Fraîche Passiflore (1988)
by Maître Parfumeur et Gantier

Fraiche Passiflore has a vein of green running through it that gives it some vibrancy, and the treatment of passionfruit is very nice. It's not a confused tropical cocktail; it has simplicity going for it.

However, it's very light and disappears within minutes. I wish it had more density and richness, because otherwise it's just not worth it.

Peachy—white peachy, it’s interesting how you can tell the color of the peach from the smell. Unlike calchic, I get mostly white peach. And the passion fruit gives the opening that bit of tropical vibration. As for the berries, you can’t prove it by me, but they are probably there…heaven knows there’s enough sweetness in the fragrance. The whole thing makes for an opening that does not seem very adult, I would say. And the accord continues through the entire run of the fragrance, which ends with a fruit / musk accord. I don’t get any sandalwood or jasmine or pimento, and I get tagette only on paper, not when the scent is actually on my skin. As a matter of fact, on paper, Fraiche Passiflore comes across with much less sweetness and more maturity. It’s a feminine fragrance that has good longevity. I don’t find Fraiche Passiflore very interesting: On paper, it is linear and not very complex; on my skin it is linear, not very complex and…adolescent—but that’s just me.

Not my favorite MPG. Fraiche Passiflore goes on fruity-floral and soon degenerates into a tropical fruit lifesaver candy. Disappointingly synthetic smelling for this house, and the first MPG that I actually had to scrub off. I'm sad.

That is, until I go put on some Bahiana. Now there's the MPG tropical fruit for me!

Mango, mango, mango! In all fairness, mango is not even listed as a note in Fraiche Passiflore, but it sure smells like it's in there and very prominently so. I'm guessing it's the result of the seriously syrupy sweet, tropical-tinged passion fruit note (that's what the passiflore stands for - passion fruit in, I take it, French) meeting with a clean-ish musk basenote; the actual mango fruit has always, to me, had a juicy yet clean, ever-so-subtly soapy flavor to it, if that makes sense. The other notes said to be present here - peach, raspberry, tagetes, jasmine, pimento, sandalwood - barely make it onto the radar, making for an extremely simple and linear scent that's all about, yes, mango! It's really nice, infinitely wearable and well suited for something like a great weekend getaway to the Caribbean, South Beach or even your local ocean spot. Simple and easy, totally uncomplicated and slightly addictive once you get in the habit of wearing it.