Sable Marocain

Hot stuff for sure - but for me, not quite as outstanding as Phaedon's incredible Tabac Rouge. I doff my hat (or wave my headscarf?) to Sable Marocain for its stunning warm resiny amber, and the extraordinary things it does with cacao almost take my breath away ... no sickly-chocolate aura at all, but a deep, rich, dry, woody accord that somehow manages to smell of violets (what? violets in the desert?) without turning my stomach. The initial hour is madly sweet and pretty assertive, but with the gaiac and copahu and citrus giving all kinds of random wafts of beauty from all over the imaginary smellscape. I fell for it hard: these felt like dunes I'd love to frolic in all day. None of the usual cliches of 'oriental gold' spicing, either - frankincense, elemi, pepper come nowhere near this - it's somehow much more original, earthier, and also gentler and more subtle than that. What a find! But. (Oh no... it's such a shame...) Longevity and performance cannot hold a candle (in the desert wind or not) to Tabac Rouge and the really distinctive character of the first hour doesn't last. What's left behind is still classy, woody, dry and lovely - just nothing like as special as the opening. True unisex and almost worth it just for that magic twilight ambience of the first hour, but I'm unsure I'd have the patience to keep lashing it on. Would jump on a discounted buy in a heartbeat, but to survive the desert trails you need something with stamina. This one just wants to hang out at the oasis, nibbling dates, making friends and having fun, rather than striking out into the drier sands.

Yes, this is kinda good! A curious fragrance but not a huge statement maker. I find Sable Marocain a refreshingly different, comfortable balsamic fragrance. Sable Marocain welcomes me with subtle, sweet ginger and gentle, sunny golden amber. Citrus evens out the ginger and keeps a lift in the opening without being sharp. The dry elements then start to enter, first a dusting of raspy cacao, then a little subtle vetiver. Here I am briefly reminded, like others, of deliciously sensual Guerlain LIDGE. Labdanum is also subtly woven in with delicate, sweet ambery floral threads, complemented by a minimalist shaving of dry, tarry guaiac wood. Copahu or copaiba balsam, in its pure form is one of the most inconspicuously scented base ingredients, but it's woody, soft character complements and grounds all the other notes perfectly. Sable Marocain culminates into a very well blended, round, citrus/wood balm with a veil of sweetness, making this fragrance very gentle and easy to wear for both sexes. ** Update ** as the day is wearing on, this is quite cuddly and growing on me. Love in a big way!

This juice is yet another keeper from Phaedon they're working magic just judging by the ones I've tried. The opening to Sable Marocain is madness and super super sweet, smells like jelly beans but not as sharp maybe more like jelly babies. Anyway as that settles after a few minutes the cophu balm and cacao come into play and comparisons with L'instant de Guerlain extreme as Chorando mentions below are totally understandable and I thought the same sfter a few minutes of sniffing. It's more of a glancing nod in lidge's direction than a copycat though. This fragrance is about an amber accord, dense wood, labdanum and vetiver and the drydown is almost unrecognisable from that fruity sweet opening. I doff my cap to Phaedon again for creating a nice fragrance but doesn't blow me away and I probably wouldn't wear it myself. Just a quick update deep into the drydown and I can really smell it still emanating from my skin it doesn't smell bad, I've just grown tired of it extremely quickly. It's become a murky blur no roughness or sharpness left and I'm not enjoying it.

Phaedon has a tendency to open really dirty and get me excited, then morph into a pleasant enough scent that I feel little or no urge to procure larger amounts of. In a way, this reminds me of Kokorico, but without the nice fig leaf note. It's densely woody with lots of vetiver and a little bitter cacao. I detect labdanum, but not enough to make a big impression. Nice enough, but I'd really rather stick to Kokorico and that has nothing to do with the massive price difference.

"Dark, dry and mysterious... sandy dunes of Moroccan desert under amber evening skies." Sable Marocain is a 2013 fragrance by Phaedon, a perfume house from France that also brought us Tabac Rouge, a highly popular tobacco-based fragrance that is dubbed a clone of Tom Ford's highly popular Tobacco Vanille. "Sable Marocain" means Moroccan sand in French, and in terms of imagery, the fragrance perfectly conjures images of sandy dunes of the North African country amidst the ember-colored skies. The main notes are vetiver, amber and a certain Copahu balm, with some notes of ginger on skin. The vetiver is very woody and "rooty"/earthy, and the amber characteristically yellow. I've never smelled Copahu balm before but I smell something very stone-dry in the fragrance, one where I imagine a special kind of incense smouldering in the background. In the drydown, I get sweet-spicy notes of ginger and cacao. Sable Marocain is an interesting fragrance and I can imagine it working well in cold climates. I think it works better in autumn rather than winter purely because of the brownish-yellow imagery I get from the notes. For those who like balsamic, woody-dry scents, you should give this one a sniff.