is no small resemblance to fou d’absinthe, which makes a similar use of bitter-fresh wormwood, unguent clove and textural pepper to liven up its pine. Projection is soft to moderate, but I kept catching traces of its finely crafted drydown well after the eight-hour mark. Anyway, a nice winter signature for someone – pine that feels discreet and conceptual enough to be contemporary, urban, and unisex, but substantial enough in underlying structure to succeed with a wearability and charisma that guarantee its being more than another novelty niche scent. Is it possible to make a pine scent that speaks to neither to seventies machismo nor cleaning products and car fresheners of a bygone age? It is. Nicely done, Ms. Giacobetti.

Impact I immediately get baking spice, specifically pumpkin pie. Medjool dates. There is an exacting crisp pine scent clashing with a roasted, or mashed, nutty note that creates sort of a boozy beach scent. Herbs, essential oils, vodka on the rocks. The herb profile is similar to that of absinthe and chartreuse, and some dill flavored liquor I once had. Soil, clay, soaked wood, still more unmistakable sappy winter pine. Wearability? Yes, I think so. Perhaps to some bizarre pagan celebration. The scent expresses nature, and intelligence. More calculating than wild, but still rather raw. If you like this scent, wearing it will make you feel as if you’re celebrating something that most others aren’t familiar with, and the ones that are, are worth keeping around. Sort of a password. Boozy, not dark. The smell of absinthe may turn many way, but this is more of an event or celebration involving absinthe, rather than nose in glass. Baking spice and sap, however some smoke or peat would be amazing. Maybe that’s why I feel like it’s an ongoing gathering and not the remnants. This isn’t an easy scent to wear for most, fairly challenging, especially around those that will say it smells like Xmas, even though at further inspection it’s much more to the less controlled mind. I’d say unisex, but more attractive on a female. I feel on a male this could be mistaken for sort of a barbershop sort of scent, a sweater and glasses, probably a laptop. Bottom line I really like this and would recommend it to those that are looking to escape from typical designer scents. It’s not otherworldly good, but it will get you somewhere. When this wild scent becomes tame it’s quite comforting. I think I’d prefer it to remain wild, get darker and burn. I’d also prefer louder projection, longevity, and silliage.