Cologne de l’Empereur

1 review for Cologne de l’Empereur

1. Rated 5 out of 5

   Luka – May 9, 2023

   Worthy of its name. I expected it to be drier, but to my delight it was on the sweeter side of things, perfectly balanced by the herbal and floral notes. A cologne with a capital C.

   This was actually the first perfume from Master Salaam that I smelled, and also my first contact with natural perfume after years of battling the (chemical) illusions of commercial perfumery. Based on my limited experience I expected CdlE to be my favourite of all the samples I ordered, but I was greeted by something very different. I will never forget the first time I tried it, smelling a very pleasant combination of citruses and flowers upon application, taking whiffs of it with my nose almost pressed to my skin and then WHAM, a smell reminiscent of my cat’s litter box, but sharper and more potent hit my nose just as I took another of those deep whiffs. The effect it had on me was something I imagine smelling salts do to people. Despite having been fully awake before I was now somehow decidedly more awake, with a rush in my head and a warmth spreading through my body. The civet extended its hand to greet me and I timidly shook it. I wore it a couple of times and despite getting used to the civet note my nose was simply not developed enough to integrate it into the whole of the perfume, and what I got were pleasant cologne notes with occasional whiffs of cat urine. So, I let it sit in the cupboard and focused on experiencing many other Scents of the Soul over time.

   After more than half a year, I suddenly got a yearning to smell CdlE again. Upon application, I could hardly believe this was the same fragrance. This was super pleasant and completely inoffensive! My nose seems to have developed through smelling a plethora of different natural essences, including notes such as castoreum, ambergris and others. CdlE opens with a beautiful bergamot, the first time I actually got an Earl Grey association with this note, like a cup of freshly brewed tea was steaming in front of my nose. Another review of this fragrance specified a basil-oregano accord and I have to agree with this observation, as this herbal accord emerges early on and keeps fading in and out for quite some time. To my nose there is more basil than oregano, and together with the citrus notes this makes for a great refreshing accord. I also get an occasional whiff of clove or some other warm spice, but this might be my nose playing tricks on me with the overall tea-like vibe of this fragrance.

   After some time, this is joined by a tranquil, sedating neroli and a tart, juicy rose. Together with the bergamot and the herbal notes from the opening, this forms an accord I would never have guessed to be possible using just natural essences. To be specific, it reminds me of hard citrus-flavoured herbal candy, something like Ricola if you’ve ever tried it. The rose however makes it even more juicy, sweet and pleasant, with the total effect being something akin to drinking rose tea in some garden, melting a piece of hard candy in your mouth. The civet joins this accord to provide a powdered sugar effect, with a powdery musky note that makes this scent almost irresistible. This combined accord is the main body of the fragrance, which overtime melts into your skin, creating an absolutely gorgeous skin scent. There are occasional wafts of a leathery, slightly funky civet note, but this is never sharp, urinal or otherwise unpleasant, it’s more like a floral skin scent than anything else really. Also, oddly enough I smell very little lavender in this perfume, not that it’s not there but I smell all other notes that I listed more than I smell the lavender.

   This perfume is not a civet bomb by any means, but I wouldn’t recommend it to someone not familiar with natural animalic scents, and not as an introduction to AbdesSalaam’s fragrances either. It might have to do with how sensitive one’s nose is, but in any case, it might turn some people off. Something like Bambini might be a better fragrance for that first contact. With that said, this is an absolute masterpiece of a fragrance, indeed as Salaam specified on his website, “a casual but assertive perfume for everyday life.” It is also probably the most convincingly unisex perfume I have ever tried. All in all, a sweet orange-floral fragrance with herbal accents and a powdery musky base that gives it that certain “je ne sais quoi”. What’s there not to love?