Incident Diplomatique
Jovoy (2017)

Austere, serious, dry, smoky, earthy, sometimes alcoholic in certain shades. A masculine perfume, very masculine and with vintage scents, extremely far from modern piacioni, from metrosexual sweets and from classic delicate and whispered French perfumes. Suitable for a work environment as a contour / accessory to adequate clothing, not necessarily very formal, but certainly not for overalls or Bermuda shorts. Important projection and duration, 2 or 3 sprays quietly cover the 8 hours of work and are felt a lot, leaving a beautiful trail and an equally beautiful smell on the clothes. Truly exceptional perfume, for lovers of strong and uncompromising fragrances. Patchouli and vetiver almost do not stand out and create in unison a really really nice smell ... but nice nice nice! Nutmeg feels like an accompaniment, the rest of the ingredients present in the pyramid certainly contribute to the aromatic yield but I, honestly, can't tell them apart. More suitable for cold / cool climates or summer / spring evenings when there is not too much heat, it could be a little overwhelming and "hot", but it deserves a try. Very calmly, I would like to say that those who fail to appreciate such a perfume ... simply do not appreciate serious, true, classic and non-metrosexual perfumes like modern and self-styled niche perfumes.
Passed with flying colors, really nothing to add.

This is a vetiver dominated scent that's fairly linear, with heavy mineral notes to my nose. The overall effect for me was earthy, wet stone. Like wet rocks on the shoreline of a river.

Jovoy – Incident Diplomatique

This is the first fragrance I have tried from this house, and being a vetiver lover, I was intrigued by the polarity in the eight reviews on Basenotes thus far.

On first application my olfactory memory registered the smell of vintage plastic band-aids from the 1950s and the medicinal pungency of the antiseptic mercurochrome, used for anointing scrapes and bruises.

As this impression faded, I detected a very raw, unrefined, woody element, which I could not identify as sandalwood, vetiver or patchouli, nor did I detect any of the citrus top notes. This is all I was left with- rather a great big raw, woody nothing. The scent has no character and no complexity. It is not awful, but neither is it good, hence the neutral rating. A truer name for it might have been Generic Wood Mill.

Now this is very nice and enchanting with it's vetiver and patchouli combo.

It opens up with a citrus vetiver and patchouli which is slightly sweet and spicy. The vetiver is smoky and sits on the patchouli. So when you smell it up close you can detect the earthy patchouli and from a distance the smoky vetiver is more detectable.

There is something compelling about this scent that I find irresistible. The longevity and projection are very good. Thumbs up!

Incident Diplomatique is the third offering I've sampled from Jovoy after Psychedelique and Private Label. Usually I like vetiver and patchouli, but the trio from Jovoy just seem a bit rough for my tastes. ID has a very harsh, astringent like opening that was almost too difficult for me to tolerate initially. It's a bitter citrus industrial type smell that I didn't like at all. As the opening fades the heart becomes a very dry vetiver, woody and bitter that I also don't agree with. It goes slightly herbal but still with a strong, dry bitterness that doesn't fade until the patchouli makes a presence. It softens in the later stage and becomes more of a grassy composition but never a pleasing scent to my nose. Lasts forever. Not for me.

Incident Diplomatique goes on with a very brief, near transparent mandarin orange citrus before quickly transitioning to its heart. As the composition enters its early heart a sharp, near-piercing woody vetiver emerges and takes the fore, combining with a co-starring bitter unripe and slightly rubbery grapefruit-like accord. During the late dry-down the composition stays highly linear as the vetiver remains through the finish with the odd bitter grapefruit gradually receding to reveal supporting earthy patchouli and dry sandalwood as time passes. Projection is average, but longevity outstanding at over 15 hours on skin.

Disappointment is the first thing that comes to mind with Incident Diplomatique. The published key notes list of vetiver, patchouli, sandalwood, orange and nutmeg had "winner" written all over it, and coupled with my prior positive experience with another Jovoy vetiver focused release, Private Label, I confess to almost blind buying a full bottle of this one thinking it couldn't be much lower risk... I am glad I didn't. The mandarin open is almost nonexistent in longevity and so subdued they shouldn't have even bothered. Then there is the "heart from hell," where somehow the perfumer found a way to mess up such great potential by infusing the sharp, woody vetiver with an odd, bitter grapefruit accord that smells absolutely terrible. The late dry-down doesn't really salvage much, as the heart accord remains through most of it, with the supporting earthy patchouli and dry sandalwood just adding another facet late that isn't even close to enough to balance the stench. I never thought I would write such a negative review of a woody vetiver composition because it is really tough to ruin one, but here we are... The bottom line is the $180 per 100ml bottle mega-stinker Incident Diplomatique finds new ways to destroy normally desirable woody vetiver, earning it a "poor" 2 stars out of 5 rating and an avoid recommendation even to hardcore vetiver lovers.