I have a love – hate relationship with the fragrance band Le Labo. Their apothecary marketing turns me off. The ‘made in the lab’ posturing… which involves someone adding pre-made parts of the fragrance togehter in set ratios in front of you is pretentious in my humble opinion. Their lack of transparency with the notes itially iritated me too. If you are not going to divulge all 27 notes and accords in a fragrance, why tell us that there are 27 notes and accords in the fragrance. It felt like another ploy to get the hype machine going.
Get a grip
I love fragrance, and I know that my pet peeves are irrational. Bands can do whatever they like to sell the story of a scent of fragrance to make it sell. The marketing strategy can be as ridiculas as it wants to be if the scent pushes my olfactory system into overdrive. So I decided to pull up my big girl pants and really get to know the brand. That is why I bought their Discovery Set. It contains all 15 permanent fragrances from the range, two of the City Exclusives. If I am really going to resolve how I feel about the brand, I should familiarise myself with their scents right? I have tested them on skin and blotters and this is my definitive list in order of preference based on both the open dry down, along with a few words that express my thoughts on each scent.
Full Bottle Worthy
1 – Fleur D’Oranger 23 – Delicious Bitter Orange
2 – Neroli 36 – Creamy sweet white floral
3 – Bergamotte 22 – delicious bright citrus
4 – Labdamum 18 – soft baby powder
5 – Another 13 – sexy musky ambroxan
6 – Lys 41 – heady bold white floral sweet
7 – Ambrette 9 – Almost imperceptable Musk
8 – – Vetiver 46 – Bright smoky grass
9 – Santal 33 – meh slightly warm sandalwood
10- Jasmin 17 – citrus top queen of flowers
Not for me
11 – Tea Noir – sweet warm fig
12 – Rose 31 – dont like rose
13 – Poivre 23 – brash pepper opening, dries down to a warm vanilla
14 – Ylang 49 – sweetend floral exotic
15 – Iris 39 – not for me, overbearing brash iris
16 – Oud 27 – unrefined, brash oud
17 – Patchouli – dirty oily unpleasent.
What now?
The scents at the top of the list are on my wishlist. Not sure when the purchases will be made though, because to me Le Labo is a little pricey. Clearly I have fragrances that are more expensive than Le Labo in my collection. I love the fact that they do a 15 ml bottle. It is a great size not only for travel but also for people who like me, want to experience lots of fragrance, without having lots of full sized (50 or 100ml bottles). For me, over fifty pounds for 15 ml of Le Labo fragrance is hefty. That is not to say that a bottle or two wont enter my collection at some point over the coming months. So let me know in the comments, which is your favourite Le Labo fragance, and I’d be interested to hear your opinion good bad or indifferent on the brand.
Read more of my fragrance reveiws here and here. Follow me on Instagram for more fragrance news and reviews.