Grand Beau

Yesterday I went to Etiket to see what new fragrances they had so I could get samples and choose a new summer fragrance. Tried several fragrances on paper including Grand Beau. After 5-10 mins I was drawn to this scent and asked if I could spray it on my skin. Continued to look around and was having 5-6 samples made and I kept smelling my wrist and was entranced by this scent. Ended buying a full bottle on the spot. This is the first time I do this, I always try before I buy. Today I wore Grand Beau to work and a women from Saudi Arabia stepped into my office and said "It smells amazing in here". So 1 compliment on the first wear. The first blast is pine and juniper berry, it gives a green freshness but not too intense green. It's very well balanced and a beautiful synergy between the pine and berry. The scent opens up slowly for the first hour and the Angelica slowly comes in and mixing very well with the pine and berry. My first impression was this resembles French Lover by Frederic Malle and actually the Sebastian also mentions this in his review. It however differs from French lover with its salty aquatic notes in the background, these are not very prominent and come and go on me. It does resemble being close to the ocean with pine and juniper around. It reflects very well the goal that was given for this fragrance. This is a monster of a fragrance, last 10 plus hours and even after a shower. Silage is good for the first 2-3 hours then it lingers around for another 4-5 hours and then becomes a skin scent that seems to last forever. I could still had a faint smell of this after a shower. This was absolute love at first sniff for me. As usual try before you buy, this is not a mass appealing fragrance. It's a limited edition with only 1350 bottles made but there are also 4 ml samples that seem to be available as well. I am even thinking of buying a second backup bottle, this is how much I enjoy this fragrance. Looking forward to read what you think of this fragrance.

I love the combination of Pine, Juniper and mineral aspects that tie together this scent giving a cleanness almost sharpness to it but also very, very smooth. The seaweed for me is very minimal, it just gives a slight salty touch like seawater residue on your skin after swimming in the ocean. But nothing like Megamare, not that direction. I don't think that I see it as an aquatic either. Much more green, fresh. The Juniper berries pull very gin and tonic and you notice that quite a bit through the opening. Also, something in here makes it project very strong through the first hour and then it settles down. Looking forward in wearing this in Spring/Summer for a better picture. We'll see how the warmer weather brings out other qualities.

This is a juniper masterpiece, the pine and vetiver keeps it away from being the usual gin and tonic. The more this dries down the more I love it! Well blended with the green notes and musk sweeping in towards the end making this very smooth and fresh. Almost reminds me of This Is Not a Blue 1.1 from the house of Histoires de Parfums but there is many differences. This performs well lasting about 10hrs with a decent trail that may last about 4-5hrs before it settles to a skin bomb. I purchased a sample and immediately knew this one was coming home full size.

The more I wore this, the more I loved this. This is the rare juniper dominant fragrance that does not necessarily smell like a gin and tonic: it's more like like a forested ridge near the ocean (the seaweed note here is used very sparingly, thank goodness, but does evoke a seascape). The notes seem very natural, and this also seems exceptionally fresh without having any citrus in it (which surprised me). If only I could afford more than a sample! This would be wonderful in hot weather.

Gentle, piney woodness for me! I get a touch of marine from the seaweed.

A bit musky, smoky, and airy. Starts off a bit like Archetipo by Menditorossa, then quickly settles down into something similar to Malle’s Uncut Gem. I found no resemblance to French Lover, nor Royal Oud, which was a bit disappointing. It is nice though on scent alone, and does get better as it dries down. I get a bit of ambroxan and leather in the dry down which I really enjoy.

I was expecting a lot from this given the hype, but was disappointed. I'm not a big angelica fan at all, and this has an overpowering amount of that. I mostly get angelica and seaweed, which is pretty unpleasant to my nose. Add to that the high cost, and this is a scrubber for me.

Similar to French Lover as suggested above. This is slightly more herbal in a rooty, vegetal way (more angelica-focused?), with highlights of pine and juniper creating a smoother and more aromatic green top. Not as sharp- much rounder. The second biggest departure from FL is the salty element, which gives nods to marine themes of seaside beaches and coastal forestry through a briny-water effect. At it's core is an ambery, dry wood that I'm indifferent to. I sensed it leaping off my testing strip the next morning, and it's not something I enjoy that much. Into the dry-down it gets more musky and murky, where I get notions of languid-seawater mixed with a smoky, animalic tenderness from the ambrocenide. It's a little sour, resinous, green, and warm. Overall a slightly more challenging, but better performing variant of the French Lover template. To me the dry down is almost overtaken by the amberwoods to detrimental effect. Persistent, annoying, and eventually a bit clunky in an overbearing way.

Okay so I was looking forward to trying Tom de Monaco as there's more than a little bit of hype surrounding them, but this was a disappointing start. It's overtly a spacious diffusive aroma chemical, woody amber festival from the very start, peppered with the actual notes rather than featuring them or feeling an attachment to them. I get a piney, citrus juniper and then a marine sea spray but then it soon retreats to it's default as a gassy, sharp modern ambroxan perfume. There's some musks and at a push angelica but please the comparisons to French Lover are barely in the realms of sanity in my opinion. Uncut gem? Yes!!! I get that comparison but this is a meek rounder version of Uncut gem which goes balls out with it's awfulness this teeters on the brink but never fully commits. I'm more inclined to call this a bit boring and a bit sharp to my nose, it's not awful but it's not to my taste really.

This is very masculine. Top notes give modern wooden vacation house in a holiday camp in a forest (with all minimalistic interior). Then it turns out there's a dude in this house who seems nice and well put together and all but is not my type!! Too manly man and at the same time high-maintenance looking (expensive beauty product and overconfidence that only exists because of external reassurance, probably). Aaaand I'm uncomfortable and want to exit this house. Ok I'm realizing this is not a nice comment and I must have had a problem with a man wearing a similar scent in the past, for it to have such bad associations. So anyway if someone wants my 2mL sample feel free to DM me, I will happily give it away! The fragrance is not bad itself, it's interesting, fresh and woody, and the performance is good.

Oh, my days. I think I know what is trying to be conceived in Grand Beau, but this one grows quite abrasive pretty immediately. Juniper and angelica are traced, but not 'colored in,' while the negative space is all sharp and penetrating woody ambers all competing to be the loudest and most strident. If only the perfumer dealt these high-impact materials with a more measured hand, this would have had potential. The further into its development the more unwieldy and cumbersome it feels. I can sense that if only there wasn't such a reliance on boldness this could've been beautiful. It feels as if it's constructed specifically to tap into the wealthier contingent of "smellmaxxing" types who fuss over performance and impact rather than those who can appreciate subtlety and elegance in perfume.

Holy shit this is strong, way too strong. Not at all a pleasant smell, very aggressive and sharp, and doesn’t smell natural at all. And it’s nuclear which isn’t a good thing when you want to get rid of it! A big no for me!

Maybe my nose is not that sophisticated but this felt linear to me - it just goes straight to ambroxan- piney green ambroxan. Seems good for layering but with this price point ...

It sadly doesn't work for me at all. On paper, I can pick out the juniper berry, pine and vetiver and can appreciate them and the scent as a whole. On my skin, everything is just so incredibly sharp and not at all pleasant. It projects and lasts really well, which unfortunately is a bad thing for me, but great for you if you enjoy it! ;)

Many claim juniper is leading in this one but it's actually angelica oil that takes the front stage at the beginning. And this is where connections to French Lover are made, but on a side by side one would agree that they are really not that similar. French Lover has the photorealistic natural edge to it, Grand Beau on the other hand, quickly turns into a woody amber DNA, almost middle eastern. That bitter, patchouli/vetiver fueled woody amber something. The aromatic notes and the incense luckily live long enough but are they saving it from becoming yet another "throw in some woody ambers make it nuclear and charge whatever" niche(!) scent? €260 for 50ml compared to €275 for 100ml of French Lover, it is a daring price point to say the least.

Wow.. potent. At first it smells a bit animalic/ barn yard and hay like, the dry down is refreshing but almost Vicks vapor rub refreshing. Not something I’d want on my man to smell like but I think it would wake you up.. maybe a good gym scent?

I have this one plus 2 samples, Ganymede and Tonic Blanc. This 3 had a very romantic ménage á trois, after that, each one of them kept a little bit of juice from the others.