Cringeworthy sexual marketing aside, I've just tested this in the boutique and it's wonderful. On the card I don't get much, but on the skin, it's very complex and interesting. There's powdery iris, but the carrot seed and ambrette make for a unique blend, and the powderiness doesn't last long. After 20 minutes, a sort of metallic sheen becomes apparent. I'd say this perfume doesn't fit into a genre other than bearing the stylistic hallmarks of the great JC Ellena. I'm not sure this is for me, but I applaud the release of another beautiful, interesting and unique scent from FM. 2 hours in, and the vetiver and plum are much more apparent. I'm not generally a fan of vetiver dry-downs, but this one hasn't become pickley so that's a plus in my book. 3 hours in... well, it's fully transformed into the dry-down of Guerlain's Vetiver. Hmmmmm Update- Wearing it in public and within minutes people in the metro are muttring about how great it smells.
Call me a JCE/Malle dickrider if you must!!!! but this is a lovely, elegant, little perfume and I mean what did people expect from Ellena at this point hey? His style is this minimal, simplistic, lightly spicy thing, I'm amazed at the fact he can keep churning out mildly deritive/self aware/carriacture of his own style stuff but somehow bring something new to the table, especially this genre, one he helped to define with L'eau d'hiver looming large in my memory and subseuently spawning stuff like Dior's Bois d'agent, this doesn't really smell like either of those but if you like them then be in store for a treat. So I was told this was heavy, heavy clove and not much else, by several, usually reliable sources, but what a load of old shite they were talking, yes there's a clove note but it's super balanced and understated. This is a nuanced and laid back approach to an orris/iris accord based perfume which I find almost impossible not to enjoy, I mean a potential critisism (if you really must?) could be that it's a bit, boring, beige, whatever, but I think it's pricisely the tone that they were trying to achieve and for me this is something of a safe but return to form for Malle after a couple of duff releases in Synthetic Jungle and the pretty apauling (albeit you might find a favourable review by me on here because I did quite like it at first, but do not any longer) Uncut Gem. I enjoy this. I'm sorry. I'm still impressed by JCE's work, it's not big and shiny rah rah look at me, Orris opulence which again a valid critique might be for this money and Malle Branding it should be, but I' throw back to that, a lack of understanding of the brand/brief and the perfumer here. Mark my words this is a grower, not a shower and time will tell on Heaven can wait.