When my friend Maryann opened the door to greet me, she said, "You smell nice! At least it must be you, since nothing out front is in bloom yet." It was late April and not even lilacs or lilies of the valley bloomed, let alone roses. But standing in the doorway I knew Maryann recognized the faint fragrance of an early summer garden in the morning, because I wore Parfum d'Empire Eau Suave Eau de Parfum.
In 2003, Marc Antoine Corticciato, the perfumer behind Parfum d'Empire, created Eau Suave in homage to Josephine's Chateau de Malmaison, famed for its gardens including 250 varieties of rose. In an article on Malmaison, Princess Michael of Kent wrote that roses were a natural for Josephine:
Josephine was christened Marie-Joséphe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie and she would be known as "Rose" from her birth until the day when the young General Bonaparte (who made a habit of changing women's names) began a letter with: "Sweet and incomparable Josephine. I awake full of you and of the memory of our intoxicating night..." From that moment she would enter history as Josephine.
Pretty cheeky of Napoleon to change her name, but I guess you don't get to rule most of Europe without being at least a little domineering.
Princess Michael says that Napoleon and Josephine bought Malmaison together, but Wikipedia's entry on Malmaison claims that Josephine waited until Napoleon was out of town raiding Egypt before she bought the chateau, which was at the time a dilapidated money pit. Initially Napoleon was upset that Josephine had counted on loot from his conquests to pay for the chateau, but eventually he came around and even purchased an additional 5,000 acres nearby. Josephine renovated Malmaison, filling the entry hall with tropical plants and free-flying birds, and she attacked the grounds in earnest, even going to far as to get a passport for her London-based plants vendor so that he could personally escort shipments of jasmine, dahlias, tree peonies — all plants then rarely seen in France — to Malmaison. She had a gigantic greenhouse constructed with a dozen coal-burning stoves to warm it, and she filled an orangerie with 300 pineapple trees. Zebras, black swans, and kangaroos roamed the grounds. In short, Josephine put Martha Stewart to shame. (The official Malmaison website offers a terrific virtual tour of the chateau.)
In Eau Suave, Corticciato created what he calls a "modern chypre" focused on Josephine's roses, and specifically on what the Parfum d'Empire website calls the "misunderstood" aspects of roses. He evoked spicy roses through coriander, saffron, and pepper; fruity roses through peach, raspberry, and apricot; and tea rose to lighten the composition. Oakmoss, white musk, and patchouli ground Eau Suave.
If Eau Suave is the fragrance of a garden in bloom, it's not a lush, heady garden of jasmine and lilies, but a more restrained garden, quiet, with pea gravel paths and bird baths and lots of places to sit with a book. Yes, the garden has roses, but the stem and leaves of the bush and even a hint of the spicy greens of the adjacent kitchen garden sneak in, making Eau Suave less about bouquets of roses than about the garden as a whole. Eau Suave goes on gently and wears more like an Eau de Toilette than an Eau de Parfum. It's mid-afternoon now, and I can still smell this morning's application of Eau Suave, but only within an inch of my skin.
I love Josephine's vision for Malmaison. I've crammed a garden on my urban lot and look forward to a summer of figs, plums, dahlias, and currants beside the usual tomatoes, pole beans, and zucchini. I have a handful of fragrant Bourbon roses planted in front. I'll read magazines on a rusty chaise and have people over for backyard dinners on warm nights. No zebras or black swans roam here, but the dog will dig himself a cool bed in the dirt under the raspberries, and I'll watch the cat bat at the occasional fly against the inside of my office window. Maybe it's no chateau, but it's home. And I do have Eau Suave.
Parfum d'Empire Eau Suave is an Eau de Parfum and is sold in a pretty, columnar 100 ml bottle with a mauve painted label. For information on where to buy it, see Parfum d'Empire under Perfume Houses.
Note: image of Malmaison via Wikimedia Commons.
What a fabulous description of both Malmaison and your own garden, Angela! Makes me want to grab a bottle of wine & a folding chair, and c’mon over.
I kind of forget about PdE, although Ambre Russe is a favorite; don’t recall sampling Eau Suave and it sounds as if I need to, right away. Instant lemming.
Thank you! I wish you were right here at the backyard table.
The first time I sampled Eau Suave was a few years ago, and it didn’t strike me one way or another. A wonderful perfume friend convinced me to try it again, and the next day I had my own bottle. I think it’s name puts off a lot of people–it sounds so Perry Como.
That’s too funny! Exactly what I was thinking — “How did I miss this one? Must have been the name…” Definitely on the to-try list now, A., thanks for the great review!
It’s definitely worth a try, despite the goofy name. It must have a whole different connotation in French.
Suave, in French, is associated to sweetness and softness in fragrance or music, a meaning that was lost when the English language borrowed the word…
Funny, the perfume I associate Joséphine with is musk. She drenched herself in it, apparently, and the walls of Malmaison are said to have absorbed enough of the scent to give off a suave smell many years after her death…
That definitely makes sense–the French definition of “suave”, that is. And I’ve heard the same story about Josephine, but Eau Suave’s musk is barely noticeable to me. (I bet it would layer well with musk, though.)
wonderful review Angela! I’ll whip up a batch of almond cookies, grab my folding chair and I’ll meet you and Rosarita on the back porch!
Oh, and if I happen to accidentally bring along a bunch of these extra Hostas I’ve been digging up …..that’ll be okay? right?
I swear, I’m going to set them at the end of the driveway with a big sign that says “FREE TO GOOD HOME, or just to ANY home please take them…..”
I have room for a few more hostas….
lol careful these Hosta are mutants!! 12″ tall my aunt fanny!
Sounds intriguing!
I guess you don’t live in an area with deer – hostas are like candy to them!
I’d love some hostas, only I know they’d be eaten down to the nub.
No, no deer in my yard, although the slugs like hosta, too.
DEER! I hate the deer almost as much as the voracious rabbits and plant munching slugs…it’s a triple-threat around here…although I have to say that the deer (read this very quietly to yourself) have not discovered my hostas….my neighbor only 2 houses down gets her hostas chomped on all the time! so shhhh….so far so good.
Hey Daisy – how funny! I am just saving some space in my garden for some much needed hostas…..There are so many tricks to keep the deer away – my fav is to use a nice pair of my husbands smelly socks on a post.
Sounds great–see you soon!
What a lovely review for Memorial Day, Angela! Today always feels like the beginning of summer to me, although I know that’s not technically true. I can see I’ll have to order a sample of Eau Suave. It’s one of the few Parfum d’Empires I haven’t tried, but I love Cuir Ottoman, Ambre Russe, and Osmanthus Interdite, and admire many of the others. And I’m so jealous of your garden which sounds lovely. I have a lot of room around my house, but it’s mostly all shade, so I can only dream of growing raspberries and tomatoes!
I feel really lucky this year in that Memorial Day weekend is actually sunny for a change. The garden is a weedy disaster. I need the Olympic Gold Medal Weeding Team to work heats in my yard.
oh, sorry, I’ve got them booked for weeks and weeks….
I have a shade garden too with lovely lily of the valley, bluebells, peonies, forget me nots, violas, anemonies, foxgloves……Although there are many sun loving flowers I miss for sure!
Sounds lovely!
Eau Suave is indeed lovely, and not a ‘straight up’ rose (which works for me since I’m not a rose person). Many of the PdE scents have an enveloping quality to me — like wearing a nice cashmere shawl, and Eau Suave is no exception. I also get a lot of saffron, which probably adds to the ‘suave’ effect.
I get a touch of saffron, but not so much as, say, Czech & Speake Dark Rose or Safran Troublant. Eau Suave feels so much lighter–and, as you say so well, “enveloping”.
Wonderful review, Angela! I too will need to check out more PdE fragrances. I’ve only tried Ambre Russe. Josephine’s house and gardens sound like the stuff of dreams! One glitch in the historical record, however. I’m trying to picture a pineapple tree, LOL.
Oh no! Pineapple bush? The article said “pineapples” so I decided they were trees. Whoops.
Oh, it was you! Yep, they are actually a pretty low-lying plant. But the idea of pineapple trees fit in nicely with the romantic image of a home with zebras and kangaroos roaming its grounds.
I really would like to visit Josephine’s home in my dreams!
Just checked out the other PdE fragrances on Luckyscent. I think I need to try Eau Suave, Equistrius, and Aziyade at some point. Love the look of the bottles, too!
Yes, in my incorrect mind’s eye I decided that pineapples grow like coconuts.
Aren’t the bottles nice? I like them. Plus, they don’t have a huge footprint, so they’re easier to fit somewhere. I like Cuir Ottoman a lot and am fascinated by Aziyade, but I only smelled it briefly. Fougere Bengale is a real surprise, too.
Ooh, Fougere Bengale. One of my favs. Thanks for the reminder. I know what I will be wearing today
I think I’ll dig out my sample, too!
it was just the other day that I sampled eau suave for the first time and it was the time when all the wonderful flowers were just getting into bloom and the air started to smell of warmth, sun and flowers and grass, just like you wrote, and i loved it! so much so that now I can’t decide which one to buy for myself for my upcoming birthday, eau suave or dzing
Oh no! What a choice. Both are essential, in my view. Eau Suave might be better for the warmer months, though, and Dzing for the fall and winter.
oh no, THAT”S not enabling at all…
Me? Enable? Never!
I have a few PdE samples waiting in my rather enormous sample back log….I’m going to have to see if this is in there….and try it right away! I know for sure there’s Equistrius, and Aziyade in the bag…not sure about Eau Suave!
If you do try it, be sure and let me know how you like it.
so sad! 5 samples of PdE and none of them are Eau Suave ! rats! luckyscent basket, here I come…
Darn! Too bad you don’t already have it.
Well, a sample of this just went into my LS cart, along with their Osmantus one. This sounds so completely up my alley I hardly know what to say – lol.
I hope you like it! Let me know what you think.
Lovely review, Angela. And are there two better words in perfume than “rose chypre”? This is immediately going onto my “to test” list. (I’m also going to be checking out the Malmaison site post haste.) I’ve only tried a few PdEs, and while they weren’t my thing, I admired the construction. Eau Suave sounds like it will be my thing.
Eau Suave is a lot lighter than some of the big rose chypres, like Folie de Rose, and is greener, too. It’s perfect for spring.
Nice review Angela! Sounds like something I’d like and it makes me much more curious about PdE in general. The only one I know is Osmanthus Interdite, which is lovely.
I think there was a lot of splash about PdE when they first started and released Cuir Ottoman and Ambre Russe, but it’s faded some since. I think they’re a high quality, interesting line.
*puts on list for next perfumedcourt order* sounds like it smells like the sweet spring air outside on sunny days.
Reminds me to get that cherry tomato in… Hopefully it will not be cold and rain all summer like last year, that made for manky tomatoes
ick. The backyard better go back to being the surface of the sun this year lol
Last summer was terrible for vegetable gardening for me. The tomatoes did all right, but the slugs were so bad that I had to plant beans four times before they took. The dahlias were munched to the ground until about July. This year looks MUCH better.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a slug in person, they’d probably shrivel up and turn into slug-raisins of some sort in southern Ontario LOL (or alternatively slugsicles in the winter)
The rabbits mowed down the roses last year with their monstrous bunny-rabbit appetites. Poor roses didn’t survive the winter but shockingly the peony that was presumed dead has returned.
How I wish I could say I had never seen a slug…
Too bad about the roses!
I hate to admit this, but when the rubber meets the road, all my “organicky” intentions fly out the window when it comes to snails/slugs, and I sprinkle that chemical killer around. Works like a charm.
Like hell I’d replant flats of beans FOUR times!
I use non-toxic slug bait, but sometimes it just isn’t enough. Replanting the beans wasn’t bad, since I was doing it from seed, but I had to wait so long for them to produce! This year looks much better.
“Ohhhhh, no. No, no, no. Not again… NOOOO!”
Shut up! (clamps hand firmly over wallet and smiles apologetically.) Ignore the complaints of my wallet, please. He just doesn’t understand my needs. For example, if it’s rose, if it evokes the lushness of the gardens at Malmaison, if Angela likes it, I need it. Wallet must learn to keep his place, or I’ll sit on him. Of course, it’s easier to do that lately… what with the Lyric split and that Une Rose Chypree and all, he’s a lot skinnier…
You have some great roses coming down the pike, it sounds! Lyric is fabulous, and Une Rose Chypree is sure to be terrific, too.
I have you to thank for the Lyric split purchase, Angela. (Or is that, “you to blame”?
) I had made up my fickle mind not to sample any more Amouage fragrances, and then I happened across your Lyric review. It is definitely All That.
I’ve got a busted nose (i.e., a little cold) at the moment, so I can’t test that waiting sample of Rose Chypree, but I am expecting it to be gorgeous. Might have to test this one, too… (SHUT UP, Wallet!!!)
Hi! I can’t wait for the lyric either!!!….I just tested Rose Chypree and it is not going to work for me. It has an unusual fried food smell to me – a more gourmand version of Lyric perhaps? I’m sticking with the Lyric…..
Although I did just recently fall hard for both L’Air du Desert Marocain and Le Maroc (OK there is apparently a dormant and very sophisticated hippie living inside me somewhere!)
Sometimes it’s a relief when something doesn’t work out.
Ann, I hadn’t seen your comment about RChypree being gourmandy before I tested it today, but I did also feel that there was something almost edible about it. In my case, though, my brain kept saying, “Delicious!”
Once out of its rose phrase, it began to remind me a little bit of 31 Rue Cambon, which is a good thing. However, I have a decant of 31RC, so I am probably not going to be buying the Tauer. I’ll use every drop in my generous sample vial, though.
I hope you won’t regret the Lyric split, I know it’s so expensive. But it really is (at least to me) wonderful.
No regrets from me! I spent almost 6 months hemming over this one…the split made it easy for me to move forward with gusto! 15 ml is just enough to really enjoy myself – I am just thankful that there were enough other fragrance nuts besides myself to make it a go.
I’m a sucker for both saffron and historical tidbits, so this sounds delightful, despite the name — all I can think is “Oh, Suave!” Have you smelled Eau de Gloire? I’d be curious to see how PdE’s Napoleonic scent interacts with Josephine. And then they can march to Moscow and be decimated by Ambre Russe…
I haven’t smelled Eau de Gloire, but now I’m very curious to smell it! The saffron in Eau Suave is faint, so if it’s full-bore saffron you like, Eau Suave might not satisfy you.
. . .and then they can march to Moscow and be decimated by Ambre Russe. LOL! Ambre Russe can probably decimate a LOT of scents!
Yes! European history unrolls through fragrance…
Thanks for the wonderful article. You’ve definitely got me intrigued about Eau Suave, and I loved reading about your own garden!
I’m sitting in the garden right now! I hear birds in the plum tree, the faint hum of an airplane overhead, and I’m dreaming of the fettucine with Gorgonzola sauce (or artichoke sauce, haven’t decided) that I’m planning for dinner (just got a sturdy Imperia pasta maker at a thrift store).
sounds wonderful….the birds AND the pasta for dinner!
I spent most of the day in the garden (hope my 55spf sunscreen was up to task) but the birds weren’t singing nice things—mostly they were complaining about the AWOL birdfeeder—which is in the garage due to excessive interest from raccoons. Turns out raccoons think sunflower hearts taste fine.
Darned raccoons.
Ahhh … sounds lovely! (The garden AND the impending pasta!)
I decided on the gorgonzola sauce, and it was pretty great, if I do say so myself.
“Eau Suave” is very lovely –but, oddly enough, I find it distinctly masculine; a mentholated, leathery rose, pepper-spice, stewed fruit and something like piney greens, rosemary or lavender. It is very “green”, as mentioned and does have an air of “English Country” understatement to it—the green kick is tweedy and hedge-like; vigorous and herbal. Something about it also makes me think of “Fleurissimo” or “EnJoy”… it must be the rosey chypre-tartness that all three share. Despite all this, I smell “Eau Suave” and think “Very foxy man”.
Interesting! I definitely can imagine certain men wearing it, but I hadn’t thought of it that way. “Tweedy” wouldn’t have occurred to me, although I definitely see ‘hedge-like”, and it definitely has a tart edge, although the rose softens it for me.
Thanks to a certain someone, I have been spritzing this for the past two days and I am fascinated by it. I love it’s spicy/peppery opening notes and its restrained rose-chypre soul. This is the spring of roses for me (well, and many other florals to be perfectly honest) and I love them in all of their variations. Can’t wait to try the Andy Tauer.
I’m so glad you like it! It’s a good spring basic.
Perfect weather for this review! So lovely I want to go plant something in the garden tomorrow.
Yes! Definitely plant something. How about a Black-eyed Susan vine or a rhubarb?
Or how about the cosmo my son gave me for mother’s day? (I’m so lame that I haven’t planted it yet!)
Even better!
I don’t know how I ever missed this one -must be the name as mentioned above. But it sounds so pretty! I love a good “gardeny” fragrance! And roses!! I’m always searching for another great rose to add to my rose collection! Thanks for the beautiful review and descriptions of all the lovely gardens. My little “dirt patch” has nothing blooming in it now, and we are having such a dreary day!
Soon summer will be here, and everything will be blooming…
Angela, how much of a presence is the patchouli (which I loathe)? I am so fond of PdE’s Osmanthus so this one intrigues me.
You don’t have to worry about the patchouli in this one. Even after several hours, when patchouli can really made a presence of itself, I can’t make it out.
Very coincidentally, I received a vial of this as a swap “extra” last week and just got around to testing it today. What a very nice rose fragrance. I don’t get a lot of green or spice, but it’s certainly lovely and worth a try for those who can never have enough rose scents.
Now that’s what they call “damning with faint praise”!
Luca Turin wrote that Eau Suave was an attempt at a Givenchy III type of fragrance–a thick, green chypre–and although I don’t think Eau Suave goes that far by any means, I do get green in it. And rose, definitely.
Oh no! That’s not what I meant at all… it is actually lovely, but not something I need to own. Maybe I’ve just gotten jaded.
I have this as a sample on my desk, and I think is gorgeous, at the start I thought it is green, was crsip and tart but now it is roses, and somehow romantic feelings.
A perfect wedding scent I think, and really gorgeous for every rose lover! Your description is perfect as always, thank you.
It’s such a nice scent for a warm day, I think. I’m glad you’re enjoying it.
Dear Angela, I had a sample of this and gave it away. Somehow I managed to ordered it again and I thought: Oh! Where have you been for so long?
and I find myself again. I cannot really afford this, but I will. Who needs to book a holiday when you can have Eau Suave, a cozy blanket and your dreams?
So I came back to NST to check your review
That’s so funny! That’s almost exactly what I did, too. I had a sample, smelled it and wasn’t all that impressed, and gave it away. Then I smelled it again and bought a bottle. Go figure. Anyway, I’m glad you like it!
Angela, I liked also Nahema (and bought it) and a lot of other scents you reviewed.
I did not buy perfume this year, so I guess I can allow myself to improve my collection with my first chypre scent. Will be the most expensive perfume I bought yet.
I wonder why I always come back to roses? I have roses with leather, with patchouli, now I guess I will look for roses with incense. Perfume is a journey I gladly enjoy!