L’ATELIER PARFUM
Opus 1 – Exquise Tentation

2021

PERFUMER
Dorothee Piot

BERGAMOT
PINK PEPPER
BLACKCURRANT

IRIS
FREESIA
lily-of-the-valley
ROSE

PRALINE
BITTER ALMOND
PATCHOULI
VANILLA

I wore Douce Insomnie and Exquise Tentation at the same time and my thoughts on them are very similar, except the fact that I personally like Douce Insomnie better for sure. Both wear pretty nicely and at the price and presentation, you can do a whole lot worst, but at the same time, both smell like popular, sweet, women’s designers. A style I usually don’t enjoy and these would be among the better rendition of those ‘archetypes’, but they are still (in my opinion rather clearly) common designers pitched as niche offerings.

For Exquise Tentation, a close relative would be the Lancome La Vie Est Belle line. I get a lot of watery, but nice, flowers. I was expecting more of the gourmand notes to come through, with praline, almond, vanilla as listed notes, but I don’t get that much of those in Exquise Tentation.

It does get very sweet, but in a full-on bubblegummy, non-descript cloud of sweetness, not anything that I would describe as nutty, vanilic or gourmand. Instead, it’s mostly a fruity-floral hairspray vibe from start to finish for me and I would say that Exquise Tentation would be the side of La Vie Est Belle that I never cared for, versus the later La Vie Est Belle Vanille Nude, which I much prefer.