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Post by Ainslie Walker
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Hi APJ,
An oldie but a goodie. A wild ride that is filled with exciting twists & turns. This bottle is an older one from Michael Edwards and I feel very lucky to have it because now you can only buy the intense version. The formula has changed since this bottle was made, I’m sure it has quite a lot really.
Sacrebleu by Patricia de Nicolai for Parfums de Nicolaï 1993
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Mandarin orange, fruits, red berries
Heart: Carnation, tuberose, jasmine, cinnamon
Base: Olibanum, woody notes, vanilla, patchouli, sandalwood, peru balsam, tonka bean
Sacrebleu !
So unusual to me immediately. It’s tart! Like a tart berry. Redcurrant? Unripe raspberry? Bitter rind of tangerine, perhaps bitter orange rind too. A hint at jasmine/tuberose/vanilla, which sometimes to me is an expected crowd pleasing base, often kind of meh. I can smell frankincense resin strongly?!?!? With the berry and mandarin it feels Christmassy to me. I keep thinking “how weird”. I am getting something sooo weird I cannot pinpoint at about 30 mins in, its green, carnation and patchouli, but also a rubbery mouthful of some fruity flavoured bubblegum?…am about to run to wash it off and then *boom* things balance out a little. Sandalwood/frankincense/bitter orange, rounded off with some white floral jasmine and shy tuberose and a touch of well chewed fruit gum.
Photo Stolen Flickr
The gum eventually starts to give way and tonka bean rears its head with some vanilla notes and starts to get pretty. It’s like dessert has finally been served! Within the frankincense resin, the soft vanilla notes seems to glow angelic. The angel is casually hanging out, chewing on a blackberry and vanilla marshmallow. Finally I get some gentle spices, cinnamon and clove/eugenol, which works so well with the remaining citrus.
Great scent life, and the dry down is very Shalimar like a vintage Shalimar dry down and I could still smell a gentle bit of it in the morning. Projection and sillage were pretty good for most of the fragrant life, more like a natural or a fragrance that has lots of naturals rather than a strong synthetic fragrance. Though not one that I’d normally go for, I really like it and had to keep going back to sniff myself to see what it was doing. Interesting, lovely. Casual and easy.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
Further reading: Now Smell This and Perfume Posse
LuckyScent has Sacrebleu Intense from $65/30ml
Parfums Neroli in Budapest has Sacrebleu from €50/30ml
Surrender To Chance has Sacrebleu Intense samples starting at $4/ml
A floriental but slightly crazy frag. Shalimer lovers should definitely give it a go.
Have you tried Sacrebleu?
Ainslie Walker