Launched in 1981, just after Goutal opened her first perfume shop rue de Bellechasse, in Paris’s 7th arrondissement, Eau de Lavande is a fresh, refined, elegant, yet virile fragrance for men.

Perfumer Annick Goutal is the queen of soliflore fragrances. I used to think that soliflores were just too easy - they lacked magic, depth, and ooh-la-la. Then I took a deep whiff of Eau de Lavande and realised how naive I had been.

I’ve come to deeply appreciate soliflores and the skill required to make a good one like Eau de Lavande.

It opens fresh and bracing with lavender, not sweet English lavender, but potent wild French lavender - sharp, aromatic and camphorous. Ms. Goutal is not fooling around, and neither am I – there’s nothing to do but commit to it.  A soft floral note emerges as it moves to a warm, rich, spicy heart. I smell fenugreek and curry, and I smell immortelle. Lavender and immortelle have an olfactory affinity that is masterfully highlighted here. Lavender collides with immortelle to give Eau de Lavande a gorgeous virility – think wild French lavender mixed with Sables. I knew you’d understand. As this starts to fade, the caramelized sugar aspect of the immortelle segues to a base of soft vanilla so that the drydown is elegant, sophisticated, and refined.

Eau de Lavande is a masculine fragrance, no doubt about it. And as a soliflore, it is rather linear. Still, I would worship the trousers that cling to the man who wears it.

Notes: wild French lavender, immortelle, vanilla.