Le Parfum de Thérèse Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle (2000)

Le Parfum de Thérèse by Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle

Bottle Design: Frederic Malle

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7.8 / 10 156 Ratings

Le Parfum de Thérèse is a popular perfume by Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle for women and was released in 2000. The scent is fruity-floral. It is being marketed by Estēe Lauder Companies.

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Perfumer

Edmond Roudnitska

Fragrance Notes

Top Notes	Jasmine, Mandarin, Melon, Pepper
Heart Notes	Nutmeg, Plum, Rose, Violet
Base Notes	Leather, Vetiver, Cedar

Ratings

Scent

7.8 (156 Ratings)

Longevity

7.7 (103 Ratings)

Sillage

7.1 (103 Ratings)

Bottle

7.5 (102 Ratings)

View Video of Le Parfum de Thérèse (Vimeo)

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 30.06.2019

Interesting Facts

Originally, this fragrance is said to be a creation for Edmond Roudnitska's wife, and it dates back to the early 1950's. So, it was apparently only used by her until Thérèse Roudnitska gave the licence to Frédéric Malle.

Reviews

03/14/2017

7.0 7.0 9.0 9.5/10

K1
121 Reviews

Fruity - violet - woody

In search of ultimate classics I met this timeless jewel of perfumery that was an extreme avant-garde in its time.
A fruity top composed of cantaloupe and juicy mandarin invites pepper and coriander, which both give birth to a plush floral heart of violet, rose and jasmine. The dry down is ornamented with plum, leather and cedar.
5/5

03/09/2016

8.0 9.0 5.0/10

ScentFan
325 Reviews

ScentFan

Helpful Review 2

A Changeling

When I first smelled this scent at a Malle perfume counter, I didn't like it. Later, I got a sample in, tested and tested it, then decided it was magical. A few days ago my FB arrived, but when I sprayed it on I almost gagged.* Hubby hated it. Had a fairy stolen my new perfume in the night and replaced it with an ugly changeling? Just now I sprayed it on again. Terrible. Sniffing and sniffing, I finally recognized one of my least favorite notes. To make sure, I went to my perfumery kit and smelled all three of what to me are the wicked stepsisters of scent--is it hyacinth (no), narcissus (no), lily-of-the-valley? Yes! She's the culprit. I don't care what the notes pyramid says, lily-of-the-valley hides in this scent and sometimes (apparently not always) comes out and assaults my nose. It must vary with temperature or skin moisture or some such thing. In any case, it makes La Parfum de Thérèse intolerable for me, like Liz Taylor's White Diamonds often is because of the narcissus. I don't hate perfumery's wicked stepsisters, though. In the hands of a great perfumer, they can make a fragrance splendid--sophisticated, mature, glorious, something for queens to wear at coronations. Not this time...or at least not today for Thérèse. All the other notes are overpowered by what smells like the stink of a swamp. Part of my brain is thinking the scent might grow on me. The rest is screaming, "Yuk!" I've never sold on ebay before, but off this changeling goes to another owner.

4/13/16 - Has this changeling changed again? Recently I put it on and the yuk was gone, leaving only an intriguingly ... distinguished? ... scent. Decided to retain and keep testing this mysterious one.

10/12/17 - Now it's back to being magical. This perfume just doesn't like hot weather.

06/19/2014

jtd
484 Reviews

jtd

Helpful Review 4

gift

It’s interesting to see the comparisons between Dior Diorella, Dior Eau Sauvage and Frédéric Malle Parfum de Therèse. Diorella seems like the logical successor to Eau Sauvage. Riskier, less seemly than Eau Sauvage, it still came from the same principles and intentions of composition. Parfum de Thérèse seems overall a little further from Eau Sauvage, a bit less similar in composition and concept. Surprisingly, though, I catch entire flashes of Eau Sauvage when wearing Parfum de Thérèse, like hearing a full sentence that you recognize from a well known novel.

1. Diorella is clearly the next generation of Eau Sauvage. It’s the louche early 1970s to Eau Sauvage’s pre-summer of love 1960s. The few years between Eau Sauvage and Diorella were ones of great social change. The distance between the two, the change in perspective is fascinating. Eau Sauvage has a simple, easy sophistication. By contrast, Diorella is worldly and explicitly carnal.

2. To work creatively within a finite range shouldn't be confused with limitation. It is a deliberate, focussed workshop of ideas, with richness between two relatively close points. For Edmond, these ideas played out as the experimentation with olfactory brightness and shade, representation and abstraction (especially in fruit and ripeness) and the play of simplicity and complexity both in formulation and in the experience of wearing a perfume. There's also a respect to the lineage and the experts who preceded him. The chypre was not the invention of Edmond, it was Francois Coty's. But it could be argued that nobody in the 20th century did more to advance the genre as Roudnitska. The fact that the height of exploration and creativity was reserved for and dedicated to Le Parfum de Thérèse is an astounding testament to his affection for and appreciation of her.

3. The love affair. The beautiful expression of abstraction. Rather than trying to tell a story, or create a portrait in specific, Edmond composed and recomposed an object of beauty and contemplation for Thérèse

I’m not really one for story-telling and the romance of perfumery. But my husband David, the love of my life, gave me le Parfum de Thérèse on my 50th birthday. Parfum de Thérèse is now about another great love, mine and David’s.

08/16/2013

5.0 7.5 7.5 10.0/10

FloraMilena
47 Reviews

FloraMilena

Helpful Review 8

Down to Earth Elegance

PARFUM DE THERESE by Frederic Malle

Dazzlingly Beautiful. This is a Spicy-Fruity-Chypre-Aquatic. I have never smelled anything quite like it.

This a profoundly beautiful composition of byzantine complexity and magnificence on me. Therese Roudnitska and I must have similar chemistry, because I get a huge positive development that blooms from every single accord in this creation on my skin.

Opens with decadently rich blast of fruity fresh mandarins, sweet jasmine, and dewy-aquatic melon laden extravagantly with a generous dusting of spicy pepper and more nutmeg than I have ever smelled in a fruity feminine perfume. Juicy ripe plums and honeydew melons swirl around a shower of plush rose petals and soft violets. Everything then settles securely on the opulent base of clean woody cedar, delicately restrained leather, and herbaceous vetiver.

I worried initially about the leather because my skin generally magnifies animalics to an unpleasant degree. However the leather here is blended so seamlessly that it functions to absolute perfection as a buttery smooth and sensually refined anchor on me. I can easily smell why there was no need to throw in a cheap musk or a heavier wood here, and yet still maintain a lusciously decadent dry-down. This fine and delicate leather envelops the earthy vetiver and aromatic cedar to achieve an intensely sumptuous velvety finishing base that melds impeccably with skin.

The exquisitely powerful peppery-dry-nutmeg combo offsets the dewy-aquatic sweetness of the melons and jasmine, while also brilliantly restraining the darkly rich violet/rose here. This never tips into heady floral land due to the generous addition of the dry spice in the mix. It remains firmly as a splendidly joyous and powerfully earthy fruity-chypre with the sensuality of the entire composition emphasized by the addition of that dewy aquatic jasmine/melon accord.

I find this perfume to be extravagantly elegant and exuberantly down to earth at the same time. I visualize a strong and grounded woman with a refined sense of beauty who exults in the happiness of family and good friends. A woman who loves deeply and is loved as such in return. A woman comfortable and secure in her own skin. A woman who is not afraid of life and lives it to the fullest.

This is what I feel that Therese and Edmond Roudnitska share with us. Profoundly feminine. Gloriously beautiful. Magnificent.

1 Replies

Statements

Itchynose 18 days ago

Floral with rose and jasmine, fruity due to melon and plum, powdery from abundant violet. Exuberant, unmistakably feminine.+1

6.0

Lillibet 17 months ago

A strong, soaring & temperamental beauty. The star is jasmine, all its Jolie laide qualities, with a sophisticated support act underneath.+2

7.0

8.0

9.0