Labdanum 18

Ciste 18

Le Labo 2006 Eau de Parfum

Maurice Roucel, you old roué! I think I've figured out your game. You made a beautiful musk-vanilla-amber template in the lab one day, and you thought to yourself, 'Maurice, old boy, this ain't half bad! I can get at least three good fragrances out of this.' You dialed up the rude bits on the template to arrive at Musc Ravageur, and you sanitized it with cotton and heliotrope and doll's head plastic to come up with Helmut Lang EDP.

Le Labo comes a knocking, and you decide, you know what - let's see if we can't wring a last drop of juice from this old sponge. We'll name it after an ingredient that isn't noticeably in it, let's say labdanum, so as to give those contrary hipster mofos at Le Labo their jollies. Add a pinch of cinnamon, a touch of powder, and my standard musky-ambery-vanilla, and BAM! Everybody's happy.

Well, not me, Maurice, not me. The last imprint of the well-used template is too faint to leave much of an impression. It's a midget in a hall of giants. Civet, leather - castoreum? Pfff, please. Shalimar has more underpantsy funk than this. The trouble is, of course, that Labdanum 18 can only cower in the shadow of its more outgoing big brother, Musc Ravageur, and its more distinctive, characterful little sister, Helmut Lang EDP. And if I want a powdery musk-amber-patchouli scent that smells like skin, I always have the soured-fur delights of L'Ombre Fauve to fall back on. Desolee.

Labdanum 18 by Le Labo is very powdery, delicate- still, it could be worn by a man who likes sweet powdery scents, like the original Karl Lagerfield cologne for men, but is also ladylike in some ways. I would never buy a full bottle of this myself because I think it is about un par -note wise with many other cheaper baby powder dominant fragrances that are a fraction of the cost. This is somewhere between starting off as Elizabeth Arden's True Love (I know, right?! Again) tiptoeing into brief interlude on a Tauer L'air du desert Moracain flippantly drifting into a beautiful masterful Shalimar skeleton crew-type drydown (spices, civet and citrus sold separately).

Projection is also nothing to write home about it's a baby soft skin scent that reminds me of a product from the 70s called "Sardoettes" that was a disposable paper toilette with a scented mineral oil to be applied fresh out of the shower as a skin moisturizer. We used to love these and mourned their loss when we discovered they were obsolete- now I can take my sample combine it with mineral oil soak some toilettes and apply after showering for a trip down memory lane, or not bother. Don't get me wrong, I am thoroughly, enjoying my free sample, particular because I am having a severe allergic reaction to lilac and Lavender this week. This fragrance is perfect for the office because it won't set off anyone else's allergies. The base provides a little sensuous patchouli and Tonka and as it begins to drydown it feels very comfortable, natural and low maintenance. When I was studying wine chemistry and Sensory analysis, we used to have long and funny tasting classes...some wines were exceptional and some were dismal and some fell in the middle of the road, we used to wait for the head professor (a raging drunk) to declare these middle of the road bottles as "Imminently Drinkable, totally unremarkable" and then, throwing off the shackles of snobbery and intellectualism, the Bacchanalia would commence. This is the fragrance version and I declare it "Imminently wearable, totally unexceptional".

Cistus labdanum is a classic amber material and has many facets to it. I had hoped that the le Labo minimalist approach would lead to interesting results. Cistus is so rich that even a spare composition using it could have complexity, and cistus can align with so many other materials with beautiful results. Unfortunately, I found Labdanum 18 quite flat and uninteresting. It starts sweet yet without flavor, and travels quickly to a matter-of-fact powdery vanilla amber. I smell a bit of the civet that might add dimension, but it goes nowhere. I can’t say I actively dislike it, but I have no interest in wearing or paying for it.

Labdanum 18 is yet another fragrance following in the trend of sweet, ambery incense scents.

Animalistic, but a little tame too, Labdanum 18 is beautiful. It has that dirtiness and rawness found in fragrances like Oud 27, Rose 31 and Patchouli 24, however this fragrance is much smoother, more feminine and sensual.

I'm tending to compare Labdanum 18 to Donna Karan's Essence Labdanum, although I find the latter a touch too linear and weak. This fragrance in particular has a deliciously sweet smokiness, which turns to powder towards the drydown.

The scent is minimalist yet effective. From all of Le Labo's oriental offerings, Labdanum 18 is the most feminine and incense-y.

I really loved the progression from the top notes to the heart, however in the drydown, while this fragrance still captivates me, I find it a little too predictable. My only gripe being that it shares many similarities with other incense-based scents.

In regards to longevity, Labdanum 18 does last considerably well. I found this fragrance very enjoyable on the day that I wore it, relishing in its smoothness and its exotic aura.

The reviews for Le Labo CISTE 18/ LABDANUM 18 are really all over the map, and not without reason: this is an unexpectedly complex perfume. The opening salvo of baby powderish-diaper scent is bound to turn a lot of people off. But shortly thereafter a significant animalic facet emerges, apparently due to both castoreum and civet. Now there's a dirty duo!!!! The labdanum and vanilla together produce a very straightforward amber scent--that is, after all, one of the more common recipes for amber.

My best guess is that people are variably sensitive to these three quite different facets of CISTE 18. That's why some are complaining that this just smells like a talcum powder facsimile; others maintain that this is a skanky musk scent à la Frédéric Malle MUSC RAVAGEUR; some actually deny the presence of labdanum; and some characterize this as an everyday amber perfume.

It is all of these--and more--in undulating waves! I like this unexpectedly (given the name) complex creation. I love labdanum, so we were already off to a good start. The animalic facet is not overwhelming to me, and I do not believe that this smells like MUSC RAVAGEUR at all--which is a good thing, in my book!