L'Eau d'Hiver Frederic Malle for women and men

Frédéric Malle L'EAU D'HIVER is my third angelica and second J.C. Ellena perfume from this house, and it is my favorite in both categories! The angelica here is fragile and light and sweetened by equally delicate purple flowers, heliotrope and iris. This composition is right up my alley: powdery, floral, slightly sweet with a dash of green, and the overall extremely well-blended final effect seems 100% natural to my nose.

L'EAU D'HIVER seems more feminine than masculine to me, and I have to say that I find it somewhat closer to Prada INFUSION D'IRIS than to Guerlain APRES L'ONDEE, given the relative strengths of the iris note. Whatever its ultimate source of inspiration may have been, this perfume is a beauty!

Heavenly, smooth, transparent, clean, watery, refined, spohisticated, impeccable, gentle, whispered, elegant...sexless.

Have you ever wondered how heliotrope smells like? Here it is in all its glory with just a little addition of other flowers and white musk. Not my cup of tea but I can't deny this iteraton of the heliotrope is terrific. Just next to Apres L'Ondèe.

Rating: 8.5/10

A mediative transparent and utterly beautiful fragrance that I could shower myself with for days, if I thought It was worth the doe. One 100 ml bottle costs around 140 euro, and my fear is that the bottle won't last that long as this fragrance appears like a light cologne. It reminds me of Apres l'Ondee minus the anise in Apres. Super beautiful but very very light. Anyway, it's on my wishlist :).

L'eau d'Hiver has the typical Ellena's DNA.

This one starts out with a semi-sweet floral aspect. Very transparent, very bright, as expected from Ellena. A very delicate and well constructed fragrance.

Like many here has described and I agree, L'eau d'Hiver is like drinking a cup of floral tea sweetened with a little bit of honey and vanilla essence in a not so typical sunny morning in the winter, near a river and a not so far away orris garden.

An excellent fragrance that does not deserves a thumbs down just because it lacks longevity.

It's Ok'. Very light, very soft, unique

L'Eau d'Hiver is my absolute favourite. Understated yet with so much character. I love how clean it feels, cold and crisp as a winter day. The only problem for me is that it doesn't last on me at all.

L'eau D'Hiver is a... Sweet, Transparent honey suckle and iris fragrance. Sitting on a base of almond, it creates an equisitely smooth yet sparkling sweet aura around you that is perfect year round. It somehow gives off a warming effect with a refreshingly sweet almond note. Many people feel it's a skin scent, but to be totally honest...it projects appx 1 person away, and lasts a good 7 hours on me. At the very least a must try. If you enjoy overall sweet fragrances and can deal with Jean Claude Ellenas transparent style, then you will love this. But for most, this will just be a pleasant scent. And I understand, and respect that.
Did I mention... I Love it!

someone has written l'eau d'hiver is melancholy in a bottle.
i agree.
this is a pearl:when I read the notes I think this is too sweet a sugary for teen!
I'm wrong totally!
pale sunny in desolated landscape in a winter day.
heating up yes but with lightness and intimately.
unisex for a dreamy man or woman
wear it for yourself

A masterpiece

Pure lightness, this is like a heightened clean skin scent. Almost zero sillage, this is one to wear just for yourself. The fragrance doesn't last long on me, and doesn't have enough of the oomph of other Frederic Malle perfumes for me to invest, but this was very pleasant to sample.

No soy un gran fan de JC Ellena.
Cuando acierta es muy bueno, pero cuando falla, como en este perfume, mas valdria que se dedicase a ambientadores y velas de olor.
Este "churro" para F.Malle es insoportable, insufrible.

This scent is much more of a piece of art than something I'd wear every day. It feels very fresh and light from beginning to end - on me it dries down to a very aromatic, almost minty note. It's more masculine than feminine to me, but I enjoyed it a lot while it lasted - unfortunately, it lasts a very short time.

Kelly Caleche is it You ??

If it wasn't for the weak projection....

This is a very good 'mood scent'. Peaceful, calm and tranquil. Very white. But no you can smell you!

I wear this at night after taking a shower - but for the price, I may not buy another bottle.

For a 'mood scent' has anyone here tried Gucci Pour Homme II or Chanel Allure Edition Blanche? Both smell different but may have similar effects.

somewhat similar in its softness and almond-like quality to another Ellena composition; bois farine. I love them both, but find Bois farine less common and more interesting. Still, l'eau d'hiver is a great daytime fragrance, though a much more summery scent
for me, despite its name...

A slightly peppery, light cool floral without being in any way sweet, lush, cloying or really terribly floral. It's a cool somehow white fragrance, smooth and sheer, like softly scented musk soap. I really like it.

This perfume made me think in parallels.

Firstly, this is overtly meant to be an homage to Guerlain's 'Après L’Ondée', which I currently have on my other wrist. Aside from the heliotrope, though, I don't see (sorry, sniff) much in common. 'Après L’Ondée' is far more 'blue', an explosion of cerulean dust in a newly-acquired antique, turn-of-the-century powder box; with no almonds inside said box (for me).

Instead, the milky, honey-esque quality to 'L'Eau D'Hiver' reminded me, strangely, of Thierry Mugler's 'Dis Moi, Miroir', of the Mirror Mirror Collection. They have the honey, milk and jasmine in common. I get the citrus note in the opening of 'L'Eau D'Hiver',and perhaps a little too much alcohol, after which the heart of this turns into the twin of Etro's 'Heliotrope', on my skin; mainly almond and white musk, close to the skin, though with impressive sillage, as others have mentioned. I do prefer this to Etro's 'Heliotrope'-the bergamot note, white musk and the white floral note prevent it from being too 'almond cookie'. And, at points, the blue fog lifts to reveal a wonderful orris and jasmine clarity.

The heart is dominated by the almond for me, so if you're an almond fan (which I am not, apart from the odd crave) you'll love this! A nice, comforting fragrance for a winter night.

UPDATE: See above for the jasmine clarity: the fog has indeed lifted. This is now much colder; the bergamot, jasmine and angelica shining through the heliotrope to delightfully refreshing results.

I am huge fan of all things Frederic Malle. This one is a more subtle daytime scent, I would say: Smells of warm, creamy, milky water with toasted almonds and a touch of honey or sugar.

There is also some faint green note (cut grass? angelica?) but the so-called white Heliotrope is ever so shy and barely noticeable.

I picture walking along a sunny winter day along a riverbed, everything covered in snow but it isn't cold and your body is warm and the sun makes the snow and ice and riverbed smell of milk, almond, and something on the riverbed is blooming and oozes some faint floral scent (white helitrope).

Very well composed, creamy, mild and clean!

Excellent daytime wear for anytime of year.

A nice,clean,fresh,romantic and unique scent,very nice unisex but i still prefer this on my Girl friend, indeed i don't want to smell like her,But if i'm option less i won't mind wearing at the same time, so Cool perfume.
8/10

One of my new perfume loves...I discovered it only at 4th sniff..first it was so light , nearly undetectable and I stuffed my sample away..only to try it again months later as I ve fallen in love with the Iris note recently..and here it was with a bang: first a great soft watery almond and then an half hour later:a gorgeous creamy cold iris with the heavenly heliotrope and some honey in your face..soo chameleon like..it changes every 20 minutes..sometimes I got only almonds, sometimes my beloved iris alone, at some point all together!! and then the powdery flora drydown..it made me ache for more.. so I sprayed again after 4 hours to relive the experience .I ve not met any other fragrance like that:So many layers , so many hidden secrets , my words are not enought..only for the seekers of you..not for the ones who like their fragrances screaming at them all the time:)

This does have a sweet quality to it, reminding me at first of Escada Magnestism for women. Once it wears for a while though the powdery iris comes through. For a few seconds I thought I smelled honeysuckle, sadly it was fleeting.

L'eau d'Hiver is very soft, almost a skinscent. While I think it's nice, it's not for me.

When I wear this, it tells me what to say, and this is just a little part of it:
The Angel’s wings caught in
the airlock door.
Floor polish and faded incense,
Spilled holy water, and the everlasting candle,
A few white feathers on the threshold
sparkle dust on the brass door handle.
A pale young girl with violet eyes.
Reads the written word and cries,
For her world has been forgotten,
Soapy, chaste, the allure of cotton,
White Lace and ribbon curls dishevelled
Translucent in the early morning light.
Where, on this timeline
Did I choose
To doubt the rumour
to dip my finger into the
Ooze,
To taste the bitter poison?
And how moreish it is,
how we fear yet relish
the grotesque toxin.

Grotesque it aint, but it's a ghostly cocktail instubstantial yet terrifyingly real, an echo of a memory you keep in a box, lest its kryptonite power strip you of your resolve.

Buy a bottle.

This is a very light fragrance but something in it annoys me, its smells like a very soft verbena (the citrus). I read the notes and it sounds wonderful, but this does absolutely nothing for me. The second time I tried this I can now smell the iris powder, that is the only aspect I like so I'm gonna keep it on and see what develops.

I got a tester in a swap and sprayed it on right away, without reading any of the notes or the reviews here. I kept thinking I smelled cherries in L'Eau d'Hiver. It was somehow familiar, though I hadn't sniffed it before. After reading about it, I think now that I was flashing back to the classic cherry-almond scent of the United States: Jergen's Hand Lotion. I didn't realize I was getting just the almonds from that classic lotion scent. There are actually no cherries in L'Eau d'Hiver.

L'Eau d'Hiver is almost sweet but somehow stops on a dime just before it gets there. There is something in it that is almost a delicious almond cookie covered with powdered sugar, but alas, not quite. It's like the cookie was baked without the use of any sweetener.

The iris is the most detectible floral to my nose and reminds me a bit of the iris from Delrae's Mythique. I don't detect the other notes individually.

I was very impressed by this fragrance's ability to stay so close to the skin, but last so long. I couldn't smell it at all unless I lifted my wrist to my nose. It has minimal sillage. However, I could still detect it after 12 hours, and the scent didn't appear to have faded or evolved that much during the elapsed time.

The effect of this fragrance is interesting, but something in it reminds me of an inexpensive hand soap dispensed in a public restroom. It has a touch of something cold and industrial about it. Worth a try, but ultimately not for me.

A good film adaptation pays homage to the soul of its source, avoiding rote imitation or parody, and allowing a new voice to break through. Jean-Claude Ellena’s L’Eau d’hiver—an homage to the ethereal Après l’ondée—is a brilliant adaptation, revealing equal parts inspiration and innovation. Nostalgia is implicit in the desire to pay tribute to Après l’ondée, but Ellena does not make a literal olfactory translation of this melancholy emotion in his own blend. Instead, sweet, almondy heliotrope takes the lead role, with a supporting cast of angelica and iris root creating a soft, wet backdrop reminiscent of the sky, alive but calm, just as the first, plump snow flakes begin to fall. L’Eau d’hiver is a long-lasting skin scent with the gentlest of sillage. When I breathed it in one of the Paris boutique’s scent columns, it was barely there yet the arm that I sprayed over twelve hours ago is still radiates, intimately but unmistakably, l’Eau d’hiver. Gorgeous.

Coming out of Apres l'Ondee territory, this is the first Jean-Claude Ellena creation that really made me sit up and take notice, and it's my favorite. Sweet, powdery almonds and fresh mimosa, truly feminine without going the usual tried and true routes of girlyness, sluttishness, or old-ladyism. It produced instant visual associations for me, things like the original Anais-Anais promo photos; you remember, pallid, anemic young beauties seen through cheesecloth, all perfect ivory skin and grey eyeshadow; mist rising ar dawn from a cool Irish lake, in fact, the view behind my ex-wife's uncle's house in Wicklow, where Stanley Kubrick filmed the last half of Barry Lyndon, and Marisa Berenson's vacant, unearthly, wraith-like beauty in taht film. This is a perfume of averted glances, buried longings, and long silences, ideal for the type of young woman who spends a lot of time staring out of her window at the rain. I could fall in love with a woman wearing this, but I doubt that anything woud be forthcoming in return. Otherworldly floral beauty, virtually devoid of sexuality. I usually go for something with a little bump and grind, a little more junk in the trunk, but this is a superb perfume, paradovically ethereal and forceful at the same time. If I loved a woman who wore this and she spurned me, I'd drown myself. What a load of romantic bullshit, eh?

Soft and fleeting on my skin. I get too much honey and hint of Jasmine which I cannot wear. I don't see how this could offend anyone and with that in mind it is easily forgotten. I have found too many other iris scents that smell better in my opionion. I just like my scent to be louder and spicier than this. Though I do still love FM.

L'Eau D'Hiver is a romantic fragrance transports you to a wintery day when the weather is warm.

It captures the essence of snow, its transparence is expressed through the usage of the iris note (cold notes are typical of iris scents) folded into the white softness of almond and heliotrope, enveloping the wearer in warmth.
If L'Eau D'Hiver were a garment, it would be your warmest most luxurious cashmere sweater or scarf.
To my surprise I enjoyed the almond in this fragrance.

The white musk accords in the drydown add also a crisp effect to the fragrance and I detect powder too.

L'eau d'hiver is described by Elena as an "Eau chaude" (warm water), and there is certainly such an aspect in this fragrance. This is a very delicate scent indeed and in a way it makes me think of a very light, (luke-)warm flowery tea to which a spoonful of honey has been added. Honey is definitely the note I get the most often. It is however very well balanced, not too sweet, and not over-bearing: it comes and goes softly and dances with the iris notes. And again, soft is the word to describe the iris in l'Eau d'hiver. In other perfumes the iris can appear somewhat metallic (e.g. Ferre for Men, perhaps) but not here: it's light and powdery. Other noticeable notes for me are jasmine, a bit of vanilla and some hint of almond although very fleeting.

How do I like it? Well... It certainly has a feel-good, light, clean, warm, comfy, soft appeal. The longevity and sillage are weak though, making it a scent that you wear just for yourself, and very pleasant that can be too. Best uses for me would be either when staying at home with a good book or when going out for a walk in the snow on a sunny winter day.

This is a perfume I felt in love with from the first sniff! :-)
This is a truly light, absolutely weightless fragrance, a very delicate note of heliotrope with a citrus and vanilla nuances.
The perfume waves with cold and warm notes, slightly powdery, very romantic and beautiful. I smell honey at the end, but it is a very-very delicate note, because the fragrance is not sweet at all.