Charles Jourdan The Parfum by Charles Jourdan, 2004

One of the first gourmands I liked. Charles Jourdan managed to take the gourmand notes out of the kitchen and into the bedroom. When it worked on me it was voluptuous, fruity, creamy and definitely sexy. The tag line for this fragrance is "The sexiest fragrance in the world". While that is a bold statement, it *is* sexy. It was to me what many have said 'Angel' is for them. I always found 'Angel" sticky and queasy, so I was pleased to find a gourmand equivalent for myself. It lacked the predominant patchouli note which inhabits the whole of 'Angel' from start-up to drydown. Edit: I used to like this, then the musk note turned on me, and it is now smelly and unwearable. I couldn't finish my very large bottle, so definite was the falling out.

As said before, this is a beautiful Gourmand fragrance. I love it, it smells similar to Ghost "Deep Night" and Burberry "Red". I like that it smells GOOD, not just another sweet fragrance. Very sophisticated and feminine. I have had trouble finding it new, if you find one in your travels I recommend snatching it up for yourself :)

Yes, this is a creamy/fruity scent, along with a bunch of other gourmand notes, but everything is so discreet it doesn't smell like food. L de Lolita Lempicka, for instance, dries down to what smells like vanilla pudding. The complexity of The Parfum makes it never get boring, though it has no "rough edges." It's strong and has great longevity. I don't care if it's a "women's" fragrance; to me, it's just an excellent gourmand.

The Parfum strikes me as a little different from the other gourmands: It has the sweet fruity notes, the almond note, the coffee notes, florals, but, as flathorn says, its not really foody just luscious. It opens fruity and sweet and seems to be going in the direction of the major designer gourmands, but then it takes a side rode to remove itself from the madding crowd. It has the substance of Angel but not the patchouli and that aims it more in the direction of Lolita Lempicka. But Charles Jourdan The Parfum has much more body and depth than Lolita. Then theres the coffee smooth, somewhat subtle, and more olfactorily tempting than gustatorily fetching; what I mean is, its a coffee I want to smell but not drink. The coffee seems to provide the heft that patchouli provides for Angel. I like this version better. This one is special. The drydown is spicy / woody quite well executed . The Parfum is a very good fragrance unique, refined, long lasting Im sold.