Début (2004)
by Delrae

Début starts off with a weird, strident cherry Lifesaver accord that I find highly off-putting. The artificial fruit flavor is soon joined by sharp, dry aromatics and nose-tweaking aldehydes, which at least serve to mask some of the opening’s excessive sweetness.

The aldehydes eventually dissipate and the screechy fruit esters recede a bit to reveal intensely soapy chypre-like foundation that’s softened by a cool white flower accord. The composition grows greener over time, and completely sheds its fruity cloak after the first hour of wear. Later on a mélange of buttery woods spreads itself over the blend to smooth out the angular and somewhat bitter foundation.

Début is tremendously loud throughout its duration, with extraordinary projection and plenty of sillage. Between its potency and its bold structure it works as an olfactory blunt instrument – say a mace. Don’t wear Début when subtlety or understatement are required, and please don’t wear too much of it!

None of this is to say that Début is a bad fragrance. On the contrary, I think it quite fine once I get past the abrasive top notes. In a market dominated by faceless fragrances, Début is bold, distinctive, and full of personality. So much so that I’d have to reserve it for special occasions.

(As an aside, I think Début would work well on either gender – at least theoretically. As a man I’d have to go to great lengths to apply it lightly enough for comfort.)

To my nose Début debuts with a strong green fairly well supported by the florals: lily of the valley and ylang-ylang. The strength of this green / floral accord overwhelms the bergamot and citrus of the opening, although the citrus does enrich and fill out the green / floral accord. This accord is a clean, floral-green and sometimes I get a background of some near-unpleasant, sweet, fruity note; at other times I miss that iffy note. The opening / heart is a clear accord that has more than normal strength to it as well as very good longevity. Eventually I get a floral that is more linden than anything else. It’s a clean linden note but so straightforward that I find it a bit ordinary, even in conjunction with the green. I usually enjoy linden but this one is missing either depth or complexity. With the base, I begin enjoying the fragrance more – On my skin the vetiver (with the continuance of the heart green note) predominates while the wood and musk pretty much stay in the background. Since I am a vetiver lover, I find the drydown pleasantly cool, sharp, and distant. This is an OK fragrance – classically constructed, pleasant if not intriguing accords. I find it totally unisex and I suspect that my ambivalence about it is due to its incompatibility with my skin – ordinarily I get along nicely with Parfums Delrae fragrances.

This is a fairly green floral perfume. It starts with a citrus top note sweetened with ylang-ylang and moderated slightly by green leaves. The heart blooms with muguet and cyclamen, softened by the slightly acerbic note of linden flowers. The base is a woody-musky blend, which supports the whole as effortlessly as if it floated on air above.

This is an airy, springlike scent. The blend of the notes almost inexplicably produces an unmistakably green aura which one wouldn't expect from the fragrance pyramid. The linden note is definitely central to this, its slightly bitter, sharp overtone altering what would otherwise be a rather run-of-the-mill sweet floral accord into something far more intriguing and satisfying. This is marketed as a shared scent, and I believe it can be, though I expect it will appeal mostly to women. Air signs (like this Libran here), the tender-hearted, and the idealistc among the male crowd, however, may find this pleasing, I suspect.