Apothéose

My Honest Review - Oriza LeGrande - Apothéose EDP My skin type - warm toned and normal-oily skin. Perfume usually has a hard time projecting on me. My usual preferences: Chanel 5, Chanel 19, Reve D’Ossian. First impressions: wow! The top note has a topnote. Super aldehydic. Crisp. Fresh. Classic Chanel - instantly. Not No.5 but a sister fragrance to it. Then it settles into the real topnotes: White woods, and light crisp fresh spice. Definitely eucalyptus notes but not medicinal. Not “fishermans friend” strength eucalyptus. More like a breeze of eucalyptus. Expertly blended. Later impression: over time the aledhydes fade, return, fade again. Similarly to chanel classic perfumes. They are always there keeping a fresh feeling. They lighten up the musk notes. Nothing feels too heady. And there is a rose and white flower note too and a faintly cinnamon note - presumably benzoin toward the end. Very faint but it does brilliantly keeping the fragrance away from being a “cold” smelling perfume. Lasting impression: Sillage remains at arms length for an hour before pulling close. It is a truly beautiful perfume. I can see this on a wedding day being a surprise contender for a bride. Its classic. Fresh. And different enough that it feels like something new on your shelf. Is it worth it: Absolutely. Its beautifully complex, its fresh without being one note. Its floral without being a bouquet. Its spicy without being a stick of incence against your skin. It feels stylish and the bottle is (as always) gorgeous. If, like me, you are a classic chanel fan. Then you will more than likely love it. Edit: if you like New Look by Dior, you may well love Apotheose.

I love the immediate effervescence of Apothéose from its aldehydes, black pepper, and the light camphor of eucalyptus. I welcome this penetration of my senses as it lashes me until it transforms into a rosy caress and light nibbles from ylang ylang. Voluminous, mother-of-pearl musks are at the core here: I am reminded of Nivea cream, the slightest eager perspiration wearing a freshly laundered shirt starched with Niagara, and the cotton that's used to keep pills in a bottle fresh. Mind you, all of this is a positive in my book. The gauzy musks may prove to be vertiginous to the more fragile of noses, but for those like myself, who will gladly smother themselves in their large, globular molecules until left in a stupor. If you can survive through "sparkle, Neely, sparkle" (I have faith in you!) get ready to float in the powder-dusted magic bubble up to Cloud 9. If fragrances like Chanel 1957, White Linen, Creed Royal Mayfair, or Les Indesmodables Musc des Sables make your heart skip a beat, it would behoove you to get acquainted with the rousing Apothéose.

Opens as an effervescent ginger ale and bright floral bouquet. A dry, light amber grows to give everything an impression of higher-pitched solar incense. This is due more to the wafting effect of the fragrance than smoke (of which there is none). The effect is similar, in my memory, to Tauer’s Incense Extreme. Amber, light musks, talc-y powder, etc. in the drydown push into a seriously opulent, sultry, addictive territory. I feel emotionally attached to this phase, which lasts and lasts. Despite following a supposedly historic formula, Apothéose registers as far more avant-garde than I would expect from this house; a voluptuous high-modernism maybe? I like to think that Kiki de Montparnasse would have worn this. I didn’t think I’d like Apothéose at all based on the stated notes, but have been committed to trying as much as I can from Legrand. I was pleasantly surprised to have this enter my top-three house favorites.

As soon as I learned a new Oriza fragrance was out, I rushed to the boutique in Paris. I was not disappointed. Apothéose reminds me of a softer, rounder Chanel n°5. In fact, I once had a soap of the latter which, after some use, still smelled like n°5 but with a soapy note taking over the perfume notes. Apothéose smells exactly like that to me. I don't know why but the smell also reminds me of the marble chimney I had in my parisian bedroom as a child. It's very clean and soapy.

This one should really be listed with an aldehydic accord.