In a video taken at the Pitti Fragrance Fair, Joe Garces, President and CEO of Parfums Robert Piguet, holds a bottle of Petit Fracas and tells us about it in an accent that would make Tony Soprano proud. “One day I woke up and I said, ‘My daughter does not like Fracas. I cannot get her to like Fracas. I have to make something for my daughter.’”
He notes that his daughter is 30 years old. “It’s basically a youthful fragrance,” he says. “For someone who feels youthful.” Youthful or not, I’d say that Petit Fracas is a fragrance for someone who feels hungry. For dessert.
Petit Fracas has notes of fresh citrus, bergamot, mandarin, pear, tuberose, gardenia, jasmine, musk, sandalwood, and chocolate. (Garces says, “So I decided, why don’t we put some chocolate in there?”) Mostly, though, Petit Fracas is sweet. How sweet? Wearing Petit Fracas is like eating a pound-sized Whitman Sampler while watching Beaches and drinking boxed pink zinfandel. Sure, there’s a stalk of tuberose in a vase near the TV, but you could easily miss its fragrance as you reach for another chocolate-covered cherry.
Petit Fracas’s initial hit fruit and chocolate sails in on a few drops of orange lightened by fruity aldehydes. The fragrance’s fruit smells more like a red fruit salad than like a crisp pear. I barely detect Petit Fracas’s white floral heart in all that confiserie. Despite its intensity, Petit Fracas quiets in a few minutes to a sweet-nutty-fruity buzz. It’s this retreat in sillage that makes Petit Fracas wearable. The fragrance is fairly linear from there and fades to a vanillic whisper in six hours or so on my skin.
Garces points out that although Petit Fracas is a flanker to Fracas, it doesn’t really smell like a flanker. I agree. Smell-wise, Petit Fracas could be a fruity-cocoa flanker to Prada Candy or even a new (and probably super popular) Bath & Body Works fragrance. Still, in terms of sheer impact, they’re family. While Fracas is an overdose of tuberose, Petit Fracas is an overdose of bon bons.
I’m not Petit Fracas’s target market, but I understand wanting a sweet, indulgent perfume sometimes. After all, when the mood strikes, weepies and truffles (I’ll skip the pink zinfandel) are hard to beat. For a fruity oriental, I’d be more inclined to wear Chanel Coco Noir. When I want head-swimming sweet, I’m more likely to veer toward amber. But you might choose Petit Fracas instead.
What perfume do you reach for when you feel like smelling over-the-top sweet? Or do you ever feel that way?
Robert Piguet Petit Fracas Eau de Parfum is part of Robert Piguet’s “Nouvelle Collection” and sells for $150 for 100 ml. For information on where to buy it, see Robert Piguet under Perfume Houses.
Petit Fracas! 🙂
I guess it kind of is!
When I want sweet, super sweet, I go for Comptoir Sud Pacifique Vanille Banane, or for L’Artisan Parfumeur Havana Vanille (Vanille Absolument).
I love Havane Vanille! I find Petit Fracas even sweeter, though. Maybe it’s the fruit.
RB Baghari was my first niche purchase and then Futur. I was always so impressed with their line and respected them so much for releasing sophisticated adult fragrances. I completely understand their reasoning for releasing this, but I would have a loved another serious adult perfume from this line. I’m glad to hear its a bold perfume though! A perfume should never apologize and be too subtle in my opinion.
I adore both Baghari and Futur, but I have to admit I haven’t kept up with their latest batch of new releases. I’m curious about the Oud, especially.
I am PF’s target market and I absolutely hated it. I actually think that Piguet’s own Mademoiselle (orange blossom, almond, apricot, tonka) would have made a much better Petit Fracas if such a thing had to exist.
The sweetest perfume that I own is probably Ambre Narguilé which is plenty sweet and is my olfactory equivalent of a soft, cosy cashmere sweater.
I haven’t tried Mademoiselle yet! Its notes sound nice. I’ll have to track it down.
Angela, I’d love to read your review of Mademoiselle. It’s an uber-feminine, heady orange blossom and the only one of the recent glut of Piguets which I quite liked.
O.K., then, it’s settled–I’ll get a sample of Mademoiselle!
I don’t reach for sweet perfumes very often but I do enjoy Sweet Redemption By Kilian from time to time. One that I find to be similar and wear more often is Seville l’Aube. It has a sweetness that I find to be palatable. That being said, Fracas (the mamma not the baby) is one of my all time favorite scents and I’ll never be without a bottle of it.
Fracas is irreplaceable, in my opinion, if you love tuberose and making a splash! I also love Seville a l’aube.
For sweet I have quite a few options. Sacrebleu, Kiss me Tender, Vanille Intense, Chergui, Vanilia (L’A P), Fleur des Comores, Vamp à New York. Which in a way might be a younger version of Fracas, and a gorgeous one at that. I will have to look up the foodie references in your review but I think I got the gist!
You like sweet ones! They’re good ones, though–none of them a Whitman Sampler.
Patricia de Nicolaï is so good at handling sweet notes. She makes them interesting and wonderful. Must be her Guerlain heritage.
I looked up that box of sweets, it looked awful!
I admit to having ravaged many a mini-Whitman sampler, and while there’s something bizarrely satisfying about the grainy chocolate, I’ve definitely had better truffles.
This review just confirm my impression that they are diluting Robert Piguet Heritage on every new fragrance launched….
I haven’t tried that one yet. I’m guessing it’s sweet and fruity!
Angela, i was mentioning an specific fragrance, i meant that they are weakening Robert Piguet Image with those weak and pointless fragrances that they started to launch
Oh! I understand and know exactly what you mean.
I honestly like sweet and have quite a few favorite sweet perfumes… hard to choose just one. Queen Latifah Queen is up there for all-out-gourmandness, I’d wager. And I want to spend more time with Oscar de la Renta Essential Luxuries Oriental Lace.
Angela, would you say that the ingredients for Petit Fracas at least smell quality? Like, better than your average department store choco-fruit fest?
That’s a great question. The way that the perfume settles in relatively quietly gives it the feeling of being of good quality compared to, say, some drugstore bath sprays.
I have to disagree with comments that this is sickly sweet, or like wearing a box of chocolate. There is an initial burst of chocolate on my skin, quickly turning to the vintage feel of Fracas, but on a much lighter note, staying that way thru the day. Maybe more youthful, maybe just more wearable at work as opposed to Fracas (an all time favorite of mine).
I commend the House of Piguet on this fragrance, a flanker or not, it is a notable scent.
Thanks for weighing in! Readers, take note: try it on your skin and see how it behaves. Maybe you’ll have better luck than I did.
I never feel that way. The visual image of me after sampling something severely sweet involves rolling around madly in the tub going getitoffgetitoffgetitoffgetitoffgetitoffgetitoffgetitoff…
LOL! My thoughts exactly 😀
Then steer clear of this one!
I’m right there in the tub with you (unless that would make it weird) 🙂
Maybe side by side tubs? Or not! I sure won’t pass judgement!
And now I’m kinda wishing I’d get invited to that tub. . . 😀
It’d have to be a hot tub maybe? Filled with one of b3s coffee soaps. Those things can get any smell off!
SL Bois de Vanille or CSP Vanille Banane are the gourmands I dig, although I’m not even close to being a gourmand girl.
i’m slowly losing my patience with Piguet. I think they peaked with the re-release of Futur, and then it all went downhill from there. I guess as long as they don’t change Bandit (again) I can forgive and forget.
Ang, yes– stay away from the white zin! The only time I drank it I had a hangover so bad the next day that washing my hair hurt. And the guy from the video store (to tell you how long ago this was) called to say I had a late return and I told him to come get it himself.
That’s so funny! I’ll take your warning to heart.
Ah, sweetness. Many of the perfumes that sit well on my skin and garner me compliments are sweet–Botrytis and Songes being up at the top of that list, along with Ambre Narguile, the parfum of Badgely Mischka and the crazy cantaloupe Emotionelle, but my taste has gotten drier over the past few years.
Though now, of course, I want to go put on Emotionelle…
There are times when nothing will do like Emotionelle. I cherish my decant! That said, I don’t wear it very often.
I try sweet fragrances once in a great while. Gourmands in general are not my favorite fragrances. A Lab on Fire’s What We Do in Paris is Secret was about as sweet as I can tolerate, and that was in the dead of winter. To be fair, I live in a very hot, humid climate, and sweet fragrances can be very cloying. I tried Prada Candy last week for the first time. It was surprisingly pleasant! I enjoyed it for the evening, even in 90+F heat. Shows me not to avoid a perfume, just because of the name.
Ambre Narguile is lovely, but it might knock me out right now 😀 There are only 5-7 days a year cold enough for that one here. My tiny sample was hiding this year and not worn. Ah, maybe next year. I’d rather bust out vintage Fracas and let that tuberose bloom and growl in the heat. Be well.
Fracas already packs plenty of heat. Add it to a summer night, and watch out world! Sounds divine.
I like a lot of sweet perfumes but perhaps the most full-on gourmand-y of anything I wear semi-regularly is Hanae Mori. Spray it on, I got no shame! I also adore L do Lolita Lempicka.
Two good ones! L I can wear all day, but Hanae Mori scratches my gourmand itch deliciously but makes me hungry for snickerdoodles.
Parfumerie Generale Ilang Ivohibe, SL Chergui and Rahat Loukoum, and YSL Cinema are all go to sweet scents for me (also all ones I most likely to wear right before bed).
So, “sweet dreams” is especially true for you!
Ilang Ivohibe is one of my favourites, and strangely I only ever wear this before bed! Maybe ‘cos it’s sweet, and I’m not normally a sweet perfume wearer … but it seems so right to go to sleep with.
I wear vanillas and ambers to bed sometimes. Must be the same principle.
I have a lot of time alone in my house and sometimes the mood strikes me to don a caftan and just wallow in perfume. If I want clobber you over the head sweet, then Angel Taste of Fragrance it is; I like it much more than the original Angel as it brings this wonderful deep dark chocolate to the table. Not for everyday or every month but when I want it, I’m glad it’s there.
That’s exactly how I feel about sweet, gourmand fragrances. When I want them, I glad they’re there, but it doesn’t happen too often.
I sniffed this one. It struck me indeed as a Fracas lite for the junior crowd. Since everyone else* seems to be making Fracas Lites, why should not the company which makes Fracas get some of this action.
Personally, I still smelled that Fracas TUBEROSE (Caps intended), but it smelled rather like the bride (or prom queen)’s tuberose bouquet fell into the chocolate fountain.
Or to provide a different image, a Fracas for teen who wants to be a sex bomb one day, but the next day still wants to be a little girl (I don’t see Fracas as being for men, much less boys) sucking on a tootsie pope the next day.
Personally, I am not much on sweets in fragrances. When I get a rare desire for the Vavoom or the sugars, I’ll reach for another tuberose, the marshmellowy sex bomb Daphne.
*Everybody including Madonna, although I suspect nowadays her crowd is more “Junior League” than high school juniors.
It sounds like Petit Fracas gave you more tuberose than it did me–lucky you! And coincidentally, I’m wearing Daphne today!
Angela, your Daphne review a few years ago, made me order a sample of it on the spot, which led to a full bottle. It sure is a polarizing fragrance, but I adore it. Don’t wear it that often, but so glad I have it when the mood strikes!
That’s how I feel about it, too. When I want it, I love it and nothing else will do. Otherwise, it’s “apply with caution.”
Great review as usual, Angela. Your articles are always so eloquent.
While I have not sniffed Petit Fracas, not am I the biggest gourmand fan…. I could not help but laugh, while reading. Everyone needs at least one sweet, indulgent perfume. The two I enjoy on occasion, are the original Lolita Lempicka and Hanae Mori Butterfly.
Those are classics!
I OD’d on Hanae Mori Butterfly in my early 20s, so my current tolerance for sweet perfume is very limited. L’Heure Bleue, vintage L’Origan, and ELdO Like This are about the only sweet or sweet-ish perfumes I wear regularly, though I do like some obnoxious white florals and the occasional amber — but usually that’s in spite of their sweetness, not because of it. Assertive candy/vanilla/fruit sweetness is something I very rarely enjoy in any fragrance. So, long story short, I’m not likely to make significant dents in the world’s supply of Petit Fracas. But thanks for the review all the same, Angela.
The fragrances you name are barely sweet in my opinion, so you definitely prefer a dry fragrance! Not that I blame you.
I believe a petit fracas is an oximoron. Maybe the ‘oxi’ is silent.
Anyhow, what’s the point of dragging poor old Fracas into this? Flankers aren’t aspirants, they are also rans.
The Piguet line seems to have become the James Patterson of perfumes. Slow down!
I have been hitting the Bandit pretty hard lately. Not a summer frag, but it makes me swoony and I have been reading books about Greenwich Village and it has been a good backdrop for them.
The ‘sweetest’ I can go is Musc Ravageur. Sweets with cleats.
Bandit is eternal, and I can see it being the perfect “smell”track to the books you’re reading. And “sweets with cleats”–funny!
Bwhaha. I like the James Patterson comparison! 😀
I seldom enjoy a sweet fragrance from time to time, it’s more the abstract sweet than the foody sweet, so I don’t think I’d like Petit Fracas.
If I felt like a sweet fragrance, I’d go for Vetiver Tonka or Rahat Lokum.
Both gorgeous fragrances, and both nicely sweet. I’m reminded of Traversee du Bosphore, too.
For a casual one, I go for Prada Candy. For rolling around in bed being utterly indulgent is SL Rahat Loukoum. A winter warmer is Ambre Narguille. A cheapie is Yves Rocher’s Vanille Noire. Angel is a good standby (if you like it)
Can you tell I am a big fan of sweet perfumes? Heh.
I haven’t smelled Petit Fracas. My guess is most people’s issue would be the association with Fracas that is tangential at best. Fracas is not exactly my favourite tuberose, but I don’t really see a point in having a flanker that is not a riff off the original. But I am no marketing guru.
I wonder if there is a good gourmand tuberose? I may be wrong, but the combination does not sound very appealing and too overwhelming. My preference for tuberose is with green notes.
Yes, you’re a connoisseur of the sweet perfume!
Good question on the gourmand tuberose. There *must* be one out there, but my sinus-headached brain isn’t up to thinking of one right now.
No real connoisseur but I think Vamp à New York by Honoré des Prés would qualify. And it is brilliant. There is a very good review of it on this blog and another good one on Grain de Musc.
http://graindemusc.blogspot.nl/2010/05/vamp-ny-by-olivia-giacobetti-for-honore.html
https://nstperfume.com/2010/12/10/honore-des-pres-vamp-a-ny-perfume-review/
I remember the Grain de Musc review and thinking I’d love to try it–but of course I haven’t yet.
By Killian has a tuberose that is very much like a marshmellow. I think it’s called Love.
Oh yes–I know that one. Definitely sweet!
may I say-this one is not a Tuberose, the Tuberose is called Beyond Love, the Marshmellow/Meringue: Love. Love also is my favorite sweet treat, hmm. I also like Back to Black, What we do in Paris and sometimes Kenzo Flower- I need my sweets to have an abstract quality to them versus obviously resembling particular food items.
Back to Black is terrific, but I don’t remember it being very sweet. But maybe it is?
Kenzo Flower is a good one. Kenzo Flower Oriental is its own kind of overdose–nice, too.
too me Back to Black is already quite sweet but sure not as much as Love.
sorry, to
and I must try Flower Oriental
Sweet tobacco, like Back to Black is wonderful. Flower oriental is lots of sweet patchouli so watch out!
When I first started getting into fragrances, I was drawn towards L de Lolita Lempicka and similarly sweet scents, but I’ve quickly moved away from them. Now, the only sweet I wear is Traversee du Bosphore, which is more leather than sweet on me. And tuberose is a big NO for me so far–so I’m guessing this target market member isn’t gonna be in love with the new Piguet (which I *may* have already sniffed at Our Lady and brushed off. . .).
I need to try Traversee du Bosphore again. I can’t remember why I set the sample aside, but it clearly needs more attention!
I recently discussed it at length with a perfume buddy, and his experience of it was *completely* different than mine! To him, it was never cohesive or distinct, just sweet and vaguely unpleasant in its lack of development. So, it’s possible it’s one of those scents that really varies with the wearer.
That could be. I don’t think I’ve ever tried it sprayed, either, and sometimes that makes a big difference.
I like Traversee, even though I sometimes find it weird (although strangely addictive). But my husband detests it. He won’t even let me light my candle when he’s in the room!
You’re so lucky to have the candle!
Yes, I can see calling it weird and addictive! I go through periods when I want to wear it a lot and periods when it doesn’t really appeal to me. Too bad about your husband, though! I bet the candle is rather fabulous!
I went through a Summer of Sweet last year and sampled A LOT of gourmand fragrances during the hot months in So.Cal, but the only fragrance that scratched my sweet itch was Alien Essence Absolue. In fact, I was digging around for my bottle the other day….I think my itch needs scratching again.
I’ll sample this the next time I’m at NM – but after last summer, I think my days of fruity syrup, marshmallows and hard candy are in the past.
Isn’t it funny how sometimes a desire for a kind of perfume you don’t normally wear can come up? Sometimes I ache for powdery fragrances, for instance. Normally I stay away from them.
Yeah, it is weird……do you think it is an “age” thing (not human years, but more the amount of time one has been involved in the fragrance world)? I feel as though my taste in fragrance changes the longer I collect….I’ve been struggling with chypre fragrances for a long time, but I refuse to let go of an old vintage bottle of L’Arte di Gucci that I scored about 10years ago in hopes that I will appreciate it someday. Do you ever do that?….hold on to fragrances hoping that you’ll learn to love them? Is that weird or what?
My taste has definitely evolved, too. I remember the first time I tried Miss Dior. I couldn’t stand it! Now I love it and can’t imagine not having a bottle. I’m often amazed–and gratified–when I go back to an old sample and smell it again and am able to smell different things in it than I used to. (Of course, that doesn’t mean that I’ll like the fragrance any more than I did originally.)
Funny how noses (and palates) can vary so much. With all the mentions of Traversee du Bosphore here, I just checked my notes for TdB, as I could only remember that I didn’t like it, and I had written that it smelled like plastic or glue and made me nauseated–not a good thing. I can’t stand strong tuberose scents, which along with strong jasmine perfumes, are virtually a headache-in-a-bottle for me. In fact, I find most white florals to be cloyingly, sickeningly sweet. Amber, on the other hand, reads to my nose as more rich than sweet, like 70% dark chocolate or lightly sweetened whipped cream. I don’t find white zinfandel to be excessively sweet either. To me it has just a tinge of sweetness, which I vastly prefer to those mouth-puckering dry wines, and in fact it is my favorite type of wine. I have never gotten a hangover from it, but then, I have never had a hangover at all. On the whole, I am not fond of really sweet perfumes, although obviously my assessment of what is sweet is not the same as everyone else’s. I can take sweet if it is also powdery. I think it is like sugar; powdered sugar is certainly sweet, but the airy, dry texture seems to temper the sweetness to keep it from cloying, where a slug of corn syrup would be too much. My go-to powdered sugar scent is Divine l’Ame Soeur.
Your thought-provoking comment leads me think it would be interesting to do a post on different kinds of sweet. As you say, it’s not simply sweet or not-sweet. It’s so much more complicated!
Yes, Ann puts it well. Sweetness can vary according to context. I normally dislike sweet fragrances but I can easily tolerate Shalimar Parfum Initial and Prada Candy because in each of those, the sweetness is moderated by beautiful, shimmering notes of iris (or at least that is how I perceive them). And I happily tolerate the sweetness of Kenzo Flower because that perfume is so weightless. I can’t go near Traversee, and Flowerbomb and that Lancome thing – La Vie Est Belle? – constitute my personal nightmare. For me, Petit Fracas sounds like it should be added to that list!
Interesting! Your observation of the “weight” of perfumes really makes a lot of sense.
Yes, you might want to steer clear of Petit Fracas, then. Although you never know.
Interesting that it was made for his daughter. My 13 year old wears my Fracas to school almost daily and I am torn between asking her to go easy on my expensive perfume and being pleased that she has such good taste ( and I get to smell it on her as well).
Perhaps the roller ball version would be best for her.
That’s a great idea.
I’m seventeen and wear Fracas- so long as she’s not ‘hitting the bottle too hard’ I don’t think it should be much of a problem. How lucky that you have a daughter to share perfume with! My Mom and I test perfumes together and collect together, and it’s been a lot of fun.
You deserve some kind of award for “advanced perfume wearing”! How great that your mom is into it, too.
Wow! She has a remarkably sophisticated sense of smell. Good work on your part!
Cašmir. When I feel I need something sweet sweet sweet I wear Cašmir. This is comfort scent for me if there ever was one.
And then my visiting Loulou wearing mum joins me in the kitchen, and this is when the postman makes sort of funny figure 8 with his nose when I open the door.
Oh yes, Casmir! That’s a good one for me, too. Good thing your yen for sweet runs in the family.
I seldom crave full-out sweet scents; most of my favorite gourmands are as much salty or savory as they are sweet. But when the urge to smell like crème brûlée hits (as it occasionally does), I pull my bottle of Pink Sugar from the darkest recesses of my perfume cabinet. 🙂
A classic!
I’d say that I like many different kinds of notes and combinations of things, and I do crave a sweet perfume from time to time. My favorites (and the ones that really satisfy the need for “sweet”) are Emotionelle and Prada Candy. I seem to reach for them more in warmer weather.
That’s so interesting that you want sweet perfume in summer! Mostly I think of them as a cool weather fragrances.
Frapin 1270, Chergui, Soivohle Meerschaum, Daphne, La Petite Robe Noir, Prada Candy, Traversee du Bosphore, Ambre Sultan and other amber fragrances. Evidently, I’m a fan of sweet fragrances! Who knew?
But the fragrances in your list are so good! Who could resist?
Sounds like the Missoni original.
Nice comparison. Petit Fracas has more fruit (if I remember right), but the idea is the same.