Bandit Versus Cabochard: A Catfight In The Green
March 13th, 2007
Please welcome my other contributing writer all the way from Sweden, Tove Solander! She will cover the much neglected Smell-alikes section of Aromascope.
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I’m taking up on Ina’s great idea of spotting “Smell-alikes”, and for my first post the smell-alikes chosen are Robert Piguet’s Bandit and Cabochard by Grès. It’s no wonder they’re scent siblings. Here are the notes I’ve found for each, with common notes in bold:
Bandit: bergamot, gardenia, aldehyde, jasmine, clove, rose, iris, musk, castoreum, patchouli, vetiver, ambergris, leather, woody notes.
Cabochard: bergamot, mandarin, galbanum, ylang ylang, jasmine, rose, clove, oakmoss, tobacco, musk, iris, sandalwood, vetiver, leather, castoreum, patchouli, labdanum.
Reviewers on Basenotes seem to agree that Cabochard is like a lighter and more wearable Bandit. For me, it’s more like the other way around. This may be because I have the “real deal”, i.e. the vintage version, of Cabochard (at least I think my sample is vintage), while Bandit is the contemporary eau de parfum, which is supposed to be softer and more floral (with the pure parfum being the softest and prettiest) than the sharper and harsher eau de toilette (which I’d love to try).
I remember when I first smelled Bandit eau de parfum, I thought it was unbearably sour and sharp and musty and herbal, a real old-fashioned scent. When I revisited it this year I fell in love, wrote a rave review in my blog, and changed my Basenotes rating from one star to five! In the company of Cabochard, Bandit is the feminine and pretty one, yet I don’t find Cabochard unwearable or old-fashioned at all, that’s how much my taste has changed – or developed, if you like. They are definitely sisters: dry, green, bad girl scents with leather undertones and light floral overtones. Bandit is softer and more powdery, while Cabochard is sharper and drier. They share a sort of juicy sourness, without being citrusy, but the sourness of Cabochard is more pungent, more like fresh-cut grass, while Bandit is almost sweet-and-sour. Speaking in colours, I envision Bandit as a bright yet creamy light green/yellow, and Cabochard as more of an acid green/yellow with specks of brown.
Bandit smells like it could give you hay fever, but don’t envision old, yellow hay, envision still green straw. Straw and pollen in the air and perhaps a hint of florals but very green florals, like dandelions. After about half an hour it develops this amazing warmness, like warm skin. I’m guessing this is the leather. It does not smell like a horse or a cow, but it feels like one, the body heat radiating from a large animal, indicating its presence. Or, if you’d like to get down and dirty: a tumble in the hay – or in the meadow - the sweetish smell of sunburnt skin and fresh sweat mingling with crushed stems.
When I first smelled my Cabochard sample I thought it was a dead ringer for Bandit, only denser and more hardcore, but smelling them side by side I discern some differences. Cabochard is the greenness of Bandit without the hay fever and animals, it’s a field or a forest (deciduous) rather than a farm. In the opening I get the vintage-style bitterness of oakmoss, but not very strongly, not a monster chypre (then again, considering my first reaction to Bandit, it might just be that my bittersweet meter has gone bananas, perfumista style). It’s cooler than Bandit, the level of coolness you could expect from a green scent. It’s also drier, the way lichen is dry, or wood, that’s where the brown hues come into the picture. It does have some amount of soft, powdery sweetness though, especially in the drydown, it’s nowhere near, say, a hardcore masculine vetiver in bitter greenness.
I conducted this experiment by putting one scent on each wrist, then swapping wrists and doing it all over again. One thing this taught me is that I prefer the scent I smell first, and/or the scent on my left wrist. When I smelled Bandit first I found Cabochard too sharp and thin, and when I smelled Cabochard first I found Bandit overly sweet, almost like dandelion-flavoured candy, if that’s fathomable. Whichever I smelled first had the perfect “Bandit scent” as it is in my mind. In the end, however, Bandit is the winner because of the wonderful animal warmth it radiates, while Cabochard is a little flatter and fades faster. Now I only wonder what outcome this experiment would have had if I had compared Bandit eau de toilette or vintage Bandit to the reformulated Cabochard?
Entry Filed under: Guest Blogger, Perfume Reviews, Smell-alikes
21 Comments Add your own
1. tmp00 | March 13th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
Wonderful to read you here! I haven’t gone to smell the reformulation of Bandit. since it was one of my mothers scents and I have kind of a thing about that. Cabochard I may have to try.
Welcome and write more!
2. dinazad | March 14th, 2007 at 3:57 am
I’ve always wondered why Bandit is so often reviewed as a “bad girl”, very, very strong scent. It is extremely well-behaved on me, soft and civilised and bright-eyed. If it’s a bandit, it’s a Hollywood one, the sexy girl with the off-the-shoulder ruffled white blouse (which never, ever gets dirty) and the corsage dress who (the girl, not the dress) has joined a band of handsome “rob the rich, feed the poor” outlaws. (I have both a vintage bottle and a new one, love them both but find neither particularly “bandit-y”). Cabochard (new), on the other hand, is a leather corset (another corset?) under a business suit, austere and strict and barely hiding passion and possibly an entirely different kind of strictness. I wear it when I want to be taken VERY seriously.
In the end I love and wear both B and C but hardly find them similar, at least on me. Curious, no?
3. carmencanada | March 14th, 2007 at 4:33 am
Tove, will you marry me? It would be a marriage of the minds, at least… I’m very much with you on this comparison, which I did this week-end, finally deciding that Cabochard (the vintage) is a bit too thin and rough on me compared to Bandit. Chanel n°19 in eau de toilette picks up where they leave off, on the green end of the spectrum, though it’s still in many ways a leather chypre. To me, she’s the playful kid sister of B and C.
4. Solander | March 14th, 2007 at 4:41 am
Tom - Thank you! I will write more - every Wednesday according to plan.
I guess I’m lucky my mother hates perfume so no vintage scents are off limits for me… All she has is an old bottle of Charlie, and I think most of what’s gone of it is wasted by me and my sister playing with the bottle…
dinazad - Great description of Bandit! I can see your Hollywood bad girl (something like The Outlaw maybe?) tumbling in the hay… I agree Bandit is no “real” bandit queen, that would have to be a much stronger and more bitter scent with loads of leather and wood and resins. In fact, when I first tried it and hated it I was disappointed it wasn’t a strong and dark leather scent as I had hoped but more of an “old lady-like” chypre (not that I knew what a chypre was back then)
I envision Bandit as a half strict/elegant, half rebellious/eccentric lady or scholar or adventuress from the early 20th century, tall and slim with dark hair, pale skin and red lips. Not quite a femme fatale.
I agree Cabochard is more businesslike. It doesn’t have the frivolous tumble-in-the-hay feel of Bandit, it’s more of a strict, cool green scent.
5. newproducts | March 14th, 2007 at 4:50 am
Welcome! Hmm, I’ve tried both the edt and the parfum of cabochard, though I think they were both the reformulated versions. I didn’t love either, which put me off trying Bandit, but maybe I should rethink this…
6. Solander | March 14th, 2007 at 4:51 am
Carmen - I’m flattered!
Chanel No 19 you say? It’s funny, I have a sample of it here awaiting further testing, but I didn’t think of it as a sibling to Bandit and Cabochard when I tried it briefly. It was so much lighter, not a leather chypre to my nose but more of a springlike green floral with lilac (not that there’s any in it).
I’ve seen Miss Balmain compared to Bandit & Cabochard, and I think it’s more similar than Chanel no 19, but perhaps too much of a classic chypre, without the wonderfull juicy, outdoorsy greenness of Cabochard & Bandit.
7. Solander | March 14th, 2007 at 4:54 am
newproducts - Thank you! I think you might like Bandit without liking Cabochard. If you found Cabochard too sharp/bitter/green/musty, too much of a classic chypre, Bandit is softer, sweeter and prettier and perhaps a little more “contemporary” in feeling? (Of course, I wouldn’t know about the reformulated Cabochard)
8. chayaruchama | March 14th, 2007 at 6:09 am
Loved your review !
I’ve both versions of each; never felt either to be sour or thin.
Both are very provocative and foxy- in the animalic and figurative sense, for me.
But that’s the beauty and mystery of perfumes- how they play out differently on each skin.
Dina- you’re SO naughty.
Tom, you’ve got to try it.
Inushka- hope you’re feeling better..
Love to all my ’stinky friends’ !
9. Solander | March 14th, 2007 at 6:26 am
Thank you, Chayaruchama! I don’t find any of them animalic in the usual sense of the word, not MKK/civet/cumin animalic. Bandit is animalic in a new and amazing way, sort of radiating body heat without actually smelling animalic…. But then my tolerance for skanky musks is extremely high!
10. Marina | March 14th, 2007 at 7:44 am
Love, love the reviews! More posts about leather scents, please!
11. Elle | March 14th, 2007 at 7:54 am
Welcome! Brilliant reviews of two of my favorite leather scents. I didn’t love Bandit until I tried the parfum, which slays me it’s so gorgeous. I love Cabochard parfum, but it’s not the vintage. Will have to get a sample. I very frequently compare scents using different wrists, so I’m fascinated by your observation about preferring the first scent you sniff and/or left wrist. I wonder if I’m doing the same thing. Definitely will have to take note next time I do comparisons.
12. Solander | March 14th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Marina, thank you! I’m a huge fan of leather scent - somewhat bizarrely, since I can often hardly detect leather in them and wish the leather note was more prominent…
Elle, sounds like I have to try the parfum versions too! I think skin chemistry can differ a little from wrist to wrist, and I also think my right wrist may suffer from “mouse wear” - that’s one of the reasons I decided I had to switch to do it properly.
13. Judith | March 14th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Well, I do love Cabochard vintage parfum, but I have never been able to wear Bandit regularly. It comes out much more GREEN on me (esp. the Edt), really hiding the leather, which I do smell in Cabochard. I agree with Elle the Bandit parfum is the best concentration–but I think I still prefer her sister:)
14. Solander | March 14th, 2007 at 8:38 am
Judith, that’s interesting, since for me Cabochard is much greener and Bandit more yellow/cream/linden. Perhaps Bandit edt is greener though? I can’t say I really smell the leather in any of them, but I sort of “feel” it, especially in Bandit. Definitely have to try the parfum now…
15. carmencanada | March 14th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Tove, re: N°19, it does have leather in the edt, albeit much tamer and discreet. Of course, Miss Balmain (vintage) is much closer in spirit. You really must try Bandit in the parfum, it’s way smoother and the flowers come out more in the heart notes. The edt can be a scorcher: I love its brutal, bitter opening but I really need to crave it…
16. Solander | March 14th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Carmen, You know, I actually think the edt sounds more tempting than the parfum. I’m not really a floral person, and the edp is smooth enough for me.
17. Ina | March 14th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Tove, wonderful comparison! I find Bandit much more wearable, even though it’s not my favorite leather. Cabochard is just so dry and serious, I don’t have the guts to wear it.
18. minette | March 14th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
if you really want to confuse things, you should try gres pour homme - it smells more like the cabochard edt i used to wear (pre-change) than the current cabochard (which is much sweeter and rounder and duller).
i appreciate bandit, but i just don’t think it smells good on my skin - i like cabochard much, much more. but i’ll always keep bandit around for reference.
19. Solander | March 15th, 2007 at 6:40 am
Ina - Ah, yes, I can see why.
minette - Thanks, I’ll check out Grès pour homme!
20. Gaia | March 16th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
I haven’t worn Cabochard in nearly two decades, but I agree. It was exactly my first thought when I first came across Bandit, which isn’t the only Piguet that has a scent twin. As far as my skin is concerned, Fracas is identical to the original version of Chloe.
21. Solander | March 17th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Gaia - that’s interesting. I haven’t tried either Fracas or Chloe.
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