Philosopher’s Walk

Les Abstraits Philosopher’s Walk (2025) - barbershop geranium -#antoinelie under creative direction of @u_smells__good create a fougere with a lot of dimension. The ingredients list down traditional fougere notes which are present: Citrus, Oakmoss, and Herbal accords reminiscent of shaving foam. But it has a unique journey. At the start, bright Bergamot and Geranium with a playful metallic accord reminiscent of a cold blade near the nose. Yet that iron note disappears and transforms to beautiful florals, herbal notes with sage, fresh mint and grounding spices add depth. Powder, soft Iris mixed with a Roudnitska-esque accord we would get from Hermes’ Eau de Hermes and Dior’s Eau Sauvage. This spicy, oakmoss, skin-like fougere backbone so elegantly brought to life. Excellently crafted and should not be judged on first sniff. It still tells me something new every time I wear it.

I just received a sample of this from one of my local niche suppliers here in upstate New York. I'm absolutely head over heels in love with this. It reminds me of one of the greatest fougeres mixed with a slight headshop vibe. There's no doubt that I will be purchasing the full sized bottle. For the love of God, will you people stop voting for things that you haven't even tried yet!! There's absolutely nothing wrong with this.

Second impressions. Stunning extreme high quality fougere. As good as it gets quality wise in this category. The opening in this thing is absolutely incredibly with bright zingy citrus. Dries to smooth powdery lavender on my skin with dancing jumping florals. Excited to keep giving this a wear. Longevity and projection are great. Awesome job done by this crew.

Beautiful aromatic lavender-if You want to smell put together,look No further.

Opens with a blast of dry, gingery, citric, waxy soap. After that extremely soapy start, which reminded me of Belle Ame (that I'm not a fan of unfortunately), it calmed down into a very pleasant musk. Imo, it resembles a lot an expensive spa's beauty products: it's shampooey, beauty-cream-ish, with juniper oil and lavender-floral hints, powdery, cedar-woody, freshly white/clean sheets/linen, candle wax. Then, as it dried down, I started getting ambrette and as more time passed, I got hints of almond, heliotrope and vanilla. Overall, it's a "spa shampoo", "freshly out of the shower", "clean clothes", "meditation candles" type of scent. Reminds me of Puente's stuff, but somewhat better in it's category, albeit it also smells like a room freshener as whole, while having an "upscaled designer" vibe about it. I swear I've smelled scented hand tissues that have this exact smell to them. Pleasant. Would probably like smelling it on someone else.

Straight from the bottle it smells like a hippy bookstore, but on skin it is obviously a flowery Fougere. Two weird observations from the sea of listed olfactive notes: 1) when I smell African Leather I get a ton of geranium, and same with this, even though there’s an exponential number of notes here. 2) I dislike Hacivat because the oakmoss note seems so prevalent. Cedarmoss smells the same to me, and really stands out too. It’s not so aggressively dominant that this is a write-off, but I find it really noticeable. It’s a more floral Fougere that is a nice addition to the genre. If you like fougeres, it’s worth a try, but as someone who owns a number of them, I’m not sure adds enough to be worth it. Scent 7.5/10 Longevity 7.5/10 Projection: 7/10 Full bottle? Not for me, but would make a nice addition to a collection lacking perfumes from this genre.

Check it out... Rive Gauche lovers: Definitely, try this out. Big, spicy, "rubbery" lavender-shaving foam is PW! I'mma post up the YSL in the "Reminds Me Of" section here;)

Smells exactly like the type of thing I wore when I was 13 years old in the 90s. There's a huge whack of some aquatic chemical, maybe dihydromyrcenol making it smell like cheap deodorant. I don't think I can enjoy wearing this now, I don't want to smell like the ghost of a 90s teenage boy.

I feel I should preface this review for the benefit of transparency and arse hole trolls who seem to think I'm incapable of thinking for myself, have fear of critiquing an acquaintance or have some vested interest in the success of the brand or that I just want to verbally fellate Eugen and Antoine every opportunity I get. None of this is the case. I know and like Eugen, I think he's a good egg and all around positive force for fragrance commentary on Youtube, his own brand Les Abstraits represents an authentic attempt to take something which exists inside him and birth it out into the world, not simply because he wants to, but because he has to. It's that need to satisfy his muse and create art for others to enjoy, I can empathise. This is not some bullshit cash grab, many influencer morons are guilty of. Oh and Antoine Lie is a top talent and among the greatest living perfumers in the world, do I automatically like everything he does? No. Certainly not. Okay so housekeeping done then... I can't see why there's so many lukewarm opinions or hate for this? It's a really lovely thing, using superior materials but crucially..."is it great?" I don't think so. Mainly because it's not really breaking new ground, the hooks are too subtle to land in a meaningful way with a mass audience. Also this type of perfume seems really old hat, but I am old (ish) so I'm totally down with it. In essence it smashes together the incredible natural, hesperidic realness of things of Les Indemodables Chypre Azural with a beautifully warm, and rounded and mossy, fougere base hinting at classic masculine fragrances we all know and love. Many critisisms I've heard so far remark that the opening is 'harsh' the lemon too lemony, the cutting bite of the herbal sage notes too metallic, personally I didn't find that to be the case but the impact of the opening is very real and I don't doubt, Philosopher's walk won't be for everyone but like I said, I enjoyed it against what becomes a much more sedate background later on. As brilliant as terre d'hermes and egoiste platinum are, and I can vaguely and very tenuously see the connection if I peer down the end of my nose at my spectacles.. come the fuck on? That's some lazy interpretations there. The Hermes is a masterful bringing together of woody and citrus things in a tight but elegant formula to represent nature but not necessarily directly and it's not a fougere at all. Then you have the Chanel which okay shares clary sage with philopshers walk and some note the opening to be harsh and metallic but egoiste platinum makes a whole career out astringency where this Les abstraits sort of toys around with the idea to counter and complement the classic fougere elements in the base. Neither smell anywhere near as natural ( 'natural' not synonymous with 'good' BTW ) in terms of citrus oils, moss accord/materials or the tonka in the base which is really subtle but powerful and creamy. I can see (smell) all this stuff is there, and it's not some whimsical connection with my soul conjuring all this emoting about the natural world, it's objectively true, to me the perfume smells expensive and carefully constructed. It doesn't make me want to sing from the rooftops, would I reach for this instead of Eau Sauvage or Invasion Barbare? Probably not, but does it have a place in my collection? Yes I believe it would. The main thing it has going for it to me is the inherent wearability, this is the least dressy and most throwonable (rights reserved) Les Abstraits to date. Some other criticism I heard was that this is an outlier in the line for that very reason, ...it doesn't 'FIT' in, hmmmm... for me Philospher's walk represents an unexplored and fertile groud for the brand using the same materials and philosophies (yes!!!) that made the other perfumes what they are, so I think it fits perfectly. Lasting power and silage, this is not doing itself any favours in the age of beastmode either, after the initial sharpness and turbulence it sits close to the skin and if you judge 'performance' against price, Philosopher's walk might not be the fragrance for you. Sniff for yourself and make up your own mind.

Philosopher's Walk is as kaleidoscopic as Thomas Pynchon's Gravity Rainbow. Here Lie is flirting with a classic barbershop fougère structure adding an eerie gauze of alien floral beauty. I personally cannot picture a woman wearing this, as the floral component is very subtle while the lavender is very much center stage: delicately powdery, herbaceous, allumious, and only partly floral. The aspect that grabbed my attention is the use of clary sage that feels very metallic in here and should stand for the steam from hot towels placed on the face to soften the skin when a man go to a barbershop. Then I get that sort of hydrating soothing lotion with notes of bergamot, lemon, jasmine, lavender, musks and woods like pine or sandalwood. There is quite a bit of costus here that is used to perfection: it evokes our dirty hair while being washed and refreshed by the barber, creating a beautiful tension with the powdered dusting of violet and carnation, . In a construction like this, a beautiful very vintage metallic geranium cannot be missed; it sparkles thanks to a hint of pink pepper, juniper, and an aromatic Ceylonese cinnamon absolute; Lie has mmastered the use of spices since th gorgeous Scorpio Rising by @erisparfums and the very gentlemanly elegant Iris Poulsard by @dannerflemming. classically masculine coding, Philosopher’s Walk represents a classically masculine coding in perfumery and I am extremely grateful that Les Abstraits comes back with another scent that pays homage to the classical genre of historical perfumery. There are touches of modernity: Philosopher's Walk is a very joyous barbershop scent taht blends seamlessly with a hint (again, a HINT) of floral sensuality. It smells modern, but it evokes distant dreams and memories. IG @alexolympia6

Amongst so many iconic and game-changing fougère fragrances... this falls short for me. It’s a fine wearing, but I don’t think it is overly exceptional and it is not worth a full bottle. Side notes: After spending some time with it, I can appreciate the attempt. However, it’s been a while since a game-changing fougére entered the chat. At least this tried...

Cant wait to try it, one of the best new brands. I tried Belle Ame last year and it blew me away, i love fougeres so this is an exciting release for me!

Anyone who is voting before theyve even sniffed it or before its even went into hands of consumers : clowns, all of you. Clowns.