Patou pour Homme Privé (1994)
by Jean Patou

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.

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 on solely a sample I was given by a generous Basenoter, so please take this review with a pinch of salt. If I owned a bottle (dream on!) 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.

Grrrrrrrr! Which idiot came up with the idea of discontinuing this? Hmmm? ANSWER ME THIS INSTANT!

One of the BEST fragrances created for men EVER!

Smooth, complete, harmonious, softly green and wooded, softly spicey, softly romantic, softly luxurious and softly timeless...No other matches it. A true beauty in the world, and art, of perfumery.

It has an amazingly desirable quality that is so hard to accurately describe - I'll explain why later. The fragrance itself exudes comfort, luxury, refinment, sophistication and a very 'regally' relaxed vibe. This fragrance is beautiful and soft and powedery in the sense that is is made up of ASPECTS of beautiful, soft and powdery quality.

It has this clear but solemn, sharp but soft (I know), clear, green and luscious lavander, supported by herbs of equal quality as the lavander...Then it develops a uniquely soft, powdery spicey-incense-like aspect, more like very expensive traditional chinese incense, rather than Japanese incese, as 'scenteur7' indicates...The dry down is to die for!

Indeed it is remarkably adaptable, but given its rareness and priceyness, and sheer superb qualities, you'll wanna keep this for those really special moments, or when you really wanna make a scene.


Then reason why it is so hard for me to describe is because I only have about 1 oz. left, and don't wanna waste in on a review...My father thought he was palming it off onto me when he said "...smells weird. don't like it...your mother's ex-boyfriend before we were married used to wear it" (I think that's why he didn't like it lol). But I fell in love with it instantaneously! Unfortunately, in my search, I purchased a bottle of 1stPerfume, and never received it...!!!!!!!!! I was (still am) seething! $300 bucks down the drain!

When I complained, they said "we seem to be out of stock, and we have not record of your purchase", bullocks, I said to them...DON'T BUT FROM 1ST PERUME! THEY STILL HAVEN'T LABELLED PRIVE AS OUT OF STOCK!