Costume National Homme (2009)
by Costume National

Bergamot, citrus, cloves, a heavy cashmeran/Iso E accord with their signature synthetic, cozy and chic "woodiness", velvety and contemporary. On the base, something similar to tobacco, humid, juicy and strong but restrained and clean, well interplayed with fruity notes (something like apricot or peach). Ginger, violet, cedar and sandalwood back again like in some other Costume National scents. Compact and contemporary, with a "pencil sharpener" feel together with a Lutensian fruity-floral-syrupiness, a medicinal-spicy breeze and a smoky-earthy base. It progressively focuses on an accord of sandalwood, clean and pleasant as well as a bit generic and dull, and cloves, which after a while get a bit cloying, but luckily they'll eventually vanish leaving the stage to the sandalwood accord. To be honest it "smells" Costume National in terms of simplicity and "modernity", but it's incomparably more... common, and a bit more uninspired than the other scents composed by Bruyère, which were true avantgarde greatness. This one is more just "ok", more dull but still decent.

6,5/10

18 June, 2014

Ggenre: Woody Oriental

“Familiar” and “conventional“ are not words that leap to mind when someone mentions Costume National, but here they are. Costume National Homme opens on a spicy-woody accord that been a masculine convention ever since Déclaration hit the shelves in 1998. In this case, the usually brilliant, but distracted (or perhaps underfunded,) Dominique Ropion slaps it on top of an enormous clean musk accord familiar from his recent Geranium pour Monsieur for Frédéric Malle.

The abominable white musk snowman was clever fun in the astringent minty-herbaceous context of Geranium pour Monsieur, but in these surroundings it smells like someone sneezed while pouring in the base notes. It also smells a lot like laundry detergent spiked with cardamom – which is to say, cheap. Costume National Homme may have looked like a good idea on paper, but the result is neither stimulating nor attractive, and I rate it as a weak entry by a noteworthy perfumer.

11th June, 2014

Xmas in a bottle

Lovely spicy oriental goodness and vanilla/tobqcco/clove accords on dry down. Smells like Xmas in Milan. Which for me is a good thing.

Pros: Lovely, spicy, warm and heaps of longevity
Cons: Very strong, plenty of sillage, tad ostentatious for some perhaps"

08 October, 2013

The forerunner of Jubilation XXV

OVERALL RATING: * * * *

Jubilation XXV is my favorite niche fragrance. Until I tried CoSTUME NATIONAL, I was under the illusion that it was totally unique--as if it had sprung fully formed from the nose of Bertrand Duchaufour. I see now that Jubilation XXV had a forerunner in CoSTUME NATIONAL by Dominique Ropion, released in 2009.

CN opens with a nearly identical combination of supersaturated jam and wood. I almost did a double take when it first went on. CN may be slightly louder, perhaps a bit less "refined" than Jubilation, but the differences are so subtle as to be insignificant. I also detect similarities with another Ropion fragrance, Portrait of a Lady--Ropion appears to have a signature "base" in the same manner as Annick Menardo.

Over time, differences do begin to appear. Jubilation remains a sweet incense and jam scent on my skin. CoSTUME NATIONAL,, on the other hand, evolves into one of the most natural smelling wood scents I've yet experienced. It is a thing of beauty. My friend EricRico has described it as a perfect facsimile of his father's woodworking shop. Having spent some time in woodshops myself, I agree!

This is a remarkable, underrated fragrance, imo. At 1/5 the price of Jubilation, you get much of the same quality. Highly recommended.

27 August, 2013

A fig like smell mixed with wood and spice, very refined! Also in this "story" there's cinnamon, and a very fine one. Cinnamon is almost my obsession. Elegant and yet casual, spicy and woody, overall refined. The moment I tried this I also became very nervous that this is not in my collection. I have to admit that there is something antique about this scent, not in a sense it smells old or anything like that - that is, not in a sense how some people perceive Kouros, Zino, Egoiste, Antaeus - but antique in some way as if you would enter an ancient Greek drugstore that is actually a part of some temple, where there are also some spices from Asia, better yet, Persia and Arabia and it's all mixing, permeating the air. So this scent, apart being obviously woody and spicy, really has a bit of oriental touch to it.

I was prepared to buy it but all of a sudden a good hearted person I know and who owns it, insisted I take it. Refusal was futile as resistance is futile with the Borg in Star Trek. What actually surprised me was the price. I was expecting it to be far more expensive, turns out it costs as much as most of the designers scents. One other thing, I did notice that this juice didn't get as much attention as, for instance, Terre d'Hermes. I'm not implying that they're the same at all, au contraire, but I do think that whereas Terre d'Hermes is the king in his domain, Costume National Homme is in his, the only difference being that it's seldom spoken of.

23 April, 2013

Oh so funny i thought it smells like clive christian too!!! Very nice scent, smells so natural to me,and can be unisex.

It opens up with cardamom note , aromatic herbs and some spices...very sweet, this is clove note.....its beautifully blended thing!! When it settles down it projects a lot, and makes nice aura, and is long lasting, citrus aroma is present all the way and it smells very sophisticated, a masterpiece!

It reminds me of 31 rue cambon with that patchouly sandalwood, ambery note, just without iris note, and more balmy creamy.......100% unisex scent!

20th April, 2013