Reviews of Vraie Blonde (2006)
by Etat Libre d'Orange

Etat Libre d’Orange is a frustrating outfit. The silly names and labels are no doubt meant to be bold and provocative, but in fact evince the sensibilities of twelve year-old boys huddled over a porn magazine in the back of a school bus. The scents themselves are most often dull (Nombril Immense, Eloge du Traitre), ugly (Encens et Bubblegum), or both (Sécrétions Magnifiques). Vraie Blond is a happy exception. The scent opens on fizzy aldehydes and a bright, juicy citrus note with an unusually appetizing and refreshing quality. (The pyramid says peach, but this is not the lactonic peach of Mitsouko or Chinatown.) The fruit is soon joined by a paradoxically bitter, astringent myrrh, indolic white flowers, and then a sweaty, animalic patchouli. The resulting olfactory structure is rife with internal contradictions: it is at once brisk and dirty, vivid and putrefying, austere and libidinous, giddy and dangerous. In short, it is, alongside Charogne and Vierges & Toreros, one of the few Etat Libre d’Orange products that fills the reckless, iconoclastic promise of the company’s marketing and press materials.

The inspired lunacy of Vraie Blond’s structure can’t sustain itself forever, and it’s the patchouli that takes over for the drydown. The scent projects well for four or more hours of wear, but it’s never overbearing. In fact, for a fragrance so rich in patchouli, Vraie Blond is surprisingly buoyant and transparent. Perhaps that’s the crispy fruit or the sparkling aldehydes at work. The impression I’m left with is of a lighthearted, witty fragrance with a well developed sense of fun – kind of what Paris Hilton or Britney Spears might smell like if either of them had a brain.

With the slightly kinky name and ELO's fearsome reputation, I was pleasantly surprised by this demure little thing. Starts off with bright, sparkly aldehydes and dries down to a nice little butter cookie scent. Peach? Maybe...smells more like a very, very light citrus to me. (Actually, I think this lemony-cookie smell is what I was hoping for from D&G Llight Blue, which sadly ended up smelling like Lemonheads and rubbing alcohol.) Keeps getting creamier and fluffier all the way into the dry-down, kicking in with an almond note at the end. I'm not usually a fan of creamy and fluffy, but this is adorable. Not sure I'd buy a full bottle, but I'd consider a decant. Wish it projected a little more.

Vraie Blonde smells like waking up next to a woman you pulled the night before, while extremely drunk on expensive champagne. You can’t remember how you ended up in bed with her (not that you even fancied her in the first place) but the fact you couldn’t get it up, during the heat of the moment, only made the whole experience seem pretty pointless…

[Original submission date: 10 December 2008]

I have had different responses from the opening of Vraie Blonde in the several times I tested it. Twice with the opening I received a blast of something sharply synthetic and a little medicinal, which hung around for about fifteen minutes. But most of the time it opens with the pleasant smell of something akin to a skin lotion or shampoo in a version that I enjoy because it’s not exactly a generic shampoo smell – more like a high quality scented personal grooming product product. The opening is a relief to me because I was expecting to hate this because of my general dislike of leather fragrances. I don’t get any of those disagreeable notes that I get from most leather scents. The leather in this is a suede-like one that actually smells good to me. I usually like aldehydes in a fragrance and this one is not an exception: The aldehydes are quite enjoyable, and add depth and breadth. The "shampoo" note gradually transforms itself into a very nice fruity / rose note that manages to be almost unisex, but then all too soon Vraie Blonde dries down to what smells to me like white musk – light and pleasant but very much like every other white musk dry down I’ve experienced.

Nowhere in the fragrance do I get the alcohol notes that some others do, and I’m missing out on all of those abusive smells that several other reviewers talk about. This is a pleasant but rather ordinary and uninspired scent to me, and although I think it is unisex, I would rather smell it on a woman than on myself.

I tried Vraie Blonde having read these reviews, expecting something sweet with a foul stench. I tried it again. And again. Someone should study the effect that reviews have in creating preformed expectations before trying a fragrance. I've noticed that sometimes a reviewer's comments will sometimes be assimilated by subsequent reviews, and I think that people then seek out the described traits when first experiencing the fragrance. Vraie Blonde is Exhibit A. MKK is Exhibit B )I did not find it to smell like testicle sweat as many describe).

I write all this as prelude to my report that Vraie Blonde is nothing but a fun little aldehydic fruity fragrance, fun and inoffensive. It starts out with a very aldehydic peach/berry note, the effect of which is something like a brut champagne. As it dries the peachy/berry note persists and is joined by light rose, and eventually the fragrance tails off with a light musk and perhaps a touch of rose and patchouli, though the base it not particularly sweet (an effect of the myrrh?). The entire composition comes off as if it was the love child of Chanel No.22 and Mure et Musc, and it would be perfectly matched with a spring day.

Yet another great ELO I'd like to have on my shelf.

This assault on the nose smells like a mixture sugared almonds and throwing leftover alcohol down the sink (when hungover).

Ever smell the room after a champagne party? You know those times where you just shake up bottles of champagne and spray it everywhere? It smells horrid, musty and of rot. The aldehyde in this capture that effect.

Hot vinyl and champagne? Tart's handbag? Canned peaches? Whatever this is, it's not appealing to me. Great idea though, it just doesn't kick it.

Slightly burned plastic from the opening, and then it just gets worse. A real scrubber for me. As it progresses it sweetens a little which just makes it even more horrible. And then comes the urine smell! Simply awful.

Love it. Smells like the dregs of last night's peach melba with a healthy slug of expensive brandy on top. And despite that fairly disgusting description, it's beautiful - peachy, musky, warm, and managing to be sexy without being obvious. my husband likes this the best of all the perfumes I've bought in the last few years, if that's any kind of recommendation...

I like a dose of luxurious aldehydes now and then, and had good memories of smelling Vraie Blonde in NYC at Henri Bendel back in May of this year. My recollection was that Vraie Blonde was definitely the most pleasant scent in the intentionally weird Etat Libre d’Orange line which, upon reflection isn’t saying much, I guess.

Anyways, I purchased a sample to see if Vraie Blonde could be for me. Unfortunately, the top notes had that dreaded shampoo smell. A high-end floral and musk scented shampoo, but shampoo nonetheless. After 10-15 minutes, the powderiness of the fragrance emerged with peach and myrrh notes peeking out ever so slightly which made the composition a little more interesting. I got a tiny amount of patchouli in the end by really, really smelling for it. Lasting time: About 1 ½ hours. In conclusion, would I wear Vraie Blonde? Yes. Is there a similar perfume that I like a lot better? Yes – Le Labo Aldehyde 44.

Here are the notes for Vraie Blonde, courtesy of The Perfumed Court: aldehydes, champagne, rose, peach, white pepper, myrrh, patchouli and suede.

Though my first impression was that this particular blonde is the the cheapest and nastiest ever, the drydown took me by surprise: it reminds of another blonde, SL Daim Blonde, that is. It's quite an achievement to turn from trashy to classy, but this scent does it.

Fake, insincere:
reminiscent of a shemale, sinthetyc wigs, cheap makeup, vynil, lipstick, clean white skin exuding pheromones when making love in a motel. Poliester, lamé, a glass of cava, plastic accesories.
Hard to tell but very easy to remember.
All this is about Real Blonde.

Smells cheap and unbalanced. Something sharp that tickles my nose and makes me sneeze (I normally like pepper) and the rest of it is plasticky sweetness, probably the peach.