L'Eau du Navigateur L'Artisan Parfumeur 1982

L'Eau du Navigateur by L'Artisan Parfumeur

Bottle Design:
Jean Laporte

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7.7 / 10 46 Ratings

A popular perfume by L'Artisan Parfumeur for men, released in 1982. The scent is spicy-woody. The longevity is above-average. The production was apparently discontinued.
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Main accords

Spicy

Woody

Smoky

Resinous

Oriental

Fragrance Notes

Spices

Woods

Coffee

Rum

Tobacco

Frankincense Leather

Leather

Blossoms

Resins

Perfumer

Jean-Claude Ellena

Ratings

Scent

7.746 Ratings

Longevity

8.529 Ratings

Sillage

6.823 Ratings

Bottle

8.236 Ratings

Submitted by Schnuffi, last update on 05/24/2022.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Eau des Îles

Reviews

5 in-depth fragrance descriptions

07/04/2020

8
Pricing 10
Bottle 8
Sillage 8
Longevity 9.5
Scent

VanAllan
21 Reviews

VanAllan

Top Review 9

Adventure of senses

My first 'niche' fragrance back in 2014 and one of the few scents in my collection that blew me away instantly. After reading all I could find about it and decided for another blind buy, I couldn't believe at first wearing it is a fragrance created in the 80's !...it has so many notes I usualy appreciate in a man's fragrance: bitter roasted coffee, spices, leather, dry florals, incense, tobacco - everything packed harmoniously and delivering a stunning and intriguing oriental-spicy scent.
When I wear this, I imagine myself on a chill morning in a torn leather jacket on the upper deck of an old sail, drinking coffee from a tin can and enjoying the smell of Eastern spices coming from under the deck. In this regard, for me, L'Eau du Navigateur is more than a fragrance...it's a marvelous adventure of senses. It really stood the test of time, still high-ranking in my book.
My humble rank 9.5/10 ☣☣☣☣☣. Highly recommended, specially for bitter-coffee fans.

02/04/2013

jtd
484 Reviews

jtd

Helpful Review 9

i've run out of titles

I read that Luca Turin called l'Eau du Navigateur (1982) dated. He'd know better than I. I never smelled before 2013. Still, there is a distinction between dated, meaning era-specific, and tired, even if 'dated' has a negative connotation. Navigateur might be dated today, 32 years after its release, but it's held up well. To be innovative in 1982 and still smell good in 2013? Sounds successful.

As a point of comparison Pink Sugar is both era-specific and tired, and was hardly innovative at the time of its release. There are worse things than dated. Does this make Navigateur the male equivalent of old lady perfume? I can live with that.

I understand the classifications of the era: loud, spicy, woody as in Antaeus/Quorum/Krizia Uomo; basso fougere like Drakkar Noir and Azzaro pour Homme. I don't see Navigateur as just a crude precursor of more refined hybrids from the more discriminating 1990s. Rather, it's a re-imagined oriental with coffee in lieu of vanilla. Coffee bridges culinary spice to resin via woodiness, just as vanilla does. And while Navigateur might also have heralded the gourmand era, its focus is the roasted coffee bean. No cotton candy, no frappuccino.

We twist ourselves into knots to imagine that without oakmoss and coumarin the chypre and the fougere are still alive; witness the original Miss Dior Cherie, already redacted by Dior, and Penhaligon's Sartorial. If we want to view perfumery historically, I vote for acknowledging and embracing the extant, significant perfumes such as Navigateur. Learn from it and enjoy it while it's here. Who knows when the IFRA will limit coffee use?

02/22/2018

7
Bottle 7
Sillage 7
Longevity 7
Scent

Smora
155 Reviews

Smora

Helpful Review 4

Ritual of Life

L'Eau de Navigateur is completely crazy. A vivid olfactory image. A great 1979 offering by Jean Laporte. Ahead of the time then, and now somehow stuck in space-time continuum. Synthetic at the moments, transparent and dense at the same time. It's hard to describe.
A lot's going on here... spices, coffee, leather, tobacco, a bouquet of flowers, resins, incense... The notes hard to imagine together are successfully combined. The work of a genius.
I can easily imagine it on a man in a white suit on some Caribbean island, drinking his first morning coffee and smoking cigarillos while reading the newspapers about last night's coup.
It perfectly describes the small, but important rituals of life. L'Artisan please bring this beauty back.

04/03/2014

5
Scent

Deefit
33 Reviews

Deefit

3

Great mental image.

The description of the notes sounded so beautiful, just like the picture that emerged with the story behind this fragrance. Maybe I let myself be influenced too much by my experiences with the smell of a CSP that bears a similar name; Eau du Gouverneur. However, L'Eau de L'Artisan Parfumeur navigator does not work for me. Where the CSP released in almost the same year can hold itself great against modern day scents, I think L'Eau du navigator has something old-fashioned and almost dated, I'd say. Something in there reminds me strongly of New West Him by Aramis and of the final stage of Amouage Interlude Man. Typical how smells can differ when compared to your expectations after studying the notes and reviews.

/edit;

So I gave this another chance. The first time I spilled a little of the fragrance all over the back of my hand, so this was rather overpowering and heavy. However, after applying just a little, it is a lot brighter and more detailed than I initially thought. I need to give this a full wear to give a more detailed insight into this fragrance. Guess I'll decant a little into a small spray vial. To be continued..

05/06/2014

5
Bottle 7.5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 4
Scent

WRoth
154 Reviews

WRoth

1

L'Eau du Navigateur

This fragrance opens with the familiar aroma of coffee, however, it is enhanced by smoky vetiver. A floral or citrus note lightens the impact of the two top notes, creating an interesting juxtaposition of smoke and floral, light and dark, earth and air. The scent is similar to Eau des Iles, but it is fresher and a tad sweeter. I ask myself if there is jasmine in this composition, because there is a faint indolic facet in the accord. It is a very pleasant fragrance, but not as rugged as Eau des Iles, the Artisan seaman is much more groomed.A well-crafted blend of coffee, vetiver, tobacco and flowers leads the scent into the dry down.

L'Eau du Navigateur L'Artisan Parfumeur 1982

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