La Chasse Aux Papillons (1999)
by L'Artisan Parfumeur

There’s a time of the year when I feel the need to smell this fragrance: when jasmin shrubs are starting to bloom, lindens are full of promising blossoms, the air is fizzy with scents and pollens, La Chasse aux papillons is the perfect scent, in my imagination, so I reach for my sample and dab a drop.
The opening is gorgeous, a flare of flowers - orange blossoms, jasmin, tuberose- offering their most daytime and sunny facets, glowing white and fresh and rich (an expert perfume blogger explains that this is another effect of indoles). Linden blossoms give a pleasantly soft and plastic support to the floral bouquet . As time passes, the fragrance sets mostly on tuberose on my skin, but the pleasure is disturbed by the reinforcement of the waxy and soapy notes of linden blossoms which, in the drydown make the fragrance veer towards a “laundry” feel, half used clothes, half soap… A petulant note emerges, as if the insouciant and free creature that tried to catch butterflies among white flowers has turned into someone complaining about being locked in the laundryroom!
Globally, I like it, as my recurrent use suggests, but there’s something a bit sad and despairing in the drydown- which lasts quite a while on my skin, contrary to others reviewers, so I wouldn’t give it more than neutral.

3rd May, 2011.

This is so lovely that I can't give it anything but a "thumbs up" even though it lasts all of ten minutes on me. I mean really. I can barely detect it after that. L'Artisan are generally very short-lasting on me, but this one is ridiculous. I could never justify buying a full bottle for this reason, but I like to keep a sample on hand when I can because it's such a joyful scent.

9th April, 2011.

When I tried this I first felt the tuberose which was very strong. However, that quite quickly faded away and I started to smell lime blossom and some orange blossom as well. the scent transformed into a very light floral thing. To me it became too light, too pretty, too innocent. I think this would be nice on a ten-year-old girl but it's nothing for a woman in her late thirties like me.

30th July, 2010.

La Chasse aux Papillons is a very light white floral, I get more lime blossom (linden) than tuberose, jasmine or orange blossom, and the floral accord seems tinged with a synthetic edge, which is unusual because I don’t remember a synthetic aura in any of the other L’Artisan’s I’ve tested. La Chasse aux Papillons is light, pretty, and sweet. It presents a soft sillage and the typical below average longevity of many of the L’Artisans.

16th July, 2010.

A very lovely, summery floral composed of light, non-indolic versions of white flowers such as jasmine. It has a distinctly peachy note which I would attribute to magnolia or gardenia, but perhaps it's an effect of the citrus flowers. Luckily I don't smell any orange blossom, as I really don't think orange blossom works in supposedly "light" and "fresh" compositions, always giving instead a sickly-sweet atmosphere to the scent. La Chasse aux Papillons is girly sweet, flirty sweet, happy sweet, but never sickly sweet. It's light and innocent enough to work in the daytime and in sunny weather, yet it's all sweetly floral with no refreshingly green/citrusy/watery cologne aspects. Perfect with a 50s sun dress with a floral pattern in some light colour.

4th May, 2010.

Quite buttery sweetish white floral perfume with lots of warm tuberose,orange and lemon blossoms, linden,jasmine . Uplifting, a smile in a bottle. Quite coquettish .Very lovely, quite distinctive in smell. Gorgeous. I prefer this to the extreme version. Original and best. Nearly bought a bottle - still on the 'want to buy ' list !

23rd April, 2010.