Etat Libre D'Orange - Putain des Palaces

Picture: Au Salon de la rue des Moulins, oil on canvas

painted by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1894.

Museum de Toulouse-Lautrec, Wikimedia commons.

The fragance with the controversial name Putain des Palaces was created by Nathalie Feisthauer for the avantagrde perfumehouse Etat Libre D'Orange in 2006. To me PdP is a fragrance that is not created to smell good or to be praised for it's masterful blending. This is one of those perfumes that are primarily created to make an artistic statement and on many wearers it of course also developes to smell good. It seems that PdP fits with my chemistry as the discerning Mr Parfumista comments "Today you also have a frag that smells good and that suits you" when sampling PdP.

The name Putain des Palaces is just right to this skanky, animalic, lipstick-putty, blend. In it's texture and partial in the lipsticknote PdP has similarities with Lipstick Rose from Frederic Malle. The similarities ends there as LR is innocent and pretty and PdP is the quite oppsite character. After applying PdP I can smell a noticeable note of cummin in the topnotes. According to the notelist there is no cummin but ginger, probably this note is the outcome of a handling of ginger that I have not perceived before. I like PdP in the topnotes, the sweaty "cummin" that for a short while mingles with a dirty, furry-animalic note that I recognize from Parfumerie Générales L'Ombre Fauve. As PdP dries down and settles in the middlenotes/beginning of the basenotes, there is a light leather or more like a suede note, a sultry violet-rose, still dirty and with hints of something that I perceive as a chalky note. The lipstick note is also there but the violet and rose dont feel clean and clear as in the luxary lipstick of Lipstick Rose. Despite some creaminess from the lipsticknote, there is a certain sharpness hiding at this stage, an at the same time round note that reminds me of a golden apple on the verge to be overripe. This note, which I belive is suede combined with flowers, I have earlier experienced in Etienne Aigners In Leather for Women and in Ava Luxes Film Noir. As the dry down get further and finally settles in the base, the violet and rose appears to brighten, get less skanky and a note similar to papyrus glimpse in the powdery musky base.

Putain de Palaces is a suggestive, haunting and alluring scent. It is not especially pleasant to wear, you have to be in mood to deal with the tragic reality this fragrance will display. In contrary to what one expects from the perfume of a Putain de Palaces, PdP is lingering close to the skin and has a medium sillage. The longevity is, as in the case with almost all ELDO fragrances I have tried, quite good and it is still there unfragmented late in the evening with traces the day after.

Rating: 5

Notes: Leather, mandarine, ginger, rose, violet, lily of the valley, amber