Etat Libre d'Orange - Fat Electrician

Are zebras black with white stripes or the other way around? I think they´re white with black stripes, but I don´t think that it really matters.


Anyway, the black-and white stripes of zebras are a kind of camouflage, in the heath on the African savannah their stripes looks like grass from a distant. Predators becomes confused and the stripes are a kind of illusion. Illusions can be fascinating, you know that kind of (usually) black and white pictures that make dots jumping out of the paper and lines that seem to be much longer than they actually are.


Fat Electrician is Etat Libre d'Orange´s latest perfume and it make me think of zebras, illusions, black-and white and a play with light and shadow, contrast and things that isn´t really what it look like.


If you´re a fan of vetiver, don´t miss Fat Electrician! The opening of Fat Electrician could be the fattest vetiver opening there is. Oh, exactly... the fattest. Your greated by smokey, earthy and even rusty vetiver with roots and soil. And by the way, vetiver has really long roots. But, there is also a note of something buttery, soft, round and also quite strange. The name is oddly spot on, at least the fat part.


The vetiver note isn´t at all polite or toned down. This is edgy, harsh and kind of raw vetiver. But as soon as I start to think that I wont manage this scent, the buttery notes are there, softening things up and almost like braided together with smoth vanilla. Fat Electrician changes between dark and light, edgy and smoth, sweet and bitter all the time. Close up the bitter notes are clearer, but from a distant the sweetness stands out.


Yes, it´s like braid a hair consisting of raven black and white blonde hair. Hide and seek, contrasts and a struggle for power is prominent in the scent. Just when I think that I´ve undertand it, it plays new tricks on me. The vetiver become greener, grassier and also a little softer when the scent develops. I find the vetiver in Fat Electrician to be masculin, but the vanilla is more feminin and lend the scent a gourmand character.


When reaching the basenotes, the scent become softer, but also a little boring on my skin. I like Fat Electrician, but it is a challenge to wear it casual, since it constantly changes. Wich of course is on purpose, Etat Libre d'Orange´s perfumes are usually anything but static.


Fat Electrician is well worth the price, longlasting and with medium sillage.





Pic: Alison Ingram