Etat Libre d'Orange - Like This

I´m not always that fast with perfume news here. There are a lot of new releases all the time and of course I´m not interested in all of them. And there is alot of thing that can come in between when I find something new that interests me, like some bargains at Ebay or Tradera... another "unknown" perfume brand I just have to write about or some really good samples in a swap... By the time I order the new scents, they´re not actually new to anyone... but me.

Etat libre d'Orange´s Like This is one of those scents. It was released a while ago and by now it feels like everyone have tried it. Anyway I was really curious about it, Tilda Swinton seem to be a very different kind of celbrity, both her look and what she chose to work with. And that she chosen to aks Etat libre d'Orange to make her scent is also really appropriate and cool. But this isn´t news anymore and I´ve decided to fokus on the scent itself.

Like This isn´t at all as I thought it would be. with notes of ginger, pumpkin, immortelle, vetiber and helioptrope I belived it would be really warm, sweet and autumnal and kind of strong-w

sweet. But it´s not, at least not on me.

On me Like This becomes spicy in a subtle way, pale in an interesting way, citrus sweet, soft, caressing, sensual, gourmand, lovely odd and different and a little, little hint of naughtyness. There is something hotspicy beneath the creamy, soft surface. Actually it´s really suitable for a pale redhead like Tilda Swinton. A scent for strawberry blond hair, pale frequels, soft clothes in creamy nuances, a comfy chair in front of a fireplace and a ginger colored housecat in the lap while reading an adventure novel...

Like This isn´t what I expected, it is at least as good as I hoped. I´ll use it a lot even though I´m not a pale redheaded beuty. At least I can pretend to be when I´m wearing it.

This is so interesting and each time I use it I discover new things about it. There isn´t much left in the little sample I ordered some weeks ago. Like This have manage to get a spot quite high on my wish list, maybe I´ll go for a decant at first, but eventually I want a big bottle of Like This.

Like This is great to wear this time of year, but since it´s quite subtle I think it could work all year round. Somehow it reminds me of Bois Farine, as uniqe and different, still soft but still longlasting. If you like Bois Farine I think you really have to try Like This! Lasting power is good and sillage is medium (from my dab on sample).

Maybe you allready have tried Like This? What´s your opinions about it? I suspect it can be that kind of fragrance you either like a lot or not care for at all...

Pic: Flaming June

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

Etat Libre d'Orange - Putain des Palaces

As you know by now I usually enjoy powdery, soft and feeling pink kind of perfumes. Etat Libre d'Orange´s Putain des Palaces isn´t any exception. As a matter of fact, it´s one of my favourites.


A lot of perfumes in this cathegory has without doubt a pink feel, but what kind of pink can differ a lot. It can be salmon pink and skittering soft as vintage underwear, warm pink and fluffy as a feather boa or maybe baby pink and caressing like an angora sweater.


Putain des Palaces is without doubt, for me, skin coloured pink. Warm, soft and almost downy... and there are few perfumes that I´ve tried that has been as filled with body as Putain des Palaces. And, honestly, it isn´t a very clean, nude body either. Maybe not overly dirty, more of warm, even sweaty and yes, I don´t really know how to put this, but it´s a body still warm from bed after a night filled with intense, sweaty, violent, consuming and satisfying sex. Oh well! For me, Putain des Palaces is erotics changed into perfume.


I could have wrote porno, but it feel to genuin, to sweaty, to full-bodied and close to be porno.


Etat Libre d'Orange won´t hesitate to provoke and according to their description Putain des Palaces is about buying a prostitute at a hotell for a night of anonymous sex, prostitutes working at a hotell aka Putain des Palaces. For me that only evoke a cold and lonely feeling, and I think Putain des Palaces is a much to warm, tender and gentle scent for that cold description.


Now there is so much more about Putain des Palaces than body odour, there are soft, almost dusty flowres like rose, lily-of-the-walley and violet. A note of almond chime in, and makes the heartnotes powdery, feminine and almost innocent. The body note doesn´t show up until later, and overall it´s a pretty, pleasant experience until then. I can guess some will think of it as too perfumery and even old-fashioned and/or dated. It is soft, but at the same time strong and powerfull in a way making me suspect headache if overdosed. So apply with care!


Anyway the body odour shows up in the base and what a lift! From unmodern it goes to avant-garde, erotics and lots and lots of leather! And body! Never forget that Etienne de Swardt, the man behind Etat Libre D'Orange is a funny guy that likes to have fun. The perfumes can be provocative, strange and rebellious, but most of all, they are funny! Yes, Putain des Palaces is also funny, you don´t have to take it to serious. There´s a lot of charm and joy going on.


I do like Etat Libre d'Orange even tough I don´t get all of their perfumes or even understand how it´s possible to sell even a single bottle of some of them!? They stir around a little, and once in a while maybe that´s required. Despite wath you might think about the company marketing, a lot of their perfumes are well worth trying. All I´ve tried from them are strong, longlasting and with great sillage. You get a lot of perfume for the money.


You can read more about them here: http://www.etatlibredorange.com/english/index.html







Pic: By lamplight, ayoubart.com

Article about Etat Libre d'Orange at Fragrantica.

Still got some guests here, but most of them has left now. Tomorrow I am looking forward to writing a real blog article about a perfume that is perfect to wear when it´s hot (as it is here right now). But until then you can read my article about Etat Libre d'Orange at Fragrantica:

http://www.fragrantica.com/news/Etat-Libre-d-Orange-880.html