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immortelle

Coffee Green Floral Hay Herbal Immortelle Review Rose Sandalwood

Contre-Jour by Frederic Malle Editions de Parfums: A Review

27th August 2026

Man, this thing is so savoury and muscular. The arid, burnt-hay aspects of immortelle are really what are brought to the fore here, with none of the material’s usual maple syrup or curried wetness along for the ride. The opening is vegetal and green in a stock-cube kind of way that almost reads as a little oniony until a gorgeous Turkish rose moves in to pretty things up.

Well, I say pretty things up but that probably implies a dominant female energy that just isn’t here. What I really mean to say is that the rose hydrates and softens the throat-catchingly dry texture, adding a winey depth that is much needed beyond all that crisp sunny hay. Though the rose brings some pulp to the texture, and the end result is quite rich, I would call this a sinewy perfume rather than a jammy one. The coffee and sandalwood lend a bitterness I associated with toasted wood or spent coffee grounds – nothing gourmand about those notes at all. Everything here seems to pull in the same direction, and the result is a harmonious study in late-August copper, coffee, and burnt sienna colours.

I admire it and think it’s one of the most interesting fragrances I’ve smelled this year. However, I am not rushing out to buy it. For one, I think that two perfumes I already own, namely Afternoon of a Faun (État Libre d/Orange) and Santal Nabataea (Mona di Orio), come close to creating a similar effect – the first a pretty much note for note take on the rose-immortelle theme, the second a mirror of the rich coffee and sandalwood ‘desert-like’ effect I find in Contre-Jour. Even Beloved Woman by Amouage, another one I own and like, has a similarly musky-spicy rose-immortelle thing going on in the drydown. And, to be honest, if I were adding another arid immortelle to my collection, it would probably be Le Mat by Mendittorosa. All to say that my immortelle bases are well and truly covered, and that if you own any of the perfumes I’ve just mentioned, well, then yours probably are too.

The other thing that gives me pause is that sweaty, vegetal opening. I love immortelle for its range of nuances, from syrupy to spicy to hay and fenugreek tea and so on. But that the savoury ‘stock cube’ aspect is something I personally find difficult. It is as much a presence here in Contre-Jour as it is in Patchouli Luxe by Comme des Garcons, where the salt-and-pepper undertones of immortelle are accentuated by white pepper and a fenugreek-soy sauce accord that, while impressive, manages to turn my stomach a bit. However, if you don’t own any good immortelle perfumes, love savoury accords in perfumery, and are interested in the yin and yang balance of the traditionally masculine notes (hay, wood, spice) with more traditionally femme ones (rose, sandalwood), as interpreted by one of the best perfumers working today – Annick Ménardo – then Contre-Jour is probably a worthwhile investment.

Cover Image: Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash

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Amber Aromatic Hay Honey Immortelle Independent Perfumery Oakmoss Review Spice Tobacco

Ladamo by O’driu: A Review

26th April 2023

 

Ladamo by O’driu smells like a Christmas craft store – scads of thick, velvety dirt, fallen apples, mulled wine, grated ginger root, the whole nine yards – but without the nasty chemical edge of the candle or stock oils that many American indies (BPAL, Possets, Alkemia, etc.) tend to rely on to create that type of vibe.  It could be because Angelo Pregoni uses a ton of naturals, especially immortelle, to do the heavy lifting.  But I’d bet that Pregoni’s famously kooky (and largely impenetrable to me) artistic sensibility plays a large part in it.  

 

Some reviews point out that that Ladamo is basically an immortelle soliflore, but I disagree that that’s the case, at least at first.  I mean, yes, you certainly get that bronzed, curried maple syrup vibe that accompanies immortelle wherever it goes, but the mossy dampness of the soil tincture, the watery (almost aquatic) magnolia, the metallic ginger-tobacco combo, and the smoky licorice note build it all out into something far more complex than is suggestible by one material alone.

 

The upshot is that Ladamo smells of all the brown, good-smelling things of autumn – root cellars, apple rot, and the hummus of the forest floor – mulched down into one compact but vibrant layer.  An amber this may be, but spiritually, Ladamo shares a lot of ground with Comme des Garcons’ Patchouli, and artistically, it is what Foxcroft by Solstice Scents wishes it could be when it grows up and taps into a bigger budget.    

 

The first half of Ladamo is borderline intoxicating to me.  Boozy, deep, sweet but also bitter and earthy, it sells me a fantasy of my former Goth self, striding through a forest full of wet, fallen yellow and brown leaves, wearing long leather boots, a riding crop, and way too much eyeliner.  But cool, you know?  The Gucci ‘hobo chic’ version of that, not the crunchy granola one hastily knocked up by your teenage self in your nearest health food (New Age) store.

 

Alas, as the day goes on, Ladamo loses it stamina and eventually becomes just another old codger shuffling forward on the crutches of that immortelle, because immortelle is always the last to die.  What was initially a complex, every-evolving smell doing an insane loop de loop from curry to brown sugar to maple syrup and golden leaf and hay and spice and back again, eventually whittles itself down to the faintly dusty, monochromatic booze sweat territory that most immortelle-heavy fragrances wind up in.  Still, worth it for the first half of the ride.

 

 

Source of sample:  Part of a sample swap with a friend.  Ladamo seems to be no longer available.

 

Cover Image:  Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

 

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