En Passant (2000)
by Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle

As far as I'm concerned, this is THE lilac fragrance and Giacobetti's masterpiece. It's more art than perfume, and less something to wear than a journey to somewhere else.

The accord of En Passant is quite linear and simple - dew-covered lilacs. Somehow the effect it achieves with that is far more than that sounds, the hyper-realism of green, floral, and dewy notes all coming together to make something vividly, amazingly real; a garden morning at the brink of sunrise. It's minimalist, yet I find something new in it on each wearing.

The sillage is moderate, but the longevity is quite good. Surprisingly so considering how ethereal it is.

One of my all-time favorite fragrances, despite being a million miles away from the rich, complicated orientals that usually occupy my attention.

For some reason, the combination of wheat and lilac ends up smelling grapefruity on my skin. I like it, but I'm not blown away by this on paper either. It's definitely nice and smells like the name - En passant is the smell of just "passing by" a huge, intense (and perhaps wet) lilac bush, while very distant, wheaty bread cools in the window sill of a very distant house, and for some reason you're holding a cucumber (which doesn't stand out at all either). Although I enjoy En Passant and respect it for its creativity, it's not my style and I see it more as a feminine fragrance. I'll have to "pass" on this one...

Edit: I've since changed my mind, and I'm giving this a thumbs up instead of neutral. This fragrance is meant to be airy and ethereal, and so, when you don't expect too much from it, it's quite enjoyable to smell lilacs all year round.

7.75/10

Frederic Malle En Passant

One of my favorite scent associations is the smell of lilacs and the assurance that that smell lets me know winter is over for another year. Lilac is one of those notes that is notoriously hard to execute well. Most times it is used with a heavy hand and it comes off smelling like a heavy-duty air freshener. Then you have someone like Frederic Malle give Olivia Giacobetti, in 2000, the opportunity to create a scent around lilac and you get En Passant. Ms. Giacobetti has had transparency used to describe many of her scents and in En Passant that quality reaches its apex. From the top the lilac comes across boldly and for a moment I worry that the air-freshener quality is about to take hold. I needn't have worried because the heart is where Giacobetti's trademark transparency takes hold. She tones down the lilac and pairs it with a watery accord. This is how lilac smells to me after a spring rain as the breeze wafts the scent through my window. It is at once heady and close but yet subtle and far away. The brilliance of this scent is that this level of delicacy is maintained for hours on my skin. In other perfumes these kinds of delights are fleeting, in En Passant it is not. As this develops I finally begin to get hints of the wet earth the lilacs are planted in as there is a noticeable greenness that appears. The note list would seem to make cucumber the note responsible for this but it has much more of a wet soil quality to my nose. The one funny note that peeks in and around this scent as it develops is the wheat note which smells like freshly-baked bread, it never lingers for long but it plays peek-a-boo with my nose throughout the heart and base of En Passant. Once again the freedom Frederic Malle has given a perfumer has resulted in one of their best pieces of fragrant work. En Passant translates to "in passing" but it also refers to a chess move which, is not often seen and, is the only occasion in chess where the capturing piece does not move to the square of the captured piece. Olivia Giacobetti has also created a transparent lilac masterpiece that is also a rare piece of artistry.

Cold, lilac. Better as an air freshener for grandma?

En Passant is a soft, powedery floral. It's a tad too feminine for me to comfortably wear, except for in the scorching heat. The lilac is really soft and well done, and the basenotes have a airy dough, light cucuber, powedery floral feel.

This will look gorgeous on any confident, young sexy woman.

innocent, clean, virginal, fresh, a walk in a garden when those night aromatic flowers open.
I can picture a young woman dressed in white, barefooted with crown of lilac on her long hair