Editions de Parfums "En Passant"

After yesterday's disorienting and traumatic cult experience, I went in search of something soothing. I rummaged through my Box o'Samples, getting steadily more concerned about the descriptions tacked onto each bottle that threatened lurking musks and spicy surprises -- I wanted reliable! I wanted obvious! I wanted sanity, dammit! So it's very lucky for me that I finally came across "En Passant".

I remember stumbling over Frederic Malle's Editions de Parfums story while starting this whole perfume fandango. Usually a house hires a "nose" (the actual perfume alchemist) with a specific steer; sometimes they've even got the name and launch date all set, long before a single trial is created. But Frederic Malle has taken a different route by approaching some of the best noses in the business and basically saying "have fun". These are the scents that the creators themselves find most intruiging, without any fussing by higher-ups. Fascinating, no? And very cool.

With a story like that, I'm a little concerned that I might give some of the Editions higher ratings out of fondness for their freewheeling hippie background. But I'll give it a go anyhow.

"En Passant" went onto my wrist with the most vivid burst of floral/wet/cold scent. Apparently the floral is lilac, which isn't a scent I'm attuned to, but it reminded me most of a corsage a few moments out of the fridge, just at the second you open the protective box. Then there was a very definite watery element: imagine sniffing a slice of watermelon, and then taking away the melon-ness. It's like that -- clear, cold, sweet water. On me, the floral notes then die down and are infused with a sweet grasses scent, like laying in a dew-covered hayfield at dawn. The perfume is remarkably steady in its progression, just tipping the scales ever so slightly in favour of floral, water or grass at any given time. Overall it's just fresh and bright and beautiful.

Olivia Giacobetti’s design is truly lovely, sincere and very approachable. Light and brilliant, with no heavy notes at all, perfect for warmer weather. Where "Sampaquita" is a classy garden party already in progress, "En Passant" is simpler, a promise of something wonderful just out of sight.

Verdict: 1950 Hollywood's version of an Iowan prom night; pure and clear and heady, and totally enchanting.