La Belle Otero

Does this capture the inspiration behind this scent? I don't know, but to me it conjures up an old, slightly unkempt, (maybe haunted) vintage boudoir. Like another reviewer said, you can tell that this is an Anaïs Biguine perfume - even the opening reminds me of Erborista by Chapel Factory with an extra layer of violet and spice. Though strong, the violet and aromaticity never managed to peek through that powdery filter for me, which I like in a story-telling sense. I get something a little animalic about that too. Flowers and herbs covered in dust. It's weird and freaky and not a crowd-pleaser but left me with a very unique impression. Just wish it lasted longer, which unfortunately has been a trend with Biguine's fragrances.

This is 100% an Anais Biguine perfume. If you're familiar with Junky or La Dame aux Camelias, this will smell familiar to you! However, it doesn't have nearly the staying power or sillage for that matter. Scent is gorgeous, though.

This was a blind buy based on an enthusiastic review, but I was really excited about the notes and also got sucked in by the story of the Parisian courtesan after which it was named. It is very, very pretty. I love its violet powdery boudoir-ish scent--you can imagine yourself sitting at a mirrored dressing table wearing a peignoir frothing with lace and dabbing this on your wrists. HOWEVER, on me it is super weak; I reapplied three separate times over the course of the day, and the scent is so delicate it barely traveled past my (lace-trimmed) collar. Bit disappointing. I will save this one for bedtime.

The opening was promising: fresh and flowery, feminine. Violets and neroli combined in harmony. Nonetheless, herbal aroma and green odor of buchu quite ruined it. Because of it the lavender smells dusty, strangly paired with oily, animalic base of musk and olibanum. I won't try this meeting again. On the paper I like it, though. This perfume characterize La Belle Otero with esprit, grace and originality. It definitely has her seductive, fatale chant. --- Projection moderate, poor longevity (2 hours). Spring season.

Fragrance Review For La Belle Otero Les Cocottes De Paris Top Notes Neroli Pepper Worm Wood Ginger Fig Middle Notes Violet Lavender Musk Narcissus Buchu Agathosma Base Notes Olibanum Sandalwood Iris "Women have one mission in life: to be beautiful! When one is old, one must learn how to break mirrors. I am very gently expecting to die" - Agustina Iglesias La Belle Otero (1868 to 1965) She was the most beautiful, the sexiest, the most desirable and famous French courtesan of the 19th century, and that's saying a lot because this was a century that saw many beautiful and famous courtesans. La Belle Otero, a Spanish beauty with seductive dark eyes and hair, attracted only the highest ranking men, heads of state, princes, kings. She was a paramour to Queen Victoria's son Edward. She behaved as if everything was hers for the taking: money, gold, jewelry, the most expensive gowns, properties, mansions, and the finest luxuries a poor girl from Spain could only have otherwise dreamed of. This perfume is an indie niche scent that evokes the personality of that most amazing whore. It is rather powerful fragrance, spiced up, bitter, slightly floral, smoky, balsamic, resinous and woodsy. Truth be told, it wears like a man's cologne, or even an old time man's fougere but this would make perfect sense because it's meant to evoke a perfume that could have been worn by Otero herself. In the late 19th century, the fragrances that were emerging were fougeres for women - Jicky by Guerlain comes to mind, but it was not uncommon for women to smell like the male counterpart in fragrances. Houbigant's Royal Fougere for instance. This is a perfume that is meant to recreate an evening cologne in the home of a courtesan in Paris in the gay 90's. But it's still totally wearable as a perfume for today - if you like indies. The opening is bitter with a sharp citrusy neroli and worm wood, a lot like something that has been preserved in your great grandmother's house, something you know would kill you if you drank it. It's dark, not really fresh, spicy and peppery. The pepper note probably suits Otero's Spanish blood- fiery, hot, sexualized, and feral. It's that first spritz that really does evoke her spirit. It's like her very ghost came out of the bottle and into my skin. The perfume develops into a gingery and less spicy floral profusion of lavender and violet. The lavender is unisex and very much like lavenders found in fougeres. The violet is heady and feminine, as is the narcissus and iris. These florals are the only feminine thing about it. It can otherwise smell like a man's cologne. These are flowers that are purple in color so I welcome them as they are my favorite. The buch or agathosma is the most engaging note in this scent. It's herbal, green, like a substitute to patchouli. The aromatic note is like cut grass or shrub leaves that were put into this bottle. It smells a tad old lady ish and like a good old fashioned chypre but it doesn't really evoke any other well known chypre (i.e. Ivoire, Aliage, Blue Grass, Chanel 19, Vent Vert) it stands alone because it has that strong and very distinct agathosma. It ends up smelling like green herbal extract in your shampoo. But this is not a shampoo smell either. The dry down contains a smoky incense in the form of olibanum. It's really quite heavy and as such resembles an Oriental fragrance note. I love olibanum and any other smoky note like myrrh or frankincense/incense. This is an incense but it is the final stage of the dry down and it never seems to be the main attraction. The sandalwood is more pronounced and the musk. It's a musk that matches up with the aforementioned "old lady" scent. Smells like musky Church perfume. The stars of this scent are the pepper, lavender, agathosma, and the musk. Again it's a unisex fragrance but they did a superb job of recreating a woman's perfume of the 1880's. It's sexy and mysterious, confident, bold, and mature. She is La Belle Otero at the end of her life when she no longer smelled like a sweet little flower and was no longer in bed with anyone but herself, dreaming of happier times, and now smelling of musk. She tells her story in this perfume which take you back to her past as a young woman devouring Europe with her sex appeal.

Does anyone remember the movie "Chocolat"? Moreover, does anyone remember Leslie Caron as Madame Audel, who became completely unable to resist Vianne's delightfully sinful offerings? This perfume is perfect for her, it makes me think of her. Her little hat, her lengthy skirt, her handbag clutched tight to her abdomen as a barrier against, well.... who knows what? It has a very bitter entry, a sense of ruefulness, a slightly resigned and narrow vision of her world. Two eyes, two legs, two friends, one of whom is Guillaume Blerot's little dog. I wanted to love it, because a lot of the notes (including wormwood) are very precious to me, but I couldn't get past the fig. That fig note is massive. I feel as if I have been leapt upon and swallowed by an enormous, ripe, damp fig which I am having to fight my way out of. The drydown leaves a bewildering smell of cardboard.... My initial thoughts on the fragrance were (and still are, at the end, despite the rampant figgy tiara of triuimph), that it smells like something I would very much like to eat. I love trifle, but I wouldn't want to wear it as a scent - and coming from someone who has actually, one on occasion, eaten trifle with a train ticket because frankly, I couldn't wait another minute longer let alone wait until I got home, you will totally get what I mean. Confectionery custard, a bit of cream on top, and masses of fruit in jelly on the bottom which you can never quite get off the sides of the dish. It's going to work for some, but not a keeper for me. Shame.

I've been testing La Belle Otero for a bit over a week now. I ordered some samples and this one stood out to me the most. I was really excited for it based on the notes and was originally very surprised about the notes I could actually indicate. Do not test La Belle Otero on paper. It reeks terribly (interestingly, but still terribly), all I could smell was something animalic combined with hay and a very timid green violet. I was almost afraid of testing it on my wrist but I am now so glad to have overcome the fear. On me it opens sweet and green, the fig is detectable but not too much. In a few minutes, it turns into a mysterious, dark violet with some yerba mate in the background. As hours go by it transforms into a powdery iris-sandalwood combo with the green notes still backing it up. It is the most complex perfume I've smelled in quite a while. Elegant, feminine, a little bit dirty and uncanny. I can see Helena Bonham Carter wearing it. Not a crowd pleaser, but definitely a me-pleaser.

La Belle Otero was a pleasant, floral-fruity scent with a huge dose of green elements – too huge a dose, actually, and so that kinda affected my ability to appreciate this. Violet features prominently in this, and without a doubt makes the scent come alive, but I feel were the green elements toned down a bit more, it would lead to a more balanced overall feel, allowing these features to shine a bit more. I might plonk this in the ‘try again’ basket, and return to it in a week or two, but at the moment, I just do not see myself really getting too much further with this one... ***EDIT*** Second go-round this this one, and I feel like it's going to be a no, unfortunately. The herbal-green is too much with the violet, and as such I feel like it's not going to work. Having said that, though, I did like it enough to try it again, so I imagine there will be folks out there that like this and even decide to purchase it. Recommended...

Beautiful bottle, I adore the lilac-grey coloured liquid. But it's so ephemeral - a fleeting sweet violet wafts a little ginger smoke in my face before fading quickly to nothing but a faint wet cardboard smell; not at all like the courtesan herself, who lived until the ripe old age of 96 and I imagine that such a woman would not go quietly into the night smelling of damp wood pulp.

Strange fragrance, not a sweet powdery one, as would be expected. The lavender is quite strong in the begininng, then gets subtle. Fruits and green herbs in the middle. Quite fruity in the dry down. Overripe fruits with wood. 5/10