1740 Marquis de Sade (2008)
by Histoire de Parfums

Terribly expensive fragrance yet it might be worth just every single penny. It is a wonderful juice with terrific presentation.

It is captivating right from the start, love at first sniff if you will…
Herbaceous hot spicy opening turns into an extremely full-bodied and deep resinous scent with prominent note of salty patchouli.
Very lively scent with much changing dry down; lots of nuances can be found. For instance, after two or three hours of application there is a detectible, wonderful dried plum note. Also, there is great fresh incense-y tone against the thick base of resins; I believe it’s the elemi that does it.
Amber is not listed anywhere in the pyramid, but I should think there is some in the mix after all.

This is not an authentic imitation of the way leather smells, but for sure the structure is very “oriental leathery.”

This certainly reminds me of something that could be basically released under a label of Serge Lutens – but to be honest, this is way much better fragrance than most of his creations. Not all of course, but most of them.

Unisex.

1740: Too much of an aristocratic lover of sensuality and personal pleasure, to little of sadomasochism, scandal and insanity that the Marquis was known for.

Top notes of the Davana blossoms were rich, providing that sensuality and excess but the flip side was a very voluptuous scent of aristocracy. Yet, it was a no nonsense scent as the coriander/celery quickly took over keeping it herbaceous with the patchouli balancing its dominance.

1740 is too genteel for the Marquis. From the Leather and cedar, I detected a faint whiff of tobacco. Despite not living up to its name, I find this very pleasurable. Perhaps a note of civit might add a certain dimension. A very structured, enjoyable scent.

At first, I found 1740 to be a very promising scent. With its well-composed mixture of bergamot, leather, patchouli and vanilla, it convincingly masquerades itself as a Luten-esque woody leather scent. Unfortunately, as always with my skin chemistry, the immortelle eventually dominated the composition and never backed down. In the end, the drydown was very similar to a more tolerable version of Annick Goutal’s Sables.

If you love immortelle / everlasting flower / fungeek, this would be a great fragrance to investigate. However, if like me, such notes tend to overwhelm and outstay their welcome (thus ensuring acute olfactory irritation) give this one a miss. It’s a real pity because, if the basenotes were as appealing as the top and midnotes, I would probably have given this one a thumbs-up.

I'll likely be the first in saying I don't find this at all reminiscent of De Sade, but the fragrance itself more than makes up for its incongruous name.

This is a warm, comforting, happy scent; a curiously sweet and savory gourmand with a leather base. A curry-inflected immortelle plays a starring role here, but there is a slight fruitiness to it, too. Some have described it as prunes, but to my nose dried apricots fit the bill better. The leather is present, but mellow and understated.

Don't let the leather and apricot description remind you of SL's Daim Blond - the two fragrances are nothing alike.

In general, it's all very edgeless, smooth and seamlessly blended; a fragrance of polish and charm rather than daring.

The sillage is good and the longevity is excellent.

Highly recommended.

There was a celery-like note at first, but that was gone in less than an hour. This is very strong and spicy juice! I only applied a few tiny dabs and it lasted for 8 hours and was at times borderline too strong. There was also a tangy/syrupy quality all the way through that some might not like (a bit sweet, for sure). It wasn't very articulated, but instead seemed like a one huge accord. I'm on the fence. This may be the kind of frag you can warm up to, but I could then see it changing the way I feel about other frags, so I'm likely to keep the sample I have but not buy a bottle. I'll probably keep the sample for "reference purposes" more than any other reason, because I don't find it pleasant or intriguing enough to ever find myself really wanting to wear it instead of other frags I own that feature strong spice notes.

sweet, slightly spicy and plum like notes melts in to a lovely note of leather which (almost immediately) reminds one of Parfums d'Empire's massive release, Ambre Russe. notes soften up pretty quick and lingers close to the skin. smooth notes of leather melts into a lovely and faint note of immortelle and thats pretty much it i'm afraid (at least on my skin). i'll pass on this one. with a release like Ambre Russe sitting out, there is no reason for me to invest in this one. ofcourse, those who felt Ambre Russe is pretty strong and like scents like Cuir d'Iris by Parfumeire Generale, this would be ideal for them. by no means it's a bad scent. however, i felt it didnt deliver as expected. maybe they need to tweak some notes(immortelle) in there.