Parfum d'Empire
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
A burst of raw, slightly bitter green hits immediately—sharp nettle with that distinctive hay-like pungency cutting through clean air. The thistle arrives alongside it, adding a peppery, almost thistle-seed dryness that keeps the opening from feeling fresh in any conventional sense.
The nettle softens into something more herbal and rounded as the composition settles, though thistle maintains its spiky character. Orris begins its slow emergence, introducing a subtle iris-like softness that struggles against the dominant green framework, creating an interesting tension between powder and green botanical austerity.
The orris root finally claims more territory, but never overwhelms—you're left with a delicate powdery-green skin scent where the thistle has retreated to background whisper and nettle has become almost imperceptibly soft. What remains is pale, faint, somewhat ghostly.
Mal-Aimé is a portrait of romantic desolation rendered in green botanical matter. Marc-Antoine Corticchiato has constructed something deliberately austere here—a fragrance that wears its melancholy like a second skin. The nettle absolute and thistle form the emotional core, those prickly, almost hostile botanicals that speak of wild, uncultivated spaces rather than manicured gardens. There's a spiky quality to the composition (that 88% spicy accord isn't about warmth; it's about edge and slight aggression), which prevents this from ever settling into comfort. The orris root base promises powder and gentle iris, but arrives too faint to truly soften what sits above it.
This is a fragrance for solitary walks through overgrown fields at dusk. It suits someone who finds beauty in rejection, who understands that not all scents need to please. The green dominance (100% accord strength) means you're wrapped in something herbaceous and slightly sharp—nettle tea steeped too long, thistle stems bruising under your fingers. There's an earthy dryness to it all, something almost medicinal. The powdery base notes flicker rather than bloom, creating an impression of orris that's been buried under leaves.
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3.8/5 (317)