Lgsoltek

The first time I smelled this was at an Osmothèque conference on 100 years of chypre. Rush was chosen and presented by Christophe Laudamiel as one of the iconic chypres. At the time I hated it. What the hell is this weird plastic thing?
Now I understand it. If Mitsouko is Ingres’ Grande Odalisque, then Rush is Martial Raysse’s Made in Japan version of it. It's deliberately kitsch, blatantly synthetic, plasticky, shouty, industrial. Just as Martial Raysse said, beauty is bad taste, and bad taste is the dream of an over-desired beauty. Seen in this way, Gucci Rush fits perfectly into the pop art aesthetic. No need to be so serious all the time. Sometimes we just need a bit cheap trashy fun.

There is indeed an YSL Opium association, but then I bet any combination of cinnamon + balsams will be reminiscent of the Opium family (or should I say the Youth Dew family). Fate Woman is very different though. While Opium is a mystic fog with low visibility, Fate is radiant and iridescent just like the bottle. It’s loud but in a light way if that makes sense, as opposed to the powerful punches of Opium. It lingers in the room after you sprayed it on body two days ago. In a very reductionist manner, Fate is Opium made transparent.

This one is untypically JCE, because it lasts rather long and it's actually quite loud, instead of in the usual pale anaemic and gone-in-five-minutes style that JCE is fond of/good at.

At the same time it's very typically JCE, because it's really just a very simple accord: blackcurrant + geranium + IBQ. Isobutylquinoline (IBQ) is what contributes to this loudness and longevity. It is that herbal leathery note, most famously overdosed by Germaine Cellier in her masterpiece Bandit. I love IBQ. I would even gladly wear a dilution of it alone as perfume. So yes, I like this Rose & Cuir, but that's mostly because I love IBQ.

So in the end, Rose & Cuir is just only a simple accord drawn with heavy strokes. Ellena compared this to Nicolas de Staël's paintings, and that actually makes perfect sense.

With several dozens of bottles small or big from Nicolaï, I think I qualify as a big if not huge fan. I had really high hope for their anniversary release, especially something called "leather" and is said to be inspired by the Cuir de Russie genre.

The first few times I smelled this new release I was confused, disappointed and infuriated, that an atrocious thing such as this could come from my beloved house, from the great Patricia de Nicolaï, that a disgusting thing like this could be their anniversary perfume. An Exsence report on Cafleurebon mentioned this new release months ago and called it a “modern spicy fougère” that should appeal to the “younger generation”. At the time such descriptors had me worried already and I hoped it wouldn’t turn out to be another of those disgusting sharp woody ambers so popular nowadays. But it’s a nightmare come true.

Several wearings later, sorry nope, I still really dislike it, but I’m ready to entertain the idea that this is PdN’s (perhaps cynical?) naturalistic take on the currently popular GMS genre (Generic Man Scent - coined by reviewer @persolaise and his audience), a genre that I would sum up as having the structure of dihydromyrcenol + synthetic woody amber molecules, represented by Sauvage et al., perfectly corresponding to the manspreading culture, crude, offensive, barbaric, things I’d be glad to see eliminated from the face of the earth. If all that official blurb is to be trusted, PdN is trying to replace that crass and overtly synthetic structure with more natural ingredients: yuzu and spearmint substituting for dihydromyrcenol, and guaiac wood and smoked pine replacing those woody ambers.

Sadly though, the end result is as horrible as the imitated, because after all this is not a genre worth replicating, at all. It just smells generic, like “supermarket deodorant aisle burning”, to quote a perfumista friend whom I asked to blind-smell this. This is a bad movie script played by award-winning actors. This is a sculpture of cr*p made in diamonds. It’s just not worth doing. And forget all that mention of leather or Cuir de Russie. This has nothing to do with the leather family. Perhaps Bois Piquants Intense would be a more suitable name.

For a brand who prides itself on their creativity, on their freedom from market considerations, coming out with a thing such as this which is blatantly aimed at the Sauvage generation is really disappointing to longtime fans. It feels like a betrayal. To whoever made the choice of this thing as their celebratory release, from a long time big fan: next time, just don’t.

But of course I’m no perfumer. I can’t say for sure if these are really yuzu, smoked pine and guaiac wood as they say. This could be, really, just another carbon copy of those dihydromyrcenol + woody amber GMSs.

A warm cloud of smouldering resins and suede-like softness, and more importantly what smells to me like a hefty dose of salubrious guaiac wood (even though it’s not listed in the pyramid). It wraps around you wherever you go, keeping your mind in peace. Perfect for such troubled times. It is indeed a disinfectant for the soul.