Fleur de Carotte (2000)
by L'Artisan Parfumeur

This one is too incongruous for me. I love natural orris root butter, which smells like carrots. It goes well with green notes and florals, but not fruits. In this perfume, there is a strong apricot/osmanthus note. The rootiness of the carrot is musty, and the fruitiness of the apricot is fresh and sweet, so it gets pulled in two opposing directions: musty and sweet, which displeases me. Yes it is a unique scent, but I prefer the iris in Serge Lutens Iris Silver Mist, The Different Company Bois de Iris, or even Chanel No. 19 or 28 La Pausa.

I love this so much I splash it all over the bed when I've changed the sheets. Luckily the bottle I bought was a whopper so there's plenty to go round. Smells as sweet as a freshly-pulled carrot. Absolutely, hands down, the best summer perfume ever.

This is one frag whose name excited me when I first read it. I love that sparkling, wet scent of a freshly scraped sweet carrot--it reminds me of the scent of modern roses, and I suspect L'Artisan figured that if irises/iris roots work in perfumery, why not its cousin the carrot? Reviews I read said this carrot, however, was more boiled than fresh, and, sadly, I suppose that's so. Still, it's not a bad scent, and then again, I don't blame L'Artisan for discontinuing it. I think L'Artisan needed to confer with Christopher Brosius (of Demeter and CB I Hate Perfume fame) to tweak this formulation.
This is a weak scent on my skin, so it takes a good wetting down to create sillage. This could be a darling first scent for a very young person -- well, maybe not at this price.

Since I normally don't like light, fresh vegetable/herbal scents (I especially loathe cucumber and mint) I shouldn't like this. I do, however, mostly because I get an interesting earth note from it. A vegetable garden after the rain. Pity I don't get any carrot, that would be really interesting in a perfume...

I am coddling my bottle of Fleur de Carotte and decided to wear it today since it's unseasonably warm for October.

At first application, a sweet note shreiks out like those four memorable notes at the beginning of the overture of "My Fair Lady". After the initial shock, the alcohol rides prime for a very brief period. Throughout the first notes of sweetness and the second notes of pure alcohol, one can sense a person in a distant room peeling carrots.

Then we move to the carrot experience up close. With a poignant combination of sweetness, greenness, and the earthiness of the roots of the carrot, Fleur de Carotte has greater longevity and warmth than one might suspect.

It's a great warm-weather scent and a very original one. I don't know why it was discontinued. Perhaps the carrot concept seemed too risky or too much of a one-note. I find it glows in a warm refulgence of healthy happiness. I don't believe that I smell like a salad bar, but I think that this odor while being true to carroty-greenness, has some mysterious overtones that add to the intrigue.

I will continue to use this for day time and special occasions. I could say goodbye forever to many scents, but this one will be surely missed. I doubt that any of the one-note houses can approach Fleur de Carotte.

I would love to see this made part of the L'Artisan permanent collection - a surprising green scent with a sweet carroty edge. Totally original and totally wonderful.