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Don’t go and perfume yourself with chocolate

Posted by Robin on 28 March 2017 12 Comments

The one thing I was asking Frédéric, the only request I had, is not to have a perfume with a scent of a chocolate or vanilla, whatever, that is very a la mode at the moment, you know? That’s all about...gourmandize they call it. Like we can’t eat food. It’s forbidden, so let’s make the perfume smell like a chocolate. [...] If you want a chocolate, go buy a chocolate. Don’t go and perfume yourself with chocolate. 

— Alber Elbaz on the new Alber Elbaz par Frédéric Malle Superstitious. Read more at Alber Elbaz Thinks Fragrances Shouldn't Smell Like Food: "If You Want Chocolate, Go Buy a Chocolate" at W Magazine.

Filed Under: perfume in the news
Tagged With: alber elbaz, frederic malle

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12 Comments

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  1. m3000 says:
    28 March 2017 at 8:50 am

    Haha, Alber Elbaz nailed it! Just what I say. We’re all going to drown in a gourmand tsumani!

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    • m3000 says:
      28 March 2017 at 8:52 am

      … tsunami.

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    • Robin says:
      28 March 2017 at 9:11 am

      It’s a very long trend! From my review of Edmond Roudnitska’s Diorissimo:

      Roudnitska was disturbed by the trend towards the heavier use of gourmand & sweet notes in perfumery, which resulted from efforts to balance out the new, sometimes harsh synthetics:

      Not only were we pushing perfumes in the direction of food, but we were also putting too many ingredients into them. It made them too complicated and muddled. (quoted in Perfume Legends, p. 111)

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  2. springpansy says:
    28 March 2017 at 10:21 am

    I get what he’s saying, and I happen to agree that I don’t like super sweet (or chocolate, for that matter) in my fragrances; but it’s just personal preference, it’s not because there is anything wrong with a fragrance that has chocolate in it.

    To me, a scent is like a color. There is no wrong color. There is no wrong fragrance note: different strokes for different folks. It is only due to society’s connotations that the color pink, for example, is often seen as young and feminine. It’s really just one of the many colors we can choose from to wear or put on our house or etc. It’s unfortunate that the current trend is everything sweet. I think that’s as unappealing as everything pink.

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    • Robin says:
      28 March 2017 at 11:33 am

      I assume he is not trying to say there should be no gourmands, but that the current trend for gourmands is related to our fear of food.

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      • springpansy says:
        28 March 2017 at 2:21 pm

        Yes, I got that point. But I still felt he was making a further point about not wearing food smells..

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  3. floragal says:
    28 March 2017 at 10:24 am

    Completely disagree!
    Love me some chocolate or cacao note!

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  4. tiffanie says:
    28 March 2017 at 11:03 am

    I want to eat chocolate, not smell like chocolate or caramel.

    I have a few samples of sweetie fragrances I enjoy (the old Missoni is one), but I have to be in the perfect mood and moment to appreciate them, otherwise they wear me out.

    I love Eau des Merveilles and a few other fragrances because they are deeply satisfying in a way that hits the delicious buttons in my brain but without the smell of food. It’s a deliciously inedible balance.

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  5. APassionateJourney says:
    28 March 2017 at 1:00 pm

    That’s like saying if you want to smell good you should shower instead of perfuming yourself. There’s peach and apricot in the fragrance, so why down chocolate? Hmm.

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    • springpansy says:
      28 March 2017 at 9:32 pm

      Yes!

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  6. plume says:
    28 March 2017 at 3:19 pm

    Kind of a silly/lame quote.

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  7. nathanthomas50 says:
    28 March 2017 at 3:50 pm

    Tried this one yesterday and while it’s well done , it really wasn’t me at all, was almost a scrubber

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