Lavande Eau de Parfum

Wearing both Tom Ford Lavender Extreme & Molinard Lavande now to compare side by side, & here's my $.02: These really are remarkably similar fragrances - AFTER the opening... TF Lavender Extreme opens with a mega-dose of explosive, sweet, luscious Lavender, wonderfully blended with Lemon, Violet, Tonka Bean & Coumarin. On first impression, it's a stunner. It's sweet enough that I've had friends mistake it for coconut, & totally understood them getting that impression. While I'm no expert, they've clearly pulled off some nice use of aromachemicals to get such a "bursting" effect to the top notes. This is the one & only thing that makes LE noteworthy. Unfortunately, this lasts only 10-15 minutes. It's a blissful open that you want to last forever, but it's gone before you blink. The in-your-face Lavender quickly fades & LE settles into a slightly more vanilla-tinged version of Lavande. It's truly excellent at first, but the decision to add this to the $320/$815 product range is a joke (as is that price point in general). Had it been priced at the "normal" prices, & made available in the 100ml size as well, I might have bought a bottle. But sadly It reminds me of TF Azure Lime: Amazing! ...For 15 minutes. Molinard Lavande's opening is very similar, yet distinctly different. Rather than the almost gourmand Lavender of LE, this is a sharper Lavender spiced with Clary Sage & a bit of underlying Patchouli in its base. The presence of the Clary Sage is the big difference in the opening; It's a much more medicinal/herbal vibe. Lavande is far more linear, so you don't get the disappointment of LE's rich Lavender disappearing so quickly. 30 minutes in, they are nearly identical. The spice of Lavande & the sweetness of LE both tone down to a lighter vanilla-floral scent with their bases of Coumarin & Tonka Bean. If LE could keep its magic going for a few hours, we'd have no competition here. Given the (10x!) price difference, Lavande is quite solid, & I'd say it's actually the slightly more interesting of the 2 in the dry down. Yes, LE's opening is amazing & I definitely wanted a bottle on first sniff, but if you've got Lavande 20 minutes later either way, it doesn't make sense to pay the TF premium, even if it was at the normal prices. Will have to try the Caron Pour Un Homme soon to see if it can come closer to pulling off LE's opening vibe. (In fairness to Molinard, that's not what they set out to do, & Lavande is quite nice!) Edit: And now, I see there's "Tom Ford Tuscan Leather Intense" on the way, & you guessed it, it's another $320/50ml bottle. Give me a break. I love Tom Ford & own MANY of his scents... At ***$330/$840*** (NEW higher pricing! smh!), they're just adding another "hard pass" to the line in my book. The regular prices are bad enough; the higher tier is just plain stupid... Enough to skip over Tom Ford on principle alone.

I blind bought a bottle of Molinard Lavande after watching Sebastian Jara’s video in which he compared it favorably to the much pricier Tom Ford Lavender Extreme, which retails at $320 for 50ml vs. Lavande at $65 for 75ml, so it seemed like a worthy blind buy, and with a $10 off coupon at C.O. Bigelow, I went for it and have been pleased. It’s a creamy, sweet, semi-sharp lavender-dominant fragrance with a mix of labdanum, tonka, benzoin, vanilla, and musk. It’s a nod to lavender fans while not being only lavender, and as with most fragrances, I appreciate its fairly heavy-handed sweetness to make it more endearing. The resins and tonka blend effortlessly with the lavender in the dry down, where the fragrances becomes predictably more mellow than its semi-sharp opening. The obligatory comparison to Lavender Extreme is pretty flattering for Lavande. The two fragrances are very close in terms of smell, with Lavender Extreme being a bit creamier and featuring a pseudo “Play Doh” vibe that many have mentioned, whereas Lavande has more of the resin/sharp tonka blend in the dry down. Both perform comparably well—good, but not great. Certainly with its better pricing, Lavande comes out on top in terms of value, though it’s totally fair that some might prefer the smell of Lavander Extreme. Molinard’s current main collection of eau de parfum concentration purple bottles are all priced modestly, at $65 for 75ml, their collection seems interesting. I’ve my eye on several that I’d be inclined to blind buy at even the retail pricing, which again is unusually reasonable for what seems to be a well-liked non-designer brand. Overall, I’m quite impressed with Lavande and look forward to smelling more of the brand. This is, as the saying goes, quite the Lavender Extreme killer, even though I certainly still love Lavender Extreme, as well. 8 out of 10

This needs to be clarified: THIS IS NOT CLOSE, INDENTICAL, OR 'JUST LIKE' Tom Ford Lavender Extreme. I own both. Both are great. TFLE has more Sandalwood like Woodsy note in the drydown (it is possibly the Cinnamon). It is smoother, gradually evolves, has a softer approach, and is well blended. Molinard Lavande is a great fragrance. It does share a slightly similar Lavender note and sweetness in the base, but again, it does not smell the same. Lavande has a natural smell of Lavender, but the way the notes are 'blended', it all hits you at once and is linear till the end. This needed to be said because I find far too many reviews saying, "Oh hell no, Id never pay for Tom Ford Lavender Extreme! Just buy this instead! It's the exact same thing!" 1. You're wrong. 2. Just because you don't want to buy something doesn't mean we want to hear you cry about it on here., nor does it make your review more relevant to the fragrance. 3. Your loss. Tom Ford Lavender Extreme is a masterpiece. It is worth looking around for deal on it and getting a bottle to cherish. P. S. A side note. Lavande EDP by Molinard has been pretty hard to find lately. Lavande EDT is easier to find, but is not the same composition. The EDT version of Lavande is a lot lighter and more feminine. It's nice, but it isn't the EDP.

Lavender is one of my favorite scents. I would wear straight up lavender essential oil if it only lasted on my skin. When I smelled Tom Ford's Lavender Extreme I felt I'd finally found THE lavender fragrance I had been looking for, but because it's now discontinued and was already very expensive to begin with, my search continued. I discovered Molinard's Lavande through the Perfume Guy on Youtube, and I'm grateful for this recommendation. To my nose, Lavende is indeed reminiscent of Lavender Extreme. To me the difference is that Lavender Extreme is smoother, like there aren't any hard edges to the lavender note and the other notes are blended perfectly behind it, almost like the notes are hugging each other. Smelling the two side by side they aren't the exact same scent, but the type of lavender is very similar and Molinard's is absolutely a great alternative to Tom Ford's if you're looking for one. Just judging this scent without any comparisons, it is everything I want from a lavender fragrance. The lavender is prominent, aromatic, not powdery. Once this dries down, you get a beautiful vanilla that I found so comforting. I think it's perfectly unisex and highly recommend this to anyone looking for a great lavender scent.

The way I'd describe this perfume develop would be dominant lavender + sweet vanillic amber ->dominant vanilla and amber with whiffs of lavender -> vanilla with lavender undertones. It really starts off as a confident natural lavender that is sweet rather than herbaceous but it's not that simple. Underneath you get a sweet almost oriental smelling ambery vanilla pillow. In fact it reminds me of the old formulation of L'Occitane's Ambre at the base. I feel the benzoin and labdanum are fairly prominent in this perfume, sweetened by the tonka and vanilla combo. There's some musk too, but I'd put it last on the hierarchy list. It really feels like a natural, sophisticated lavender cloud lingering over a cozy and sweet vanillic amber with some musk giving it a bit of volume. I don't find it leans masculine at all, I would say it is a proper unisex perfume, both sophisticated and cozy. I also (thakfully) don't detect any "funk" whatsoever like the commenters below. Lovely perfume, very good projection, lasting power and overall quality.