Eugénie
Rancé 1795 (2006)

This is a modern, aquatic, white musky, generic chemical of white flowers thingy, that smells very mediocre and very like hundreds,
if not thousands, of similar products on the market. Don't go out of your way to experience it. A spray in a boutique or a purchase of a single bar of the soap will suffice. Not awful, but not not good either.

Genre: Fruity Floral

Notes: Lily of the Valley, Mandarin, White Flowers, Bergamot, Melon, Passion Fruit, Neroli, Rose Absolute, Peach, Violet Leaves, Grasse Jasmine, Magnolia, Florentine Iris, Sandalwood, Ambergris, Oak Musk, Vanilla, Vetiver

Eugénie's opening is all about mandarin, in a crisp, sweet-tart, and remarkably realistic rendering. It's by no means innovative, but it is extremely well-executed. The mandarin is soon joined, then overwhelmed, by a sweet and comparatively bland arrangement of melon, blended white flowers, and milky lactones. The floral accord smells rather flat, and the melon smacks of artificial soft drink flavoring, so that I'm left thinking that the whole mid-section would have benefitted had the bright and naturalistic mandarin persisted. As it is, the composition settles on to a powdery-sweet woody vanilla and white musk drydown that is, if anything, even more bland and undistinguished than what came before. Frankly Eugénie smells more like a fruity-floral celebrity scent for teenage girls than a tribute to Napoleon III's empress.

First impression was nice but not special. Then I kept smelling something lovely and realised it was it. Had to go back and get it as soon as possible.