It’s taken me a while to get around to smelling L’Entropiste. This brand and its perfumes come to us from none other than master perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour. I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long; Duchaufour happens to be one of my favourite composers, but there’s something about the brand I’ve found unappealing. While the prices are certainly prohibitive, what has truly kept me at arm’s length are the names and marketing briefs of the perfumes. There’s no chance in the world I’m wearing a perfume called Dorian’s Spleen. It’s almost as off-putting as Sécrétions Magnifiques when it comes to fragrance titles.
But I relented and purchased four samples earlier this year, and I’ve been wearing them over the last month to get a feel for the house. Below are my thoughts on Blanc Sada, Ensang Noir, Jodhpur 6 AM, and Altamura.
If you’re interested, here is a link to their website. https://lentropiste.com/en
Blanc Sada
Notes: rice powder, iris, powdery notes, milk, tatami, straw, green notes, lychee.
Blanc Sada is the brand’s entry into the powdery iris and rice fragrance genre, which is becoming increasingly crowded. Here, perfumer Duchaufour blends powdery iris with a straw and tatami accord, giving the fragrance a sense of airiness. This is not a heavy, constricting, overblown iris. I would describe it as a starchy, milky hybrid of Fleur de Peau and L’Eau Papier. If you’ve experienced Blanc Poudre from Heeley, you might find it to be a close comparison. I can’t smell the lychee accord or the listed green notes.
So, in the end, it doesn’t offer anything that would tip it over the edge against those fragrances. In fact, I smell a musky tonka base that recalls White Musk for Men from The Body Shop. Furthermore, the odd, dark inspiration for the fragrance: the killer geisha Sada Abe feels like a try-hard attempt to be edgy. The powdery notes reflect the makeup of the geisha, but I’m not convinced the fragrance offers enough shock value and originality to justify its price tag.
Ensang Noir
Notes: top: blackcurrant, aldehydes, cucumber and coriander; mid: red rose, peony and magnolia; base: incense, opoponax, patchouli, birch, vetiver and caramel.
Things start to heat up with the dark rose scent, Ensang Noir. The blackcurrant in the opening adds a tangy, zingy kick, but it’s not a screechy, animalic blackcurrant. Shortly after, the prominent rose takes centre stage, presenting a metallic, jammy, smoky character. One can easily imagine being in an old gothic cathedral with incense burning as the clock ticks midnight. There’s a blood-red, inky quality to the scent, making it feel cold and aloof. It’s not the sort of rose that feels versatile for me, but I do respect it as a composition. It’ll find many fans. It belongs in the same rose garden as Portrait Of A Lady, Eau de Protection, and Love Kills, though I’d probably just go with those fragrances over this one.
Jodhpur 6AM
Notes: fruity notes, black tea, tuberose, spicy notes, milk, cardamom, and ginger.
Last year featured many notable tuberose scents, with Eshal from Neela Vermeire and Aldebaran from Marc Antoine Barrois standing out. In contrast, Jodhpur 6AM is much milkier and fruitier than both these scents, providing a unique point of difference. Duchaufour integrates a peachy osmanthus note into the white floral mix, and it surprisingly begins to overshadow the tuberose. As the fruits bleed into the tuberose, it turns dewy and juicy, and it loses a little of its characteristic bite. Among the four L’Entropiste compositions, Jodhpur is the most layered, showcasing a spicy chai tea backbone that, for my taste, turns a bit too milky. I’ve compared it to Eshal and Aldebaran; however, ultimately it’s more of a fruity tea perfume, backed by white florals, indeed the most luminous of the L’Entropiste. If you enjoy Tian Di from Frassaï or Fig Tea from Nicolaï, Jodhpur has something to offer.
Altamura
Notes: incense, sweet orange, spices and liquor.
Altamura conjures images of orange pomanders at Christmas time, opening with an intense burst of bitter orange. If Jodhpur 6AM is James and the Giant Peach, Altamura is James and the Giant Orange. This orange comes drowned in Cointreau. One might expect sticky sweetness, but instead Duchaufour employs a charred dark incense note to cut through the bitter, sweet orange accord. Altamura’s striking orange liqueur note grabbed my attention more than other fragrances. However, it loses some of its vibrancy towards the end, finishing on a muted ambery base.
Conclusion
Bertrand Duchaufour has created some of the best-in-class fragrances, such as the incense and vetiver masterpieces Avignon and Timbuktu. Not to mention his outstanding work for smaller houses like Neela Vermeire and Grandiflora. It’s almost as if he’s built a rod for his own back; expectations are high, one expects brilliance, and these scents from L’Entropiste are just ok to good in quality. While there is no doubt that they are well composed, I encountered issues with each one. Blanc Sada feels flat and one-dimensional, and after its brilliant opening, Altamura loses its appeal. We have encountered similar scents to Ensang Noir previously, and as for Jodhpur, I wasn’t fond of its milky aspect.
L’Entropiste scents retail for 295 euros for 100ml, 210 euros for 50ml, and 63 euros for 10ml. Given these prices, one would expect better value, especially considering Duchaufour’s strong reputation—none of these stack up against his best work. On a positive note, I didn’t detect any harsh amberwood materials in any of them. If I had just arrived from another planet and wasn’t familiar with his previous creations, I might have appreciated these fragrances more. And, at half the price, I would likely have been more complimentary. It seems that some perfumer-led brands both underwhelm and overcharge.
Overall, these are better than the Aphorismes collection by Dominique Ropion, but graded against scents such as Eshal, Avignon, and Timbuktu, they’re a 6/10.
Have you sampled L’Entropiste?
Note: Bottle images from the brand. All other pictures are my own.