Dans Tes Bras Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle 2008

Due to one ingredient, I have avoided this fragrance for years: Cashmeran.
With this light-woody, sweet, and musky scent compound, which is primarily meant to make fragrances cozy, I have never really warmed up to it. But as little as I like the color beige, which I associate with Cashmeran, I dislike coziness - at least in an olfactory sense.

However, I once read that Fréderic Malle (like so many others!) finds Cashmeran absolutely fantastic, and that he found a perfumer in Maurice Roucel who created a genuine Cashmeran fragrance for him.
Roucel, a master of sensual scents, just think of 'Musc Ravageur' or the EdC/EdP duo from Helmut Lang, was probably exactly the right choice to showcase this widely popular scent ingredient, especially in modern men's perfumery.
Like a sculptor chiseling a sculpture from a block of marble, Maurice Roucel developed this wonderfully poetic fragrance 'Dans tes bras' from a block of Cashmeran. Apparently, Cashmeran is a substance that can be worked with very well due to its complexity and richness of facets - at least that's what the master himself explains.
And since Roucel himself composed the in-house 'Musc Ravageur', it was natural to relate the new fragrance more closely to this most successful Malle scent.

Sensuality paired with clear erotic vibes - keyword musk - should form the common foundation, yet the form of presentation is a completely contrasting one: Extroversion here (Musc Ravageur), introversion there (Dans tes bras).
Interestingly, 'Musc Ravageur' contains almost no musk, while 'Dans tes bras' contains much more. Thus, Roucel rightly calls 'Dans tes bras' his actual musk masterpiece and not 'Musc Ravageur', which he describes as an animalistic oriental with strong amber accents. Nevertheless, 'Musc Ravageur' conveys the sensual-animalistic side of musk in a very direct and erotic way, while 'Dans tes bras', as the name beautifully illustrates, emphasizes the quiet, intimate side.

The Cashmeran-musk duo now forms the center and basis of the fragrance. It cozies up in a muted erotic way, which is a true delight! But fortunately, other guests are invited to the party and disrupt the cozy atmosphere wherever possible: smoky nuances weave through the light-woody facets of Cashmeran, and some floral elements joyfully sprout from its skin tone, especially violet, or violet leaf and heliotrope. The former brings floral freshness, while the latter emits an almond-like aroma that harmonizes wonderfully with the vanillic skin notes of Cashmeran, as well as the musk accents.
Here, 'Dans tes bras' reminds me very much of Guerlain's 'Après l’ondée', albeit a 'Après l’ondée' on speed, because the heliotropin emerges much more clearly and offensively in Malle's fragrance than in the wonderful, softly toned, quiet scent from Guerlain.
No, pastels are not the colors of Maurice Roucel, nor is the whole fragrance really quiet; on the contrary. It starts off quite clearly, then becomes increasingly subdued, but possesses good endurance and presence. It also does not have the silky, veil-like texture of the Guerlain scent but rather an almost strong, dense consistency. After all, when lying in the arms of another, one does not hold a finely woven silk scarf but a warm, pulsating, and solid body.
Here, 'Dans tes bras' also differs from Roucel's earlier work for Helmut Lang. His EdC, or EdP, are also considered skin scents. Roucel reports on Helmut Lang's intentions: 'He wanted the scent of his lover's sweat …erotic, musk, skin.'
As beautifully as he succeeded with the almost legendary Helmut Lang scents, with 'Dans tes bras' he has taken a decisive step further - here it no longer smells quite so fresh, neat, and clean; here the animalistic power slumbers hidden, subcutaneously, so to speak. And that, I think, is the special thing about this fragrance: the underlying erotic vibrations that permeate this scent with a subtle excitement.

So far, so good. A successful skin scent that wants to be more than just the remnants of a faded perfume on the skin, namely the scent of the skin itself, pulsating skin, of excited, sweaty skin, of skin on skin.
In this context, 'Dans tes bras' is of course just the abstract idea of fragrant skin, almost the ideal case of well-scented skin.

But what about the damned Cashmeran?

Well, I must admit, I don't find it so bad here. Maurice Roucel has managed to give the pale beige a darker complexion, to tame the vanillic sweetness through floral contrasts, to almost neutralize it with salty base notes, and to lend some character to the light-woody notes with fine incense streaks.
I still don't find it great, but probably 'Dans tes bras' is the best thing that could happen to this synthetic and hybrid substance.

When asked which of his fragrances Fréderic Malle would like to see receive a bit more attention, he once said in an interview: this one.
Why 'Dans tes bras' lacks attention from the discerning consumer audience? No idea.
But I perceive 'Dans tes bras' as an intellectual, yet not overly cerebral, highly sensual fragrance suitable for both genders, which does not reveal itself immediately and can even be perceived as cumbersome.

For those who want to give it a chance: please test it multiple times, it's worth it.
The fragrance grows on the skin!