Belle de Jour Eris Parfums 2016

The aquatic white floral was a thing for a while in the nineties. Apart from some heavily degraded remnants that can be found at the discounter shelf at the grocery store, this has become a lost genre ever since. This oddity by Antoine Lie therefore feels more like an avant-garde piece than an actual retro thing.

The florals in place are a smooth, non-indolic jasmine-orange blossom duo. They are greened-up by fresh cilantro in unusually high amounts. A peculiar marine note takes that freshness even a step further. This is way different from nowadays driftwood or sea salt notes. I would describe it as a herbaceous-hairspray-musky type of marine freshness and it appears to come straight from the nineties.

This is one-of-a-kind and as such not to everyone's taste, obviously. Personally, I found it both an odd scent and a fun ride. Fun enough to want to wear it again, once or twice. Just to raise some eyebrows.

Based on descriptions both here and at Fragrantica, I decided to test Belle de Jour on the back of my hand. I'm glad I did. Belle de Jour is a very feminine perfume and it's ridiculous to market it as unisex. It opens with what seems to be a combination of the pepper and orange blossom (as far as I can tell). It quickly dries down into the main scent. My first thought was a baby powder scent, but that's not really it. It's difficult to describe. Belle de Jour is floral, creamy, smooth, sweet and fresh, slightly musky/powdery. It's all very well blended and the aquatic accord is not harsh or unpleasant. Fucus is a type of brown algae but there is no nasty stale water type of scent. It comes across as quite fresh and would be a great summer perfume for a woman.

I can't rate the longevity since I washed it off after 2 hours. Projection was at the top end of moderate for those two hours.

Normally, I would rate a fragrance this overtly feminine that's marketed as unisex very low - that is, from my male perspective However, in Belle de Jour's case, I'm not going to do that. I found it so attractive and sexy just imagining my gf wearing this. She's getting what remains of the sample and a FB if she likes it.

(White)-floral with herbs, musk and aldehydes. It has a quite peculiar fresh (watery) note (I believe it could be a play of aldehydes), which I think I have met in some vintage floral perfumes by Nina Ricci. In the base, animalistic musk becomes more prominent and remains in the composition until the end.

What would otherwise still be a well-done, utterly classy white marine floral becomes all the more fascinating with the addition of a seaweed note. Love this little twist that throws my nose just a touch off balance. I was so impressed with this fragrance I sought out the 1967 film of the same name by Louis Bunuel that is the inspiration for the scent. Bravo ERIS!

Crystal white flowers and blossoms wrapped in sparkling kelp, suspended under clear blue waves. Juicy, bright, and a touch salty. It feels like a summer sunset on a lush island bottled (without the whispers of the odd pineapple that a lot of these scents have lol). A really incandescent and delicious beach floral.