Well, I have almost emerged from the redo-follies. I still have a few more things to tick off the list including continuing to have doors put in and lighting in the front. If course it would help if A) the door people would not stand there scratching their heads wondering why their “carefully measured” doors don’t fit and B) the landscapers would not stand there scratching their heads wondering why the front door lights they put in don’t light. But hey, who needs lights? After all there isn’t a door to try to make out in the dark, soooo. Now all I have to do is deal with a new roof and redoing the concrete in the garage and the worst will be over.
Did I mention that the Empire State Building went up in 18 months? Just saying’..
In any case, in one of those trips out of what I now refer to as “This Old Hellhole” I popped into Luckyscent to give a sniff to the new Etat Libre scent, You Or Someone Like You. It’s been done by none other than Chandler Burr and dedicated to Los Angeles in that it’s the scent he imagines the heroine of his novel (which I need to read) would wear. I did read some of the ad copy that came along with it, which perhaps was a mistake: the tone of “you might just not get it” might have soured me on the experience had I not tried the scent before reading about it.
All of the stuff about it being LA is neither here more there; it’s certainly not a literal LA, there’s no night-blooming anything, no distant brushfires, none of the flop-sweat pungency that I found in the Le Labo Aldehyde 44, which was the Dallas exclusive (now I believe discontinued) that I thought had a very “Baby Jane”ish vibe to it, going from sparkly youth to personal appearances with cardboard axes in the dry down.
No, if this is LA, this is the cool smell of detachment and success; a fruity, citrus opening that reads like poolside Mojitos on Miller Drive. The perfumer doesn’t give out notes so in that spirit I’m not going to ry and ferret them out and name them. I’m not that clever anyway. I will say that I really enjoyed it, that when I tested at ScentBar I dosed myself a couple of times and we all had a great time sniffing my wrist, and that at one point I was told “I know you’re going to be coming back for this one.”
That I will.
You Or Someone Like you is available at LuckyScent, The Etat Libre website and other locations that can be found through the Etat Libre site. My sample was asked for and received at ScentBar. 30ML $52, 50ML for $90 or 100ML for $149.
I really need to try this on skin. I have a sample, and smelled it on the blotter (seemed pleasant), but other smells keep taking precedence. I’m wondering if skin is where it’ll come alive. Although, as others have already stated, if this smelled like night-blooming flowers and brush fires, I might have been motivated to douse myself in it already. 🙂
I want to want this, because I love Chandler Burr, but it doesn’t sound like my kind of thing. I’ll still try to sample it just in case I’m wrong.
What a coincidence: I posted an interview with Etat Libre d’Orange founder Etienne de Swardt yesterday on my blog, in which he speaks about Mr Burr’s role in the creation of You or Someone Like You. You can check it out here: http://fragroom.com/2017/04/20/etat-libre-doranges-etienne-de-swardt/
I have not had the pleasure yet of smelling this fragrance yet. Must rectify that.
R
the LA I know is closer to what you described than what seems to be evoked in Mr Burr’s creation. I haven’t read the ad copy, nor will I, since I am sure to want to pick up a not-cardboard axe in response to the whole ‘you might just not get it’ vibe.”
Ald44 is, sadly, discontinued. I’ll have to post about that sometime, since it was such a polarizing scent for/on me.
Glad your reno is almost completed (or near as possible) and that you are not in the pokey!
xoxoxoA
I thought it smelled like that generic, pleasant scent you get as you approach the perfume area of any department store. I was shocked that a collaboration between this house and Mr Burr would would result in this sort of thing.
Glad to have you back Tom, almost out of reno hell.
I’m curious about this but I think I’d be even more interested in a perfume that hadthe night-blooming flowers and distant brush fires you mention. Still, I’ll be giving this one a try the next time I get over to Scent Bar