Bandit

I blind bought Bandit from fragrancenet in 2014. A bold move, I know. But it was INSTANT love and awe. Germaine Cellier, the nose behind this and Fracas, should be lauded for the absolutely iconic compositions she launched on the world. This absolute powerhouse of a perfume has since become, what I would consider, my signature. I don't wear it often enough to truly call it that, but it is the fragrance I feel the most...affiliated with*. Bandit is a bold fragrance. Believe the hype. She doesn't care about making friends and she doesn't care what you think of her. She is here to live and live fearlessly. The leather and civet and galbanum and artemisia are front and centre. And those sexy, inky, isobutylquinolines. It is GREEN and leather and bitter and excellent. Bandit is a fragrance for someone who can appreciate the contrast, the delectable piquancy, of the painful and bitter side of life - who can appreciate the delight in restraint, in sensations that aren't instantly pleasurable. There's a very good reason that Bandit is so frequently compared to the allure of "alternative lifestyles" (I mean that in the truest sense of the term). She is the Janus-face to her sister, Fracas. Where Fracas is the delight of indulgence, Bandit is the delight of denial. So what does Bandit really smell like? Well, my initial thought is trains. The opening is a lot. There's the burnt rubber, grease and beastly mechanical terror. It's going somewhere and I don't know if I'm worthy of trailing behind, but oh boy do I want to be. The drydown - like most chypres - is surprisingly approachable. It softens considerably, the leather and galbanum settle down into an no-nonsense partnership. They won't let up but they won't rip you a new one in the process. Like a warm engine, the drydown functions well and is appealing, but god help you if you get in its way: it will plow through you without mercy. I must note I have tried the vintage. We're talking 1948 here - all the nitromusks and Cellier bases intact. It is and isn't a different thing. The reformulation has carefully and appropriately (I imagine) reinvigorated the shocking fragrance it was back in the day. It retains that absolutely brutal and green and sharp opening. BUT. But. The original formula has all that funky stuff the IFRA has disallowed that gives a...smooth and balanced development of notes. The vintage is much more floral. It is SO elegant. The Bandit we have now has risen to the occasion of a culture of outrage - it is appropriate. The vintage Bandit is softer and smoother. It has more complexity. Experiencing the vintage shows just what we miss by kicking out the ingredients that will likely give us a rash or cancer or whatever. But, knowing that doesn't mean I lust after a bottle of the vintage. No, I happily would and have spent many dollars acquiring the modern formula. She suits me, she appeals to me. I love her harsh edges, her bold AF notes. She empowers me to be me, not a version of me for another. I have no need to appeal to anyone else when I wear Bandit, because I appeal to myself. *I should note that, upon my first sniff, she (Bandit) unseated Chanel's Bois Des Iles as the 'arome de moi-meme', who had occupied that role since 2005.

I got a sample of Bandit in a posh London department store, from an adorable SA, one of the rare really interested ones. (I mean really interested in fragrances, not her commission...) She told me the story of Piguet's perfumes, and the fact that this particular one was created in 1944. This in itself blew my mind. 1944...after the rock bottom of WWII in France, Paris gets liberated and someone creates a new perfume. Back to business, life goes on. According to the SA, the scent on the one hand is a reminiscent of Paris in ruins, the smell of smoke and destruction, but on the other hand it is the fragrance of the War Woman: liberated, strong, autonomous, requiring much more from life than ever before. As I work with the elderly in the UK, I KNOW these women...:-) OK, now in their 80's and 90's, but the glory of their past can still be detected in a glitter of the eyes! I know a lady, who was one of the first women operating the radar, and, as she proudly tells, teaching radar operation to much older officers in the army. Most definitely the war years were the time of her life, in many ways. I like imagining my clients in their prime, and Bandit helps me in this. This fragrance is feminine without any trace of human warmth. It is no-nonsense, powerful, self-assured. It is a woman dressed in 40's fashion: wide shoulders, bizarre little hats, smoking a cigarette and living for the day, cause for all we know, tomorrow may never come. I am pretty sure Marlene Dietrich wore it when singing to to troops... In my humble opinion, Bandit is as colossal a masterpiece, as Picasso's Guernica. I can totally enjoy it as a work of art, but as an everyday perfume...no. It is a memory of times gone by, and as such sheer perfection. I put it on yesterday, going to my bank to sort out some issues. The lady clerk was wearing one of those churned-out-by-the-dozen fragrances that are launched these days. The difference was as shocking as it goes! Put Guernica together with a drawing brought back by the neighbour's kid from pre-school. (Not your kids, as that is of course the loveliest in the whole wide world!!!) Also, I had a hard time being my warm and cosy self wearing Bandit...I felt intimidating and haughty, hard as steel and cold as ice. No, definitely I could not wear it, but I will most definitely put it on and enjoy the sheer grandeur of it in the privacy of my home. At least till the little vial lasts...

And now comes my second review for this iconic antihero fragrance: bear in mind this is regarding the *classic* formulation, probably no later than the 60s or 70s vintage. I said before that it was like a dirty-sexy lover that you hate but are hopelessly addicted to. The more time goes on, the more true that has become. She preys on my mind, making me crave her gorgeous filth over and over again. This fragrance is narcotic. And like a narcotic, it may make you seriously nauseous and terrified the first few times you try it. But then you're hooked for life. Don't regret it, though; you've been seduced by the best. It's not subtle. The notes are animalistic and leathery. But they're also masterfully blended with pungent herbs and mesmerizing florals. It smells like sex in a field on a hot summer day after a leather clad motorcycle ride. Now, the reformulation... I tried it. Had to. The vintage is so expensive and so hard to find. And sweet bastard baby monkeys, what a stench! Seriously. I have NEVER... it was repulsive. A mockery. A travesty. A sin. An abomination. An affront to god and man! Basically, it smelled like an unwashed-sunburned-communicably-diseased hippie who spent the night on a polluted beach then got sprayed by skunk. But if that's what you're into, then sure, absolutely go for it. To prove it's not my imagination, my esteemed husband, (talented in many things, but not in wine-tasting or perfume-nosing) smelled it and said, unprovoked, "Wow, that's really starting to smell like BO." But look at it this way: if you want to achieve that "I stayed up all week on a cheap booze and cigarette bender then ate garlic pasta and hit the gym for 2 hours without deodorant" aroma, this reasonably priced fragrance will give it to you instantly, without all the hard work! I will not be changing my my mind on this version, I can tell you. Not after falling in love with the original. They just got it all wrong. It's a perversion, and not the sexy kind.

Ok, I finally got my order from The Perfumed Court (as far as I know, it’s a trusted source of vintage fragrances). Now I have the following versions of Bandit by Robert Piguet: — (1) Bandit Light Pour Homme EDT (Alfin inc.); (2) Bandit EDT (Alfin inc.); (3) Vintage Bandit EDT Original Formula; (4) Vintage Bandit Parfum Original Formula; (5) Bandit EDP (Fashion Fragrances & Cosmetics, LTD); (6) Bandit Parfum (Fashion Fragrances & Cosmetics, LTD). — Versions # 1 and 2 (by Alfin inc.) are grossly reformulated, I wouldn’t recommend even trying them, it’s a waste of time and money. Version # 3, Vintage Bandit EDT Original Formula (obtained from The Perfumed Court): A strong green chypre with a pronounced leather accord. Very nice! Version # 4, Vintage Bandit Parfum Original Formula (obtained from The Perfumed Court): an absolutely gorgeous three-dimentional fragrance which olfactorily complies with canonical chemical design for Bandit by Germaine Cellier. Versions # 5 and 6 (by Fashion Fragrances & Cosmetics, LTD) are currently on the market. Both are very similar to the vintage versions of Bandit EDT and Parfum Original Formula obtained from The Perfumed Court, but Bandit EDP from Fashion Fragrances & Cosmetics, LTD is darker, stronger, and a little floral I would say. Dry-downs are really similar between vintage Bandit EDT and current version of Bandit EDP (Fashion Fragrances & Cosmetics, LTD). I’m still interested in trying Vintage Bandit Parfum and EDT Original Formula versions from sources other than The Perfumed Court . For now, I would totally stick to the current versions of Bandit de Robert Piguet from Fashion Fragrances & Cosmetics, LTD, USA. I’ve heard that their current nose, Aurélien Guichard, trained in Givaudan, was really careful in going back to the perfume formulations by Germaine Cellier and in trying to recreate Bandit as close as possible to its original. Note, they make only Bandit EDP and Bandit Parfum, no EDT!

I have never smelled any vintage version of Bandit. When I started to get interested in it, it disappeared from the shelves and Piguet introduced the flanker Bandit Supreme - which I liked but have never really fallen in live with: I absolutely adore oakmoss in perfumes, and I do like galbanum and leather - so even though I would describe Bandit Supreme as a bit harsh and bitter, I enjoy wearing it, I even find it surprisingly easy to wear and quite comforting. But: I do not get any if its heart notes which makes Bandit Supreme quite linear for me - and I must admit after a few hours it starts boring me a bit. Enter the newly formulated Bandit, now available on the Piguet website. It starts with galbanum but is a lot softer and brighter than Bandit Supreme thanks to aldehydes and some white flowers and fruit notes. The heart notes (with carnation and rose dominating) are exactly what I miss (and long for) every time I wear Bandit Supreme and the drydown is a fantastic bitter combination of oakmoss and leather - again a bit softer than Bandit Supreme. I must say that I do not find Bandit shocking, brutal, provocative or whatever I’ve read about it at all. For me, it’s one of the most beautiful chypre scents I have ever smelled. Maybe wearing it gives me the illusion of being a bit tougher than I am - but overall it’s one of those perfumes that are just making me happy every time I choose it. Some reviewers find Bandit Supreme a bit more masculine-leaning and Bandit more feminine, and I would definitely agree. However, to my mind, BS would be a lot more interesting on a woman and Bandit on a man. One last thing that suprised (and first disappointed) me is the soft sillage. After a week wearing it, I would rate it somewhere between intimate and moderate only. But I’ve decided to be thankful for that - it makes Bandit easily wearable at any occasion.