Replica Lazy Sunday Morning (2013)
by Martin Margiela

Floral, with a bit of zest from the Lily of the Valley and Iris. Feminine for sure. Luckily this becomes less cloying after about 40 minutes or so. Be warned, easy on the sprays with this one ladies. 6.5/10

This scent has quickly become one of my favorite spring scents! It's so fresh and clean with a hint of masculinity, I adooorrrrreee!

LSM open with a bright (restrained version of Chanel's aldehydes) and pleasant opening: transparently watery lily of the valley notes with a well tempered cool, floral, slightly dusky rose+iris combo. The base is mostly clean musk with a touch of earthy patchouli. The clean sheets effect is most evident in the drydown with the opening and middle notes keeping things airy and light. The overall effect is that of Gendarme EDT top ended by a nice melange of light floral and citrus notes. Good ingredients and nicely done.

Rating: 6.75/10.0

On first application, there's a mix of traditional funky musk and modern fabric softener musk that really had a lot of potential, feeling like a really interesting juxtaposition. Unfortunately, the traditional musk died away quickly, leaving a core that seems to be a bit of a Margiela staple: Snuggle fabric softener mixed with white soap, shampoo smell, and pink pepper dusted with patchouli. In a way, I appreciate this Margiela-ade; it's thoroughly modern and has mainstream appeal without resorting to marshmallow stupidity. But it also feels quite common, like a perfumer carefully crafting a bunch of familiar lowbrow elements into something that probably took a lot of work, but ultimately smells painstakingly unremarkable. Meh.

Lazy Sunday Morning by Maison Martin Margiela immediately reminded me of Narciso Rodriguez for Her EDT given the generous dose of slightly animalic, fruity musk. However, once one zooms in for a closer look, it is clear that the two compositions are very different. Both open with fruit and musk: LSM presents a large dose of aldehydes, while NR for Her has just a pinch of shimmer that quickly dissolves into the bold fruit (peach accord). Next, it becomes clear that the main floral note in LSM is not orange blossom, but in NR for Her it sticks around until the end. The floral note in LSM simultaneously melds with the sharp-edged aldehydes and the snuggly musk. To me this is what makes the fragrance brilliant—it lifts off the skin while For Her forms an amalgam with skin and hair. LSM has a subtle salt accord (feminine sweat) that slowly evolves within the folds of musk—it IS the skin wearing perfume.

How does one choose between the two? I think the aldehydes offer a big enough punch to be off-putting for aldehyde wimps (like me), but LSM almost makes For Her feel like the pretty, polite younger sister.

Maybe I’m a sucker for the marketing.

4.5/5