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Portia

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Hello Perfume Lovers,

There is a rule of thumb in business. The sales staff should be engaging, attractive helps too. No matter what you’re selling if people are engaged by you it will go much easier.

The creative director of fragrance at P. Frapin & Cie is David Frossard. David is both engaging and extremely attractive. Sharp, quick, easy going and passionate with a very French nonchalance. Watching him sell his product was a masterclass is room manipulation and we ate it up. It helped that the new frags smelled good but seriously, he could have handed me a plate full of cow poo and I would have been tempted to eat it just to make him happy.

David Frossard: Meeting P. Frapin & Cie creative director

We met at the Riley St Garage, an extremely gorgeous restaurant and bar just outside the CBD. It’s all wood, low light, super-cool friendly staff and tile. The Absence de Parum gang always pick the coolest spots for launches. Aunty Tracey and I grabbed a pre-show drink.

We were casually introduced to David who did some glad handing and chatter before we started. It was nice to have a connection right from the beginning. David is an unassuming kinda guy but once he looks at you suddenly he is sexy A F. Seriously, breathtakingly attractive. Then he introduced a short video giving us a look at the Frapin castle and the fabulous vineyards they own. It’s all ultra glam old money, very aspirational stuff.

We get to hear a bunch about the cognac, the baseline business from which everything else has sprung, and find out that he is a motorbike enthusiast. Woo Hoo! He is hiring a bike and doing the Great Ocean Road which sounds absolutely fabulous. He even told me to come along for the ride. (Don’t worry, it was a throwaway invitation with zero follow up)

Then we met the two new fragrances. Isle of Man (review coming) and Laskarina (my personal favourite so let’s chat about it now)

Laskarina by Frapin 2017

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, grapefruit, pink pepper, pear
Heart: Orange blossom, Bulgarian rose
Base: Olibanum, black pepper, iris, ambroxan

Marshmallow, rose, Turkish delight with a parched dry woodsy finish. The opening sounds sweet but it is remarkably not and the dry down reads masculine but is definitely unisex. Laskarina is excellent and I’ve lost my paper with it spritzed so can’t give you any more than that.

These two new fragrances, Laskarina and Isle of Man, feel like a new direction for the Frapin crew. I’ve always liked their perfumes but there is something very easy about these two, a favourite T-Shirt feel, like old close friends and a bit of reckless freedom added in.

Press Copy: …a celebration of the strength and determination of women. Fittingly then, Frapin looked to Laskarina Bouboulina as muse. The heroine of the Greek War of Independence in 1821 paints the very picture of an independent, tenacious woman. When she was left a wealthy widow in 1811, she used that inheritance to invest in four warships and push back the Turkish invasion.

Libertine has $229/100ml

Have you spent time with the P. Frapin & Cie fragrances? Do any of them speak to you?
Portia xx