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The Missing Piece to the Cedar Puzzle? Let's talk L'Occitane.

post #1 of 10
6/14/08 at 4:37pm
Thread Starter 
Imagine my surprise when I was walking from Von Maur back to Sephora and ran smack into a L'Occitane store. The only one in Kentucky. I'm liking my new digs more and more. This is certainly happy news when the time comes that I run out of Proraso shave cream as I've heard nothing but raves for L'Occitane's CADE system.

Anyway, amidst my wandering about the tiny store I noticed a sizable selection of fragrances, more or less all unisex. My eyes immediately locked on L'Occitane Notre Flore Cedre EDP. I sampled just about everything while I was there and I think this may be my next purchase. It is a cedar in the same vein as Gucci, but where Gucci is brash, masculine, and spicy, L'Occitane Cedre is more refined, modern and stimulating. There is to my nose a tea leaf accord mixed in with the cedar, and it's an amazing combination. The mixture is then slightly sweetened with a splash of tonka bean.

From their website, top notes are grapefruit and wood sap, mid notes are cumin and tobacco leaves, and the base is cedar and tonka bean. Let me immediately say I don't think I detect any cumin, and that tobacco may be what I'm reading as tea leaf. I don't view it as a tobacco frag anyway (I own Havana and The Dreamer). They also had an Iris, Neroli, and (wow) Myrtle themed fragrance in the same line, and the Neroli was quite nice too, even though it's not one of my favorite notes.

That's all I got. Any other recommendations or experience with L'Occitane?
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post #2 of 10
6/14/08 at 6:06pm
I've been wearing L'Occitane's Eau du Badian a lot lately and it's great stuff. I bought it because I love anise scents, and a woman liked it on me in the store. After some time though I noticed that it's also a really good grapefruit and green tea/yerbamate scent. It's almost even got a bit of a dry flinty quality that I dig. It's a bit weak longevity wise, so when I wear it I always bring a mini-decant to freshen up with. I have the Eau du Badian shower gel and it's awesome. One of the few scents where I like to use both the shower gel and EDT together. It smells very natural and relaxing.
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post #3 of 10
6/14/08 at 6:41pm
The Honey Water, the one that is packaged like it's for kids (with teddy bears and butterflies) is the sh*t! Great stuff, perhaps my favorite use of honey in a fragrance, this side of a Serge Lutens scent. The shower gel's even better.

I didn't like the Cedar when I tried it - but I think the bottle is really cool. It reminded me of a classy pepper grinder, filled with fragrance. I also noticed that Cedar was done by perfumer Alexis Dadier, who Turin gave high marks to in The Guide for his recent scents for Thierry Mugler, Miroir des Vanities and A Travers La Miroir.
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post #4 of 10
6/14/08 at 8:36pm
I really enjoy Eau de L'Occitan. It also is one of the fragrances that I get the most compliments on at work from my female co-workers.

Top Notes: Lavender, Black pepper
Middle Notes: Nutmeg, Cinnamon
Base Notes: Tonka Bean, Musk
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post #5 of 10
6/14/08 at 9:25pm
Thread Starter 
Upon reading further, the cedar in the L'Occitane is Atlas Cedar which apparently is a more camphorous, menthol sort of smell, so I may be imagining tea leaves and just smelling the cedar as they intended. Mike, Joe, Ted (on a first name basis with you guys, gosh), I'll check out all of those the next time I'm in there, I had literally no idea what to look for.
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post #6 of 10
6/14/08 at 9:50pm
Eau des Baux and and Eau de L'Occitan are my faovourites among their current male offerings.
Renato
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post #7 of 10
6/14/08 at 10:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Renato View Post

Eau des Baux and and Eau de L'Occitan are my faovourites among their current male offerings.
Renato

These 2 are the ones I have. It's funny you mentioned them.
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post #8 of 10
6/15/08 at 1:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by KiatBkk View Post

These 2 are the ones I have. It's funny you mentioned them.

No wonder really, we both like distinctive scents with presence, and these two have that quality strongly.

It took me months to decide which of these two to get after I applied them on each hand at the airport - so that I gave them a good sniffing during my trip..
Eau des Baux is the more immediately intruiging, but after three or four hours I was finding Eau de L'Occitan to be the more intriguing.

I think it has something to do with black pepper. In Oscar for Men I find the black pepper really interesting for half the day, then I get totally sick of it by the end. I think the pepper is more muted in L'Occitan, so that I hardly notice it at first but, as I have a similar reaction to it as with Oscar for Men, I start really reacting to it positively after quite some time has elapsed.

Oh, and after months passed, I bought both.

Renato
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post #9 of 10
6/15/08 at 6:04am
Also, Mister_K turned me on to L'Occitane Vetyver a while back with a sample, and it smells a lot like Gucci Envy for Men, but in my opinion better. Do check that one out.

I'm intrigued with the Eau de L'Occitan myself and will give it a sampling next time I pop in to restock on Eau du Badian shower gel. Eau des Baux was interesting, but there was something a bit "rough hewn" about it that startled me a bit. I need to retest it.
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post #10 of 10
6/15/08 at 6:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Indie_Guy View Post

Also, Mister_K turned me on to L'Occitane Vetyver a while back with a sample, and it smells a lot like Gucci Envy for Men, but in my opinion better. Do check that one out.

I'm intrigued with the Eau de L'Occitan myself and will give it a sampling next time I pop in to restock on Eau du Badian shower gel. Eau des Baux was interesting, but there was something a bit "rough hewn" about it that startled me a bit. I need to retest it.

I forgot to mention that my wife doesn't like Eau des Baux at all, initially asking me not to wear it around her, then deciding it was just barely okay. If you are anything like her, retesting won't achieve anything.

I thought the Vetyver was very good too, and while it was kind of smooth and laid back like Envy, it didn't really remind me of it. It seemed like the style I remembered in Creed OV. I passed on it because I have a lot of Vetyvers. But I notice it's disappeared from the shops, so I may grab a bottle on the net while I still can.
Renato
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