Risqué ideas and images are nothing new to Etat Libre d’Orange: the company presents us with closet queens, chubby utility workers (with a label showing buttocks cleavage), blond pubic hair (Vraie Blonde), gay beefcake (Tom of Finland), a threesome engaged in oral sex (Archives 69), and a couple of penises (one substituting for a pistol barrel — Je Suis un Homme — the other erect and “spurting” — Sécrétions Magnifiques). Now there’s Philippine Houseboy, whose tagline, fils de dieu, du riz et des agrumes*, has been put into use in North America as the fragrance name (you can apparently still buy this perfume in the Philippine Houseboy bottle in Europe).

No matter the name (I refuse to get worked up about perfume “titles” these days…there are much more important things to protest and worry about!), the fragrance’s “intent” is to capture the sun-drenched, aroma-rich Asian tropics. Fils de Dieu, du Riz et des Agrumes was created by perfumer Ralf Schwieger and lists fragrance notes of bergamot, ginger, lime, coriander leaves, shiso, Jungle Essence coconut and cardamom, rice note, jasmine, cinnamon, French May rose, tonka bean, vetiver, musk, amber, leather and castoreum.

Fils de Dieu opens with gingery lime, and “green” coriander and pungent shiso leaf…

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