Perfume Review: Noir Epices by Frederic Malle
I was all set on doing another Underrated Friday for today but then my boss decided to be a jerk to me yesterday and let me go before my two week notice ended which, needless to say, made me mad. So what did I do? I went passive aggressive (something I do very rarely - active aggression is my calling) and started imagining what type of revenge I could put him through. Since there’s not much I can do about the situation other than suck it up and learn my lesson, I figured I can at least think of a perfume that I’d love to stink up his office with. I will not be returning to that office, so I’m playing this game entirely in my imagination, and that’s satisfying enough. To accommodate my noir mood this week, I picked Noir Epices by Frederic Malle.
Noir Epices (Black Spices) is created by Michel Roudnitska, the perfumer behind my favorite Amoureuse. Noir Epices is all about spices, with a chypre effect. It features the notes of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, pepper, orange, geranium, sandalwood, patchouli. What I love about it in particular is that it’s defiant. It’s one of those scents others will be likely to get really put off by while you’ll feel honored and proud to be its wearer. Or rather it will wear you. Do not attempt to subdue it for it will not oblige. If fragrances came with warning labels as far as wearability, it would undoubtedly come with a “Wear at your own risk” label. Noir Epices opens up with a nosehair-burning blast of pepper and geranium and quickly gets intensified by yet more spices, as if saying, “Pepper alone won’t do it to be defiant enough, folks”. So you get hit by nutmeg and cloves and just a touch of cinnamon. It’s a debauchery of drunk spices. The sandalwood and patchouli come in at some point as if trying to keep the whole thing under control which they manage to do only to a degree. The drydown is very much a spicy, cinnamony geranium, just as bold and just as audacious. The debauchery lasts for hours, and you wake up the next day with an olfactory hangover. But I love it nonetheless, and that is the kind of scent I’d love to stink up the said office with for I know it will last and last and last.
What scent would you pick for a passive-aggressive revenge? I’ll also be doing a sample giveaway. Please mention in your comment you’d like to be included in the drawing for a sample of L’Artisan Dzongkha.
Noir Epices is available at Barneys New York and directly from the Frederic Malle online shop.
Image source: www.barneys.com
35 comments August 24th, 2006