Le Sillage Blanc
Parfums Dusita (2016)

Le Sillage Blanc features the same grey-green, matte, slightly oily galbanum leather that stars in both Cabochard (Cabochard) and Bandit (Robert Piguet), but to my taste, Le Sillage Blanc is an improvement on both because while it is quite dry and bitter, it is absent the stomach-churning raw meat aspect that makes Bandit unbearable (to me) and the somehow lifeless, non-moving torpor of the Cabochard. Le Sillage Blanc is slightly sweeter and smokier than its antecedents, as if the leather is trying to crack a smile while dangling a cigarette at the corner of its mouth.

Still, there is a certain brown-grey grimness to this genre in general – a certain lack of juiciness and sap that marks them out as unforgiving of human frailty. I think one needs to be Parisian, whippet-thin, and an elegant chain smoker to find this one perfectly comfortable. But in those circumstances, yes, I can see how it might read as sexy.

A dramatic impression of steely, uncompromising "bad girl" chic-ness. Le Sillage Blanc is a fragrance for someone who can appreciate the contrast, the delectable piquancy, of the painful and bitter side of life - who can appreciate the delight in restraint, in sensations that aren't instantly pleasurable.

I don't find it always easy to cope with the leather note but this is fine. If you are expecting a sweet, mainstream scent this will be a shock. This is an intense, green and leather scent. The aldehydes are brief and create the big opening sillage. The galbanum adds a fresh, green aspect supporting the oak moss.

You wear this and you immediately make a statement. I don't follow the crowd. I'm not easily influenced so don't waste my time. I don't comprimise. Yes, it's for the strong and confident. With time the leather wains and it's more about the oakmoss and floral notes. Plenty of my favourite artemisia. I can't really make out white flowers. It is a well blended masterpiece.

The dry down like most chypres is surprisingly approachable. It softens considerably, the leather and galbanum settle down into an no-nonsense partnership. They won't let up but they won't rip you a new one in the process. Like a warm engine, the drydown functions well and is appealing. it's one of those fragrances you'd wear for yourself alone.

A green, leathery chypre that's reminiscent of classics like Bandit. It has an earthy, minerally backbone that feels driven by galbanum and patchouli, which sits in place of a more traditional, natural oakmoss. This makes the composition feel a bit more cold and distant to me, rather than plush and green. The orange blossom lingers throughout, drifting in and out of focus, and counterbalancing the heavier notes. Once the opening recedes, the composition becomes fairly linear and long-lasting. A nice experience for a spring day.

Courtney Love cleaned up for the Oscars

Le Sillage Blanc bears more than a passing resemblance to Piguet's Bandit but it's free of the latter's harsh and animalistic side. What it does share is a fantastic whip-crack of galbanum which it proceeds to soften up with gentile florals and a mellower base without losing those green edges.

The best way I can describe this fragrance is to reference when Courtney Love, of smeared red lipstick grunge hair stained babydoll dresses LIVE THROUGH THIS fame, showed up all demure and polished in a white Versace gown and clean-cut bob on the red carpet. For weeks, the press continued to reference Love's transformation, but we all knew she could still cut a bitch.

After the wonderful bitter green chypre-like opening minutes, what remains in the air is mostly a scrubbed clean and transparent patchouli in the vein of Ulrich Lang's Nightscape.

Sillage Blanc smells natural with enough roundness to suit either gender but it's certainly much less than what the accolades made it out to be. If only the opening had extended further into the heart notes I'd be singing a different tune. Right now it feels like I'm in one of those restaurants with a breathtakingly panoramic view but serving mostly solid yet standard fare.

Not impressed.

Well, if you appreciate the great Acampora Sballo Le Sillage Blanc could definitely be a choice of yours. This juice is really really close to the notorious Acampora's one, just being LSB soapier, warmer and simpler on structure (I'd say darker and stronger as well). This juice is damp, musky, earthy, leathery, rosey and neo-classic (a soapy chypre kind of contemporary mossy interpretation). A mossy galbanum's presence is responsible of the general musky dampness, smooth and silvan, perfectly "counterparted" by aromatic herbs, hay-like tobacco, barks and dry leaves. Neroli is a key element (earthy, grassy, humid and woody) as supported by earthy wet patchouli and probably rooty vetiver. I detect the bark-vibe while tobacco and ambrette seed warm the juice up with an intense kind of organic soapy feel. Leather is notable, perfectly supported by rosey soapiness, herbs, roots, earth and muskiness. Yes I perceive a sort of fairy tale like enchanted woody atmosphere conjuring the idea of dark rocky mountains-woods, streams, damp earth, secular trees and massive barks. The scent of the wilderness with a secret classic refinement. Excellent.