No. 4 Eutopie 2013

Eutopies No. 4 is the second perfume I have tested from the French label, following No. 6. The latter was relatively okay, but personally, I found the combination of rose and incense a bit too kitschy.

Interestingly, this fragrance features an absolutely unknown perfumer, Charles Caruso, who has not produced any well-known scents apart from these and Eutopies No. 1. You wouldn't notice it, as No. 4 takes off like a big shot! However, the listed ingredients of the top note somehow get lost on me, unless the fleeting milliseconds of bergamot count.

The main theme seems to be the violet for me, especially in a lightly sugared version with a few sprinkles of rose water around it. One can grow fond of this and get used to it, even though the promised patchouli seems to have slipped away right from the start.

Unfortunately, the heart note does not last as long as one would wish in this case - and just like that, we are graced by the amber-soaked base with a hint of vanilla powder.

Accordingly, the comment is almost as short as the olfactory pleasure. Well, No. 4 can do a bit more, but I find its longevity, sillage, and tension arc still leaves room for improvement. If the sweet violet theme had been more intense, the fragrance would have likely impressed me more and won my perfume heart.

I had the opportunity to get to know this fragrance today. I was actually looking for a fresh scent with lemongrass, maybe a bit of neroli or freesias, and not too woody in the base.

The overly friendly saleswoman floated through her shop, and after Chloe was not what I was looking for, she presented Eutopie No. 4. Not that it was the scent I was actually searching for, she proudly explained that it came from France. I pondered, joking in my mind, many do that, but that doesn’t really say anything. But okay... she was in love.

Pfft, pfft, and then it was already on the test strip. Oh, what a fine start. Lightly citrusy, spicy, bergamot begins without smelling purely of it. As Bertel writes, very beautifully intertwined with rose and violets, amber makes it soft and musk adds spiciness. Wow, the test strip smelled so great that I had it sprayed on my arm. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, I thought, and then it was already over with the freshness and refinement. Just after the euphoria comes the utopia, here the name is program.

The scent became increasingly powdery, sweet, and then a few minutes later, the amber was already there. A beautiful amber, sweet, warm, and subtle. To this, a bright, clean musk joins in, along with a hint of labdanum. Nothing is really dominant. I had respect for labdanum because I don’t like incense, but here it doesn’t bother at all. Thus, the scent remained for another 3 hours. No, I don’t like it, went through my mind every time I smelled it. Or do I? Hmmm, smell again - way too powdery, I’ve already done that. Although this gentle powderiness somewhat reminds me of the master Kurkdjian. It floats so on the skin. Not intrusive, but also not necessarily quiet. But do the impressions justify the, in my opinion, outrageous price?

Aside from the fact that there are numerous scents that are similar in the heart and base, it was also not what I was looking for. Freshness was gone here. The beautiful start promises more, but then not much more comes. After 3 hours, I only had a warm, but very beautiful amber, patchouli, musk scent on my skin. Very close, very quiet. Not bad, but also nothing special.

By the way, I took the test strip with me, and lo and behold, it still smells fresh 5 hours later and all the listed notes were present. Soooo great, I can only say! It hardly changed. That’s how I would have wished it on my skin; then I would have gladly left the 130.00 bucks in the store, would give 120% here, and now be floating on cloud 7.

One idea would be to attach the test strip with a needle to the lapel - the latest trend from Milan or something. Fragrances on clothing are not really my thing, but here it seems unavoidable, because only then does what the master had in mind with his creation come across. And only then is the scent unique and incomparably beautiful.

Sillage: is hard to describe. On the skin, the first hour is intense within a radius of 1.5 meters with a nice scent trail, then it becomes rather close to the body. The test strip lies here on my table, and the rum smells wonderfully good (5 hours after spraying). If it weren’t so expensive, I would want it as a room fragrance; I’m sure one wouldn’t get tired of it.

Longevity: Moderate, about 5 hours all in all

Bottle: Eutopie’s own, does not reflect any association with the scent

Conclusion: great idea, exceptionally good approach with a fresh, harmonious, rounded, very coherent - but big bang short start, a light, floral heart, and a base that can be compared with many others. The theme of a fragrance without top, heart, and base stages has, in my opinion, been missed by Caruso here. Unfortunately, not a candidate for purchase. I can only give 60% here. Maybe it will work with a reformulation? ;)

PS: Now, about 18 hours later, the test strip has reached the heart and smells of this light powder that can already be detected on the skin after 2 hours. So on "dead material," the longevity is very, very good.

After I had to have the first three Eutopie fragrances immediately after their presentation, and my reactions ranged from aversion ("No. 1") to friendly indifference ("No. 3") to enthusiasm ("No. 2"), I approached the now new "No. 4" with mixed feelings.

And what a diva it is! I basically fail right at the opening chord... If I manage to apply a very small amount very finely distributed, I am greeted for minutes by an absolutely magnificent opening of a deep, slightly bitter, only very faintly citrus note that is for me much more than bergamot, paired with a vintage-like floral chord that I can only very inadequately attribute to the Absolue of rock rose supposedly used here (simply because I have not the slightest idea what this rock rose smells like as a flower - its resin, labdanum, at least I would still recognize... EDIT: Changed to labdanum in the pyramid above) What a start, what an opening! This truly beautiful, very dense and harmoniously intertwined chord, masterfully crafted and very high quality executed, so delicate and lovely yet powerful and present, creates an almost unreal floating entry - wonderful, Mme. Pollet has managed to create a "modern vintage" chord that I so love and long for, a style that is hardly existent today, extremely valuable and delightful for me, chapeau!

Unfortunately, this happiness, if it even happens, is of extremely short duration - after just a few minutes, this opening chord has nearly completely vanished, you can practically set your watch to the moment when suddenly, whoosh! a strong smoky patchouli note takes the stage. This is still the most pronounced note in this composition, but it is also very capricious: with a restrained application as described above, it hardly makes an appearance, the fragrance is already practically unnoticeable for me after just under an hour with this sparse use. If you spray a bit more generously or dose it properly, then the patchouli chord kicks in right on time like a broken clock, boom! - but before that, there is nothing wonderfully dense and intertwined to admire from this fine, delicate, extremely intricately composed opening chord; it then simply becomes citrus-floral and too thick. Even in this stronger dosage, the fragrance hardly lasts longer than an hour.

So "No. 4" lives, but only briefly, as it has a rather weak heart. You can still register that there is a love for violets beating within, a rather dry and dark variant, but I have to guess the rose again before it quickly sinks into a familiar unspectacular soft-balsamic amber-musk-vanilla base...

This fragrance leaves me somewhat perplexed. Essentially beautifully conceived, but in my opinion poorly composed or incoherently orchestrated, the beautiful and noticeably high-quality components are unstable and fleeting within themselves and fall hopelessly into disarray in the overall construction, at least that is my impression and my rather perplexed conclusion after repeated attempts. I am very curious about further experiences reported here!