Hi there Spring Lovers,

For all my love of L’Artisan and my high regard for their pioneering and delicate beauty for some reason I never bothered much with today’s offering. It was too ephemeral, not high octane enough and in compariso to my big time white florals it was a pip squeak. The other week though Nick from Libertine Parfumerie gave me a RollerBall and asked me to give it a whirl and so it was with trepidation that I thanked him and took possession of this lovely slim yet hefty glass bottle, sized so perfectly for handbags and even top drawers of desks, a perfect emergency back up.

La Chasse aux Papillons by L`Artisan Parfumeur 1999

La Chasse aux Papillons by Anne Flipo

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Tuberose, orange blossom, jasmine, lime blossom, white flowers

Expecting to be annoyed by the fleetingness of La Chasse aux Papillons as I have been in the spritz version it came as a big surprise that the roller application does not burn off so quickly. I think it allows you to get more juice on your body and the lack of frisson and aeration could mean that it lifts more slowly. Whatever the reason I am getting around 4 hours of noticeable white flower with projection, not enormous after the second hour but I remain softly fragrant.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

How does La Chasse aux Papillons smell? Well, imagine a room full of white flowers. You have tuberose, orange blossom, jasmine all together in a massed display. It’s a warm spring afternoon so you’ve opened the living room doors and outside the grass is rippling in a soft breeze and you are happy. Maybe you’ve stolen a slice of orange off the table but all the meat has been eaten and you are left with the white pith and rind and as you stand in the doorway there are waves of white flowers that float out from the house and then when the wind changes what you get is fresh air, grass and citrus floating back around you yet still there is the all pervading gothic smell of the death of white flowers. It’s both light as air and heavy as the crisp red cotton damask table cloth, tranquil and languid. You feel both energised and enervated, it’s like the heavy charged air before a storm and similar in texture to that shimmery green that often happens after one.

Photo Stolen Libertine

There is a breathy, indolic quality to La Chasse aux Papillons, but the breath and flesh of a healthy young person. L’Artisan has tried to capture in a bottle the fun of a summer day with kids chasing butterflies and laughing. I find La Chasse aux Papillons too crisp and refreshing for summer, in my mind we are definitely in spring and the world is bursting with growth and promise. Am I crazy? Nobody mentions that there is a lovely wallop of musks in the dry down, am I smelling it wrong? Considering La Chasse aux Papillons was created in 1999 it is surprisingly modern and hasn’t dated at all.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

I wore about five of my 7.5ml over Jin and my Singapore & South Korea 2015 trip. It was perfect for planes, shopping, eating and sight seeing. I would get soft wafts from my neck and arms that made me smile and melt inside a little every time. Never overpowering and excellent to counteract the ghastly stench of a longish plane ride, a little dab on my hand and the world smells beautiful again.

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and EauMG
Libertine has $54/7.5ml
L’Artisan UK has £15/7.5ml
L’Artisan USA has $25/7.5ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/ml

Have you spent time with La Chasse aux Papillons? Are its softly muted white flowers your style?
Portia xx