Portrait of a Lady Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle 2010 Eau de Parfum

Portrait of a Lady (Eau de Parfum) by Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle

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Ranked 5 in Women's Perfume

8.1 / 10 1501 Ratings

A popular perfume by Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle for women, released in 2010. The scent is floral-spicy. Projection and longevity are above-average. It is being marketed by Estēe Lauder Companies.
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Main accords

Floral

Spicy

Woody

Oriental

Smoky

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Turkish rose

Heart Notes

Blackcurrant Clove

Clove

Raspberry

Base Notes

Frankincense

Patchouli

Sandalwood

Perfumer

Dominique Ropion

Videos

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Ratings

Scent

8.11501 Ratings

Longevity

8.71274 Ratings

Sillage

8.31254 Ratings

Bottle

7.71159 Ratings

Value for money

6.7769 Ratings

Submitted by Fran, last update on 07/28/2025.

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Reviews

56 in-depth fragrance descriptions

12/21/2012

7.5
Bottle 10
Sillage 10
Longevity 10
Scent

Drseid
821 Reviews

Drseid

Top Review 14

My Favorite Scent...

Portrait of a Lady starts with a sublime mixture of rose, incense, wood and a hint of raspberry in the background to support the rose and incense, with patchouli growing through the dry down to mix with the incense as the rose recedes. It is rather linear, but when the scent smells this good, that is a very good thing, IMO. The sillage and longevity here are absolutely spectacular (my one spray lasted well over 30 hours at near full strength and sillage on skin) and the scent smells even better from a distance. As for classification, I don't know why this is marketed as a feminine scent, as I definitely think it is unisex and if someone said it was targeted as a men's scent I would have been far from surprised.

The only drawback is the cost... I went on a top recommended fragrance testing binge in Vegas, and only put a couple favorites on skin. Portrait of a Lady won out overall, but when I came back to Barney's to make the purchase it turned out to be $210 for a 50 ml and $300 for 100 ml (now it costs even more). Ouch! I ended up still buying the 50 ml after thinking it over some more, because it really is that good and unique. Finally, as people have mentioned in other reviews, this one is potent and one spray will almost assuredly get the job done... Go easy on the trigger folks! A BIG thumbs up for this five star winner from Ropion that is my new favorite scent overall.

09/15/2012

10
Sillage 10
Longevity 9
Scent

Coutureguru
223 Reviews

Coutureguru

Top Review 8

Methinks the Lady doth protest too much ...

... but as far as I'm concerned she can protest all she likes!!

WOW!!! There is a really good reason I love Dominique Ropion's work ... the man is simply a genius!! This 'portrait' is not of a demurely clad Monet-esque maiden reading innocently in a bower of trees, she's a Rubens-like scantily clad Delilah ... demanding Sampson's head on a platter after having her way with him.
Actually, I think this gal is a Drag Queen, cast in the mould of a lewd and loud Mae West :). A fragrance for a big personality, that could probably asphyxiate those within a six foot radius should the trigger not be handled gently ... just the way I like it!!
An astounding Patchouli is given a spicier twist with the accompaniment of clove in the top, the Rose here commencing as a faint floral whisper and crescendoing to a sweet, dark roar. Sandalwood and Frankincense really sing in the heart here too. Portrait of a Lady is an astoundingly modern fragrance, whilst retaining a certain 'olde-worlde' charm with it's almost irreverent power. I'm pretty sure that there is a little Oud here, even though it's not listed. It may well be a combination of the Sandalwood and Resins, but there is a similarity here to Montale's Black Aoud. There are also overtones of Ropion's Costume National Homme in the sweet and spicy nuances that this creation emanates.

Portrait of a Lady is definitely unisex in my book ... after all ... what's in a name? Definitely one to own!!

06/21/2016

jtd
484 Reviews

jtd

Top Review 7

grande dame

The rose and patchouli pairing is such a good fit that it seems like proof of fate. It’s been the basis for a range of leathery, ambery, woody and mossy perfumes spanning woody-floral, chypre and oriental genres. The Malle PR boasts that Ropion used surpassing doses of rose essence and patchouli coeur, a fractionated patchouli. Fractionated naturals are botanical materials that have been separated into their constituent parts by chemical and physical processes, especially molecular distillation, and edited to remove undesirable traits.

Around the time of Portrait’s launch more and more of these ‘tidied up’ botanicals were becoming available. Well understood materials like vetiver, cedar and patchouli saw their challenging attributes reduced or removed, leaving frictionless, blissful versions of the materials. They were sanded, polished and lacquered. Aroma materials manufacturers were pushing their hot new high-tech, stripped-down botanicals. They were an easy sell. They used a version of the best-of-all-worlds tactic to sidestep the endless botanical vs synthetic debate. They are ‘natural’ and therefore good but they have also been made better through chemistry and are therefore contemporary.

Used thoughtfully, fractionated botanicals allowed a measured, precise tailoring of olfactory effects. Unfortunately they also made their way into some simplistic compositions that smelled like ‘easy listening’ perfumes. The niche and mainstream markets of the time were top-heavy with a glut of radiant, synth-woody fragrances. Many perfume buyers had become accustomed to judging the quality of a perfume by how closely it approximated the properties of woody amber materials. These scrubbed versions of botanical materials matched the tone created by woody ambers. An entire fumie cohort was conditioned to respond to the ‘clarity’ of the new generation of fractionated botanicals.

Distillation of materials is not new to perfumery by any means. The recent emphasis on fractionating well-understood botanical aroma-materials stems from the attempt to dissect IFRA-designated toxic materials such as lavender, lemon and the notoriously virulent tea leaf and remove their noxious bits. Think of a fraction as a potent material that has undergone an exorcism.

**

Rose and patchouli have complementary facets that fit like a lock and key and have strong synergy. The camphorous chill of patchouli acts like an astringent to rose, keeping it from settling into the dull beauty that an uninspired rose perfume can have. Rose’s berry notes become wine-like and boozy when paired with patchouli. Resinous materials give rose a honeyed drawl and musk keeps the bloom on the rose. Camphor, berry notes, musk and amber are the olfactory attributes emphasized in coeur de vetiver and Ropion uses them along with incense, benzoin and god only knows what else to create the durable accords that allow Portrait of a Lady to last for days. It is classically Ropion in that rich natural materials and potent synthetics are focussed on the same goal: coherence. The perfume’s sillage and forcefulness hint at potent synthetics. Happily, though, the ear-ringing, gut-churning feeling I associate with over-reliance on particular synthetics to give radiance and endurance is nowhere to be found. Portrait of a Lady showcases Ropion’s exceptional capacity to calibrate synthetics toward specific compositional ends while avoiding their side-effects.

Since 2010 when it was released, Portrait of a Lady has come to stand toe-to-toe with an equally imposing patch-rose, Aromatics Elixir. While AE dominates the mossy/chypre side of the rose-patch hoards, The Lady has become the standard against which woody and oriental side of the rose family is compared. Rose-oud as well. It’s a perfume that begs to be described in superlatives and worn with abandon.

02/10/2012

10
Longevity 7
Scent

Sherapop
1239 Reviews

Sherapop

Top Review 5

The Lady is Elephantine

After the blaring, elephantesque opening of Frédéric Malle PORTRAIT OF A LADY, I was not surprised in the least to learn that the perfumer was none other than Kenzo JUNGLE L'ELEPHANT creator, Dominique Ropion!

Huge opening with a massive blast of patchouli along with incense and rose. The spices are quite a bit tamer here than in L'ELEPHANT, but this is still much more of an oriental than a floral perfume to my nose. I would compare this composition to Juliette Has a Gun VENGEANCE EXTREME, except that PORTRAIT OF A LADY is much sharper (partly due to clove?) and more declarative, even intense. They definitely occupy the same general neighborhood on the grand olfactory map. PORTRAIT OF A LADY is much closer to VENGEANCE EXTREME than to either LIPSTICK ROSE or UNE ROSE, the other two Frédéric Malle rose perfumes.

The longevity is great and the sillage big enough to make this a wear-at-home-only perfume for me. Very voluptuous and, frankly, unladylike in its brazen, almost animalic sensuality. I like it a lot, I really do. This is a no-holds-barred oriental patchouli perfume with some rose accents. Seems omnisex to me.

02/03/2014

1
Scent

stephaniek
44 Reviews

stephaniek

5

The Portrait of This Lady Is Old

If this is a PORTRAIT OF A LADY, the lady in question is well past her prime, if not dead. Her apartment is littered with tchotchkes and dried curling roses, an expired potpourri.

The only compliments you're likely to receive while wearing PORTRAIT OF A LADY is that you look so young... for someone who smells so old.

While there is undeniably a rose note present, the note is a present to no one nearby. This is not a bright young rose, not a fresh bloom, not sun-soaked, nor green earth and thorns, no. In PORTRAIT OF A LADY, you'll find no signs of life... or lady.

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