Poivre (1954)
by Caron

True story; I was in the kitchen making a dish of rice pudding from scratch for kicks. The recipe called for ground cloves. I got the spice jar of ground clove off from our designated "spice" cabinet and smelled it. Clovey, naturally, and strong. Something about raw clove is kind of off putting to me, not my favorite. I tapped a little bit in, the last tap was strong and I ended up putting a good dose of clove into the pudding. Not too much of a problem though, stirred it, put it in the oven. Both my mom and brother said when it was baking that it smelled good whatever it was I was making.

To be exact, Poivre on my wrist smells like that rice pudding , or more direct the ground clove pre baking with perhaps an underlying actual floral other than supposed carnation, it mellows out sweeter and does and into, as someone suggests something like a bandage or maybe some sort of cosmetic, something you'd smell in the drugstore or on a girl sometimes. Perhaps this is the Caron base? This is otherwise all about cloves.

So carnation, eh? That must be the black pepper thing I got. Carnations do smell kind of peppery, come to think of it. My husband detected cinnamon. I don't know where or why or how I would ever wear this one, but I appreciate that the right person could rock it. And, as it turns out, it lasted, like, an hour on me.

Open with a blast of clove, and an underwhelming hint of pepper. For the first 5 or ten minutes I have the unpleasant sensation that my body has been puntured with cloves like some kind of gigantic holiday decoration gone wrong. The only evidence of pepper, or any other scent, is the tickle in my nose.

The clove mellows with time, sharing the stage with cardomon and vanilla (?), and vaguest shadow of pepper. An elegant and indulgent potpourri, which is not exactly to my liking, but it is hard to ignore the quality of the composition.

On my skin, the potpourri fades rather quickly into the caron base, which itself fades even faster. After 20 minutes, I can't tell it was ever there.

I really hated Coup de fouet when I tried it several months ago, and now that I try Poivre extrait I'm not sure if it's that much better or if my taste has just developed. I think Poivre is smoother, richer, more well blended, less sharp and thin. It's basically the same scent though, very dry and spicy in a little musty, old fashioned way. The description says pepper, which I usually like, but I'd say it's clove and cinnamon, which are too dry for me and turn sour and sharp on my skin.
I wouldn't blame anyone for liking Poivre, I can see how it's a quality fragrance. It has the unmistakable Caron base - coldly metallic and warmly rich at the same time, with a distinct vintage vibe to it. Poivre is well blended and luxurious with honey, carnation, roses and lots of spice, and it might be lovely on someone with a skin chemistry that softens it just a little. Or it might seem lovely to someone who's a fan of carnation and clove in a scent. I'm not, and on my skin the spices turn unpleasantly dusty and bitter.

I went to this perfume looking for a "holy grail" carnation scent. However what I found was much more, and also somehow a little less. Poivre is spicy and sweet, calling to mind red hots at first, but it is seamlessly blended and progresses and morphs into other types of smell entirely on its strange journey. It remains warm throughout and clings to the skin, becoming an almost maternal smell, too familiar at first and then later, of course, it is a completely compelling and strangly pleasing smell of bandaide adhesive. So now I have scent I love, but it is completely different from what I thought I wanted. And when I wear it, it makes me forget completely about that silly carnation holy grail thing.

Poivre starts out strong, warm, spicy, and very full. It smells leathery and mellow for a while, still with that warm, spicy, floral combo that the other reviewers have mentioned. Unfortunately on me, as it reaches the base, it just unravels. The oakmoss and vetiver become too apparent and it takes on a weird vegetal-like smell. (A lot of chypres seem to do this on me, so maybe it's just a chemistry issue.) I wish it had held together because for a while it was a very smooth, intriguing, spicy blend, blended in that way that makes it difficult to discern individual notes.

For men looking to explore the allegedly "feminine" Caron scents, this would be a great place to start. There was nothing overtly feminine about this scent. Even in the base, if it reminds me of anything, it is Richard James EDT, or maybe a less "gothic" Iquitos.