L'Antimatière
LesNez (2006)
Average Rating:
35 User Reviews
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About L'Antimatière by LesNez
LesNez tell us that "Isabelle has been working on this little project for about ten years. It is unmarketable by conventional standards. But as we want to work primarily with samples and not sell in shops we have decided to give it a go: the quantities of concentré we had to order where acceptable for a little adventure.
"Thou shall not cheat the customer with a misleading headnote" is the reason for the initial shock which goes from alcohol to nothing and starts again after about 30 minutes."
Reviews of L'Antimatière by LesNez
There are 35 reviews of L'Antimatière by LesNez.
If it weren’t for the edge-of-halitosis salinity of the ambergris, one might not be able to pin anything about this fragrance down at all. That’s precisely what perfumer Isabelle Doyen was going for. The net result of l’Antimarière’s organic minerality is less perfume than skin enhancer, as if to make you smell more like you than you. I don’t know that I actually like it as a fragrance, but it’s still fascinating.
I'm drawn to minimalist skin scents for the same reasons I'm drawn to a shiny new piece of tech: the unspoken promise of augmented efficiency. When done well, such barely-there aesthetics can feel more like a slight customization of one's present state rather than a full transformation. But many of the scents in this style disappoint me, affirming that the balance between minimal and substantial is profoundly difficult to get right. L'Antimatiere doesn't quite cut it for me. It's basically a thin sheet of mineralic synthmoss, a furry cashmeran effect, and a bubble of laundry musk. Although I don't find it to be as contrived as the industrial-chic genre can be, there's not enough going on for it to establish itself as anything more than a smattering of chemicals. It's a shame as I thought I'd genuinely like this one given the descriptions I'd read. If you like the genre, I'd still recommend giving it a sniff, but CdG's Odeur 53 and Nu_Be's Oxygen get the job done better.
Well this is a peculiar scent indeed. Since the very opening it's all about an odd chemical thing I can't identify, a sort of glueish-waxy smell with grey musky hints blended with a sort of dark, dry, austere floral note, at the same time earthy and much abstract, emptied of any richness. I miss the amber note, while I get more some salty-dusty ambroxan (or other ambroxide-based components), with an overall sort of heaviness halfway concrete and mineral elements. On the base, something like Iso E or an equivalent dry pencil-sharpener feel. Words fail to describe this scent, as it's basically something halfway wet soil and a medical ointment. Plus, an added weirdness value is the actual behaviour on skin, as you smell it more clearly in the sillage than on skin. Honestly, as much intriguing it may look on an intellectual level, it is so I-don't-get-it that I can't come up with a conclusion about L'antimatière. It manages to smell super clean and super safe, yet also cloying and almost threatening, carrying a subtle yet gloomy sort of medical feel. Worthy a try, as it's a nice and creative job (the closest reference I can think of is Odeur 71), but I honestly can't imagine who, when and why should wear this.
6,5/10
6,5/10
Humanoid robot skin scent This is just really weird, yet not unlikeable. If CdG had a fragrance called "Baby Doll's Head," it would probably smell a lot like this. "Baby doll's head" is the only real-world scent I can relate to L'Antimatière, both the hair and the plastic of the doll's head. It is at once musty and clean; plastic yet somehow mineral-metallic; cool and warm. It is less the skin scent of a human, more the skin scent of a humanoid robot. And yes, once it gets going, it lasts and lasts, projecting moderately or better, seemingly in waves. There is something in this that reminds me a lot of an element in Miller Harris's L'Air de Rien. It is the same element that up close, smells overly sharp, but is much softer and more likeable from a distance. I cannot say I love or hate this, but am definitely intrigued.
Yes, no doubts about, this fragrance is genius although it doesn't project a so tenacious longevity on my skin. L'Antimatiere is one of the weirdest fragrances ever tested by me and (i absolutely agree with the Foetidus's definition) an abstract concoction tossing all at once out metallic/soapy, fresh/warm, modern/vintage, bright/mysterious nuances. It reminds me those weird clean (and nowhere to be discerned) aromas you can detect around inside some hotel rooms, a smell of toilette, detergents, soaps, powder, artisanal soap tablets, "fragrant towels and bedclothes" and woody fornitures. The beginning is soon compelling with its boozy/alcoholic blast a bit empty but immediately seasoned, spicy and ambery (i start by soon to catch the ambergris), evolving in a while (a really short while, as for a sleight of hand) towards a more complex, well rounded, soapy/musky and intimate aroma, something perfuming about, yes, cleaned skin, floral ambiental deodorants, laundry, wall paper, naphthalene, modern fornitures, soapy/neutral bath foams and room cleaner. The "intimate soapy effect" is produced by the interaction between musk and secret animalic elements, may be honey, may be wax, may be something just God knows about and the ambergris is finally present with its dry but "intimate" vibe so carnal and warm. This aroma is really unusual cause (this is absolutely true) it seems to odour but not to be properly perfumed as an ordinary fragrance, it reminds me more than vaguely the aroma produced, after the contact with the arm-pit skin, by the neutral odour-neutralising foams, this is more a skin aroma than a perfume. Fragrances a bit jumping to mind for some of their aspects? Well, a bit Iperborea Villoresi, a touch of Phul-Nana Grossmith, Cuir the Russie by Piver, Comme des Garcons 2Man, Equipage Hermes, Amouage Gold Man and (don get me wrong) also some Petroleum's nuances. An highly experimental but outstanding fragrance introducing in the universe of perfumery an almost unique "unmatereal" olfactory concept of unscented fragrance becoming a whole one with our chemistry.
The first 25 minutes I get a waxy and kind of unspecified sweet pleasant smell. This phase starts the minute I apply the perfume, and even though the sillage is minimal the scent is VERY detectable when I sniff my wrist.
Then the perfume turns on me. The sillage increases 'til it's like a lions roar, even when I've applied just a drop on one of my wrists it's so loud I feel sick. The waxy sweetness turns into a stale sweetness, like unwashed hair of an old man. It's a real scrubber, unfortunately the scent is impossible to wash off. It lasts and lasts and lasts, the only time I've managed to NOT scrub it off after two hours, I could easily smell it for two days, despite 2 showers and several handwashes.
This clearly develops differently on different people. I wanted to like this, and that's why I try it on from time to time, hoping that I might have been wrong the last time I wore it.
My thumbs down has nothing to do with whether this is a high quality perfume or not - I'm to unexperienced to determine that. The red thumb is because this smells absolutely, horrifyingly disgusting on me.
Then the perfume turns on me. The sillage increases 'til it's like a lions roar, even when I've applied just a drop on one of my wrists it's so loud I feel sick. The waxy sweetness turns into a stale sweetness, like unwashed hair of an old man. It's a real scrubber, unfortunately the scent is impossible to wash off. It lasts and lasts and lasts, the only time I've managed to NOT scrub it off after two hours, I could easily smell it for two days, despite 2 showers and several handwashes.
This clearly develops differently on different people. I wanted to like this, and that's why I try it on from time to time, hoping that I might have been wrong the last time I wore it.
My thumbs down has nothing to do with whether this is a high quality perfume or not - I'm to unexperienced to determine that. The red thumb is because this smells absolutely, horrifyingly disgusting on me.
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