French Lover / Bois d'Orage (2007)
by Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle

I've been trying to think of succinct ways to describe French Lover. The words I keep returning to are “mysterious green fortress,” kind of like a foreboding Emerald City from The Wizard of Oz.

On the one hand, French Lover is an absolutely shimmering, spicy green fragrance that remains resolutely muscular, dry and somewhat transparent throughout its evolution…a big, glossy, immovable green fortress.

I can’t overstate how prickly the opening peppered greens come off. This accord brings to mind a nettle plant, full of the tiniest prickly thorns, growing in a bed of ground black pepper. Incense and dry vetiver gradually join the spicy nettle-like note (probably the angelica, in reality). Eventually some dirtier notes start to show through. This is not a musky, animalic dirty note to me, but more of an earthy dirty note, almost like the enjoyable perfume of freshly decomposed compost dirt.

But on the other hand, there’s a certain other-worldliness to French Lover. There’s a detached wisp of a black rubbery note in with the green that makes the scent feel rather aloof and spacey at times.

It’s an odd duality for sure: the muscular green block and the spacey rubber. But I can’t stop sniffing it! This would be a great scent for gardening. In Oz. Or on a space station.

As others have stated it has a green character. There are spices and angelica over a base of woods, incense, and vetiver. Well made and well behaved, but ultimately I already own a number of scents in this category that I prefer over this.

This one keeps very close to the skin. Also very close to Lalique Encre Noire. If you have one, you really have both. Very Vetiver, very vegetal, very not irresistible. But i can admire this fragrance. I think all Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle are something to admire. But the name....French Lover... i cant connect to the fragrance.

Edited.

After wearing it a few times, this is wonderful. Dry crisp green smoky animalic. At first it was too dirty for me--like a forest with some sort of druid/spiritual burning ceremony (frankincense smells religious to me), witnessed by mosses and plants, AND animals--but now that I am a bit accustomed to it, I am not afraid.

Wow, just absolutely stunning.

I was recently at a meet and greet event at Barney's in Chicago and met Frederic Malle. I told him how much I liked Angeliques Sous La Pluie, but lamented that it is such a light fragrance. He told me that they had tried to amp up ASLP, but it didn't work out. He sprayed some Bois d'Orage on a card and handed it to me, and explained that the it is basically the result of the experiments to strengthen ASLP.

Although it is clearly a different fragrance, it does share an underlying angelica note. However, BdO is much spicier, and the dry-down is much woodier than ASLP. If overapplied, it can be a headache at the office, but it's perfect for a night on the town.

I took home a sample, and after two weeks, I was back to purchase a 100ml. It is currently my go to fragrance for special occasions.

If you tried Angeliques Sous La Pluie and really liked the idea but wanted something (a) a little bit more masculine, (b) a fair bit longer-lasting and (c) a bit woodier or spicier then this is it.

Oddly, for one of the few EdPFM to be given a single gender designation, the incense notes of French Lover remind me a bit of old-fashioned feminine orientals (Opium perhaps?). I don't always have the best instincts on these things, though, so I would be interested to know if anyone else has this reaction to French Lover.

I really like it though. I'm generally attracted to scents with unusual or slightly unpleasant notes (Gentleman, Dzing) but have been trying to find something a little bit fresher. This ain't bad.