Patou pour Homme Privé (1994)
by Jean Patou

What struck me first is the difference between this and Pour Homme. The reviews below are all glowing and rightfully so. Pour Homme is the best mens fragrance I have ever smelled, but Prive isn't far behind it.

With that said, the lavender accord in Prive is outstanding with almost surgical blending of the multitude of notes. The masters touch was on both of these creations and yes, it does have an 80's vibe,albeit that is not a liability.

Lavender and coumarin last quite some time through the life of the scent and they're perfectly coordinated. This is a passive scent on me and stays close, yet has longevity well into the base when the subtle woods blanket the skin. I also smell a hint of violet from the mids to base as Pluran indicated and he's correct about another thing; this is a must try that won't disappoint.

In my opinion ( and it's only my opinion), I have substituted Ricci Club Haute for Patou Prive simply because Prive is so hard and expensive to locate...and...Ricci Club Haute is outstanding and soooooo overlooked.

This one is so well blended that picking out the notes is quite difficult. Its quality and uniqueness is certainly worth all the praise here. However, I didn’t find it as modern or timeless as others have pointed out. There’s definitely an ‘80s vibe going on in the composition that’s very obvious to my nose – for a fragrance released in 1994, this was something I really wasn’t expecting. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing, though.

Due to its rarity, this review is based solely on a sample I was given by a generous Basenoter, so please take this review with a pinch of salt. If I owned a bottle, I’m sure a couple of spritzes of this stuff on my skin would reveal more facets to me that, for the time being, continue to elude me.

[Original submission date: 10 April 2008]

Patou pour Homme Privé has one of the best lavender accords I've smelled balanced with a base which creates a dance somewhere between a fougère and an oriental. The lavendar seems to last far into the life of the fragrance. This scent is fresher and more pleasing to my nose in its upper accords than Patou pour Homme, but equally as satisfying in the extended dry down of woods and resins. As is so common, something this good is not commercially available and is getting increasingly more difficult to find.

They're completely different fragrances but Patou Pour Homme Privé is every bit as good as Patou Pour Homme, and it's significantly more unique as well. Privé is a fougère (fougère means fern). Fougères are based on an interplay between fresh, herbal, woody and mossy notes such as bergamot, oakmoss, geranium, lavender, clary sage, tarragon, and coumarin. Privé starts off with a sharp, green, pungent galbanum note, along with the usual bergamot, a few drops of mandarin, one of the most beautiful lavender notes in all of perfumery, some oakmoss (it appears fast here), and other mysterious things. The accord is sublime and lasts for a good while until the sharpness fades, leaving the galbanum more leafy green, and the lavender much like it was. But this lavender doesn't smell like regular lavender because it is juxtaposing oakmoss, coumarin (new mown hay), and other things. It's just an integral part of a complex accord that is earthy, sensual, and starting to smell more and more like the forest floor that fougères are intended to smell like. The drydown reveals some mild vetiver and an ever increasing high quality, deep, balsamic and tenacious sandalwood that cools and softens while doing its part to maintain one of the smoothest accords there is. Kerleo must have used the best iris known to man, because the woody, powdery/dusty, violet-like quality it adds to the scent is something you rarely experience in even the best fragrances. It would be nearly impossible to blend a fragrance any better, and Jean Kerleo is one of the few blacksmiths who could do it. The longevity is good, the output is redolent for the duration, and the sillage is always perceptible though never surrounding you like a halo. The best fougéres are hale and clean while remaining suitably grey and aloof, and while Privé is typical of most of these qualities, it stands in a class by itself. It's also sensual, cerebral, magnetic, and as smooth as a beautiful woman's freshly powdered bottom. It's one of the best fragrances I've ever worn, and while there a few others of its quality, I don't know of anything else that's all that similar. Check out Privé. You'll be glad that you did.

One of the loveliest, gentlest, and most extraordinary of fougères. Lavender and new-mown hay (for the coumarin note) are the backbone, with patchouli for strength and balance and a sandalwood-vanilla combination for the creamy, oriental finish. Wearing Privé is pure joy to the spirit. Uplifting far beyond the average inspiration of scent, this is a work of art characterized by balance, taste, and economy of line rarely paralleled in the recent history of masculine fragrance.

In the house of Grandmaman, the louvred doors opened onto a cool, clean chamber. Inside, a pile of clothes smelling of cool, clean lavender. Serene, elegant, fine. In the house of Grandmaman. Although Grandpapa wore it also. Translucent dandy. Smooth, balanced, quiet, subtle, soft, crystalline. In the garden, a blue-green pool, fringed by delicate woods and grasses. A pure and magical scent.