Olfactive Studio
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Saffron and cardamom burst forth with almost aggressive immediacy, the cardamom's spicy-green character cutting through like cardamom pods freshly cracked open. Bergamot adds brightness but doesn't soften the impact—instead it amplifies the peppery heat, creating an opening that smells like stepping into a spice market rather than dabbing on cologne.
The tea and coffee emerge gradually, their tannic dryness tempering the opening's fiery edge whilst the pepper lingers persistently underneath. A whisper of peony surfaces, delicate and almost imperceptible, as though someone's merely suggested florals rather than announced them—the composition becomes more nuanced here, less aggressive but no less complex.
The patchouli and oakmoss establish themselves as the true skeleton of the fragrance, with amber and labdanum creating a resinous, woody-sweet base that smells like aged amber beads and dry parchment. What remains is utterly chypre in character—spicy, slightly austere, faintly mossy—a scent that feels like it's been part of your skin all along rather than something applied to it.
Chypre Shot is a fragrance for those who find conventional chypres too soft, too powdery, too concerned with pleasing. Bertrand Duchaufour has stripped the genre back to its spicy skeleton and dressed it in leather-dark fabrics. The opening salvo of saffron and cardamom immediately establishes this as a scent with backbone—not the delicate spice of most designer fragrances, but something with genuine heat and peppery edge.
What makes Chypre Shot compelling is how Duchaufour uses the heart notes as a counterbalance rather than a softening agent. The black tea and coffee don't sweeten the narrative; instead, they deepen it, adding a slightly astringent, slightly bitter quality that prevents the fragrance from ever becoming gourmand. The peony is barely perceptible—a ghost of floral tenderness amid the spice and tannins—whilst the Madagascar pepper amplifies the cardamom's sharpness into something almost confrontational.
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3.8/5 (159)