Indentite Pour Homme by René Lezard, 2003

With merely two fragrance lines to its name, the design house of Réné Lézard has managed to scale the world of perfume from its depressingly abysmal depths to its triumphantly towering heights. At one end of the spectrum, we have Réné Lézard homme, whose generic name and greyish packaging might be read as a harbinger of the utter conformity of the content. With not even the trace of an identity of its own, this lame excuse of a juice joins the ranks of the thousand score clones of purely synthetic smelling "fresh" "ozonic" garbage, for which any attempt at applying an adjective is really already an undeserved exertion. For the 21st century issue of the "man in the grey flannel suit."
Mystifying how only a year later Lézard could come up with such a masterfully crafted, deliciously enjoyable and underappreciated sleeper among the category of gourmand scents as Identité, where, once again the name's the thing. For while gourmands were certainly nothing highly innovative anymore by 2003, one cannot deny that this perfume, in a beautifully designed bottle, has a distinct identity,which is fittingly announced by the cognac-coffee tinted container. The PR speaks of cognac indeed, but to this reviewer the obvious assocation is a Starbucks-type coffee, i.e. not the straightforward southern European style, but a flavored, sweet-caramelly creamy "fun" beverage representing an enjoyable form of culinary regression. One is reminded of the heavenly odor of Muscovado sugar with its fine caramel notes reminding of the long gone status of sgar as a luxury product. These warm and delicious notes, which achieve a sophisticated and well-rounded sweetness (not of the suffocating, stifling kind too frequently encountered these days) predestine Identité as a fall and winter scent when its wafts of gourmand pleasure will make its wearer the messenger of comforting "coming in from the cold" pleasures of the communal hearth.