Elie Saab
Elie Saab
605 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Orange blossom explodes with indolic brightness, its soapy-waxy character immediately tempered by waves of honeyed sweetness. The first five minutes feel unexpectedly fresh and almost aldehydic before the honey accord swallows the composition whole, softening everything into creamy amber.
The jasmine sambac emerges as the predominant floral, its intoxicating, slightly fruity character diffused through the honeyed base. The patchouli enters quietly here, grounding the sweetness without darkening it, whilst the iris-like powderiness creates a veil that softens the fragrance's overall projection.
Within four hours, the composition collapses into a faint, honeyed sweetness clinging to the skin—the woody elements largely absent, replaced by residual amber and barely-detectable patchouli. By the fifth hour, only a whisper remains: creamy, powdery, almost skin-like in its intimacy.
Le Parfum Elie Saab occupies a peculiar space in Kurkdjian's oeuvre—a fragrance that announces itself with botanical clarity before retreating into its own shadow. The opening bursts with candied orange blossom, that waxy-green indolic character that feels simultaneously creamy and slightly bitter, but here it's immediately softened by the fragrance's prevailing sweetness. This is a scent built around the jasmine-honey axis, and it's the honey that dominates the experience rather than the florals themselves. The Rose Honey accord reads less as distinct rose and honey components and more as a single, ambered sweetness—almost honeycomb-like in its crystalline quality, wrapping the jasmine sambac and grandiflorum in a gourmand veil that borders on almond or heliotrope territory.
What's striking is the patchouli's restraint. Rather than providing earthiness or depth, it functions as a stabiliser, preventing the composition from becoming entirely one-dimensional dessert. The cedarwood remains largely structural, pencil-shaving clean rather than forest-deep. The fragrance's powdery accord suggests iris or perhaps subtle orris, adding a slightly talcum-like softness that makes this feel distinctly feminine-leaning despite its unisex classification.
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3.9/5 (85)