VERSATILE PARIS
CROISSANT CAFE

2021

PERFUMER
Elia Chiche

dacetyl (butter, hazelnut)
sulfurol (sandalwood, pecan)

coumarin (almond, floral)
tonka bean absolute
florol (rose, aqueous)

mysore acetate (sandalwood, floral)
vetiveryl acetate (vetiver, pepper)
bacdanol (sandalwood, amber)
cade essence
coffee co2
cedarwood
ebanol (sandalwood, coffee)
ethyl maltol (caramel, toasted)
ethyl vanillin (vanilla, caramel)
globalide (powdery, clean)
methyl cyclo pentenolone (coffee, smoke)
musk t (floral, blackberry)
sandalore (sandalwood, powdery)
sesame co2
timbersilk (cedarwood, amber)
vertofix heart (cedarwood, iris)

‘Coffee.Cappuccino.Buttery.Smooth.
Creamy.Toasted.Woody.Gourmand.Warm. Elia has imagined a Neo Tonka, reworked into an ultra smooth coffee. Buttered, toasted, very warm and round notes (Caramel / Vanilla / Milk) and a woody – sweet Cappuccino. Ultra appetizing, far from being disgusting. A gourmet invitation to breakfast. – Veratile Paris

Would you pick a croissant or coffee? If you had to choose one?

Luckily, you don’t always have to choose. Point in case, Versatile Paris’ Croissant Cafe. I’ve been seeing this one on social media since last year, and of course me and my massive gravitional pull were instantly interested.

It is very tasty. And in particular, tasty. I definitely get a nice hint of coffee. Very sweet, but also a bit of a roasted quality straight away. It has a nutty sweetness for me, so the first minutes remind me a little bit of the coffee scent in Akro Awake.

However, the coffee essence fades quickly for me. Although, that probably depends on how you look at it. It definitely gets very milky and vanilla scent, but you do also keep a lot of that roasted quality. Some people will link that to the coffee for the entire wear, in my mind it links more to baked goods, especially with how edible and sweet it smells.

Pastry with a woody backbone. I’m taken into a cafeteria with vintage wooden floorboards and furniture. Two fragrances it reminds me of are Teo Cabanel’s Cafe Cabanel (naturally), but perhaps more so their Oh La La. Oh La La has that retro, woody, nutty vibe for me, which is very similar in Croissant Cafe, but in the latter it’s smoother, milkier and frankly, nicer.

After letting it settle and when smelling it up close, I start noticing the sesame seed, adding to that roasted quality, but also adding some flavor other than vanilla, and woody, which are the main components for most of the wear.

Overall, very pleasant and if you like sweet and vanilla, you’ll probably like Croissant Cafe. For me, a great pick especially as a gourmand woody scent; not my first pick as a coffee forward scent.

Also, I have to say I love this form factor. It’s 15ml, but very small and easy to bring along. The roller on it is great, so I would say this is even more practical in public than a travel spray. Oils like this don’t really project much, so this is more of a cozy, closer to the skin scent, which is what I prefer for gourmands. For €55 (2023), hard to beat.