Etat Libre D'Orange - Rien

Picture: Medival construction site.

Villard de Honnecourt, drawing of a buttress at Reims,

in his album of drawings, ca 1230 - 35. Bibliotheque Nationale

The name of Etat Libre D'Oranges Rien is an understatement to said at least. But that is on the other hand not surprising as it comes to this controventional perfumhouse, at least when it comes to the it's earlier releases. Rien is on of those earlier creations and it is executed by the famous Givaudan perfumer Antoine Lie. About the story behind and the perfumers inspiration of retro perfumes blended in a contemporary style and taken all the restrictions of rawmaterial in consideration that has ruined many of the great classics when reformulated, read the initiated review of Rien at Bois de Jasmin. Rien is one of these "complicated" cult fragrances, analyzed in almost it's every part in different parfumeblogs and forum and here is my version of it: The formula of Rien reviewed is the original, it's said to has been reworked to a softer version in 2014.

The perfume Rien is anything but "rien", instead it is very "très" as very much is going on in this blend. It starts by a very strong and almost overly harsh construction site note that I genreally like. But in Rien it's on the verge of being too much of that particular wet, putty, gritty and slight sweaty note. This note is also present but in a subtler and more pleasant way in Etros Messe de Minuit. There also a note of a tick, almost smokey and dry leather, as in a rough and heavy leather coat. As Rien is a very strong and potent blend one have to be very careful upon application. When sampling and wore a full sprits from the sample on the right arm and a half sprits on the left, I felt a difference in the scent. It smelled much better on the left, lower dose, hand, not as sharp and compact as on the right. But in the stronger concentration there on the other hand are some interesting animalic notes glimpse. As the first, strong blast tunes down, the fragrance turns into a pale pink almost withering rose backed up by a gentle cumminnote, musk and cold green whiffs that resembles geranium. This stage is slight powdery. The blend for a while gets even more dry to my nose and in this stage there is traces that reminds me of Aromatics Elixir by Clinique. But AE is a louder interpretation of the rose, geranium, moss and also distinguish the individual notes more apparently than in Rien, which notes seems to be more mixed together. In the basenotes there are also aimalic notes that is not as distinct in AE. There is an almost animalic furry note among the basenotes together with a distinct musknote and the powdery pale rose that remains subtle. In the middle and basenotes there are many similarities with the beautiful rose-musk combo in Musc Nomade by Annick Goutal and sometimes I'm almost thinking I'm wearing the latter even if MN is more refined and elegant in it's appearance. In the latest stage of the basenotes the rough leather from the earlier stages of Rien returns, but now it seems to be better in balance with the sourrunding notes than in the beginning.

Expect from the almost off-putting opening and topnotes of Rien, the perfume evokes just the right feeling of retroperfumes foremost in the leathery chypre style as Robert Piguet Bandit, Estee Lauder Azureé and Parfumes Grès Cabochard. But also as mentioned above, of a modern musky classic as Musc Nomade.

Rien is an interesting frag where a lot is going on during it's dry down and there is no risk of losing interest. Even the picky Mr Parfumista gives compliments when I wear Rien, which is strange as he often complians about strong aldehydic scents beeing too "old man/womanlike"on me. But Rien is dry, with almost no sweetness in it and Mr Parfumista is appreciating dry-wood perfumes for himself.  Rien is a must try for retro perfumelovers. I can't say it's officefriendly, not in it's initial stage anyway. This "offending" stage on the other hand dries down during the journy to work and when entering the office, the more pleasant middlenotes have appeared.

Rating: 5

Notes: Aldehydes, cummin, leather, iris, amber, patchouli, moss, incense, rose, pepper, styrax