By Terry
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Tuberose and orange blossom arrive with creamy intensity, their waxy floral density immediately apparent, whilst the orange blossom's slight bitter edge prevents the opening from reading as purely honeyed. There's an almost cosmetic richness here—powdery, indulgent, vaguely retro.
The Turkish rose absolute emerges with surprising dustiness, its slightly papery quality offsetting the ylang ylang's tropical sweetness, creating a fascinating tension between rose's structural geometry and ylang ylang's curvaceous, almost soapy creaminess. The accord becomes distinctly powdery and perfumed—deeply feminine despite the unisex classification.
The base settles into a honeyed, tobacco-kissed warmth where tolu balm and frankincense dominate, the tobacco adding faint smoky spice whilst sandalwood and vetiver provide subtle woody anchor. What remains is soft, intimate, and decidedly sweet-leaning, with the opening's brightness entirely sublimated into powdery, amber-tinged dryness.
Parti Pris announces itself as an exercise in voluptuous maximalism, where Jacques Flori has layered absolutes with the confidence of someone uninterested in restraint. The tuberose and orange blossom top notes arrive with creamy heft—this isn't the airy citrus-floral equation you might expect, but rather the dense, almost buttery warmth of these white florals at full concentration, the orange blossom lending subtle bittersweet undertones that prevent the composition from becoming purely sweet.
What makes this fragrance compelling is the Turkish rose absolute's interaction with ylang ylang in the heart. Rather than competing, these notes create a tense, almost contradictory dialogue: the rose brings dusty, slightly tannic qualities whilst the ylang ylang contributes that tropical, slightly indolic creaminess. This friction gives Parti Pris unexpected complexity and a whisper of animalic sensuality that transforms what could have been a straightforward floral into something altogether more nuanced.
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3.6/5 (104)