Une Fleur de Cassie Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle (2000)

Une Fleur de Cassie by Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle

Bottle Design Frederic Malle

Where to buy

Search on

7.6 / 10 166 Ratings

Une Fleur de Cassie is a popular perfume by Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle for women and men and was released in 2000. The scent is floral-animal. The longevity is above-average. It is being marketed by Estēe Lauder Companies.

Search on

Perfumer

Dominique Ropion

Fragrance Notes

Top Notes	Bergamot, Cassia, Carnation, Jasmine, Cumin, Mimosa
Heart Notes	Aldehydes, Apricot, Rose, Salicylate, Violet
Base Notes	Musk, Sandalwood, Cedarwood

Ratings

Scent

7.6 (166 Ratings)

Longevity

8.2 (123 Ratings)

Sillage

6.6 (118 Ratings)

Bottle

7.3 (112 Ratings)

View Video of Une Fleur de Cassie (Vimeo)

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 27.05.2020.

Rate
Collection
Souk
Classify
Notes

Reviews

05/02/2020

10
Scent 9
Longevity 7
Sillage 9
Bottle

Iseabail
25 Reviews

Iseabail

Dirty floral par excellence

Fleur de Cassie is my holy grail! After testing hundreds of scents, this is the one that makes my heart skip a beat. It is a dense composition. Indolic mimosa and carnation dominate along with a persistent cumin note. It is a floral woody carnal scent. Very retro, slightly powdery.

06/21/2016

jtd
484 Reviews

jtd

Top Review 7

Ropion floral

Ropion knows how to make monster florals. Ysatis, Amarige, Alien. Jarring and disturbing to some, ravishing to others. (Count me in the disturbed category.) The key is in the synth-natural play of Ropion’s aesthetic. Take Amarige and Alien (co-authored with Laurent Bruyère). They are considered versions of the soliflor yet to my nose they are so unequivocally chemical in tone as to be science-fiction. Ropion’s mainstream florals are so exaggerated, so counterbalanced with potent synthetics that they can seem brittle. They might pay lip service to flowers, but their magnitude and mathematical sense of proportion mark them as artificial. The hyperbole of the accords will read as graceful to some and as frightening to others. If a flower is like a folk song, Ropion’s florals are Farinelli singing to Louis XV at Versailles.

Ropion puts his ability to leverage floral tones to excellent use in Une Fleur de Cassie. It lacks the stiffness of Ysatis and the shrillness of Amarige but is equally, and proudly, as synthetic as either of the two. The name name might lead you to believe it’s an attempt at a soliflor, but the mix of an odd botanical note like cassie/mimosa with heavy synthetics makes Une Fleur de Cassie a cyborg of a perfume. It pairs scents of mud and metal, cinnamon and slate, almond and glue. The the bold use of seemingly disparate tones gives Une Fleur de Cassie a deep saturation. The balance of large strokes and detail allows it to be as large as Ysatis’s bouquet but far less overdressed.

Une Fleur de Cassie showcases Ropion’s strength at calculating olfactory effects to the umpteenth decimal point. It is a remarkably intricate and precise perfume but the complexity doesn’t lead to obscurity. You don’t need a vocabulary of notes to read Une Fleur de Cassie. The legibility is in the clarity and accuracy of the olfactory aesthetics, not in the list of notes. To lean further into the opera analogy, Une Fleur de Cassie offers a satisfying experience whether you’ve read the libretto or not.

For some perfumers working with a prestigious niche house is the opportunity to branch out from the obligatory mainstream sensibilities of their day jobs. For Ropion its a chance to hunker down and dig more deeply into a genre he’s known for. Frédéric Malle’s approach to art direction is to give the perfumer the resources to pursue his own direction and then to engage in a discussion during the perfume’s creation. It is a measured approach, one that favors a thoughtful composition over an outrageous one. Une Fleur de Cassie’s success is likely due to both Malle’s and Ropion’s input and was one of the perfumes that put the Malle brand at the center of attention when the line launched in 2000.

03/20/2015

7
Scent 7
Longevity 7
Sillage 8
Bottle

Fanny
64 Reviews

Fanny

Following in a wake

A cold salon at dawn in New York.
Melancholy wafts of flowers right before their wilting sets in. Used stockings thrown on a chair, a short sleep has set off their wearer. All windows are closed.
Within an hour a maid will enter the building, very softly.

2 Replies

03/12/2014

9
Scent 10
Longevity 7.5
Sillage

Efemmeral
18 Reviews

Efemmeral

Stendhal Syndrome (I Cried)

Like the flight of an albatross, this one. Such heavy molecules to become airborne - and it’s an effort - but after some lumbering along the ground and some ungainly flapping it finds my thermals and flies!

And there it is, aloft. Gliding for what seems an unreasonable time, this beauty is such a resolved whole it seems that evolutionary forces are responsible in bringing about an entity so fit for its purpose.

Its purpose? To soar. That it brings me pleasure through its being seems an irrelevant aside to its joyous existence. Certainly not all its aspects are uncomplicated or simply pleasing, but there is much simple pleasure herein. It rises far above mere prettiness; I would certainly not call it accessible.

That I am by turns and simultaneously aware of the details and the whole is a brilliant work of balance. I am aware of an effortless grace, of a creaminess, of a softness, of an intimate warm animal smell, of a distant elegance. From some angles I see that extraordinary wingspan, if I turn my head I catch the beaked profile or the curve of primary feathers, the tucked webbed feet that indicate this bird can (but doesn’t often) come to ground or water.

Always it appears a live, breathing thing. In scent, something like the smell of sweat on my skin after sweet debauchery.

A creation that brings me to tears with its sheer magnificence.

01/27/2014

10
Scent 10
Longevity 7.5
Sillage 7.5
Bottle

Oberon21
47 Reviews

Oberon21

Helpful Review 3

Une Fleur de Cassie

in my opinion this is a wonderful frag ,elegant ,sensual ,beutifully flower orchestrated ,definitely a must buy for very special people .
a powerful sillage and longevity for a floral scent and this makes me like it more and more

12/21/2012

9
Scent 10
Longevity 5
Sillage 7.5
Bottle

Drseid
722 Reviews

Drseid

Helpful Review 6

If The Cassie Flower Smells Like This Consider Me A Big Fan...

The brief but incredible opening has mild jasmine, coupled with subtle bergamot and mimosa accents. Soon after, I detect a dollop of cumin is added to a subdued but persistent rose heart that keeps the scent dark and somewhat dirty. The cumin has a bit of the dreaded "BO" note I tend to run from in fragrances, but unlike most scents with that note, Ropion has masterfully held the cumin just enough in-check to convey the dirtiness of the florals without being off-putting. I am also getting a nice dose of violet, and even quite a bit of carnation in the heart of the scent (even though carnation is not a listed note). The rose hangs around through the base notes, while joined primarily by musk to keep Une Fleur de Cassie's dark nature at the fore. Projection is average to slightly below average, but the scent has very good staying power.

I love Une Fleur de Cassie, and while I may not know if it achieves the true character of the Cassie flower, I can highly recommend it regardless. I am starting to come to the conclusion that Dominique Ropion has become my favorite living modern-day parfumier. Brilliant! 4 to 4.5 stars out of 5.

11/09/2012

LiliumLibido
51 Reviews

LiliumLibido

Very helpful Review 9

A very personal embrace

Every single note in this fragrance was put in there to reinforce a feeling of intimacy. This is womanliness at its rawest: breathy, soft and textured at once, the notes compliment and contrast each other beautifully.
The tandem work of the aldehydes and the salicylate is paramount in imparting the perfume with that lingering, breathy, slightly salty effect, it is skin in all its human glory: clean, not so clean, sweaty, touched, it is woman.
Some may even perceive it as a "rude" fragrance: almost like a scent that has very poor impulse control, a scent that reveals too much of what should be kept private. Not very well bred, but always unforgettable in its allure.
I find that the combination of cassia, jasmine and cumin in the top really sets the tone even with the fresher and softer surrounding notes, the opening clearly announces its intent. And it's not polite, lol!
Very dense in the base, this perfume is like a cello composition: you will feel it down to the base of your spine.

1 Replies

11/09/2012

5
Scent 7.5
Longevity 7.5
Sillage

Sherapop
1239 Reviews

Sherapop

Jarring--not my favorite Malle

I fully expected to love Frédéric Malle UNE FLEUR DE CASSIE. Dominique Ropion creates a cassis perfume chez Malle? What's not to love? Glancing over the note hierarchy, I believe that I have determined the answer, in two words: aldehydic cumin. Yikes!

There is something truly jarring about this composition. It is unsettling, disturbing, disruptive, not comforting, soothing, or seductive--at least not to me! I appreciate this composition in theory, but in practice it's simply not very enjoyable for me to wear.

Interestingly enough, FLEUR DE CASSIE overlaps somewhat with Guerlain APRES L'ONDEE, but the latter is clean and limpid, while the former seems somehow crowded and cramped. Wearing APRES L'ONDEE is like loping through a lush field after a rain; wearing FLEUR DE CASSIE is like attempting to limp home after pulling a muscle in one's calf.

Not for me. I blame my personal incompatibility with this Ropion creation not on poor materials, which they certainly are not, nor on the perfumer--he's one of my favorites--but on what to me is an inharmonious marriage of aldehydes and cumin. Désolée.