Fragrance Reviews by Cadence Commiphora

I'm into orientals and chypres, but I was curious about the sandalwood mixed with such a bright citrus. And since my friend is selling off his worldly goods preparing for a sojourn in China, I bought the EDT from his stash of fragrances.

Well, I'm wearing it now, and I keep thinking---

Laundry soap.... really nice laundry soap, but-- laundry soap.

Anyone else get this hit?

Sexy, sultry, a nose-filler. Not subtle in the least, but utterly pleasing and dusky in its warmth. Yes, it's well-named, definitely for evening wear and seduction. (Or for going to the flea market when you want to draw a crowd....)

DO NOT buy the current fragrance, it's a horrid washout which doesn't even attempt to mimic the original. And DO look for the original at estate sales -- it was a popular market item, and when you smell it you'll understand why. Inexpensive then, expensive now -- because it remains a growlingly sexy classic.

How can a fragrance be both pungent and subtle? By being Inoui -- which in French means "unprecedented." That tags this fragrance well. It opens with a crisp, even acrid pronouncement, and potentially scares away the timid. But stick around, because the soft subtle base is both demure and provocative. If this fragrance weren't so masterfully composed, I'd say it was trying to accomplish too much -- but actually it achieves everything it sets out to do. It drily informs and then softly insinuates. Complex, not sweet, but nevertheless able to induce a sigh of longing and pleasure.

Unfortunately the original fragrance is getting hard to find (as well as ridiculously expensive in some places), and sources differ in their freshness. Best to obtain samples, and compare the scent. Your nose will notice the difference between the slightly soured version of Inoui that has degraded, and the soft subtlety of the perfume which has been stored well. It's very much worth the hunt -- and you *can* locate relative bargains. Be patient and alert!

It seems this fragrance evokes stories as well as descriptions. And so, since my opinion of the fragrance matches those of LoneFish and VintageVogue (August '05), I'll tell my story:

I came to Mitsouko through Inoui on a web search, strictly through their commonality of Japanese names. However, Inoui is a pungent yet subtle green, and Mitsouko is a complicated chypre: what was I getting myself into?

I took a HUGE chance by purchasing an older (and very large 3 to 4-ounce) full and sealed-with-cord Baccarat bottle of the EDP on eBay, before I'd even smelled the fragrance. Pure intuition.... as well as a lucky find, since there was only one other buyer, so the price was oh-so-sweet....

Received it in a lovely old beaded-cloth box where it had been stored away since-- when? Maybe the 60's, maybe longer.... Whoever owned it must have simply stashed it away and forgotten about it. I tried to open it, but it was sealed tight and wouldn't budge. Went to a local perfume shop, and the proprietor also attempted to unseal the stopper for 20 mintues with no success.

Meanwhile, I took a whiff of Mitsouko EDT he had on hand in his store: YIKES! How sharp that opening riff!! Quite disagreeable. Undaunted, I dabbed on a dot of it, and noticed how through the course of the next few hours it kept changing and changing....

Meanwhile, the mystery of the crystal container continued. I researched various methods of unstopping stuck glass stoppers, and realized that most of them wouldn't do, since they involved introducing foreign substances (oil, WD-40 -- gack!) into the process.... or potentially subjecting the perfume to extremes of hot and cold temperatures.

Finally, I hit on a solution: I wrapped the heart-shaped top of the stopper in a little bag of crushed ice, and after a few minutes I wound a thin strip of hot moist cloth around the neck only, keeping it away from the liquid below. Contracting the stopper, while at the same time expanding the neck: suddenly and sensuously, my hand turned the stopper, and the genie was released from the bottle.

Oh my -- yes, the EDP also starts sharp, but dries down quickly to mellow, and the fragrance is pure heaven on my skin -- it *becomes* my skin as if I'd become a saint profused with the "odor of sanctity."

Putting my wrist to my nose doesn't inform me; shortly after applying it, it's as if the perfume had disappeared. And yet the fragrance wafts up from the heat of my body through the course of the day in its own mysterious way. Wearing it, I feel deeply at peace with myself, in love in the very best way. Not proud or exultant, but in a Mona Lisa way. I drive a city bus in a large West Coast city, and I swear my passengers are affected by it when they come aboard -- it's always a peaceful mellow bus when I'm wearing Mitsouko.

By the way, I took the opened bottle back to the perfume shop, and the proprietor pronounced it pure and undegraded -- it's also one of his favorite fragrances, which sparked a lovely conversation between us.

The Baccarat bottle now rests upright, wrapped in cloth, and stored in a copper can in cool cellar darkness. I'd love to display it -- but the cargo is way too precious, and there's a lot of it. I'm decanting small amounts into a tiny amber vial for regular use. And I trust that my treasure will last a long time.