Baiser Volé (‘Stolen Kiss’) debuts this month from Cartier. The pleasant but faceless Cartier de Lune (I tried but failed to review it, and have entirely forgotten what it smells like) launched only very recently so I was surprised to see another feminine entry so soon, but here we are. This one was also done by perfumer Mathilde Laurent, who noted that “when asked about their favorite flower, many men said it was the lily” (really? can that possibly be?) but that she “didn’t want it to be the 1,001st floral floriental” (fine with me) and she “didn’t want to add a new floral composition” (ditto); instead, she “[imagined] what the whole flower — including its leaves, petals and pistil — could smell like”.¹ Translation: lily haters need not (necessarily) worry, lily lovers need not (necessarily) drool.

Cartier is calling Baiser Volé a fresh powdery floral, and that’s just what it is: a little veil of scent, in keeping with the recent spate of “minimalist veil” fragrances. So forget about lily bombs like Donna Karan Gold or Serge Lutens Un Lys, think instead of Guerlain Shalimar Parfum Initial, the Prada Infusions (and L’Eau Ambrée), Balenciaga Paris, Love, Chloé and Hermès Eau Claire des Merveilles, etc etc, and you’ll get the idea…

Read the rest of this article »