Sacrebleu Intense

I blind bought this fragrance after reading cat615's review about the perfumer Patricia de Nicolai below. I reviewed the notes, read the reviews, and the price was reasonable. Never did I ever imagine that I would find my perfect fragrance. I smell these fragrance notes all wonky. In the opening I get strong carnation. The fruits are there, but the carnation is the main note. It is an unusual likable fragrance note to me. A strong floral that is a hint green, a hint spicy, that I find exceptionally pleasing. Then I get the mandarin orange. Golly, I love orange in fragrances. It's like smelling the outside of a fresh orange. A little sweet, and a little bitter. Then the tuberose comes in, but it's not your typical bubblegum tuberose. It smells like an orange tuberose. Reminds me a little of Elie Saab's Le Parfum at this stage. This is the happiness other reviewers have mentioned. If you have ever wondered what happiness smells like, look no further. As the fragrance warms on my skin, I start to smell the cinnamon and incense. Reminds me of Shalimar. The fragrance maintains that happiness, but becomes very classy and expensive smelling. That is when I notice the waxiness that other reviewers mentioned. Not like a crayon to me, but like a candle. An orange tuberose scented wax candle. I can even smell the burning wick. It sounds WEIRD. But it is actually... beautiful. Delicate. Comforting. Fucking fabulous. In the drydown I get a hint of the civet, spices, tonka bean and vanilla. Such a sophisticated beautiful fragrance, and exactly how I want to smell. Named after a French curse word. So fucking perfect.

Love. I would never have tested this based on the notes, however, my friendly fragrantican (pusher/enabler/ruiner of my credit score) gifted me a sample and now I am harbouring fantasies of burgling her house if this is the calibre of her stash. You know that scene in Chocolat where Comte de Reynaud is rolling about in the shop window, gorging on chocolate and confection to the point of sugar coma? Yeah. That's me with the sample of Sacrebleu Intense. To hell with the notes, this is what I got. Massive blast of Narcissus Cheerfulness, deep, waxy narcotic floral which belies the diminutive little flowers. I have loved these since I was a tot. I remember plunging my little face into a patch of them in the garden and thereafter every time I pass a florist's bucket full of them, I'm there, face down with greedy gulps and inhalations. The perfume is also stem snappingly green, no ooze, no resinous trails, just *crack* and wet with spring's delight. I can smell the warmth of the soil, the dappled rays of sunlight streaming through the budding trees making everything look like a monet painting. I have a sneaking suspicion the vanilla has kick started the florals into this seductive mode, and the cinnamon has rounded off the clove aspect of carnation so beautifully, taken out the sharpness and replaced it with pure *swooning on cushions in a seraglio* indolence. I am at once delighted and terrified. When will my love affair with fragrance hit the wall? I suspect, never.

Some accords in perfume aren’t possible to describe because they rather evoke a feeling or memory than an association to a raw material or general smell (like “powder” or “leather”). Sacrebleu intense is all about those accords. It smells of beauty and coziness and it’s very emotional, like a soft embrace of someone you love very much. There are sweet fruits and tuberose and a very warm, slightly powdery burst of love and happiness. When I wear it I feel beautiful. It reminds me a bit of Worth’s Courtesan, but I haven’t had a sample of that one since 2009 so I can’t make a comparison, but the fruits suggest I’m not so far off in that. The carnations give it a quirky twist. You get the whiff of tuberose and jasmine and think “this is jasmine and tuberose” and then sniff your wrist and every time the carnations jump out and surprises you with something new and intriguing. This is what makes it stand out among other warm florals. My only issue is the drydown. It’s very weird. It’s like you have been feeling so pretty and feminine and warm and then all of a sudden from out of nowhere it’s just very weird. This doesn’t affect the overall quality of this special scent because it lasts for so long and if you can feel like love and happiness for a whole day then maybe you can accept some weirdness in the evening.

This is what spicy (piquant) woody balsamic ambery dreams are made of! I'm wearing this perfume (although it's a pretty warm spring) and needless to say I'm feeling myself. I was looking for such a fragrance for a long time and my wishes conveyed the Universe to give me this masterpiece: piquant from the spices, but also from the carnation and some white flowers (with their own spicy twist), but rounded beautifully with the warm resinous woody notes and a touch of amber. Dare I say it's even better then Grand Soir by MFK? For me, yes! The king is dead, long live the king! Sillage is enough to keep me walking in this euphoric cloud all day. Longevity is wonderful, I can feel it on my hand all day and the next days on clothes, leaving this waxy note(although not listed), but in the best, natural way possible. Definitely unisex, some might say more masculine, but that doesn't stop me from wearing it, I feel so daring and alluring when wearing it. I will definitely come back to revisit this review just because I'm in love with the perfume and it deserves more words than I have right now.

A beautiful, extremely generous bouquet of captivating pink and white flowers, enlivened with a little burst of fruits on a sweet bed of vanilla, resins and soft woods. It’s immediately a luxurious, full on, sensual experience with a touch of eroticism. What a glorious opening! The name is entirely correct, it is indeed intense. It would work splendidly as something gorgeous to adorn oneself in before going to bed, especially if with a lover. Equally it could be enjoyed alone for some special me time, it’s such an utterly exquisite indulgence. I don’t find the cinnamon too much, for me it never overpowers the florals, especially the heady tuberose, which outlasts everything else. It’s a strong juice with powerful projection and ample staying power. In old fashioned conventional terms it leans ultra feminine but gender rules are made to be broken and men shouldn’t miss out on this delightfully decadent fragrance. It’s not old school it’s completely timeless.