Le Temps d'une Fête

I pulled my previous post because I now have more sampling experience under my nose and can give a better review. This scent is so unabashadly green it could be used as the mascot for St. Patrick's day. Now I love Chamade, and have added it to my collection, but I will say i **like** this opening better. Unlike Chamade, which comes out of the bottle wiht a slap to your face, this slinks out of the bottle; like a cat with an oily grin on it's face. And this kitty is sly. It rests langourously on its throne all day, a throne made of deep, rich woods. Idly the kitty peers into a pool framed by narcissus, and is greeted by a tart, seductive smile. I set this one notch below Chamade, however, because of longevity and hte dry down. While the dry down is impressive for an EDT, it doesn't carry the green sparkle throughout. But for the first few hours, this is truly the cat's meow of green florals.

There must be a reformulation going on here for anyone to compare this to Eau de Givenchy, which is a beautiful scent but completely dissimilar to this. While Eau de Givenchy is a beautiful cut-grass and white floral marvel, this is a dusty rolling-in-the-hay affair of sunny daffodils and warm grass. It's distinctly vintage in its style - and I mean very vintage. My bottle has a heavenly opening similar to that of Mouchoir de Monsieur or Jicky with daffodil instead of lavender. This plush, sweet, incensey bergamot opening leads to a fresh galbanum-jasmine for just a short while. The heart then starts to come in - a touch of ionones add texture to the most breathtaking daffodil I've ever encountered in perfumery. This is like Vol de Nuit: day version. Hours later, the drydown is a warm, sweet, woody affair of incense, moss, methyl-ionones, and pollen.

So lovely, lovely, lovely. It opens with a gentle green -- not sharply, astringently green, but fresh, dewy leaves. I like very "green" perfumes and this is not a heavy hitter in that category. Shortly therafter it blooms into a golden bouquet of spring light. It's barely sweet at all, mingling warm hay with something pleasantly piercing and deep -- I guess that's the daffodil. It is the olfactory idea of golden sunlight with pollen motes dancing in it. After buying a full bottle, I learned the hard way that over-applying Le Temps d'Une Fete results in a day spent choking in a hayloft -- it is definitely possible to overdo this one! But if you spray moderately, you carry your own atmosphere of a perfect late spring day in a meadow along wherever you go. And it does indeed last all day.

Le Temps d'une Fete has all the makings of a classic, traditional French perfume. I expected it to be fresh like grass in spring, but it has too much of a "perfumy" and complex vibe about it, again, like a traditional French perfume. While it's green and a bit oakmossy, I would wear this perfume for an evening out when I want to wear something that isn't intense and heavy. It has a vintage feel without being powdery. Also, I smell something spicy. Not a culinary spice, but a flower that is known to have a spicy quality. Sometimes hyacinth can do this, and according to LuckyScent, this perfume does contain hyacinth. I think Le Temps d'une Fete is really special. Definitely a green worth owning.

coup de foudre, seriously. from the first tender, flowery green sniff, the most beautiful narcissus you can imagine to the resinous drydown. never bought a perfume as fast as this one. it's moving and even poetic. sniffing it, feels like finding something that you've lost a long time ago. edit: though it appears to be a strong scent, tenacity is weak. the lush green narcissus disappears much too quick- and as for my taste, the drydown is not as interesting or complex as the middle part of it... and btw, tell me I'm crazy, but the first thing that appears, is a strong frangipani note that softens the narcissus...(only realized because of the new frangipani absolue in my collection)