Fat Electrician (2009)
by Etat Libre d'Orange

This is a bit cursory...testing the very end of a manufacturer sample vial. It opens weak with just a little vanilla, and smells remarkably similar to vanilla extract. Only after a few minutes does the vetiver begin to appear, but it's very subtle. This begins the slow transition to a somewhat greener scent than the topnotes suggested, but also heralds further weakening. It's almost as weak as the vague traces I got from their Secretions Magnifiques...I'm anosmic to the really nasty note there, and I almost wonder if I'm anosmic to some notes in FE too. I start to pick up a bit of cinnamon in the base, but that's about the end of the story. It's nice enough, but still rather plasticky.

For practical purposes, there's nothing this could do for me that L'Occitane Vetyver hasn't already done at a low price. I really like the vanilla/vetiver combination and I need to find more examples of it (maybe Vetyver Haiti or the Hermessence?), but already FE is way more synthetic-smelling than the L'Occitane. Or if you're more interested in the cinnamon/vanilla combo, there's a whole laundry list of spicy orientals that do the trick better.

11th September, 2011.

It's a bit daft saying of a fragrance 'Well, it'd be good if the top notes carried on for longer,' because by definition, they're fleeting. With Fat Electrician though I really do want to say this because the top notes - a dazzlingly bright, sharp, vetiver blast - are glorious. But then they disappear and there's not really a whole lot left after they've gone - well, besides a gentle vanilla and a shadow of the opening vetiver hovering pale in the background. Shame.

22nd July, 2011.

This is what I call a different take on vetiver. A solid interpretation that is able to emerge in this crowded territory. A bold, but never overwhelming, mixture of opoponax and vetiver laying on a slightly sweet vanilla base and enriched by hints of incense and resinous elements throughout. Easy to wear yet distinctive, simple yet perfectly refined honest and compelling. A perfect everyday'ss fragrance and one of the best releases in the Eldo's range.

6th July, 2011. (Last Edited: 5th August, 2011.)

Very sharp and pungent vetiver opening. Unlike most vetivers though that accentuate this with citrus notes, I like what ELDO does by complimenting this with vanilla and myrrh accords. After drydown it remains pretty linear vetiver accords with hints of myrrh tickling the nose. A very nice new take on vetiver.

14th June, 2011.

I understand the reason for “electric” as part of the name: With my first whiff the vetiver / vanilla / opoponax combination smelled like a blast of electricity. The note didn’t last long and the vetiver accord continues on a path of becoming weaker and more synthetic. I’m not getting much more from this fragrance than a not very interesting vetiver / vanilla accord. This is not the first scent I’ve smelled that combines vetiver and vanilla into a fragrance’s dominant accord. I’ve gotten a somewhat similar metallic vetiver in CSP’s Vetyver Haiti, and I wasn’t impressed by that scent either. I’d say that this is an interesting use of vetiver in Fat Electrician, but it’s too metallic, synthetic, and electrical for my taste… and then after that disappointment, it wimps out… disappears from my skin within an hour.

7th June, 2011.

Smells exactly like self-tanning-cream!! Salt air, sea, the scent of burning sun, +45 celsius, an over-crowded mad beach by the meditarranean sea, in late july. Synthetic plastic Self-tanning-cream and sweat, sunburnt red bodys... AND myrrh !! Perfume made as an piece of art, so strange - made ugly-beautiful.

10th May, 2011.