Notes
Robert Piguet (2012)

The scratchy forever woods in the base is not my style. I smell this kind of thing out and about. I wouldn't want to wear it again.

I went into Notes de Robert Piguet (2012) not really knowing what to expect because opinions on it are all over the place in the fragrance community. The usual "arbiters of good taste" decry it for being too much like a "90's mall" and say it's an expensive clone of Le Mâle by Jean-Paul Gaultier (1995), while others call it a throwback to the 80's because of the musk profile (which I can actually see), and still others say it's an attempt to make Drakkar Noir (1992) smell fancy. Ultimately, the verdict is that Notes confuses most modern male noses because it is either too pedestrian for the niche mantle thrust upon the venerable house of Piguet (one it never asked for but one that it went with and priced accordingly), or it's too old-smelling for something released for men in 2012, meaning it gets poo-pooed away by the cognoscenti. At the risk of my own credibility, I think everyone is seeing this in the wrong light, expecting something from it they shouldn't either because of venerated classics from the house, or expecting something from it they shouldn't thanks to their preconceived notions of "what is niche". Notes is actually rather "niche" in design for something from 2012 that smells like this, pluz an amalgam of 80's and 90's fougère tropes long after both have vanished from the mainstream is certainly valid ground for a house like Piguet to cover considering their history. Anyone making the dead to rights dominatrix perfume Bandit (1944) is certainly allowed to channel the vibes of the gay club spanning two decades in a single bottle in my opinion.

The opening of Notes does clearly smell like Le Mâle through an antique looking glass, as if someone was trying to make a modernized male version of L'Heure Bleue by Guerlain (1912), but when you use mint and orange blossom next to the bergamot and the clary sage in the top, you're only two notes away from replicating that anyway. The heart quickly differentiates itself from Le Mâle by going in that aforementioned 80's direction of having a thick honeyed lavender and geranium with costus, a smell close to labdanum in it's pasty musky quality that gets the IFRA regulatory backhand these days, but can still be used with workarounds. All of this brings Notes closer to Lapidus pour Homme (1987) minus the pineapple, which is further cemented by a fat and musky oakmoss/tonka base supplemented by smoky vetiver. The final dry down of Notes de Robert Piguet is cleaner than a typical 80's fougère, muskier and richer than a typical 90's fougère (even one that rides the clubber wave like Le Mâle did), but has this certain sonorous X-factor that can only be described by the way it transitions yet simultaneously sort of doesn't. You get a singular minty sweet musky orange blossom accord from start to finish, but lavender, tonka, oakmoss, and vetiver sort of do occasional harmonization with it, off and on. Fougère fans looking for a left-of-center signature that will grab attention will like this, but what kind of attention it grabs will vary. Notes feels versatile enough for all seasons like most of the things it riffs off of, except for extreme heat. Performance is also well above acceptable and I'd say this is safe for work if you use it with strict moderation, but too much and that honeyed musk will come out and bite your coworkers in places they never knew they had.

The big deal breaker for this style will be price, because both bottles of Lapidus and Le Mâle can each be bought at discounters for less than half of what a bottle of Notes sells for at retail. Like many Piguet scents, this one also does not really get heavily discounted or even sold at discounters much, and when it appears at 50% off (at the most), it is still just a few dollars shy of $100, meaning diligent shoppers can still do better. Also, do we really need another what if scenario perfume? In this case it would almost certainly be: What if one of the 80's biggest clubbers merged with one of the 90's biggest clubbers? The only catch is both have to be fougères, so that narrows the field to Lapidus versus Le Mâle. Add touches of the soapiness found in the heart of Yves Saint Laurent Kouros (1981) and a drier orange blossom note like you'd find in an antique fragrance such as Etiquette Bleue by Parfums D'Orsay (1908) for appropriate "timelessness", and you get Notes de Robert Piguet. What a long strange trip it's been, and like a Grateful Dead tribute band playing songs spanning the original band's career, most younger people stumbling into what passes now as a modern interpretation by perfumer Aurélien Guichard of riffs written across time by other perfumers are just left gobsmacked regardless of where their tastes lie. Samples are easy to come by even if retail product at a good price is not, so I recommend sampling this dead mall in a bottle with an appropriate vaporwave soundtrack and a VHS player queued up with your favorite never-returned Blockbuster tape rental. Thumbs up.

Despite its evident lack of originality this modern fragrance is surely daring and well appointed, perfect for a charming "clothed in white-linen suit" south-american business man, constantly rolling around for restaurants, meeting places, Grand Hotels and lounge bars. Robert Piguet Notes is a minty and balmy-floral chypre (with a classic fougere approach) which, re-interpreting a quite successful aromatic formula, actually sounds as an indeal olfactory encounter between scents a la Faconnable by Faconnable, Ted Lapidus Black Soul, Krizia Spazio Uomo, Ungaro III and Jacques Bogart Silver Scent (partially Bogart Pour Homme as well). Synthetic soapiness is quite under control (finally kind of talky, woody powdery and minty violet-veined), sweetness is at fair level (actually balanced by a kind of organic and simil-leathery "saltiness") and the spiciness is velvety, finally somewhat piquant and well calibrated. "Stuffs" like mint, musks, coriander, clary sage and lavender (the latter not listed) represent an aromatic and slightly (classically) barber-shop introduction ready to merge its fresh substance with a more soapy, floral, musky and exotic ambery (ambroxan)-tonkinian backbone. Bergamot/lavender, tonka, oakmoss and geranium provide an immediately classic (classically fougere) angular approach which turns out by soon in a minty-balmy intoxicating way characterized by neroli, exotic spices, "colonial" vetiver and balmy tonka. Vetiver is extremely classy, "minty-tropical" and alluring. The note of mint is daring, fascinating and "spacious" with all its own aromatic and intriguing spiciness conjuring me Krizia Spazio (and vaguely the classic Carlo Corinto and Carlo Corinto Silver) especially before that a soapy-tonkinian dry down starts embracing the elements in to a comforting musky embrace. Frankly I love the way in which Notes preserves its average sharpness despite its intriguing light balminess (substantially in a middle way between talkiness, powder and soapiness). A medium rating just for its lack of uniqueness despite on my skin this fragrance is the best interpretation of the aforementioned yet classic formula. Moderate sillage, good longevity.

P.S: Dry down is pretty good, really spicy, resinous-aromatic, kind of more "restrained", luxurious and virile (in a sort of amberish and "dirty-sweated" way). In this phase I detect many points in common with the Bugatti Pure Black's dry down. I detect a sort of rubbery/salty/ambery/nutty vibe surrounded by piquant spices, clary sage and kind of birch tar (or aromatic spices in general).

P.S 2: I disagree about the assumed short evolution of this fragrance and the deep dry down is finally on my skin really close to the Ungaro III's base notes, being it so nutty-tonkinian, mossy, woody-rosey, spicy-rooty, "by vetiver-influenced" and mossy-amberish. Ungaro III and Piguet Notes (which is anyway initially different, more minty-aromatic and spicy) share indeed a lot of notes as oakmoss, clary sage, vetiver, geranium, rosewood, amber, coriander, mild spices, aromatic patterns, neroli, bergamot, etc etc.

After a bergamot-herbal opening and a synthetic floral drydown I get lots of synthetic vanilla sweetness. Too generic, too uninteresting. Adequate sillage and projection with eight hours of longevity on my skin. A disappointment in spite of good performance.

I do not like this cheap nasty juice.

If only Mr Piguet woke up and saw this very poor fragrance...

Thumbs down!

At the first sniff Notes smells like a ton of cheap, mass-marketed colognes: a dull bergamot-citrus note with aromatic neroli, synthetic mossy woods, a hint of evernyl (synthetic oak moss), something vaguely floral (lavender) and some aromatic fruity notes. I don't want to sound pretentious with all these “something” but that is what I smell – generic plain stuff, precisely like in any mall's fragrance or deodorant. To which Notes smells quite similar in fact, basically it is a generic “whatever” masculine aromatic citrus-woody cologne. Both uninspired, as it sits close to the cheapest [insert inexpensive chainstore brand] scent's around, and even within this lack of creativeness or at least “elegance”, particularly clumsy and cheap-smelling. So basically it's boring and not even nice. The price is pure highway robbery to me, and that is part of why my review may sound too grave. Let's stick to vintage Piguet's and pretend the brand doesn't exist anymore...

4/10


(I forgot to specify that after the first sniff nothing changes for hours)