Tabac Blond Caron Eau de Parfum

I believe it is the beginning of a journey…

The scent ticket that has allowed me the first stage of this journey is thanks to the generosity and expertise of a wonderful Parfumo. Therefore, this comment is dedicated to Can, with respect and deep gratitude.

Those who read my reviews and statements know that I often approach scents through images. The associations help me to understand fragrances better and to work through them.

With this special scent, images immediately arose within me. But this time it was different.
In the first second, a film scene came to mind. And more than the scene, which I only remember superficially, the image of the character and the actress playing her emerged before me. This scene and the image of this actress revealed the scent to me.

The film I am referring to is "Carol," and the actress is the beautiful Cate Blanchett. In a scene at the beginning of this film, she enters the toy department of a department store.
She radiates an incredible elegance. She wears a long, brown fur coat, underneath black, a red scarf, and on her blonde, styled hair, a red cap. And she holds leather gloves in her hand. In a close-up showing how she places these gloves on the glass sales counter, it quickly becomes clear that this accessory will play a significant role.
And perhaps it is even these gloves that first came to my mind when I smelled the fragrance for the first time.
A few minutes later, Carol will turn around once more before leaving the sales area to give the saleswoman and the viewers a breathtaking moment of feminine elegance and distinguished nobility.

And that is exactly what Tabac blond means to me: Elegant, distinguished, noble.

To make one thing clear:
The scent is not a scent for ladies. It is not androgynous either. It is what the person wearing it is.
I briefly considered whether I wanted to juxtapose the female character with a male counterpart. They would be men from literature: Forsyte, Gatsby, Swann.
But Cate Blanchett needs no counterpart…
I keep the scene, which can certainly also be found in a trailer online, in my mind and thus return to the scent.

The leather gloves, the fur. In many scenes of the film, the main characters smoke, both women.

Indeed, the scent is smoky.
But it is not smoke in the classical sense, no blue haze in a smoky room. It is also not the pleasantly fragrant pipe tobacco.
It is the smoke in a spacious and dignified hotel lobby, which appears in a beam of sunlight streaming through the large window, curling in it. White, shimmering and not from nicotine, but carried by tobacco.
This smoke, this note of tobacco is present from the very beginning in the fragrance and remains almost entirely the prominent note until the end.

The leather, which I find indescribably beautiful in this scent, is the soft leather of frequently worn gloves. They are soft suede gloves, perhaps deer leather.
And even though there are very delicate, barely perceptible hints of animal notes (I could not decipher which component in the pyramid is responsible for that), the leather is primarily underscored by a clean, beautiful creaminess. Vanilla and amber are responsible for this creaminess.
For me, this is the key to the art of this Eau de Parfum.
It is as if the composition has captured exactly the moment when the lady slips the glove off her well-creamed hand. It is precisely that moment, and I have the impression that I perceive this scene not with my eyes, but with my nose. It is as if a director is guiding my nose very close to this hand. And in that moment, smoke, softly creamed skin, and the last hint of soft leather merge into a wonderful accord.
Thus, it is not the scent of the gloves, which are made of leather. It is the scent of the skin that has shed a leather glove and on which a trace of this fragrance remains.
What I have described as slightly animalistic is the skin, the human, physical aspect of the scent, perhaps mixed with the small pearls on the wrist of a clean body on a warm day. In that moment, Tabac blond succeeds in translating a fragrance experience into the experience of intimacy and sensuality.

That the garden carnation is rated so prominently here surprised me at first. But I believe it is precisely this note that is responsible for the fine, noble quality.
For indeed, the scent is floral in the background - and towards the end, almost in the very last minutes, increasingly so. However, I never perceive the carnation as strong.
It introduces the scent and concludes it. It always accompanies in the background, never stepping into the foreground for me. I would never think of describing this scent as floral. It would always be smoky for me. But regardless of the moment: At the beginning, when the scent is smoky, or at the end, when it becomes creamy: The carnation always emphasizes the best of it. Perhaps that is what leads some people to categorize the scent as a ladies' perfume.

This is my first truly classic scent from this traditional house. With the first spray, I knew I had found a fragrance that would accompany me for a long time. It has ignited a passion in me and made me curious about the truly classic scents.
A few days after I tried the fragrance, I contacted the house in Paris.
I ordered the Eau de Parfum and simultaneously inquired about the perfume.
The somewhat clumsy explanation unfortunately did not help me further.
However, with the Eau de Parfum, I received a sample of the perfume. Today I know that my question apparently arrived just a few days before the release of the new formulation of the perfume.
In the meantime, I have compared both formats. I do not wish to open a category of better or worse here. That is not in my nature. Both are wonderful and unique scents. Furthermore, I also lack the knowledge, the history, the comparison, the olfactory education that would allow me to make a wise comparison.
Perhaps the floral note in the new formulation is stronger towards the end. The fragrance pyramid would suggest that and support the thought. At first, I only had a very faint, associative memory of the floral quality of Xerjoff's "Opera" with the new perfume, but later also with the older Eau de Parfum. Of course, never as loud and overwhelming. Perhaps readers can support me and delve into this idea.

I believe it is the beginning of a journey…
A journey that leads me to the classics. In the meantime, I have tried "Pour un Homme de Caron," "Yatagan," but also "Jicky" and "L'heure bleue." I have the impression that I am rediscovering my passion for fragrances.

This journey has only just begun.
I look forward to readers of this article supporting me with hints on worthwhile waypoints.