ETAT LIBRE D’ORANGE
DIVIN’ENFANT

2006

PERFUMER
Antoine Lie

bergamot
neroli
peach

rose absolute
orange blossom
heliotrope

vanilla
patchouli
musk

‘After the gentle top notes of orange blossom and marshmallow, breaks the unexpected accord of coffee, leather and cold tobacco, a shrilling symbol of our sleepless nights. True to his reputation of “polymorphic pervert”, this mini-sized tyrant is only happy when he succeeds in imposing his whims, which he always manages to do. What a sweet little monster!’ – Etat Libre d’Orange

Guess who ate marshmallows for breakfast? Etat Libre D’Orange has been an interesting house to discover. My favorites so far are Experimentum Crucis, Tom Of Finland and Remarkable People. I haven’t had that ‘I must have a bottle of this’ moment with the brand yet, but i do really enjoy and appreciate their fragrances. The same thing goes for Divin’Enfant and I think this could be bottle worthy.

The main notes here are marshmallow and orange blossom, but in the first minutes I get more of a cocoa powder vibe, it’s very clean with the slightest earthy touch. It’s reminiscent of a superclean patchouli, but that’s not listed here. Almost instantly you get that cotton candy like sweetness that you can interpret as marshmallow. Also quite prominent to me is a tobacco scent, but it’s very light, not too smokey and definitely not like cigarette. Nor is it a sweeter, shisha/hookah style tobacco; maybe more like tobacco blossom.

The florals aren’t ‘in your face’ (orange blossom and rose) for the first couple of minutes, but the more I smell this, the more I do view them as the main player in Divin’Enfant. It gives the overall composition a feminine, more-classical perfume vibe. Combine that with the powdery texture and you get something that smells like a sweetened variant of the scent that I picture when walking through a women’s cosmetics section of a department store. The flowers are every so slightly sourish and the powder has a baby powder tinge, though not as strong is a many fragrances that have that connection. The tobacco adds a welcome touch of a darker scent. Leather and coffee are listed as notes, but I cant say that I pick up on either of those at all.

It’s a quirky fragrance and I think that’s quintessential Etat Libre D’Orange.