Reviews of Eau Suave (2005)
by Parfum d'Empire

Eau Suave is not the type of fragrance that I appreciate, but, all things considered, it is impressive. It’s fresh, well balanced, has excellent longevity. It’s made of excellent quality materials, and is a bit edgy… a bit unusual with its touch of menthol… It’s a fruity / floral for a real grown-up. Its opening is cleanly aromatic with just a bit of spice – I even enjoy the saffron. I have to admit that I don’t smell the roses – there’s no rose note for me, but I do get the fruit, and I admire how pleasant the fruit notes are even though I don’t ordinarily care for fruit notes. The main aspect of the fragrance, though, is the aromatics: There’s a menthol-like note that is present from beginning to end. This aromatic note provides the clean, fresh feeling and tones done the sweetness of the fruit and, eventually, the vanilla. This is a refreshing, enjoyable feminine fragrance and the mythically connecting of this to Josephine is cute and charming.

Eau Suave is indeed lovely, and not a ’straight up’ rose (which works for me since I’m not a rose person). Many of the PdE scents have an enveloping quality to me — like wearing a nice cashmere shawl, and Eau Suave is no exception. I also get a lot of saffron, which probably adds to the ’suave’ effect.

"Eau Suave" is meant to evoke the era of a lounging Josephine, but reminds me a more of a feisty Napoleon. This is a leathery, spicy rose that is far more masculine in nature than I anticipated. It opens in a burst of mentholated rosiness (think dried eucalyptus and rosebuds), sweet but not heady and significantly soapy but not acrid. It evolves into a cranberry-laced kind of potpurri---think dried cranberries, deep red roses and plum pudding. It dries down like a bitter syrup of cloves, cinnamon and simmering blooms, yet still retains a subtle leathery menthol that would make this a lovely men's cologne.

I really am a passionate admirer of Parfum d'Empire. Eau Suave is the one that I always brand the most boring and then I try it again and remember how lovely it is, and also quite strange. It's interesting, because on me the opening is quite dry and lavendery, and then I get the full bodied floral hit, then a fruity end. It all seems to match though. How does it do that?!

My take on this one is different than Caltha's, and actually than the ingredient list, which includes rose, raspberry, pepper, coriander, saffron, vanilla, and white musk. This is a sensual, beautiful, dry rose leather on me. The rose is the predominant floral and the rest of the ingredients ended up spelling leather on my skin. It took two tries for it to click in with me - on my first try, I wasn't that interested. Then a week later the chemistry kicked in or my nose finally put it together, and I found it compulsively sniffable. Do give this one several tries if you don't like it on the first. Some fragrances are like that - they seem to need time to get your notice, just like some people. This one has become bottle-worthy for me.