Top Notes 
Calabrian bergamot
Heart Notes 
Somalian myrrh
Base Notes 
Haitian vetiver
07/14/2012
jtd
484 Reviews
jtd
Top Review
9
Black Swan
I’m a great fan of Eau Sauvage. I don’t have a recent bottle and am not sure what shape the current model is in. Mine is from 2001-2002, I’d guess. It’s floral, it’s pretty, it’s old-school fresh. It’s bright and inherently shiny.
There’s now Eau Sauvage Parfum, the Black Swan. It’s the dense, shadowy, witching-hour sibling of the original. Others have said they don’t smell any Eau Sauvage in the ESP, and although I understand why they say that, I do. A trace of the original is there, but the expansiveness is replaced by aloofness. Instead of the buoyant floral sillage of Eau Sauvage, ESP’s wake skates away from you like a demonstration of inertia. You stay put as she slides away from you saying. “You, sit. I’ll take care of this.”
I had a strong sense of déjà vu on sniffing ESP, and a few minutes into trying it, I knew why. Eau Sauvage Parfum smells remarkably similar to Parfums de Nicolai’s Vie de Chateau Intense, nearly Calandre/Rive Gauche similar. In my review of Vie de Chateau last year I mentioned the original Eau Sauvage, writing, “compare the first sniff of each side by side!” I don’t see this similarity as plagiarism, just as I didn’t mean to imply that Vie de Chateau was a copy of the original Eau Sauvage. More likely it’s kismet and a similar outcome from talented people investigating a similar set of ideas. I’d go so far as to say that Eau Sauvage Parfum is one of the best, most thoroughly executed mainstream releases I’ve smelled in years. It is definitive, it smells exceptionally good, and it demonstrates a classical perfume’s virtues of coherence and development. Taking Eau Sauvage, an icon, as a starting place, thinking broadly and in the end giving us a smart gem of a perfume---this is what I want from a flanker.
I’ve seen ESP called a vetiver fragrance, a myrrh fragrance. I find that the notes of hay & tobacco, the moist warmth/coolness fairly shout coumarin. Just as the swan is both ends of the spectrum in one entity, Eau Sauvage Parfum (like Vie de Chateau) comes off as a fougère/chypres hybrid taking the best form each genre.
Nice touch, the dark bottle. Brilliant magnetic cap
There’s now Eau Sauvage Parfum, the Black Swan. It’s the dense, shadowy, witching-hour sibling of the original. Others have said they don’t smell any Eau Sauvage in the ESP, and although I understand why they say that, I do. A trace of the original is there, but the expansiveness is replaced by aloofness. Instead of the buoyant floral sillage of Eau Sauvage, ESP’s wake skates away from you like a demonstration of inertia. You stay put as she slides away from you saying. “You, sit. I’ll take care of this.”
I had a strong sense of déjà vu on sniffing ESP, and a few minutes into trying it, I knew why. Eau Sauvage Parfum smells remarkably similar to Parfums de Nicolai’s Vie de Chateau Intense, nearly Calandre/Rive Gauche similar. In my review of Vie de Chateau last year I mentioned the original Eau Sauvage, writing, “compare the first sniff of each side by side!” I don’t see this similarity as plagiarism, just as I didn’t mean to imply that Vie de Chateau was a copy of the original Eau Sauvage. More likely it’s kismet and a similar outcome from talented people investigating a similar set of ideas. I’d go so far as to say that Eau Sauvage Parfum is one of the best, most thoroughly executed mainstream releases I’ve smelled in years. It is definitive, it smells exceptionally good, and it demonstrates a classical perfume’s virtues of coherence and development. Taking Eau Sauvage, an icon, as a starting place, thinking broadly and in the end giving us a smart gem of a perfume---this is what I want from a flanker.
I’ve seen ESP called a vetiver fragrance, a myrrh fragrance. I find that the notes of hay & tobacco, the moist warmth/coolness fairly shout coumarin. Just as the swan is both ends of the spectrum in one entity, Eau Sauvage Parfum (like Vie de Chateau) comes off as a fougère/chypres hybrid taking the best form each genre.
Nice touch, the dark bottle. Brilliant magnetic cap
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