Fou d'Absinthe: first impressions...

^Nice little review there.^

To me it came as a huge suprise that this was actually very traditional stuff. Classical Fougere scent, like an updated Azzaro PH or something like that...Very green and herbal with sappy wood notes.
IMO this scent could have been released already years ago - there`s nothing modern or new to this scent. Very masculine blend, fairly long-lasting.

As usual, L`Artisan made a great decision of name (Fou d`Absinthe is one of the best names ever for fragrance).

I tried it 2 or 3 times over the last month and to my surprise, it left me totally cold. I love lots of other frags from l'Artisan Parfumeur: Tea For Two, Timbuktu, Dzing!, Méchant Loup, l'Eau de l'Artisan etc. But this one smells too synthetic, although that might just be the boozy note.

Here's my review, which I have yet to upload into the database:

Fou dAbsinth
Heavily louched and with a generous cube of sugar on the straining spoon, LArtisans rendering of this legendary elixir is a much more approachable concoction than its spirituous namesake. Absinths infamous bitter anise bite has been considerably tempered in Fou dAbsinthe, yielding a result which I find to be somewhat sweet, as green fragrances go. At the top there is a very brief alcoholic note, but one which reminds me more of rich eggnog than the brittle smack of Absinth. It has a pronounced herbal body throughout which, in keeping with the houses reputation, smells unimpeachably natural. There are traces of spices which I think my nose found in Egoiste. FdAs much advertised hot/cold sensation, presumably a kind of homage to the burn of a good stiff swig, recalls rather the cold/hot feeling of rinsing off shaving foam and splashing on aftershave. I find something strongly reminiscent of shaving in it (theres a certain kinship with YSLs Rive Gauche here). Thats actually the dominant scent-image I get from this particular LArtisan, making FdA the most masculine but also most conventional fragrance I know of from this house. Rather than seeming illicit or hallucinogenic, FdAs cocktail of cool herbs and warm spice struck me as rather well-behaved and gentlemanly. Quite sober in fact. Its closer to the image of the prodigious, aspirational petit-bourgeois Jules Cheret than to the indulgent fallen-aristocrat/gonzo bohemian persona of Toulouse-Lautrec (If its the seedy decadence of Moulin Rouge youre after, see rather LArtisans Dzing!).

To be sure, FdA is an excellent fragrance - with the best projection I have found among LArtisans- and were it released by any other house, Id call it an unqualified triumph. It certainly is intoxicating devastatingly handsome, remarkably refined and positively humming with quality- but just not in the way I was expecting. Given LArtisans unique reputation for mind-bendingly evocative scents that play not just upon the nose but also the imagination and memory, I was hoping their interpretation of the Green Fairy would have been just a bit more psychoactive. Crazy for Absinthe is a bit too respectable; I wanted more visuals.

Very nice review. I agree with much of this. I too found it a bit safer and more ordinary than I was expecting. I'd say it's one of the most masculine, if not the most masculine (in the traditional sense) of the L'Artisans. Maybe some of the older ones are in the same manliness ballpark - e.g., Navegar, L'Eau du Caporal. I didn't get THAT much sillage, but it is L'A, so compared to Mechant Loup, Dzing, Patchouli Patch, VdR...I guess it does have a good bit (though it's not there with L'Eau d'Navigateur for sillage). Longevity, as usual, was my main complaint. This one was gone way too soon.

I also wasn't sure where or when I would wear this. It felt melancholic to me, but without the avant-garde weirdness of a Noir Epices, which makes that one kind of fun to wear when I'm in an "I don't give a crap" mood. Fou also had a sterile quality that I found off-putting. I guess in the end, Fou d'Absinthe just left me cold.