Beige

The house describes a refined take-off: mandarin, fresh and tangy, opens onto a floral heart of neroli and an accord of hawthorn, freesia and frangipani with honeyed nuances. It speaks of a tender, radiant composition with a refined trail.

Its product page sums it up as an intense floral hawthorn-freesia-frangipani accord, delicately enhanced with honeyed notes. In 2008, the official notes were limited to these four materials: hawthorn, freesia, frangipani and honey.

What the reviewers say

Elena Vosnaki of Perfume Shrine makes hawthorn the common thread: a synthetic note, obtained from anisic aldehyde, which in her view refers to Guerlain’s Après l’Ondée. She also detects a freshness close to lily of the valley, along with frangipani and ylang-ylang.

After a few hours, the final accord reminds her of Prada’s Infusion d’Iris, a woody, powdery effect she links to Ambré 83, a base by De Laire. Denyse Beaulieu of Grain de Musc perceives buttery frangipani, a bitter sap and a honey with slightly animalic accents.

She thinks she can detect an ylang-ylang missing from the official list and a white musk base; the fragrance seems to her to last longer and project further than other Exclusifs.

What stays out

Lily, heliotrope, rose and powdery notes, cited by some descriptions, appear neither in the official notes of 2008 nor in the house’s current description; ylang-ylang and white musk remain the perceptions of reviewers.