Safran Troublant by L’Artisan Parfumeur 2002

/ australianperfumejunkiescom

Hello Fellow Fume Heads,

Sometimes I read other people’s reviews and I am swept away by their incredible love, moment, articulateness or sheer joy at a perfume. It’s like the love is transferred by osmosis through their excitement. Safran Troublant is a case in point, I read a terrific post and could almost smell the fragrance while reading, at that same time I was ordering some splits from my favourite split enabler, Ruth K on FFF, and wondered if she had a bottle lying around that she would like to share 5ml of. Oh yes she did, in its old packaging and everything. YIPPEE!

Fragrantica has Bertrand Duchaufour and BaseNotes has Olivia Giacobetti responsible for creating Safran Troublant. Mystery!!

Safran Troublant by L’Artisan Parfumeur 2002

Safran Troublant FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Passion flower, sandalwood, red rose, vanilla, saffron, sugar and ginger.

What a terrific scent. It is so calm, collected and unpushy. When I wear Safran Troublant it encases me is a glorious and interesting magic that is sweet and delicious without being particularly edible, though foody it is. Does that make sense? The spicy rose, ginger and vanilla are what I smell most through the whole life of the fragrance but I think the saffron is just not a note I’m familiar enough with to really understand how it fits here. Sometimes people mention that there is a clean plastic-ish smell to it, well I often find that in roses too, are they the same? Is it a particular molecule that gives me this reaction? Dunno gang but I love it.

Safran Troublant Sugared Rose ediblecraftsPhoto Stolen EdibleCrafts

Some of the bloggers have called this a comfort scent, a warm blanket to wrap yourself in on a cool day but I find it much more aloof than that. It’s a cool Autumn day filled with rain here in Sydney and I am not feeling the warm wrap effect at all. Sweet, yes, warm, no. Rather a cool sweetness, a green sweetness, Safran Troublant feels like an expensive sweetness that relies on sophistication and prior knowledge to enjoy it fully. Like Bach, so pretty and intricate to listen to but when you start to study him it becomes a math equation, a geometric vision in sound. L’Artisan is often like that for me. Very pretty and wearable by almost everyone till you start to try and dissect what it is you love and it is so far out of my knowledge realms that all I can do is go back to, “I really enjoy how I feel when I wear it.” Curiously, I smell it for hours and hours but the people around me say it’s too faint to discern, interesting huh?

Safran Troublant Red Rose Girl LayoutSparksPhoto Stolen LayoutSparks

You will not skunk your colleagues or dinner guests even if you, like me, spritz with abandon. Safran Troublant is an introverted perfumistas scent, not that you are unsmellable but it flies under the radar.

Further reading GrainDeMusc and the reason I got my hands on some Safran Troublant was the recent post at Kafkaesque
L’Artisan Parfumeur has 100ml/$145
Libertine Perfumes in Australia has 100ml/$169 including postage in Australia. Good deal!
SurrenderToChance starts at $4/ml

Has it ever happened for you? Read a review and can’t help but buy the fragrance? Which fragrances have you done it for and are you happy with your purchase?
Till tomorrow we wish you only good,
Portia xx

50 thoughts on “Safran Troublant by L’Artisan Parfumeur 2002”

  3. Portia, you are so right on about the power of a good review. Kafka, and Katie, and You and yesterday Brie writing about Jour Ensoleille just make me swoon with desire and longing and huge appreciation of your skill with words! I have left out others like The Black Narcissus and Bois de Jasmine, and Grain de Musc, FFF, and others I can’t remember at the moment. You all have kind of changed my life. Each day I have a place to go where I can surround myself with people of like minds and shared love. It is a new and welcoming family. I am grateful every day that you all put pen to paper and share your insights, vision, opinion, and views. I look forward to hearing from you all!

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    • Tora! You are so sweet for saying so! Means the world to me that you enjoy our writing as I too admire many of the other bloggers that you have mentioned! So happy to see you here on APJ…my second home! I completely agree…finding all of my fragrant friends (and quite recently) has been life altering for me as well…were it not for Portia and Jordan you would not have read about Jour Ensoleille yesterday….so I wholeheartedly welcome you to the APJ family and do as Portia says….grab a chair get comfy and enjoy the ride :D!!!!!

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  4. P- I am really sad about this one as I so wanted to adore it…and it is not as though I don’t like it…smells glorious from the sample vial but on my skin all I want to do once applied is eat my bony arm….just too foody with my skin chemistry (similar to how I react to cumin…which I adore in Indian food) Why, oh, why???

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  6. About 12 years ago, I read a review of L´Artisan´s Patchouli Patch. Ordered it on the spot. Loved it. Although I seem to remember that it didn´t last too long. May have to check that one out again when I am in London. That opened the doorway to ordering online. I have not looked back. 😉 Never tried or bought another L´Artisan though. Hmmmm.

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  7. I’m not too fond of rose (I actually hate it most of the time) but the rest of this scent sounds gorgeous! I love saffron! I want to find a really debaucherous saffron scent! A golden gourmand, honey-laden and spice-tinged, wrapped in a saffron shroud… That would be divine!

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  8. Thank you for the referral but, most of all, I’m just glad you enjoyed Safran Troublant. It’s my favorite from the L’Artisan line and such a beautiful scent, which is why I was genuinely sad it barely lasted on my skin. But how wonderful that it lasts on you! It’s a huge shame if they’re truly discontinuing it, as Lucas has reported. I hope you buy a full bottle of it before it goes away.

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  9. Great review, I love this one. But I’m confused; when it came out, it was credited to Olivia Giacobetti. Did L’Artisan Parfumeur or M. Duchaufour recently claim differently? If so, I wonder what the truth is? Hmmm! I sense an interesting story here!

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    • UM I don’t know but Fragrantica is where I got my info. Nobody gets everything 100% right, they may well have made a mistake. BaseNotes still has Olivia as the nose responsible. The mystery deepens.
      Thank you, I will remove Bertrand’s name till I know what happened.
      Portia xx

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  10. Oh yes boffo reviews that sing praises to high heaven can get me going. Worst experience was with Tea Rose by Perfumer’s Workshop. Miss Katie Puckrik went on about it saying it was the best rose ever. I bought it and UGH..it smelled like the hallway leading to the ladies room at an old disco in the 1970’s. But I have had lots of positive ones too.
    Today must be L’Artisan Parfumeur day! We both hit on the house.

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  11. I liked Safran Troublant when I tested it but it never went further.
    I’ve never bought a bottle or a decant solely based on a review but, most likely, I took into the consideration opinions of those bloggers whose tastes I know when I was deciding on a sample or a small decant (sometimes it’s cheaper this way through a split) for testing purposes.

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  12. Beth Gehring’s review of Roxana Villa’s ‘Q’: I bought it online immediately.

    It was the first fragrance that took me deep, deep into the forest – which for me is a very sexy place to be. Primevally sexy.

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  13. The nose is Olivia Giacobetti. It’s on the L’artisan site (bottom of the page “Our story” -> “The perfumers” -> click on a name to see a list of their creations for L’artisan). Fragrantica probably messed up because ST was originally part of the “spice trio” (or something like that, it was originally a set of smaller bottles) that also included Poivre Piquant and Piment Brulant, both of which are by Duchaufour.

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    • Oh gosh that sounds wrong!! I mean in a cynical way that so many gorgeous fumes are just scrapped commercially because the mainstream just does not get it….wait….I’ll just go back into my shell…
      I think I read that Havanne Vanille and Nuit de Tubereuse were also being discontinued, and Serge Lutens keeps taking things off mainstream … And don’t get me started on reformulations… It’s just so dismay -ing is what I mean…it was bad enough a decade or so ago when Mitsouko started smelling off; now it’s only a year or two before you are shocked by the gutting of something and this is a case in point.

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      • Yes Marion,
        All this is true but unfortunately the new rules are causing changes that affect the perfumes, companies and thus all of us. It will all sort itself out soon enough.
        I think L’Artisan is having to redefine themselves currently. Are they Luxe or Department Store? Too many mixed messages that are not helping their sales. Consolidation is good business practice. They wouldn’t cut it if it were selling well.
        Portia xx

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  15. It’s a lovely scent, got the spice trio when it came out, sadly it doesn’t last long on me… I prefer the Odori Zafferano which has more oomph. You should try it!

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  17. I found your blog via searching for Safran Troublant online … and how happy was I!? I purchased it while in Paris a couple of years ago, along with their La Chasse aux Papillons and have never grown weary of smelling my empty bottles. They both have been one of my all time favourites. In my old life I sold fragrance for about twenty years and really miss the learning, language and history. Not to mention the gorgeousness of it all and the freebies. So very pleased to find you xxx

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