Sables - sun-warmed sand and salt-kissed skin and intimacy

Photo: perfumeniche

The day I tried Sables by Annick Goutal, I experienced immortelle for the first time, and a new scent world opened up to me. That’s because Sables is based on the immortelle flower, also known as everlasting flower the flowering shrub that grows wild in the sun-heated dunes, rocky cliffs, and gentle slopes of the Corsican maquis in the summer months when itsdeep, warm, rich aroma infuses the air.

Immortelle has a strong personality because of its syrupy texture and complex notes ofspice, curry, flowers, resin, herbs, maple syrup, and tonka. It’s definitely a love-it-or-leave note, and I love it. It was a bold choice for a central player in a fragrance when Sables was launched as a cologne in 1985, but over time, it became the gold standard for immortelle perfumes.

Annick Goutal created Sables (‘sand’ in English) for her beloved husband, the famous cellist Alain Meunier. It’s a love letter she created for him as a souvenir of the summer vacations they spent together in Corsica.

On the Goutal website, Annick sets the scene:

“I am at the seashore, I’m having a nap. Wild everlasting flowers are growing in the sand. The sun is blazing, the air is filled with a warm, salty tang and the scent of pine resin.”

I have the vintage EDT of Sables, and on me, it opens with a bright note of sparkling bergamot softened with a note of juicy mandarin orange. Soon, the immortelle wafts onto the scene, sticky, rich and a little sweet, and never leaves. It’s the North Star of the fragrance and threads through it all the way down to the base. Along the way, its different facets are released by body heat and heightened with a supporting cast of notes. First up is the balsamy aspect of immortelle. It’s fresh and green and leads to an herbaceous aspect that’s bitter, dry, green and a little boozy. A note of cinnamon adds sweetness and spicy warmth that links to the curry-like aspect of immortelle that balances the green beautifully. As it blooms, black pepper comes forward. It’s spicy, fresh and vibrant and sets up a note of sweet, musky jasmine that blooms heady and indolic, making Sables sultry and sensual. Jasmine and black tea are best friends, and they meet up here, with the black tea adding smoky and woody notes that set up a note of herbal, salty woody oakmoss. At the base, amber is warm, and sweet and brings the richness full circle as sandalwood rounds out the immortelle with its creaminess and woodiness.

Sables, dries down to a rich, seductive, masculine scent. It’s the smell of trees and plants, sun-warmed sand, salt-kissed skin and intimacy.

Some people feel Sables is too deep, rich and heavy for summer and think it should be worn in colder weather. But I like the way summer heat makes it bloom big on a man’s skin.

Check out Sables in our Shop.