Odalisque (1989)
by Parfums de Nicolaï

There seem to be varying versions of the notes list for this one. Bois de Jasmin lists them as bergamot, mandarin, galbanum, jasmine, lily of the valley, tuberose, ylang, patchouli, oakmoss, amber & castoreum, whereas Luckyscent lists only lotv, jasmine & iris. l do not know which formulation my sample is from, but although it is a recent one, having tried it l am convinced that the former list is the one that applies here.
This opens on my skin as a very dark-green, mossy, retro-style chypre, reminding me of Jubilation 25, & Patou's 1000. There's something very dirty & animalic deep within this perfume, which must be the castoreum, as well as an interesting salty note. One hour in it sweetens a little, but it's vegetal rather than floral, & l'm getting a whiff of smouldering, damp wood. Three hours in, it's a little warmer & friendlier, & there are hints of rose & a carrotty iris. From there it slowly fades out, the sillage is fairly good & it lasts around 5 hours on me.
This is a very rich, deep & complex perfume, but as is usual with chypres l find it rather too challenging for me, being a floral-oriental-gourmand type of gal. lt's very high quality though, & if you can work out which formulation this is, l highly recommend it for chypre lovers.

21st January, 2012.

Day One on a sample from Luckyscent:

First sniff--lightly on top of a nice, nondescript floral is a soft, salty and smokey something, maybe seaweed or fresh sweat. It makes me think of a distant campfire on a beach. It's peculiar, but pleasantly so.

Half an hour later--Oh this smells heavenly! Now the florals are stronger and moist, like real flowers with nectar in their inner parts. (Though not so real that I can identify what kind of flowers they are). The smoke and brine still linger faintly. There's something kind of dreamy about the scent. The salt/smoke is distant enough that even though I keep catching it, it might be my imagination. The flowers are lovely, but I can't quite pin them down either.

Drydown--the florals have dried out to a perfumy stereotype. Eh. I don't recall seeing musk in the scent pyramid, but I think I smell some. The sweet smoke and wet salt is long gone. The flower nectar is gone. I can't smell the drydown unless I touch my nose to my wrist. When I do, it's not bad, it's just not great anymore. If only this were a linear perfume and the heart lasted forever.

The sillage was modest and the longevity was just about perfect. The opening notes lasted maybe fifteen minutes, the heart an hour or perhaps two, and after six, the drydown is quite faint.

My bias: I'm new to serious scent appreciation/criticism. My primary criteria for evaluating a scent is: 'Does it smell good? Is it pretty?' I like skin scents--strong sillage is as uncouth as talking during a movie. I want scents to last all day, but fade with me, so that by the evening, when I am worn thin, so is my perfume. I dislike musk--it gives me a headache-is-coming feeling and smells, not animalic (sweaty, fecal, or leathery) as I'd expect, but rather like powdered laundry detergent (heavy, bright and dry).

I doubt that I'll buy a whole bottle of Odalisque, but I'll use up the whole sample with heart-felt pleasure.

8th January, 2011.

I read (on other sites) that many get a lily of the valley dry down with this. So, I did a side-by-side comparison to Caron's Muguet de Bonheur. And, no. Muguet is buttery yellow and fresh, and Odalisque is a screechy weed. Many have mentioned that this has been reformulated, which has to be a shame for it's original admirers.

On another note, does the title make anyone want to yodel? Come on: "High on a hill was a lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo."

As I went about my evening this played in the background of my cluttered mind. Soon it became: "Loud was the voice of the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl- lay ee PEW!"

That was my hint that it was time to wash. I'm not used to panning a Nicolai scent, but this is really harsh on me. No matter how long I waited, or how hard I tried, I could not get the faintest smell of sweet jasmine. It was just goatherd poo, all night long.

8th December, 2010.

Odalisque was the first of Patricia de Nicolai’s perfumes I tried, and I’ve been a fan from the first sniff. There is something about the way Odalisque is blended that it has a much smoother arc than so many other green chypres. The oakmoss isn’t bitter, and the top notes aren’t sharp. I suspect it’s the use of lily of the valley and what smells like gardenia. I can’t think offhand of other chypres with a dominant muguet note, and I think the dewy roundness of the note eases things. Also, if it’s gardenia that I’m catching, it’s got a little of that earthy almost truffly feel and counterweighs the floral coloratura.

Not to be dogmatic here, but this doesn’t really seem totally like a chypre to me. I definitely find it to be a mossy floral, but, even though the PdN websites lists the notes of bergamot and mandarin up top, I don’t get the bergamot sharpness. The green in Odalisque is wet and grassy and I attribute it to the lily of the valley. The fruit is almost peachy or apricot. I think the fruits and florals are beautifully proportioned and allow the moss to be the gentle counterbalance without seeming too dark or bitter.

Whatever the genre, Odalisque has an hypnotic, almost narcotic quality. This is the scent equivalent of eating lotus flowers. Odalisque makes me want to lay in and enjoy the lazy pleasures of life.

Edit: I've just tried the most recent iteration of this at ScentBar. I now know the despondency of the reformulation blues. It smells as if the chypre portion of the fragrance has simply been removed without any attempt to compensate and what's left is a watered down floral. PdN can certainly do a pretty floral, but the notion that by comparison we suffer is really brought home to me. I'll treasure the bottle I have.

16th November, 2010. (Last Edited: 23rd January, 2011.)

On me this barely smells floral at all -- more like a very pleasant but pronounced human body odor. As it dries down it softens considerably and by hour three I could barely smell it at all on my own wrist. Something in it reminds me of Rive Gauche. Very interesting and unique, but I'm not sophisticated enough yet to say what that note is.

15th August, 2010.

A beauty of a fragrance. This is a review for vintage Odalisque given to me by a thoughtful perfume friend. I shall cherish it because I am sure it no longer smells this way .My first impression is that this is a wonderful piece of classic perfumery . A lovely , potent chypre that soars in the heart notes . I smell the lily which is fore front to me but it's so well blended and the perfume as a whole, has a distinctive air. I agree with Hillaire that it does smell somewhat like vintage Patou's1000 but I find vintage 1000 more powdery .This is crisper ,cleaner ,brighter , on a higher octave. Also some resemblance to Eau de Soir- it's that kind of grand dame chypre.

2nd July, 2010.