Lalique White (2008)
by Lalique

Lalique White

Notes: lemon leaves, tamarind, bergamot, violet, white pepper, nutmeg, cardamom, amber, cedar, musk (from Now Smell This)

Lalique White starts with a strange woody-citrus-aquatic, a combination of grapefruit, metallic ozone, laundry soap and generic woods, all of which smells as disjointed as it sounds. In the hopes that it might improve, I let it ride. Eventually a nice vetiver shows itself, but by this time I have lost all interest. Unfortunately, White seems like it might have been in a round of Terre d'Hermes rejects. It smells artificial and slapped together, with hints of household air freshener aromachemicals. The late drydown is somewhat interesting with its subtle vetiver and creamy wood. However, I am not willing to wait six hours for a finish that is done a hundred times better in Tom Ford's Grey Vetiver.

Here’s why you should never, ever evaluate a fragrance solely on paper:

On paper, Lalique White is a generic fresh fruity fougère (Cool Water clone) over an overtly synthetic cedar (Iso E Super) foundation. Slender, bleak, and forgettable.

On my skin, Lalique White opens with a snappy white pepper, tart citrus, and nutmeg accord that bears no (I mean zero, zilch, nada,) resemblance to the bland little blot of fruit on the test strip. While I still don’t think it’s earth-shattering, Lalique White wears like one of Jean-Claude Ellena’s citrus, spice, and woods compositions – say Déclaration without the animalic cumin, or Un Jardin en Méditerranée without the green fig. Unfortunately, it still dries down to a thin, dusty pseudo-cedar, but then I suppose if it didn’t, nobody would know that it was meant to be worn by men.

I think this House has only made one mistake and that was Faune. White is lovely and has nice moves. The opening is citrusy and slightly generic, but this quickly passes and White moves through the spicy and musk phases effortlessly. I also detect quite strongly the white pepper, which underpins the fragrance for a long while and appears in quite a few of their fragrances. The musk and amber are lovely at the end -- I just wish White had better diffusion --- if it had the sillage of Equus it would be perfect.

I distinctly heard here Vetiver. This is a good fragrance, a pleasure to go to summer evening - walk the streets of the small port city, thinking about why the Sea is noisier...

The drydown is very good, which surprised me a little because the top and middle notes were very average and forgettable.

This is a spicy and unisex delight, reminiscent of traditional bay rum colognes, but with a modern twist. Very decent longevity for a cologne. Wish it came in an EdP concentration, though. Swear there's some bay and juniper in there....