Eau d'Italie (2005)
by Eau d'Italie

Initially I thought I was smelling moist rolling tobacco but it quickly settled itself as oakmoss with a trace of bergamot. Two minutes in and we arrive at a more velvety Grey Flannel. Thirty minutes later and it turns quite soapy where it remains until it expires some five hours later.

Like Grey Flannel it feels grey/green but rather than damp it’s much wetter and never aggressive. In summing up wet cement powder with oakmoss and soap. Now whilst it may not great, and it isn’t, it’s not terrible either. I wouldn’t turn down a 10ml decant but it would take me a while to use it all.

Well engineered (surprise, surprise!) gentle citrus-woody fragrance. Smooth, rich and subtle; if I would tell you a long story of developing notes and ingredients then I would be probably playing a bit foetidus, but I can say the perfumer (BD) has again in here proved to be some sort of master of accords: That “clay accord” is unmistakable, although I’m the first to admit I couldn’t possibly put my finger on it if I hadn’t seen the list of notes.


If the one is looking for an earthy little scent with nice fresh accents then this is considerable option.
It is extremely easy to wear anywhere anytime. Wears close to the skin a long time without huge sillage.


Nice, but little bit too quiet plus conservative for me and eventually very uninteresting too.

Eau d’Italie’s eponymous scent begins life outside the bottle with an extremely odd accord of incense and dewy green notes that could stand as the perfect example an olfactory oxymoron. The balance that parfumeur Bertrand Duchaufour offers between wet and dry, warm and cool, is one of the more compellingly weird effects I can remember since I first smelled Serge Lutens’s Borneo 1834. The tension doesn’t hold for long, though. After a few minutes the green notes and incense meld at their edges, and the surprise result is a much milder, brighter, and more wearable variation on the heart of Duchaufour’s own Timbuktu. Eau d’Italie sustains its cool, green tinted, transparent incense quite well before it dries down to a brisk cedar dominated base. I can’t say that it projects much, but it’s paradoxically not weak either. Eau d’Italie just seems to hover close to the body.

Once it’s run its course I’m left feeling that Eau d’Italie represents a simpler and “safer” essay on the theme of Timbuktu and the more recent Dzongkha. It’s more approachable than either of these other Duchaufour compositions, but it also has a lot less going on. If I’m going to wear a scent of this sort, my inclination is to go whole hog, and for the like-minded I’d recommend Dzongkha or Timbuktu (even though I detest it!) over Eau d’Italie.

Top: incense, bergamot, blackcurrant buds
Mid: terra cotta
Base: amber, lichen (moss?), cedar, patchouli, honey, yellow sweet clover, musk
If you read about the hotel on the Eau d’Italie site you find these fragrance notes – they are not listed elsewhere.
Well, I think this is fantastic. It gets top marks for all three phases. First, it has incense as a top note (rather than the base) – how unusual and creative! I love dry, resinous incense scents so I don’t have to wait on this one. The incense combines with the blackcurrant buds for a sappy-green and zippy opening. Second, the clay or terra-cotta note in the middle is brilliant and quite distinctive. How they achieve it I can’t imagine, but it is very realistic. Third, the dry-down is mellow, suave, not sweet or heavy but very satisfying. It is really lovely, a restrained but completely effective blend. In particular there is something (lichen-moss perhaps) that gives a hint of a salty-green note that is just great!

A good green herbal scent with a wood base. The green is juicy but opalescent, almost milky. I was impressed upon first application, nothing quite like it. Unfortunately I'm allergic to something in it and gave me a bit of a rash just like Bulgari pour Homme did.

Opens with a well-done green and bergamot accord. The green is a sap-like green – even in its lightness it is quite a pungent, natural smelling green coupled to an attractive floral accord. I get just a touch of incense toward the end of the opening, just as the scent is moving to the heart notes – more like a grace note than an actual note. The heart is earthy but with a comparatively strong tuberose note. The heart notes strike me as better than the opening simply because they are more unique. They are very well presented and there is enough sap from the opening to keep the whole accord quite broad and full, especially with that slight clay note that is quite an interesting addition. The drydown is excellent for as long as it lasts – more refreshing than most drydowns, it is light and sweet and green with a touch of musk. To be honest, I was not at all impressed with Eau d’Italie when I first tested it – too commonly green, just too ordinary, I thought. Each testing since has raised my respect for it to the point where it is now on the list of contenders for my next citrus purchase. It has grown on me, and I find it very enjoyable and quite endearingly special – especially the drydown.