What a difference an ingredient makes. Last week I disparaged a fragrance that showcased one note (Iso E Super) and this week I'm doing just the opposite. Attaquer Le Soleil* Marquis de Sade by Etat Libre d’Orange promotes one ingredient, cistus labdanum (from Cistus ladanifer), but I thoroughly enjoy this perfume.
I wrote about the Marquis de Sade and perfume almost 7 years ago (Histoires de Parfums 1740 Marquis de Sade). I'll quote myself:
Sade’s stories of torture, his endless diatribes against religion, his sexual fantasies involving pain, incest, degradation, humiliation and murder numbed me. Reading the Marquis de Sade’s dully written, repetitive tales made me sleepy and after awhile I began to laugh heartily at the absurdity of him and what he 'preached.' His philosophy didn’t appeal to (or interest) me. I was definitely not Sade’s audience.
I'm still not Sade's audience but sometimes I feel I could have been his compatriot. When I visit France and walk by or inside 18th century buildings, or when I'm surrounded in a home, palace or museum by French objects of that period (furniture, clothing, art — portraiture especially) I get an eerie feeling I'm "at home." Perhaps I have a French fetish because I'm drawn to Marie Antoinette, knee britches, Georges Danton, the guillotine, Christoph Willibald Gluck, powdered wigs and Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. When a chance arrives to glance into 18th century French mirrors, I do so, and imagine a life hundreds of years ago. Cistus labdanum fits perfectly with the gorgeous-nasty days of the 18th century. It possesses an antique and jolie-laide aroma and it plays strange games with my nose and feelings. I grow Cistus ladanifer in my garden so I can tousle its leaves and stems to enjoy its fragrance.
Attaquer Le Soleil goes on with the scents of evergreen leaves and citrus (ripe citron crossed with tangerine); it's sweet and bracing. Smelling Attaquer Le Soleil is like walking into a house on the day after a big Christmas party. You can still smell the oranges and pine boughs on the mantle and window sills, the kumquats strung on the tree, but you also smell the lingering aromas of last night's dinner (dulled scents of cooking). In mid-development a smell rises that conjures a wool coat of a man who wore a beautiful Eau de Cologne but who got overheated (some may interpret the "wool" as human hair that spent too many hours in a bar, a busy kitchen or too-warm bed, or all three in the same night). The last phase of the perfume is musky-syrupy, with added "pine smoke" and overripe citrus rinds. In other words: Attaquer Le Soleil smells, as advertised, like cistus.
In colognes, cistus often appears with a THUD-thump and a stolid nature; in Attaquer Le Soleil, perfumer Quentin Bisch makes cistus buoyant and frolicsome (it has a a holiday vibe). Even if you think cistus is not for you, give Attaquer Le Soleil Marquis de Sade a try; it has good longevity and sillage, and is gender-neutral.
Looking back, I don't think it's a coincidence that my stage debut at age eight was as the papa (I was tall for my age and...plump) in A Colonial Christmas where I threw shyness to the winds and danced the minuet (queue the Gluck!) for the first time.
Etat Libre d'Orange Attaquer Le Soleil Marquis de Sade Eau de Parfum is available in 50 ml ($95) or 100 ml $150); for information on where to buy it, see Etat Libre d’Orange under perfume houses.
* "Attack the Sun"
Note: middle left image of Cistus ladanifer [altered] via Wikimedia Commons.
1) Man, let me tell you: de Sade is just boring ass boring, in that way that only rich people with no real direction in life but far too many resources can be. His stuff reads like really bad internet fanfiction does today.
2) Having read of the compositions of waters, colognes and perfumes of the era, this scent actually sounds perfect!
3) Have you ever been to Versailles in late spring/early summer? You smell the halls- I mean, really smell- and all the mingled odors of sweat, cologne and perfume, and then if the windows are open, the blossoms from outside. That is the smell I associated with the time of Ancien Regime.
Ede, I’ve only been there in the dead of winter…Versailles with snow is gorgeous…and smells clean. Ha!
Comment 1) made me laugh out loud. Thanks for that.
You make this sound very enticing! I’ve never read any of De Sade’s works and I don’t feel like I need to. Not knowing him has never kept me back from loving the HdP either.
Austenfan, this is a good one…I am having a hard time not buying a bottle!
Well, this sounds like a must try! I’m hoping Arielle Shoshana will have it soon.
Kevin, I had an amazing experience with cistus labdanum that I highly recommend. The Saks Fifth Avenue in Chevy Chase (just outside DC) has and elegant Chanel Beauté (perfume and cosmetics) boutique. There is a mirrored table with comfy seating that holds special ceramic sniffing rods immersed in wells of all the Chanel fragrances in every concentration. (I think they refer to that as the “stage.”) And, best of all, they have a collection of the key absolutes and essences that comprise the perfumes, including cistus labdanum. You can dip scent strips into these little bottles and sniff to your heart’s content. The Chanel cistus labdanum is simply to die for. I found my olfactive soul mate in that bottle. (The only other scent that good is to sniff the cistus labdanum scent strip in combination with one with dipped in the Chanel musk.)
IIRC, this collection of essences, in a special black portfolio, is called the Chanel Olfactorium. There ought to be one in Seattle, too. It’s really worth checking around to see if one of the stores has it, making an appointment with the trained associate (hopefully as charming as Akil at Saks), and setting aside an hour or two for the full experience.
Noz, thanks for the tip…I will call around tomorrow. And DO try this scent.
The David Jones in Sydney has a similar set up for Dior. You’ve made me want to hunt down the Chanel experience here in the U.S. !!
Oh, do! It’s really worth it.
Akil really is awesome. I haven’t met him in person, but he helped me get one of the last edts of Sycomore, after it was sold out.
hahaha great review Kevin, thank you. I have been intrigued by this fragrance since the announcement and I shall definitely look for it now. I believe I share your predilection for matters Ancien regime as I nodded in agreement as you listed some cultural and historical figures from the time. I saw a performance of Danton’s Death at the NT a few years back – complete with full size and working guillotine….my mother and I were traumatised and glad we’d eaten vegetarian at lunch…… Have you seen Versailles? A gloriously OTT tv series with britches and mirrors galore (and a whole lot more besides)
Dona: No…never have seen the Versailles series…will look for it. I saw the most guillotines years ago in Lisbon…an exhibit entitled “Torture.” It was held in a very scary space to boot.
I must find this to try. You make it sound so appealing!
Agree on everything said about de Sade. Imagine a college freshman from the suburbs attending her first classes at Berkeley. Comparative Literature..meeting in a lounge with the “lecturer” sitting in the floor smoking clove cigarettes. De Sade’s Philosophy of the Bedroom was one of the books assigned. In fact, the entire syllabus was centered around sex. But the de Sade book was huge and so incredibly tedious. Basically a lot of porn with talking, and then a huge chunk of philosophical ranting in the middle. I felt so unsophisticated. Now I look back and laugh and send up a cheer for my lack of appreciation.
Lizzie: same experience here but substitute UCLA for Berkeley.
This perfume captures something of the note I found intriguing in Commes des Garcons Tar, as well as another note from ELdO’s Tom of Finland. Sweeter than I thought, but that’s just at the top, and it really has great longevity. I’m awfully tempted to acquire the FB of this one. My last Quentin Bisch FB is still great, and still interesting (La Fin du Monde). I hope he never attenuates his individuality to suit a huge budget (not much chance of that with ELdO I guess).
And, you know, de Sade’s interests are probably boring to read about, but you cannot look at today’s fiction and porn sites and say that he was not onto something. Maybe as fuel for fantasy only, but it’s everywhere. The marketing at ELdO continues to plow the same mildly lascivious ground, and by god it works!