Mates-la-Jolie
Eau de Parfum, Astier de Villatte (2023)

I love herbs in fragrance, and Mantes La Jolie immediately grew on me, evoking an array of aromatic foliage under the summer sun. Here, perfumer Sylvie Fischer does not shy away from the bite and vigor of these plants, with the tartness of lemon and sparkle of bergamot tempering their sharp tang as it opens. Those who follow me on my various platforms have learned that I love exploring gardens, whether they be botanic or community, and I am endlessly dazzled by the energy of plants. Mantes La Jolie is reminiscent of these visits, particularly in a location where the herb, vegetable, and berry gardens intersect, and this constellation creates the most exhilarating aroma in the hot air.

I get the sensation of fresh mint and basil leaves, blackcurrant and blackberry, even impressions of tomato leaf, chervil, and calendula. Further in, a floral feel develops, and I am reminded of the smell of water lilies that I would smell when canoeing, mingling with fig leaves and distant spicebush. I get a similar weeds and wildflowers sensation that I find in my beloved Mal-Aimé, as its soft, watery verdant nature slowly transforms to a sweet woodiness. I detect occasional echoes of the lushness that precedes this woody phase. Its tenacity on my skin also belies its seemingly delicate nature. If you enjoy getting lost in gardens as much as I do, I would say this is a must smell for you.

Mantes la Jolie by Astier de Villatte has received quite a bit of hype online so I decided to find out if it is as wonderful as some seem to think. I've both heard and read that it is very "green" and not very floral...that it is minty and green as well as bright and clean. While I can agree that it definitely has some greenness to it, I do not agree that it is not also a floral perfume as well.

On my skin, Mantes la Jolie opens with mint and some citrus, which quickly shifts to a green, "nettles" type smell. This nettles smelling note is not very long lived, but it reminds me slightly of L'Occitane's Herbae, which has a similar type of greenness, but whereas this greenness lasts throughout the wear with the L'Occitane perfume, it is short lived in Mantes la Jolie. Some might call it a "tomato leaf" greenness, which could be accurate for some noses, but to mine, it smells of nettles. Once this greenness settles down, Mantes la Jolie moves into a melange of smoothness from jasmine and fig. The fig sweetens the jasmine in a diffused sort of way so that the jasmine isn't as indolic as normal, but it is still there on my skin and I definitely feel like Mantes la Jolie is more of a floral on my skin than it is a green fragrance just based on how long the jasmine/fig heart notes last on me. MLJ then transitions slightly with the addition of mate tea in the dry down and base notes and it stays there until it fades to a skin scent.

Overall this is a thumbs up for me as I like the perfume, but it isn't what I was expecting, which was a green fragrance and I definitely feel that it is more of a floral overall based on how it performs on my skin.