Immortelle Corse

Marc-Antoine Corticchiato is no stranger to calling back on old perfume codes. In fact he seems to revel in it, putting his own unique style on them by making them smell modern, and with startling clarity and precision. Immortelle Corse calls back to one of those old greats, Sables by Goutal, a gorgeous immortelle perfume that, unfortunately, has not really stood the test of time except with perfumistas. There are some differentiators, of course, and I won’t spend time comparing it to Sables except to say that you can find the summary of the differences in the word Corse, which means Corsica. This is immortelle as you’d encounter it on that arid island in the Med. You immediately get a sense of this in the opening with the yellow tree fruit and saffron. They smell as if they have been completely dehydrated. The fruit is reminiscent of peaches and apricots that are all pith and zesty skins, no juice, no sugars, just some piquant tartness in the skins and parched flesh. The saffron smells of dried and aromatic wisps of grass in the breeze, bringing a bit of a pale woody facet. This is about the wettest Immortelle Corse gets, and introduces an absolutely gorgeous immortelle accord in the heart. It’s stunning. It has a texture of powdered spices, and carries a preserved yellow floral note like you found the flower dried-up on a cliffside, a translucent and hardened and dried honey note, and plenty of red-gold and brown earthy elements. And heat. You can smell and feel the cool yet relentless Mediterranean sun radiating from your skin. The balance to this immortelle accord is superb. And, somehow, Immortelle Corse gets drier and hotter still! In the final skin scent the immortelle has lost what little golden yellow pollen sweetness it had and presents dark brown and spicy earth dry enough to float away in the breeze. Accenting it is an oakmoss note that is not green and damp as we usually get it, instead it has turned pale brown, retaining only a touch of its aromatic woody qualities, and feels as though it would crumple at the slightest touch from the exasperating aridity. Unusually for an immortelle perfume of this type, you could wear this in the summer (just spray it conservatively). Though it is quite powerful and spicy, its near complete lack of wetness and sweetness means that it will never be too cloying or close. This certainly makes Immortelle Corse stand out amongst the majority of immortelle perfumes since very few dare to be this bold in their dryness, yet it is just as tenacious as those others with more durable ambery-type materials in their bases. Additionally, as Marc-Antoine Corticchiato always does, the dry down is given ample attention. Every stage of this perfume’s life is excellent, a compelling presentation of experiencing Corsican immortelle from start to finish. I’ve never felt the need to find a backup for my vintage bottle of Sables, though I’ve been tempted, nor really any of my other immortelle perfumes, but with Immortelle Corse I do. That says a lot for me, that it stands above and separate from a timeless classic and most others. I cannot imagine ever being without this.

Immortelle Corse from Parfum D'Empire. I love Immortelle as a material, but when it comes to perfumes, I am very picky about its usage in the composition. I owned many perfumes based around it and ended up selling all of them. Recently, I picked this one up after deciding I needed an Immortelle scent in my collection. After much contemplation, this is the most beautiful take on Immortelle from all I have tried and the one I have chosen. I owned two bottles of the original Sables from Goutal and loved them dearly. However, the dry down was too sweet and ambery for my preference. Moreover, it had a weird retro air that didn't sit well with me. But for an Immortelle-themed perfume, it is the golden standard. That said, Marc Antoine managed to better it with his spin in Immortelle Corse. I find it very similar to Sables, yet with a modern touch, a more stretched-out olfactory dimension, not as sweet and syrupy (drier, actually), and more dynamic. And I think it is an improvement of an already near-perfect Immortelle-centered composition. The opening of Immortelle Corse feels spicy, fiery, and pleasantly fruity and juicy at the same time. Citruses are listed, but what jumps out to me is the apricot. The saffron provides that fiery glaze, like the last rays of the sun blazing the horizon at dusk on an early Autumn afternoon. This introduction quickly makes way for the main player, the Immortelle. In all its glory, naked and unashamed. You need to love it to appreciate this perfume. What I like about it here is that it doesn't go super syrupy and sweet. It stays true to the more dry and shrub-like facets, playing on the tobacco, boozy, and caramel-like nuances. Furthermore, the hefty dose of oakmoss (another favorite material of mine) anchors and further prevents it from going into that licorice-syrupy-sweet direction as it does in Sables. The latter perpetuates the dryness and adds a touch of bitterness to balance the composition. In the late dry-down, you get the Corticchiato signature musk cocktail evepresent in his compositions and easily identifiable in perfumes like Tabac Tabou and Ruade. It smells salty, creamy, and slightly leathery, providing a brilliant finishing touch to an already cleverly crafted perfume. For me, it checks all the boxes. It delivers the huge Immortelle kick that I am craving, is complex and dynamic, vintage with modern touches, spans several genres, and provides that perfect amount of funk that makes all perfumes better (or at least more interesting). I believe the color palette in this picture is a good suggestion of how the perfume smells. I like to think of a late day at dusk in early Autumn when the sunset is golden right before it changes to shades of red and pink. Golden is a good color for it. IG:@memory.of.scents

Immortelle Corse is aptly-named - immortelle takes centre-stage here, and the other notes serve to enhance it. Overall, this scent is a warm, spicy-herbal chypre, aromatic throughout and fairly typical of M. Corticchiato's style, featuring the his trademark earthy, green base. As frequently seems to be the case with this house in general, it is an unusual scent that focuses on less common notes - case in point being immortelle. Immortelle is multifaceted, oscillating between being sweet/smoky/grassy/herbal. It is rare that it is placed at the forefront of a scent, but in this case it is, and the composition is beautiful. IC is immortelle-dominant from initial spray, with its initial sweetness enhanced by the fruity notes. It becomes increasingly dry and grassy as it develops, somewhat hay-like. It reminds me a little of narcissus too, just less polleny and floral. The saffron emerges after a little while, adding warm, rich spice. Alongside the apricot note, it creates a sweet-yet-dry amber-like accord that complements the immortelle to perfection. The mossy chypre base comes to the fore as it dries down, enhancing the immortelle beautifully with its mossiness. It is dry, spicy and earthy here, the herbal nature of the immortelle set off to perfection. It remains pretty linear throughout, becoming more ambery and mossy as it progresses, fading to a mossy, faintly spicy skin scent. Sillage and longevity are moderate. An immortelle-led chypre, bolstered by apricot and saffron, IC is a creative yet wearable scent, best worn on autumn days. It is perfectly unisex. Aromatic and made with natural-smelling ingredients, it is deeply satisfying - the olfactory equivalent to walking in through an autumnal forest. It is a testament to the quality of this house that this scent doesn't stand out among the other Parfum d'Empire scents I've tried. 4/5.

This is a member of Parfum d’Empire’s L’Héritage Corse line. You might be aware that the perfumer of Parfum d’Empire fragrances is Marc-Antoine Corticchiato, who is a Corsican himself. So, the collection L’Héritage Corse is a tribute to the beauty of this historical Island. Its bottle's pattern showcases an old tower pattern which reminds us of the Genoese towers placed in Corsica. And the juice is golden like an immortal glow in the sky just before sunset. . It opens with a bit apricot’s fruity aspect which doesn’t last long and gets sheltered under a tall wall of Immortelle tower. Saffron with its special spicy and leather like effect adds a strong spicy accord to this blend. I get obviously leathery and smoky facets just like a soft leather jacket that is covered with some ashes of burnt tobacco. Meanwhile there is an adorable and spectacular backdrop of mossy smell in the base. I prefer it on men’s skin but I couldn’t close my eyes when it was dancing on my skin! I LOVE IT.

Oh my, since i saw some of his creations became identical to each others (mostly citrus blends) i stopped checking his new creations, but this one! oh MY... I just got a sample of this one (beside others of this brand) and i was surprised how i didn't find out about it! This is camel color velvet, soft and tense. It's like a camel color velvet cushion in an open Arabian terrace its view on a cooling desert. It is like "On the Terrace" painting by Frederick Arthur Bridgman but instead of the town view, it's a plain desert view. This blend is like a variation of "Ambre Russe" by the same house but more immortelle, and apricot, and minus the champagne. I believe it is spicy, with musk mellow, cognac, and sweet rum woods. Brilliant dark blend that has the camel color embedded within. Beautiful.

Amazing One of the most interesting perfumes on the market, kinda herbal, very strong apricot and of course, immortelle. I cannot put into words my love for this smell. The image that I get is a beautiful decaying sunset, deep calm and somewhat dissonant. I think this might be my favourite perfume ever. It evolves beautifully, and passes through al the aspects of immortelle : starts off with this honey, sweet, dry, and herbal scent and passes through the tobacco siee of the immortelle and ends up having all its sweetnes strippee away, leaving beheind a brutally simple dry earthy leathery tobacco. Bonus point it lasts forever on my skin : it projectz nicely the first day, sits close to the skin on the second and stays as a skin scent for two more days. 11/10

A heavenly apricot and lemon briefly appear in the opening but it's not long before the main star emerges, warm and dusty with straw-like semi-sweetness, the musky smell of rich, sun-kissed immortelle. Very lovely. Almost a soliflore but thickened with saffron's smooth suede note and some oakmoss for anchoring earthiness. This is a masterpiece for me. An absolute heartbreaker. For cooler weather. Slightly more daytime than evening. Natural, with a strong feeling of place. Maybe there are no great peaks to be found, no inspired progression. It's a little soft focus and linear but it's the warm, brown/yellow softness of the rich immortelle — hovering somewhere between tobacco and rum — that puts this in the super-league for me. I had to own this one

This shapeshifter starts out fruity-jammy; then quickly becomes bitter-spicy; and changes into an almost dry-dusty inky-mossy tobacco-like sweet-warm-herbal Chypre. Don’t get me wrong or hang me for this comparison here: It’s as if a very, very pared down, uncomplicated version of an apricot rather than peach Mitsouko EDP, a barebones bitter-herbal Aromatics Elixir, and a Tobacco Vanille—minus the vanille—had a baby, and swaddled it in a Vetiver-woven basket set in an Indian restaurant next to a fireplace beside a bowl of warm apricots and a man smoking an old pipe. I think it’s quite nice. Very strange yet homey. The longer I wear it, the more Chypre-like and slightly edible it seems to be.

Honestly, I wrote a review not long ago but the more I come back to this the more I deem it to be one of, if not the singular best Immortelle scent around. Unearths the more parched dry, baked in the sun, honeyed, fermenting fruits (particularly apricot) tones of the Everlasting flower. You see Immortelle listed as a note in a few perfumes. Not many, but a few, and it either swamps everything else around or it just does not smell like Immortelle (Ganymede Extrait, I am looking at you). Let's see how Immortelle Solaire by Les Indemodables fairs, but this will take some beating.

Agree with Cereza on the description of the scent - herbal, spicy and dry. I get dominant oakmoss over other notes. The saffron sweetness is hanging around, too, but I don't get much of the fruity notes. I wonder if it can be marketed as a summer scent, as it's quite dry for hot weather 😆 but a beautiful scent for sure. I may use it in autume when it cools down a bit.

If you imagine a more savoury, fuzzled skin of an apricot, grate it, indulged with a smidgen of lemon juice, over a sun draped bed of immortelle with its dehydrated, hay like feel and it's light curry powder aroma, and added some twang from some light saffron, this is what you get. All seasons, all wearers, a vintage feel but smells uber real.

Yes because trying to free a nation on your pretty crap perfume review will help those in need. "SoloSoul" shut the f up.

I appreciate everything made by Parfum d'Empires, so naturally I was very excited to try out this and the rest of L'Heritage Corse collection. This is my first sample of the line. Unlike the ones I have tried before Immortelle Corse seems more toned down, it has an intimate silage and it does not project very strongly. From the first spritz it gets dry, like bone dry herbal, earthy and leathery. On my skin I did not get any apricot or lemon, just herbal, warm leather. There is some sweetness that cuts trough, but overall a very dry, spicy scent. It feels sophisticated, grown up and I can't fault this in any way scent wise. As for my personal preferences on how I want to smell - this won't be it for me. The scent leans very masculine on my wrist, I enjoy a unisex scent, but this won't be the case. I think my overall issue is the dryness of the scent, I tend to enjoy more fresh, juicy accord to balance it all out, here there is none. It does paint a beautiful picture though - scorched, dry Mediterranean in late July and August. The grass has turned yellow, small flowers are sprouting trough the rocks and the bone dry earth. The sun is hot and there is no shade, you feel the hot air and the dust. Longevity is excellent though it does stay close to the skin. I will gladly give my 2ml sample to my partner as I feel he might appreciate this way more than me. And I will surely enjoy this on him.

I imagine that I am being ushered into the presence of a Grande Dame of the Theatre. She acted with Larry and Johnny Gielgud. She has a collection of toy theatres on display amongst the chintz and the gorgeous furnishing of her drawing room, while an elegant dascshund pads around her feet, as the maid brings in tea to be served in fine bone china. She turns towards me, with that famous beaming smile, -half mischief, half seduction, - ... and great wafts of Immortelle Corse fill the space between us. This fragrance begins with a lemony freshness then mellows into that half-floral, half-astringent note of Helichrysum, the garden scent which spans the height of summer and the autumn's fall into senescence. It's a scent that perfectly mirrors this great lady's career, full of beauty and colour, maintaining its charm into the autumn of her life, where there is so much to remember and warmly celebrate. Would I wear it myself? Given these associations with the Feminine, maybe not. Rather than try to recreate that initial moment of delight, better to treasure the memorable encounter in my olfactory memory ... like the time I once saw that same actress in her prime, up there on the stage, inhabiting another world, while time stood still.

This has a lot of oakmoss, a lot more than I was expecting. For the first few hours apricot is a strong presence, and in the very beginning I smell lemon. The saffron note more subtle than the apricot but it's still noticeable. Of course the star of the show is immortelle and everything else is just there to provide support. It's a lot more bitter than Sables due to the high amounts of oakmoss, and the fruit and citrus give it more lift. It's more herbal. But it's just as much of a bone dry full-throated immortelle ready to catch on fire. The sourness and bitterness take you more to the actual plant than Sables' pure wall of noise of hot sand. They also make it harder for me to love it. One I am looking forward to revisiting. Very original immortelle soliflore.

This smells to me like a pancake made from immortelle and saffron, with a little immortelle syrup on the side, drenched in orange juice. Somehow the apricot and the lemon together create that impression of orange. Underneath it all is the savory musky smell of oak moss. This is a syrupy, sticky, fruity immortelle, not a dry grassy one or an ambery one. It’s not overly sugary at all, but it does have a gourmand aspect. I love immortelle and it was fun to try this. This is a moist immortelle fragrance, and I’ve realized I prefer dry immortelle perfumes, particularly dry hay immortelle. So I probably wouldn’t buy this, but it’s good. Lasts about 7 hours on skin with arms length sillage.

This perfume house is really growing on me. I liked Eau De Gloire and just purchased it, and I've tested two others out of curiosity. Immortelle Corse reminds me of our traditional tobacco colognes (in Turkiye) for the first hour, supported with the aroma of thick apricot juice. At the start of the second hour, penetrating saffron starts dominating the fragrance, and the oakmoss reminds me of the dark, resinous Antaeus (the original formulation). That goes on for a few hours. It seems like longevity is always between 6 and a max of 10 hours in this house. The projection is so-so. We can say "strong skin scent." Due to that tobacco-cologne vibe, it is unoriginal to me, so pass.

Hot syrup, apricot honey on suede. Citrus, spicy and wild immortelle dries quickly covered with saffron. It remains like this, spicy, sweet, a little dirty and citrus alternating with the musky base, between soft, fluffy and silky. A long-lasting honey on the skin and with a good sillage. Soft! Beautiful in winter, on windy evenings. Nostalgic Arab.

Immediately I'm reminded of a chypre ala Mitsouko/Rochas Femme, with a peachy/mossy opening (minus the white florals). There is a hay-like, slightly curried immortelle lurking beneath. Don't get the sweet, maple syrup aspect of immortelle much. This is huge oakmoss to my nose. This one dies on clothes, needs skin (probably because its extrait). As it dries down there is a sourness that dominates.

Well officially this fragrance proved that any immortelle based scent is not for me I don’t like I didn’t gravitate towards it It’s not something I care about I don’t remember any immortelle based frags that I actually like Performance is good Passing by and not looking back