LES BAINS GUERBOIS
Raku
2023
PERFUMER
Jerome Epinette
lemon
black pepper
fig
clary sage
cedarwood
ambroxan
white musk
‘Japanese faience, crackled, milky, creamy, sensual, thick, radical. Les Bains Paris loves the raku on its bar, on the consoles and tables in its guest rooms, that hands brush against. A trail of perfume. Spaces. A mythical place. Lemon, fig, cedarwood. Synesthesia. SHINING & SOOTHING. Sparkling lemon floods an orchard of majestic fig trees with its soft light. The mineral moisture of ambroxan and the woody warmth of cedarwood converge in absolute olfactory harmony. A silky white bed of white musk envelops this tender alchemy of the senses.’ – Les Bains Guerbois
Straight from the opening Raku blends a lovely, almost creamy citrus with a musky, but sugary, ozonic texture. There’s a subtle, but tart lemon here. Not quite the lemon pie from Chanel Allure Homme Blanche, nor as creamy as Lesquendieu Bonne Fortune, but it goes in that style of citrussy direction for a moment, before transitioning swiftly.
Raku is a bit of a mix of two worlds; at first there’s the citrus, which I love. When reviewing, I frequently smell my arm, zoom in, take notes and that’s when for me the sugary heart overpowers the composition. (clary sage is listed as note, but to my nose it feels squarely like the ambroxan synthesised from it).
As it dries down, Raku feels very modern, in a Quentin Bisch -or Geza Schoen-esque way; like Raku does for lemon what Bois Imperial does for vetiver or it could’ve been Molecule 02 + Lemon.
The combination works really well in the first hour, but when the inevitable fading of the citrus is complete, there’s a long lasting drydown that keeps me longing for the opening. It’s done well, with the sweetness never becoming cloying, but it’s the style of fragrance that I prefer wearing ‘for others’; to spray on and go about my business (you know, wearing a perfume like a normal person would), more so than actively following its phases and assessing it.
