Une Fleur de Cassie by Frederic Malle

mosesbotbol

My girlfriend's favorite to wear from FM. Musky, floral, but clean. Need to buy another one. Turns heads.

BronxBeauty

This perfume represents a fascinating intellectual exercise in perfuming. Last night after I put it on, I could not keep my nose off my wrist. It's decadent and intoxicating -- but definitely a niche product with little popular appeal.

The note on the sample card says Une Fleur de Cassie aims to evoke the "voluptuous, disturbing scents" of the 1930s and that the cassie flower has a fragrance that's "bestial, bordering on the coarse." (On my skin, it starts with a strong jasmine absolute then moves to tuberose and cassie.) The dustiness of the middle and basenotes do conjure the smell of makeup from that era. (My grandmother kept a store of vintage rouges and powders.)

UFDC is definitely not a scent for younger women -- it seems, rather, about the sexuality of mature women.

In her review of it, Sed Non Satiata talks about a note that smells like "unwashed bodies," which she identifies as cumin. I don't smell any spices, but I would her description a step further and say that there's a whopping fecal note in the middle of this perfume. It reminds me of sexual activities that produce not just spunk, but funk.

UFDC would be a good perfume for me if I could afford it: It's for someone overripe and overage but still alluring. Picture Simone Signoret at about this age, wearing a lace slip, stocking and garters, and you get the picture.

SedNonSatiata

Thank you, Dominique Ropion! If I could designate a single perfume to be the scent-track of my life it would be Une Fleur de cassie.

I am a huge fan of acacia farnesia, the dominant note in Une Fleur de Cassie. In most perfumes, acacia farnesiana is sweetened with a huge dollop of heliotrope: the effect is pleasing, but it is not true to the strange, vegetal, dry character of the actual flower. I'm delighted to say that in Une Fleur de Cassie I detect instead of sweet almond, an earthy, spicy, cumin-like note, in perfect contrast to the floral. This is not for everyone, however, and looking at other fragrance sites, I see most people love it or hate it--nothing in between. The cumin can smell a bit funky. Some people perceive it as the scent of unwashed human bodies--and while that is not exactly. But come to think of it there is a seductive, cuminy smell to some male armpits. Maybe that's why I find that sort of dirty basenote glorious. If this seems just too creepy but the rest sounds good to you, I would recommend Après l'Ondée by Guerlain, which is in a similar scent family, but sweeter and cleaner, and every bit as haunting, or the less complicated Mimosa pour moi, by l'Artisan Parfumeur. But by all means, give Une Fleur de Cassie a try. You may fall in love.