Hommage à L'Homme (2011)
by Lalique

Lalique is the Anti-CK. Everything they make seems to have that utterly French, intellectual *and* romantic melancholy deepness about it. Nothing banal or light-hearted about it.

Hommage gives off a sweet and sour, boozy blast of blueberry/blackberry schnapps. Big and high sillage. When you’re wearing it, it says hello all the time and it makes itself known everywhere in the room. The drydown is not pleasant to my nose, and therefore it is not a welcome fact that it hangs onto my skin for days, even after washing.

But the bottle. And the box. Such tasteful, attractive design. I’m keeping you, Hommage.

Not really getting the grape soda aspect that other reviewers have noted; to me it's more plum-jammy. Possibly a forest berry syrup. Whatever it is, it's very fruit-forward for my wardrobe, so a bit adventurous. Intensely likable. Fruity-- dark fruit, but not sickly or musty or raisiny. Then spicy woods. Then that slightly mildewy backbone of Hommage, that dry-rotted shiplap (present in full rising damp mode in Voyageur.) Then, a hint of oud, synthetic and softened, almost like wet ink. Speaking of which, this sent is calligraphic. Intricate, timed like a tight production, and frustratingly short-lived. Two hours max for this frail stallion. Overall lovely, mature, manly, reserved, real.

Hommage à L'Homme is a splendid oddity of a fragrance, a more elegant, sophisticated take on waters tread in earlier years by fragrances like Versace The Dreamer and, to an extent, Versace Man. If the Versace fragrances offered peculiar violet-floral-tobacco blends redolent of vibrant Miami life, Hommage feels like a fragrance made to be enjoyed on moderately cool days in continental Europe by a reserved, stylish professional.

Hommage offers a very fruity, grape-like take on violet, with a synthoud base that adds a touch of dirtiness (humidity and temperature has a strong effect on how this fragrance develops and which elements of the composition become prominent, so sometimes that base seems invisible and sometimes it's very noticeable). The effect is syrupy but in a way that's appealing and even a touch refreshing.

Yo prissy oud wood
Deserves to be slapped by some
Movie heroine

Name of Violet
As pixels dance and shudder
And the eye music

And the nose music
Jitters just right to where it
All feels like one script

Two fifty six bits
Of something or something else
"It's the texture, man!"

He says, as if these
Damn aromachemicals
Weren't just some damn Tek.

Blind buy and I'm delighted with it. Slightly alarming violet note when first sprayed but after 30 minutes it becomes very mellow, discreet and sophisticated; mostly a woody empty cigarette packet scent softened with just a hint of violet. Masculine and quite dry. To my not very experienced nose this seems like a very original fragrance. I love it.

Update - I bought this in the winter. I find it very different in the summer; overpowering and cloying. Definitely a cold weather scent for me.