JAIPUR HOMME BY BOUCHERON (1998)

Year: 1998
Nose: Annick Menardo

With all the "artistic perfumery" expensive niche scents that I test every week, it's been a while the only surprises that still amaze and wow me regularly come from inexpensive, solid cheapos. Jaipur Homme is another example of this. I wore it quite a lot of times recently to make sure it was really that good as I thought almost instantly after the very first application: it is, indeed. Jaipur Homme is a magnificent, insanely refined scent, which really moves the boundaries of class and sophisticacy. Unique, elegant, addictive. Basically, it's a soft and radiant cloud of Oriental soapiness with sweet vanilla-almond hints, shades of talc, a lively and light bergamot/citrus accord at the very opening, and a beautiful heliotrope breeze providing a breath of nature, pollen, of spring warmth. The soapiness is not the "usual", synthetic soapiness many scents provide; it's true, foamy, opulent and rich soap, cozy and warm as a bath tub in winter time. Clean, rich, dandy, powdery and luscious, with a slight tobacco aftertaste. There's cleanliness and innocence, but view it from another perspective, and it's pure decadent dandiness, deceptively "white" and clean. A refined and relaxed marvel, perhaps too sweet for someone: to me it's one of the most sophisticated male perfumes ever made, which finally moves outside the usual territories of "austere virile masculinity". Boucheron and Annick Menardo did a great job in thinking other new ways to portrait modern masculine elegance – luminous and feminine, but also shady and eccentric. It quickly became my favourite "home fragrance" (which is the highest reward a fragrance can get from me). A must try for niche fans which identify quality with elitism and high prices.