Reviews of Grain de Plaisir (1998)
by Maître Parfumeur et Gantier

Initially, this one bowled me over – citrusy top notes that took longer than usual to subside, with herbal undertones fleetingly introducing themselves before the emergence of the drydown.

And that’s where it all went wrong for me...

The herbal drydown is okay but, in comparison to the opening, disappointing and not as long-lasting as I was expecting.

This was one big anti-climax.

[Original submission date: 10 April 2008]

Maitre Pafumeur et Gantier Grain de Plaisir

Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier was formed in 1988 Jean Laporte, after his stint at L'Artisan. M. Laporte's vision for MPG was to create a line that hearkened back to Paris of the 17th century. These scents almost all have that sense of being from another time. Grain de Plaisir was one of the last scents M. Laporte designed before turning over the reins at MPG to Jean-Paul Millet Lage. Grain de Plaisir feels like a blast of freshness that one could belive being worn by a male courtier of the 17th century. The top of Grain de Plaisir is the most amazing citrus herbal mix. It is mostly lemon but I also detect some grapefruit along with a very green note which according to the note list is celery seed. This is the bite of lemon with a blend of green that is beautiful. The top of this lasts for an amazingly long time on me, which is unusual for citrus scents but this top is still in control on my skin two hours after application. Since the top is the best part of this scent, this duration is a good thing. The descent in to the heart begins with an almost minty pine accord which mixes with the remains of the citrus and celery quite nicely. The base is a sweet amber which is nice contrast to the tart beginning. Grain de Plaisir translates as a "moment of pleasure". For me this is much more than a moment of pleasure and the top notes of this are spectacular.

opens with a herbal blast covered with citrus which is just refreshing to say the least. soon this scent progresses into a dense powdery note..something like iris but its not..the herbal touch still hovering over this powdery note soon begins to pale and rests on a cool mint note. the basenotes is quite thin in comparison with the opening and then then the dense basenotes...neverthless, a winner. a unique green scent with very controlled herbal note and a mint flavored base note. a wonderful scent for spring/summer which would linger exuding really pleasant notes. are their better scents out there? yes, but not many with a nice mint note except for Green Valley

I tested this from an official carded sample. I kept staring at it trying to decipher the French; restraining myself from looking stuff up online about it. I wanted to go into this one without prejudice or forethought. I wanted to like this. The card had a familiar looking plant I swear was a celery stalk.

I looooove citrus scents. Lacoste (original) is such a lemony scent and I love it. Homme de Gres is a dry lemon/wood scent and I love it. Creed's Royal Water is an elegant citrusy scent and I like it.

Grain de Plaisir made me gag at the start. Pledge wood cleaner. BAM! Right there. Then it dried down into herbs. There's the celery! Oh please not I love the smell of celery but only in cooking; especially when I help my mother in the fall to make her amazing chicken noodle soup.

Pleasant scent, I'd never wear it which is the purpose of perfumes.

I can't add much, other than to say it is wonderful. The initial punch is strong, and if you are patient, you will be rewarded with a nice scent all day long.

Beautiful and uplifting opening. A 'moment of pleasure' hardly does justice. The drydown is a bit scratchy compared to the first half-hour, but the benchmark is very, very high here. Almost a masterpiece.

Kaern

Grain de Plaisir arrives in a resounding blast of citrus and celery seed. There’s also something vaguely sweet and vegetal underneath, and it’s all very discordant.

A dense nutty/doughy accord emerges after a few minutes, while the sharp celery smoothes over and integrates with the tart, chirpy citrus. A dark burnt sugar note and a bit of amber work their way out of the background while the citrus slowly fades and the doughy accord sweetens. The remaining citrus note is still discordant, and grows outright sour as it recedes. What remains is a dark, honeyed amber accord that somehow reminds me of burnt pastry, perhaps baklava.

It seems to me that Serge Lutens’s Mandarine-Mandarin dries down in a similar direction, though with more finesse and complexity. Grain de Plaisier tries (maybe a bit too hard?) to be interesting, but never fully manages to pull itself together.

Top: lemon, mint, lavender
Mid: celery seeds, myrtle, fir
Base: vetiver, musk, sandalwood.
Grain de Plaisir is really interesting, in my opinion much better and more successful than its sibling Baïme. Both are herbal scents, but in Baïme the thyme dominates, is linear and not particularly attractive in and of itself. Here, the celery seed is surprisingly subtle, mysterious, and blends well with the other ingredients. A lemony-lavender opening quickly is augmented by complex herbal notes. They are dry, aromatic, and slightly dusky. There is a hint of celery, but it is mild and nutty, more like celery heart than strong bitter old outer stalks. Myrtle gives green aspects, and there is the hint of something coniferous. Later, vetiver emerges with grassy dusky elements. There is also a nice mild wood tone of sandalwood. This is a DRY scent, no florals here at all. The amber is used well, to give a resinous rather than a rich or sweet tone. GdP is dry... but not bitter! I don’t find it challenging at all, I like such dry and aromatic scents. Admittedly, this is not what everyone is wearing. It is distinctive, an outdoorsy scent that works well indoors because of its subtlety and freshness. Very good!

This is how Eau Savage SHOULD have been.
:)

O.K. This scent is simply bizarre! The lemony citrus opening is great, lasts about 15-20 minutes and then...it's no good. I mean; it just plain stinks. I can't imagine what possesed anyone to create this mess...yet here it lays upon my wrist! I must know, is there anybody who actually wears this stuff? Please let the answer be NO!

A really enjoyable citrus opening of lemon and mint. After the refreshing opening the scent turns quite aromatic—specifically with a dominant celery note. Celery usually behaves pretty well on my skin, so I don’t mind this celery note at all. In fact I think it is rather aromatically pleasant—the coniferous note that goes along with it helps make it more palatable. These heart notes are clear and clean at first, but then they kind of dull down as they lose the lemon and mint of the opening. The base notes become even duller and weaker—I nearly lose the scent completely on the dry down. Grain de Plaisir is actually a bit better than I’ve just made it out to be. I like it, but I don’t love it, and at this price I’d have to love it to buy it.

Calchics review is spot on. Grain De Plaisir starts off great - fresh lemony top notes ! After 15 minutes, everything goes downhill. The fragrance transforms from bright and lemony to a strangely earthy and raw smelling scent. Over the course of the next hour or so, you can still smell the (faint) lemon notes, but by this time those notes are dying a slow and painful death. After an hour, you are in celery/vetivery heaven (or hell) - the lavendar, sandalwood and other assorted notes try to soften the predominantly celery/earthy notes. At times it smell like raw henna. I am guessing it will still be quite unwearable for most people.

The Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde of fragrances.

WEIRD. That's about all I can say. Citrus notes combined with a sickly sweet celery note. I've worn this a few times and don't know what I think. It will leave an impression if nothing else, but not something I could ever wear. There's a ton going on here though.

Grain de Plaisir is a very interesting summer fragrance. A blend of citrus and celery. Green, yet very well mannered and very French. Like its counterpart, Biame, it also has an herbal side. Overall, Grain de Plaisir is a great summer fragrance that is great for formal or casual wearings.

Celery's just not a very pleasant note in a fragrance, no matter what you mix with it, and this is a celery scent first and foremost. The very refreshing blast of topnotes - lemon and mint - make this an extremely pleasant fragrance at first. But they don't stick around for long, and then you're into the celery seed stage. For those who've not encountered celery in a scent, it's sweetish and radiates a great deal of heat, almost a bodily heat. It's just generally tough to wear for many. The fact that it's combined here with myrtle, lavendar, fir, vetiver, musk and sandalwood makes it slightly, slightly more bearable - fir alone is also a strong note, and its clean qualities do balance out somewhat the reeking of the celery. But the alchemy of the notes also brings out a certain bitterness in the drydown. So, to recap, you go from fresh to reeking to bitter. That's quite challenging, to say the least!

On ledge with GdP. It can be spicy and savory if in the mood to behave, or it'll kick you in the posterior and become downright hideous. For once, I'm stumped on a scent.