Lavande Poivre Noir

L'Occitan / Eau de L'Occitan

L'Occitane en Provence 2005

I smelled this in the L’Occitane boutique – actually two different boutiques – before pulling the trigger. I was ready for a deep, woodsy, masculine scent, but before I opened up the box I knew I was in for something else. I smelled something light and floral - lavender. My wife had just bought lavender scent packets that help us sleep, so it wasn’t that kind of concentrated, herbal lavender, but a lighter take on it.

The first outing led to a scrubbing party. I wore it on my wrists and my skin amps lavender (for trade: one slightly used set of skin; amps lavender and pepper). I was walking around in a cloud feeling like a metrosexual Frenchman. Not my thing.

The second time I sprayed it on the back of my wrists and it smelled like lavender for a good fifteen minutes before the licorice showed up. The two played off each other for six to seven hours and then the scent became more soapy in its orientation and a touch more woodsy. The lavender returned to lay over the woods, for up to fourteen hours, and only after that did the accursed lavender finally exit, leaving behind faintly aromatic woods.

Eau de L'Occitan pour Homme is longlasting, well-blended, and well-balanced, but just not my thing. If anyone wants a bottle, hit me up.

I love this one. That's the summary.

I love lavender scents.
Call me weak or boring oldschool. Natural Lavender is a fragrance on its own. Unisex but leaning masculine. It's got its own top notes, base notes and dry down. In this fragrance the pepper and musky woods are there to enhance the lavender only. Very masculine take.
And it succeeded. It is a raw beauty, natural, rural. Sun, gentle wind, some blanket cloths on the ground for tasting freshly baked bread looking at the birds, french sunflowers or wheat fields. Where is my bottle of wine?

A pure natural styled brother of the tweaked ambroxan induced luna rossa path. Which I happen to love as well. This one is the outdoor paced farm boy, luna rossa - especially carbon - is the city wild love.

I had this for some years now and wrote in the statements that I am wondering whether I "would" get another one. This change quickly into "could". With the mauve lavender on brown style being swapped for characterless transparent light cologne style bottle I was weary.
I smelled it. Practically ... the same... somewhat. Ok. But the price just doubled. Troubled.
But just last week I saw a last former era bottle at discount. Clearance. Well they had my money. 75ml beauty bottle for less than the new in 50ml. No brainer.
Alas the last though. Bottle and pricing nowadays a firm -1 .... :/

When reaching for a lavender scent I want a lavender fragrance, and this is that. Simplicity and linear at its best when I want to be comfortable in my own self. So many other fragrances with complex notes, in my opinion, cause a ruckus when you want lavender to be the focus of the olfactory experience. Lavender is so nuanced with many different facets; herbal, woody, floral so it needs attention. In the top, the lavender is mixed with the black pepper just so it becomes more than a room spray. The mix between the two gives the fresh spicy top some interest. In the heart, the lavender is still there along with the introduction of nutmeg and cedar. Picture some cedar wood overlaid with lavender sprigs topped with pinches of nutmeg. This is that "burnt" wood accord. If it's smokey, then that smoke is a fantasy accord conjured up by associations in the mind. The cedar rubbed here together with the lavender and nutmeg loses pepperiness in the top.

Finally, after two or three hours, in the tails of the fragrance, much of the lavender has dissipated along with the woods and nutmeg. What's left is a very clean and very fuzzy musk that is interwoven with tonka bean. Overall, this is a very approachable scent. Because of the fresh spicy opening and the musky dry down this scent is very clean and appealing.

One of my favorites for any time.

A rich, herbal lavender bomb given a healthy sprinkling of earthy black pepper and other spices, sitting atop a cedar base. The lavender has a sort of lemony fresh polish to it, likely the elemi in the official fragrance pyramid, well balanced by the warmth of the spices. Moderately soft projection for 2-3hr, longevity 8-10hr.

Really highlights the beautiful and soothing nature of lavender, with minimal interference, in a way that few other perfumes do.

This fragrance was a blind buy for me and probably the best blind buy ever. I fell in love after the first spray as i was hit with a burst of lavender and after a while i started to get a lot of black pepper and some woody notes and maybe a bit of burnt wood or smoke.

this is what i have been looking for all this time while wearing mostly generic designer fragrances. this fragrance really started my journey down the rabbit hole and will always have a special place in my heart and collection.