Décou-Vert Review

Décou-Vert is not, as its silly name might suggest, an intensely green experience. Rather, it is a very straightforward lily of the valley fragrance with a vanillic, musky aura that’s redolent of M. Laurent’s Baiser Volé (Cartier, 2011). The watery-floral greenness is pretty and undemanding, but a dry, pale woody note sticks out a little too much in the top- and mid-sections for my taste. Given the Cartier is comparable in price, I know which I’d sooner pick.

Nose: David Maruitte

House: Laboratorio Olfattivo

Release date: 2012
Notes (per Fragrantica): lily of the valley, green leaves, magnolia, jasmine, lilac, musk, water notes, oakmoss.

Salina Review

Laboratorio Olfattivo describes Salina as “[a] parfum that remind us immediately the sun blinding sparkle, reflecting itself over the water; the childish play of footprints over the sand, deleted by waves, and the warmth of the sun over the skin”.

The water, sand and waves bit I get: it’s there in the heavily dosed Calone-type marine base. What I don’t get is why this is introduced by an almost combative, sweetly-herbal green complex that in part recalls artemisia; it neither develops the theme in an obvious direction nor works in a complementary fashion.

Relative to the former, the latter accord doesn’t last so very long, meaning one ends up smelling principally of warm, stagnant rock-pool for much of the scent’s duration.

Nose: David Maruitte

House: Laboratorio Olfattivo

Release date: 2013

Notes (per Fragrantica): lemon, pine needles, sea salt, sand, myrtle, sea notes, lavender, vanilla, tonka bean, cedar, musk.

Menthe Fraîche Review

Menthe Fraîche  goes where few fine fragrance have dared, extrapolating the various facets of peppermint oil to create a kind of mint ‘soliflore’.

Opening on a mentholated note that envelops a fresh, Hedione-citrus accord, the perfume quickly develops a strong green character redolent of crushed leaves (so possibly including Stemone / Stearyl Acetate / Cis-3-Hexenol) with an ozonic accent and a somewhat agrestic heart. The whole is underscored by a refined cedar which, to my nose, carries the merest suspicion of spice.

Longevity is on the weak side.

Nose: David Maruitte

House: James Heeley

Release date: 2006

Notes (per Fragrantica): mint leaf, Sicilian bergamot, lotus, mate, white cedar.