Basenotes › Basenotes Forums › Fragrance Discussion › Male Fragrance Discussion › MFD Archive › Some Advice about Invasion Barbare
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Some Advice about Invasion Barbare

post #1 of 20
5/4/10 at 9:55pm
Thread Starter 
So, I am very interested in this fragrance, as what I have heard/read is phenomenal
the biggest downside, however, is all the commentary about its similarity to Le Male.

I really dislike Le Male.
My question is, if knowing I really dislike Le Male, should I even bother trying this out?

let me know!
Reply
Reply

Features on Basenotes

Basenotes Reader Awards 2013 - Finalists Announced.
Greatest Hits: Annick Menardo
Petals Falling From The Sky - A Report From The Cote d'Azur's Bataille De Fleurs
post #2 of 20
5/5/10 at 4:00am
Not remotely like Le Male to me (which I find to be cloying to the nth ). IB is a gorgeous scent - definitely give it a try. They offer a fantastic sample program of 10ml bottle for a reasonable price.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 20
5/5/10 at 5:54am
Same here, it is nothing like Le Male. If you buy the sample set which is a great price, they also subtract the price of the set off a full bottle if you return and make a purchase.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 20
5/5/10 at 9:08am
I don't think I could have thought of two fragrance so utterly, earthshatteringly different!
IB is an INCREDIBLE fragrance, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 20
5/5/10 at 10:30am
Thread Starter 
Great
if anyone can direct me towards the 10ml sample set that would be great
I can't seem to find it
thanks!
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 20
5/5/10 at 10:36am
PM sent.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 20
5/5/10 at 11:02am
Sample sets from Parfums MDCI are either 55 or 77 EURO depending if you want 5 or 7 fragrances, all 10ml bottles - fantastic cheap way to sample this companies range. http://parfumsmdci.free.fr/biscuit/catalogueen.htm Go to bottom of the page
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 20
5/5/10 at 12:32pm
Yep, echoing the others, it's nothing like Le Male. My first time trying it, I hated it, I smelled almost nothing but pure lavender. My second sampling, was much more positive. Will have to test more.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 20
5/5/10 at 3:10pm
Don't know where you heard/read that but whoever said that was definitely hallucinating. Invasion Barbare is a perennial "top 5" of mine and I wouldn't have spent that kind of money on something that smelled even REMOTELY like Le Male. Well worth the high price (though not the "bust" edition unless you're a serious collector.)
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 20
5/5/10 at 3:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig View Post

Sample sets from Parfums MDCI are either 55 or 77 EURO depending if you want 5 or 7 fragrances, all 10ml bottles - fantastic cheap way to sample this companies range. http://parfumsmdci.free.fr/biscuit/catalogueen.htm Go to bottom of the page

What 5 fragrances would you recommend sampling?
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 20
5/5/10 at 3:19pm
Thread Starter 
I also read that the money spent on samples is actually credit towards a full bottle if purchased through the MDCI site
sounds too good to be true
anyone else confirm this?
also, I was wondering if there were only 2 masculines?
thanks guys
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 20
5/5/10 at 4:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hasupk@gmail.com View Post

also, I was wondering if there were only 2 masculines?
thanks guys

Yes as far as I know. And I have tried the other masculine (Ambre Topkapi), and it's nowhere near as good as IB (IMHO of course)
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 20
5/5/10 at 5:00pm
All nine of these fragrances by MDCI are noteworthy. However,
Peche Cardinal is the one I could live without. "too fruity".
IB is quite addicting to me, smells like a very expensive man.

Sheglows.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 20
5/5/10 at 8:49pm
Invasion Barbare is a fragrance that I own, and know very, very well, and it's much more complex than it seems at first glance. It shifts shape on hot days, cold days, humid days and dry days. Sometimes it's dry and spicy, other times it's a violet and lavender bomb. Sometimes it's even a powdery animalic leather beast.

What I can say for sure though, is that yes, it does share DNA with Le Male. But do they smell the same? - well, no. That would be kind of ridiculous. While no one would ever smell it and say "Whoa! that smells like Le Male," they share a similar structure: Candied opening, spicy lavender-barbershop-gourmand heart and musky base. In the directory, my review mentions Le Male only for descriptive purposes - on the whole, it's another beast entirely.

If you must though, you could say that Invasion Barbare smells like a hybrid of Fahrenheit and Le Male over a base of cardamom, civet and castoreum (or something along those lines, I'm sure it's much more complicated than that!)

I might not wear it as much as I used to these days, (I wore it once on a hot day and the civet killed me!) but I still hold it in my utmost respect. It smells like luxury, and it's a luxury to wear. Modern, classic and familiar all at once.

So my advice to you is: don't be scared of the associations between Invasion Barbare and Le Male. Just sample it, and get it over with. What you should worry about is it's resemblance to Fahrenheit!

P.S. Take this last little bit however you want, but I also absolutely love Le Male. I think it's a masterpiece. But that's another story altogether.
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 20
5/6/10 at 11:28am
Thread Starter 
Hello folks
here is an update, as I emailed them about this

Hello,

Thank you for your interest in our fragrances, and for daring to confront the ( apparently!) intimidating, primitive or complex ordering process as
presented on our very imperfect website! (as our sample sets are most of the time made to order, following our customers assortment specifications, our sampling program does not fit
easily into a standard merchant website page and we have not yet found the ideal, perfect way. But we will definitely try to improve things!).



To place an order, just specifiy which sort of set you are interested in (C1000, with 5 different scents, or C 2000, with 7 different scents... plus one complimentary which can be a repeat or an 8th different one), and your selection of samples you want to receive. This can be done either when finalizing payment through payPal ( www.paypal.com) or directly, in a simple e-mail.

Sets of samples are sent in unmarked padded envelopes or parcels, registered mail, and take in general a week or so to reach destination.The Post has proved to be very reliable, and so far not a single set has been misplaced or lost.Our best is three days for a sending to New York city, our worst ever was three...weeks for Denver, CO.

For this part of the world, shipping is included in the 55 or 77,00€ price.

Orders are generally filled and sent the same day or the day after receipt of payment.

For our client's information and peace of mind, a copy of the Post form is e-mailed right after sending, as proof of sending and as an indication of a
probable date of delivery).

PayPal is by far the favorite method of payment, it is safe, fast, reliable, so please feel welcome to use it. Our PayPal address is identical to our
e-mail address, parfumsmdciparis@free.fr .

Please also note that this "investment" in samples is deductible in full from the purchase price ( in case of a purchase directly from us) of any
item of our catalogue, with the exception, of course, of more samples.

I hope that this answers your questions, but if you have anymore queries, please feel welcome to contact us again.


Yours very truly,

Claude Marchal


Parfums MDCI
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 20
5/6/10 at 12:12pm
Some basenoter use to hype this a lot on BN before. He said it smelt like skin, sweat & sex. Always wanted to try it but never had the chance. I've only heard amazing things about it.
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 20
5/6/10 at 8:14pm
Btw Claude Marchal is a total class act to deal with. Claude not only sculpts the statues (that fit onto the bottles) himself, by hand, but also personally answers many of the e-mails (or at least he did when I bought my bottle directly from MDCI online).

When I ordered my bottle of IB, Claude sent me a courtesy email saying he didn't feel safe sending me a bottle right away, as there was a 4 day celebratory weekend starting that day in France, and he was scared it might be left in some warehouse for longer than he felt comfortable with. I ended up getting the bottle in a span of like 3 days after that weekend, which is record shipping time for something being shipped to Canada (not to mention fragrances usually get stuck at the border here for days on end). We also had a nice little chat about his inspiration, the creative process working with people like Kurkdjian and Bakouche, and (*gasp) the similarity between Le Male (which was Kurkdjian's first fragrance) and Invasion Barbare (which is Bakouche's first fragrance). I found it rather amusing that he never commented on the resemblance between the two!
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 20
5/7/10 at 4:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hasupk@gmail.com View Post

Hello folks
here is an update, as I emailed them about this

That is one hell of an email response. M. Marchal seems a decent fellow and if the praise for a number of MDCI's scents is anything to go by, this seems like the kind of outfit that deserves to succeed.

This is going straight to the top of my "what to explore next after I finish sampling everything I already have" list.
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 20
5/7/10 at 7:24am
IB is definitely an interesting fragrance and I can see where many people would love it. On me, unfortunately, I found it to be too woody to justify a full bottle.
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 20
5/8/10 at 11:39am
I have been intrigued about the mentioned similirarity of this fragrance to Le Male, which i fall often in and out of love with, and for this reason would love to find a high quality/niche version of it. I would order the sample set directly from MDCI, but I have read in the post above detailing the email from the companty, that it uses standard post and I have experienced alot of problems when ordering fragraces via Canada Post. Do they provide an alternative deliverer and what happens if the fragrance is not released by Canda Post/National Border Services ?
( I have had happen to me, although I was fortunate that the merchant, Beauty Encounter was kind enough to reship a new order via UPS)
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: MFD Archive

Features on Basenotes

Basenotes Reader Awards 2013 - Finalists Announced.
Greatest Hits: Annick Menardo
Petals Falling From The Sky - A Report From The Cote d'Azur's Bataille De Fleurs
Basenotes › Basenotes Forums › Fragrance Discussion › Male Fragrance Discussion › MFD Archive › Some Advice about Invasion Barbare