Paco Rabanne
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Cardamom detonates immediately, all green spice and eucalyptus sharpness, whilst mandarin adds a sticky, almost Tang-like sweetness that shouldn't work but absolutely does. The bergamot hovers at the edges, citric and slightly petrol-bright, trying to bring order to what is fundamentally a gorgeous mess of competing temperatures.
Lavender emerges not as traditional fougère fare but as something sweeter, almost caramelised, its coumarin facets amplified by the creeping benzoin below. Sage and violet leaf create this aromatic-aqueous effect, cucumber-cool greenness cutting through the increasing sweetness, whilst everything takes on a polished, deliberately synthetic sheen that reads as intentional sophistication rather than budget constraint.
Benzoin dominates completely now, pouring amber-gold warmth over a patchouli that's been scrubbed clean of its earthiness and rendered into dark chocolate. The cedarwood is more suggestion than substance, a faint pencil-shaving dryness that keeps the composition from collapsing into pure confection, whilst that persistent sweetness lingers like expensive aftershave on expensive skin.
Million Royal reads like a masterclass in controlled excess—all the opulence of the Million lineage, but buttoned up in a crisp shirt with proper cufflinks. Quentin Bisch has built something deceptively sophisticated here, opening with a citrus-spice collision where cardamom's green, eucalyptus-tinged heat crashes into mandarin's syrupy sweetness. The bergamot attempts civility, but the cardamom won't have it, creating this fizzing, almost effervescent quality that feels oddly modern.
What makes this compelling is the aromatic heart that follows—lavender and sage performing their usual barbershop routine, except here they're sweetened beyond recognition. The violet leaf brings a cucumber-like wetness that stops the composition from becoming cloying, while the lavender leans into its coumarinic, almost tonka-like facets rather than its herbal side. It's decidedly synthetic in construction (that accord data doesn't lie), but deliberately so, achieving a kind of hyper-real clarity where each element remains distinct yet interwoven.
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4.0/5 (141)