Have you tried this fragrance?
Share your experience and help others discover great scents
A gloomy, greasy haired biker stands in front of an opening to a cave in a damp forest. He’s holding a bouquet of violets. He ushers you in and you sit together quietly on a leather couch listening to the sounds of the woodland. You notice some mushrooms and wonder whether you left the heating on at home.
First of all.... despite any negative things I might say about this perfume, I think it's very good. Creative, made by a real legendary perfumer, the bottle and imagery it evokes are powerful and desirable, so hats off to Greco. Most of all I'm happy that stuff like this is still getting made. I think Rauque is catering to a niche within a niche of people who maybe are nostalgic for vintage, bygone stuff but with a sense of wanting something new, exciting, artisanal, avant garde. I think this ticks the boxes. First thing that struck me was a dusty, fusty, amber accord, choking, slightly rubbery, fleshy, not quite earthy but someone mentioned mushrooms to me when they sent the sample and I will go a along with that, texturally at least. The same way Tom Ford have that truffle aspect. What annoys me is lazy references to Chamade, Derby (because of a certain vintage leatheriness I suppose?) and Fahrenheit. I mean the Fahrenheit one annoys me a bit because these fragrances are totally different (well aside from on paper they are both predominantly violet, amber and leather) but I suspect this contains methyl octine carbonate a signature violet/floral material which you can definitely detect in Rauque's make up. It's not a classical stuffy, papery Ionone nor is it a fleshy, sweet orris type violet it's deliberately deployed here as a completely different shade of purple. Also the dreaded Ambrarome a material, which fascinates and repels me in equal measure, taking one of my absolute favourite things in the world cistus/Labdanum and pulling out a vile, animalistic, ambergris adjacent qualities from it. Thankfully it's restrained enough in Rauque for me to be able to appreciate it's facets without running for the hills. I found a pissy quality (certainly in the opening 30 mins) which many folks will love and this could be a cassis sort of material coming into play, so really the major players here create this kinda, filthy, greasy, amber violet, resin, animalistic, mushroom, composition which is all complementary and in harmonious resonance . This feels quite like Sheldrake but when I first sprayed it, and subsequently first sprayed it on to wear, I was struck by just how chaotic and almost indy it felt, takes a minute to settle into a groove and you realise just how well balanced and un-accidental (deliberate?) this perfume is. Perhaps Sheldrake has been informed or inspired by the indy movement of the last 10+ years, a movement his work for Serge Lutens doubtless was the inspiration for lots of self trained artisans, and so the cycle continues. I must say, wearing this is much more rewarding than I'd imagined it to be, my first impressions were good if a little confused, I just don't like this perfume, it doesn't fill me with joy, there's something odd and unsettling, discomforting about this collection of notes and accords. It's almost smirking at me like a killer giving a TV interview or a Police press conference and revealing micro expressions of dupers delight. Something is wrong here. The fact it's so thought provoking and warrants a fairly wordy review even by my standards, should tell you that I think it's worthy of investigation and for those who love this and think it's a masterpiece, I won't argue the toss because I can totally see why you might think that, just not for me.