Infiniment Coty Paris – Quantity Over Quality

One of this year’s higher-profile releases came from the house of Coty. After much time in the wilderness, they returned to the fragrance world with an enormous collection of 14 scents (a real red flag) called the Infiniment Coty Paris collection. 

The perfumes, divided into three categories based on intensity (I am Dawn, I am Day, and I am Dusk), come in refillable, reusable, and stackable bottles and use Molecular Aura technology https://www.premiumbeautynews.com/en/infiniment-coty-paris-how-coty,23522,en for a unique, long-lasting scent experience. The brand claims that with this new technology, their perfumes will endure for 30 hours. I purchased samples and tested them out and was thoroughly disappointed. Here are my brief thoughts on each.

I Am Dawn

The first collection includes the freshest scents, but at 230 Euros for 75ml, I’d be loathe to purchase any of them.

Atomes Crochus consists of honeysuckle, leather, green tea, and smoky notes. It sounded the most intriguing to me, but it was the biggest letdown. The blend’s watery cheapness reminds me of Rabanne’s Invictus. I can’t pick up much leather, but I can pick up some similarities with the supermarket deodorant aisle.

J’ai Trois Amours (Alberto Morillas/Honorine Blanc) combines jasmine, banana flower and chypre notes. Again, it sounded innovative with the banana flower, but it became too sweet and shampoo-like after some minutes. L’Artisan Bana Banana does this better.

Les Mots Doux (Pierre Negrin) smells like a competently put-together white floral. The brand lists white flowers, jasmine, and rose. I pick up a fresh, bright jasmine with creamy characteristics. It smells like there might be some tuberose or lily for support, or perhaps both. They lend the scent a waxy feel. The rose pushes through after a few minutes, but it smells underpowered. It’s nice, but the Gucci Bloom series might be the better, cheaper option.

Matin de Jade comprises ginger, white blossoms, tea, and bergamot. The tea here gives the perfume an intriguing, earthy quality. However, it disappears rapidly, leaving behind the bergamot and white flowers. The ginger doesn’t inject much life or zing. Stick with Elizabeth Arden Green Tea or Dior Homme Cologne for this scent profile.

I Am Day

Entre Genes (Nathalie Lorson) might have ended up in the lighter I Am Dawn collection. This trio of musks, given colour through tangerine, smells pillowy and light. The clean, soapy blend reminds me of a more citrusy Fleur de Peau. The Diptyque has more presence, though, and at this price, Musc de Sables from Les Indémodables is a better investment.

Soleil d’Ikosim (Dora Baghriche) evolves like an offshoot of Love Don’t Be Shy from Kilian. The candied orange blossom smells sugary, but it’s tempered somewhat by the freshness of neroli and vetiver. It ends up sitting in a perfumed no man’s land where it’s too sweet to be fresh and too fresh and innocuous to make any impression.

Aristo Chypre (Dora Baghriche) loses its shape after 10 minutes. The patchouli and rose fade into the mossy background. There’s been a multitude of chypre scents better than this amorphous blob.

Encore Une Fois (Fabrice Pellegrin) gets the hype. Indeed, I enjoyed wearing this well-composed resinous, balsamic, not-too-sweet vanilla. There’s a boozy element coming into play, but I can’t help but feel this isn’t a fully realised perfume. It smells more like a perfume base than something that has a distinct top, middle, and end. Evaluating it from this perspective makes me appreciate Guerlain all the more. They’ve been successfully doing this thing for years. Still, Encore Un Fois is one of this line’s stronger, more enticing options.

Noir Encens (Fabrice Pellegrin) is another of the more effective compositions in the collection. The marriage of incense, pepper, and what I perceive to be something cedary gives me Comme des Garçons vibes. But is this better than the likes of Blackpepper or Avignon? It’s debatable, but I’d say no.

I Am Day is a superior collection to I Am Dawn but still lacks some polish. And are there some out-of-place scents in this line? Noir Encens and Encore Une Fois, in particular, seem more like something I’d wear at night than as a daily driver.

I Am Dusk

Or de Moi (Dora Baghriche) centres on a simple structure of tuberose and moss. It smells uncomplicated and uninvolving. The tuberose leans slightly mentholated and gives off a half-hearted impression. Sadly, it lacks the bite or the claws to make any impact. I can’t see how anyone would pick this out over some of the tuberose classics.

The brand spruiks Santal A La Vida (Marie Salamagne) as a creamy, dreamy sandalwood, and it might be my pick. Indeed, it is creamy and smooth without too many harsh edges. The jasmine note heightens the creamy element. Still, I’ve got several sandalwood scents in a similar ballpark. For a fraction of the price, Miller et Bertaux’s Indian Study should get the job done.

The sweetness level rises to unbearable levels in Un Parc de Roses en Alabama (Dora Baghriche). The rose smells jammy and cloying, and along with the bitterness of myrrh, it drowns out any of the intricacies of the leather facets. If they were going for something like Galop from Hermès, they failed and gave us something resembling the nuclear ferocity of Radical Rose from Matiere Premiere. I had to scrub it.

L’Amour Pourpre (Dora Baghriche) pushes out heavy sticky resins. The gummy ambery aspects clash rather than complement the aromatic lavender. Ultimately, it comes across as a flanker to Caron Pour Un Homme that we could have done without.

Après L’Amour (Fabrice Pellegrin) had me more intrigued. Drier than the sticky L’Amour Pourpre, it comes across as hazy and spicy. The ginger note adds spice and spark. The tobacco and ambery notes make it a suitable nighttime choice. But the plot twist came from something medicinal, woody, and herbal, maybe courtesy of eucalyptus or spruce. It reminded me of the aromatic, woody Oriental Velours from Les Indémodables.

Summary

Overall, the collection feels bloated and uninspired. Even my three favourites (Santal A La Vida, Noir Encens, and Après L’Amour) don’t offer a signature that is unique enough to warrant the hefty price. As I noted, the brand claims that the scents provide 30 hours of longevity, but that was not my experience. Mostly, they sat around the 4-6 hour mark for the I Am Dusk perfumes, with some heavier scents lasting 6-10 hours. Who wants their perfume to last for 30 hours, though? Certainly not me.

I’m always skeptical when brands drop 14 perfumes at once. It always feels like a tick-the-box exercise (I’m waiting for an oud), and it was a chore churning my way through the perfumes, comparable to listening to a music album with a couple of decent singles and the other songs simply there as filler. The singles here smell more like cover versions, though. Modern perfumery seems to favour quantity over quality constantly when slow and steady should win the race. Maybe I’m an old guy yelling at clouds, but I don’t see how these perfumes will add to the brand’s legacy.

Have you tried the collection? If so, what do you think?

Note: All images are my own except the first image, which is courtesy of Coty. I purchased the samples used for this post.