Skip to main content

Passion Boisee by Frapin

I guess I have come to expect incendiary fragrances from Frapin. It's true I've only sampled a few, but they don't have many releases to begin with.

I ordered a sample awhile ago after perusing the accords. A sucker for woodies, I'm always interested in one that I haven't tried and especially if it's from a house I hold in regard.

Passion Boisee opens with a slightly alcoholic and indistinct citrus. At the same time, there's a rubber aroma coming into play from the leather note. It's not an off putting latex smell, but I notice it and am glad when, after a few minutes, it morphs into a conventional leather note.

Tangerine? Well, I happen to love the smell of tangerine more than any other citrus. I enjoy the aroma of all citrus, but tangerine has that special something. The listed tangerine in Passion Boisee is ( to me ) a very generic rendition and difficult to even identify as such. There's a citric accord at work here for sure and I'm more comfortable naming it mysterine. With that said, it still smells okay. Just don't expect a palpable and juicy orange derivative.

The fragrance, as a whole, is surprisingly on the mild side. Spices of nutmeg and  clove with rum had me expecting something else entirely. Their volume and contribution is much too passive for my taste. The same can be said for the moss and patchouli.


Passion Boisee has underwhelmed me considerably. Its totality is the opening blast of mildly alcoholic citrus with the latex. The leather transforms quickly, yet is pushed to the side by the oncoming cedar note. Within 10 minutes, the wearer is left with a pleasant cedar fragrance that is uninspiring and sadly lacking originality.

Passion Boisee smells nice, but I can only muster a half hearted neutral rating for this. Half a thumbs up from Aromi.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Newport by Caswell Massey

Bergamot, Mandarin, Lemon, Lavender, Geranium, Muguet, Rose, Ambergris, Cedar, Sandalwood, Vanilla, Musk. After wearing Newport by Caswell Massey a few times and then reading what others had to say about this recent formulation, I found some of the opinions harsh. I have no way to compare it to the heralded vintage formula, nor can I use memory as I've never tried the original. Enter the current version. I do agree with some reviews that this rendition does not bring about the sense of beach and salt, but there's a long line of fragrances that fail to represent their depictions. However, Newport isn't so far off the mark that it's a complete misrepresentation. I can imagine wearing Newport ( or something similar ) in a beach setting. It smells classic due to the way Citrus, Lavender and Geranium are implemented. It's assuredly retro, but it seems to have that intangible I like that keeps me sniffing. Newport, at least on my skin, is top heavy in the sens...

Black Suede by Avon

Nutmeg, Clove, Amber, Musk, Moss, Wood Notes. Yes.........I am reviewing one of the Rodney Dangerfield's of fragrance. Black Suede has been gracing medicine cabinets, for better or worse, since 1980 my friends. If you're expecting me to inform you ( like others may have already ) that Black Suede is a nasty scrubber, you will be disappointed. On the other hand, if you're expecting a glowing review claiming it's a diamond in the rough, you won't hear that from me either. I will say though that Black Suede doesn't deserve the hate it's received and most of that is due to snobbery aimed at Avon products in general. I kid you not when I state that a close relative to this fragrance is Cacharel Pour L'Homme. The array of spice in both ensure comparison, but the "smoother" of the two is Black Suede due to its implementation of Amber. While wearing Black Suede, one can detect a hint of "drugstore". That quality doesn't manife...

Lanvin L'Homme

Lord knows the world has enough fresh woody citrus fragrances.  It's a hackneyed genre of masculine perfume, having been done to death by countless designer firms cranking these things out since the 1990s, and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight.  Lanvin L'Homme, released in 1997, is one of the early woody citrus releases, but it (along with Essenza di Zegna) stands out because it's one of the best.  That may sound like it's not saying much, but Lanvin L'Homme really is excellent. I won't get into a long treatise about all of the notes contained in this and how they evolve.  Lanvin L'Homme is sparkling, spicy, woody, transparent and dry.  What I love about this scent is how brilliantly it uses vetiver - the vetiver gives Lanvin L'Homme a woody, dry and somewhat bitter smell, but it also manages to create an effect of sustaining the citrus top notes for several hours.  This results in a fragrance that smells fresh and cheerful from beginning ...