Fleur du Lac
Coty (1942)

This is a review of Fatale

An elegantly deep chypre, with a heaping dose of a dank northern forest dripping with oakmoss on a murky spring day, when it's been warmer and raining and bringing out all the flavors of the earth.

Fatale is soft and greenish... To me, it is a calming relaxing soothing type of green, it is not a bright, energetic wake you up green. After a while it becomes soft, but very long lasting. I am not reminded of sitting on freshly mown grass in summer or spring, or of white cotton shirts or dresses, or sporty things. Fatale is a leisurely stroll down a cool wooded path scarf, gloves, a warm coat, basket in hand... looking for mushrooms... Sitting on a log, smiling, chatting and snuggling with the one you love.

The animalic musk in the base plus the green notes and woods give it a kind of bold indolic body that does not smell clean but like you've been rolling around in grass all day long. This has a rural, rustic vibe. A country cologne for sure. This is a trip to the country and not the beauty salon. Not always easy to wear but recommended for guys and girls who enjoy vintages and chypres and have experience wearing them.

Coming between Elizabeth Arden's 1934 creation, Blue Grass, and Millot's 1947 creation, Insolent, Coty's 1942 Fleur Du Lac is a fusion of both visions.

Translated as "lake flower," the name for this scent, still available for purchase on line, would at first denote the water lily. Alas, that flower has no scent.

The obvious alternative is the stately reed. Fleur Du Lac has the celeriac notes of Insolent and the grassy, artemesia dry fragrance of Blue Grass. It is quite pleasant and quite demure, refreshing to splash on in the heat of summer.

It's rather a find as I'd never heard of it before and it certainly doesn't have the press or exposure of other Coty scents of the past.

Worth seeking out as the one ounce bottles of the cologne are very affordable.