There’s new perfume house in town: Pont des Arts. Some of you might be groaning, and I don’t blame you. It’s hard enough to keep up with promising releases from houses we already know and love. Stop it with the new brands already!
That said, Pont des Arts bears watching. Its first offering is a manageable three fragrances including an oriental, a floral chypre and a fresh woody citrus. Even more intriguing, perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour developed the oriental, À Ce Soir, and the floral chypre, À Chaque Instant.
À Ce Soir’s notes include pink pepper, leather, cinnamon, bamboo, cedar, cassis, green mandarin, rum, pollen, ylang ylang, orchid, narcissus absolute, mastic absolute, vanilla absolute, vetiver, benzoin and amber. The result is a dense fragrance that sparkles at its edges. Imagine a topaz — solid, faceted, and a light sop. If you hold it up to the window, you see gold at its edges, deepening where the stone thickens in the middle.
And what does this gem stone smell like? Vanilla, golden rum, narcissus, saffron and truffles. It smells like L’Artisan Parfumeur Vanille Absolument and Cartier Baiser Volé Extrait had a baby, and Amouage Myths Woman sent an engraved sterling rattle. I’m making À Ce Soir sound like a mess. It’s not. It holds together beautifully and is just offbeat enough from a typical oriental to keep me lifting my arm to my nose to smell it some more.
À Ce Soir wears like a garment — say, an amber velvet cloak. It’s not a stealth perfume or a skin scent. It is proud to be admired, and all day long, at that. Wear a short spritz of À Ce Soir when you crave comfort on a rainy night, and a full spritz on each arm, plus one down your cleavage, when you plan to turn heads until dawn.
À Chaque Instant’s notes include clementine, pink pepper, angelica root, galbanum, saffron, beeswax, tuberose absolute, jasmine absolute, patchouli, myrrh, oakmoss, musk, benzoin, vanilla. This one, the floral chypre, was the fragrance I was supposed to fall in love with. Don’t the notes sound terrific and unexpected? I couldn’t wait to tear open the sample vial. I adored another of Duchaufour’s chypres, Ann Gérard Perles de Mousse, and sorely regret not buying a bottle before it was discontinued.
Unfortunately, À Chaque Instant fell flat on me. Despite slicking my arms on three occasions, all I smelled was a lot of citrusy pink pepper before the fragrance shrank to a bare wisp of beautiful but barely legible warm floral notes with a burn of myrrh. I had to press my nose to skin to make it out. Then — poof! À Chaque Instant vanished. Is it my skin? Or am I anosmic to a chunk of it? Please comment if you’ve had a different experience.
Pont des Arts’ fragrances are available in the United States so far only at Indigo Perfumery, and they don’t come cheaply. The good news is that they sell a 30 ml size, and the Pont des Arts website offers a free sample program. À Ce Soir Eau de Parfum and À Chaque Instant Eau de Parfum are $285 for 100 ml; $170 for 50 ml; and $120 for 30 ml.
Thank you for reviewing these! A Ce Soir was the featured sample in Indigo Perfumery’s Scented box last month….which I put aside and forgot to try. I shall try it tonight!
So many samples….and perfume houses….and so little time! 🙂
I so relate! I’ve pretty much thrown in the towel on trying to keep up. I have to hear raves to hunt down a fragrance anymore! I really did enjoy A Ce Soir, though.
Update: I went home Monday night and sprayed one spray, and really didn’t care for it. Decided to let it dry down before I scrubbed. In the meantime, the hubs got home and told me I smelled really good….LOL 🙂
That’s hilarious! Maybe it’s one you can wear when you have a cold and can’t smell much.
Thanks for the review, Angela 🙂
À Ce Soir sounds like a beautiful autumn perfume.
They do both sounds amazing but a pity that À Chaque didn’t last long 🙁
A nice feature that they have free samples..sadly not many offers that anymore.
The sample program really is nice! I also like it that there’s a 30 ml option.
This house sounds interesting- thanks for reviewing. Indigo Perfumery is great (and so needed in the Midwest perfume desert) and this is another reason to frequent it.
Indigo has a great selection of fragrances. I’m also a big fan of Fumerie, Twisted Lily, and Luckyscent.
Thanks for your reviews, Angela. It’s refreshing that this house is starting with three perfumes that all sound intriguing, has a good sample program and offer a smaller bottle size, and Bertrand Duchafor! On to the sample list they go.
My thoughts exactly!
I just tried ordering a sample but it seems they don’t ship to the US!
I tried the same thing. The countries they listed were all in Europe. Indigo has samples for $4 each, which is not bad. I may try these out. They sound as if they have a significant percentage of naturals, which appeals to me.
That sounds like it’s the best route to go for samples.
Oh, too bad!
I’ve just sent for some samples and they’re FREE! Just a 9 euro charge for p&p. What a great idea for a new perfume house…..I live in the U.K. I’ll review when they arrive……feeling pleased.
Looking forward to your thoughts.
Oh, good! I hope they’re interesting to sample for you.
Thanks for reviewing these. A ce soir sounds like something I would like a lot. I’m sorry to hear that A chaque instant didn’t work for you at all, the notes sound lovely.
On another note; are all the Ann Gerard perfumes discontinued? It’s such a transient business, isn’t it? Perfume I mean.
I’m sort of amused that they put accents on the first letter. Capitalised letters don’t need accents, only the Académie française thinks otherwise. But that is just a geeky side note.
Yes, sadly Ann Gérard is sticking to her jewelry. I really did like that line, too. I managed to buy a bottle of Rose Cut and a decant of the leather one (name slips mind, still working on first cup of coffee), but not Perle de Mousse.
Thank you for your “geeky” comment! When I wrote the review, I left out the accents for exactly the reason you say, and I guess Robin added them in to (correctly) match the brand’s labeling.
You mean Cuir de Nacre. (It’s early evening where I live 😉 ) I didn’t really enjoy it, but only had a small sample and didn’t try often.
I’ve got full bottles of Ciel d’Opale and Perle de Mousse. I love wearing them in spring and summer. It’s a pity indeed that Ann Gérard stopped doing the perfumes. They matched her jewellery very well I thought.
Yes! That’s it.
Ciel d’Opale was really lovely, too. Kind of a summer afternoon in a bottle.
It is, sunny yet somehow slightly wistful.
Just when I’ve gotten out of trying new stuff, intriguing new stuff appears. DANGIT.
A curse and a blessing!
I’ve been intrigued by A Ce Soir since Grain de Musc included it as one of her favorites for spring: http://graindemusc.blogspot.com/2018/04/ Thanks to Indigo Perfumery, it’s one of my favorites now too. I find it works as a warm and cosy winter scent, thanks to the vanilla and amber, but interesting enough to dress up and go out (which for me means jeans and a big sweater).
It really is cozy, but still exotic! It snowed here last night, and I reached for my sample right away.
Thanks for the review, Angela! I’m sorely tempted to order the samples and have them shipped to my dad in Germany…but just like Mals said, I also kind of wanted to stop trying new houses etc. (I just spur of the moment ordered a free sample set from another house and so far they’ve not been my thing at all). But it’s always fun to read a review, at any rate!
I’m glad at least the review is interesting, and if a tester ever crosses your path, you’ll have something to sample.
My samples arrived all beautifully wrapped in a little black baglet. A Ce Soir is gorgeous, slightly old fashioned with a huge opening which is powdery floral and I can smell carnations. It is dense with huge sillage and has so much going on I can’t discern the different notes. A velvet cloak is a great comparison. It’s lovely but it’s a bit too much for me. Too big. It also has slightly strange ‘plastic’ green note which I’m not sure about. But I think this may grow on me and become one of those “I can’t stop sniffing my wrist” perfumes I end up buying.
A Ce Soir really is a big one! It could easily overwhelm someone’s personality. On the other hand, when you’re in the mood for a fragrance that’s both comforting and a showstopper, I could see turning to it.
Just tried A Chaque Instant and this opens with a Chypre blast. It’s pretty strong and I can smell oakmoss and citrus. After a few seconds the Angelica comes through and this is a note I’m not sure of. It reminds me of those little scented sweets we had as children. I don’t really like it even though its very well done. There are three in this line and the third sample called On S’Etait Dit is a very ordinary masculine fougere. I’ve really tried to like Pont des Arts and two are really lovely – my favourite being A Ce Soir.
A Chaque Instant faded so quickly on me! It sounds like it might have lasted longer on you.