Mousse Arashiyama by Le Jardin Retrouve 2021

Hey Posse. Just before the holidays I was sent a sample of Mousse Arashiyama by Le Jardin Retrouvé. I put it on my desk and then lost it. A few times I made desultory searches for it and I told myself it must have been put somewhere else. This is quite a regular occurrence for me. put something somewhere and am onto the next thing and that seems to thoroughly wipe my memories of the last thing. For some reason I thought I was looking for white cardboard. Nope. Turns out the brown cardboard envelope I kept flicking past, in the place I knew I’d left it, was the envelope with my precious sample. Yeah, I know, happens to the best of us.

Also, it’s so personal when a perfume company goes to the trouble of hand writing a card. I’ve never dealt with this crew before and for them to have taken that extra trouble makes me want this perfume to be a big win. Let’s try Mousse Arashiyama together eh?

Mousse Arashiyama by Le Jardin Retrouve 2021

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Mastic or Lentisque, Incense, Bergamot
Heart: Fig Leaf, Fig, Water Notes
Base: Moss, Vetiver, Cedar

Green! Cool, dry greenery, resins and a sweetness that I’m going to attribute to the bergamot. A perfectly serene opening that is then overrun by fig. Suddenly the sweetness is like a cooked fig yet still the dry greenery remains to keep the fragrance grounded. I like the way fig is represented here, without the usual lactic creaminess. Much closer to photo realistic but still a fig dream. A starker, more herbaceous look at fig but with a balsamic sweetness. WOW!  Still fig but new fig, new to me. If you are a fig fam then you really need to get your sniff on Mousse Arashiyama.

Not even 20 minutes in and already the dry-grassy oiliness of vetiver has moved in to give the fig some depth and not too far behind is a shady woodiness, like a woodmill late at night. In Mousse Arashiyama the fig shows remarkable tenacity into the dry down but eventually the sharp green woodiness prevails and takes us through to fade.

Below you’ll see the bottle. So cute. It looks like one of those kids perfumes Avon would have done in the 1970s or 80s. That green is one of my all time favourite colours too, reminds me of the kitchen formica in one of my friends houses growing up. Super cool.

I love the way Mousse Arashiyama shows fig. Unisex with a moderate to low sillage that has quite good longevity. Even in the humid heat of a wet Sydney summer it sticks around for a few hours.

Do you know Mousse Arashiyama or any of the Le Jardin Retrouvé oeuvre? Do you have a favourite?
Portia xx