Jean-Louis Scherrer
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Violet leaf dominates with an almost aggressive greenness, its cucumber-sharp facets amplified by saffron's hay-metal twang. Citrus merely sketches the edges whilst mimosa contributes a face-powder softness that's immediately swallowed by all that chlorophyll.
Magnolia's effervescent quality lifts the composition whilst iris anchors it with earthy, slightly carrot-like rootiness. Lilac remains polite and soapy, the woods providing a cool, grey scaffold that prevents the florals from becoming too lush or romantic.
Classic chypre bones emerge: oakmoss and vetiver create that distinctive bitter-green-smoky signature, whilst ambrette seed adds a skin-like muskiness that's more mineral than animalic. What remains is austere, elegant, and utterly uncompromising.
Thomas Fontaine has constructed something rather clever here: a chypre that refuses to wallow in vintage pastiche, instead pushing violet leaf's cucumber-sharp greenness right to the fore. The opening is almost startling in its verdancy—saffron lending a metallic, hay-like quality that amplifies rather than softens the violet leaf, whilst bergamot and lemon barely sweeten the proposition. This isn't the powdery violet of grandmother's dressing table; it's the bitter, chlorophyll-rich stem crushed between fingers in a spring garden.
The floral heart could have veered treacly, but Fontaine shows restraint. Magnolia brings a champagne-like fizz, iris its rooty, carrot-seed earthiness, whilst lilac hovers as a cool, soapy whisper rather than shouting its presence. The woods here feel structural rather than decorative—grey, papery, slightly austere. There's a kinship with the mineral quality of certain Prada fragrances, that same studied refinement that appeals to those who find conventional florals tiresome.
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4.1/5 (262)