A “Hotel Slut” (as Putain des Palaces is translated by the freaky-deekies over at Etat Libre d’Orange) should, in my mind, smell of stale tobacco, Aqua Net, waxy lipstick, talcum powder, and pleather.
Not so Putain des Palaces. If this lady is a slut, her co-workers and friends don’t know a thing about it. She is well-bred, well-educated, possessing the kind of good taste that inspires fashion trends, and the kind of charm that catapults artists, musicians, and writers into raptures of creativity. This is a classic smelling fragrance, with a sensibility more fitting with a BBC period drama than Julia Roberts’ Pretty Woman.
PdP has a lovely intermediate sillage, and decent lasting power (about five hours on me). It lingers nicely on fabric, and if you’ve been dying to find a nice rose/violet perfume, you could do worse than this!
If I didn’t already own JHAG’s Citizen Queen, I might be tempted to add this lovely fragrance to my collection. I thought that it might make a good birthday gift for my perfumista mother… but then there’s the name. The ELd’O aesthetic is playful and fun—for myself, I could care less about the name on the bottle. But I certainly am not going to gift my mother anything containing the word slut, even if it does sound better in French.
Notes: Rose absolute, violet, leather, lily of the valley, mandarin, ginger, rice powder, amber and animalic notes
Available at Luckyscent, $80 for 50mL
beauty on the outside 
This sounds pretty nice. Like you, the name doesn’t bother me (I have a sense of humor about such things), but this isn’t the first time I’ve heard about the name or imagery of an ELdO scent turning people off. Definitely not Mom-friendly. I was thinking specifically of Tom of Finland, which is a transcendently beautiful vetiver fragrance, but the art itself doesn’t scream “transcendently beautiful”, more “porn shop at midnight”.
LOL, yeah, that “Tom” outer-packaging pretty much excludes it from the gift-giving category!!!
There’s plenty of other options out there, so I’m not complaining on that count, it’s just that they are exactly the kind of perfume house I want to support (for their innovation, risk-taking, and small scale distro), yet probably won’t.
I’m not a prude, but I’m no longer a 17-year-old with a need to prove how edgy I am either.
🙂
I tried a number of these at one go a couple of months ago, and actually was expecting something I would not like all that much, but was surprised at the refinement across the line. The names are fun sometimes, but no, not a gift for mothers day, that’s for sure.
Hi Lucy!
It’s a well done line, isn’t it? I remember that before I tried my first one (Like This, as it happens), I kind of expected them to smell… cheap?
Your words could have been taken straight out of my head— I too “was surprised at the refinement across the line.”
🙂
I have the absurd urge now to present my MiL with this…;)
Lovely review, thank you!
That’s the kind of urge I’d get to, if I had a MiL …. 😉
I also get the urge to make it my signature scent – and I’m not sure where that came from….
LOL, you two are on a roll!
You crack ms up B! It really is a lovely perfume… does she read French? 😉
Unfortunately her French would certainly suffice for that…;)
*sigh* too bad 😉
Have you tried JHAG Calamity J.? If yes, do you like it?
Personally, I can’t decide which one I want most: PdP, Citizen Queen og Calamity J. To me, they are in the same category, but maybe they’re not. I have samples of all three, so a little light research might be coming up.
Marie, I am the proud owner of an 100mL bottle of Calamity J; and since it entered myperfume cabinet, I’ve been eying it very carefully— wondering how soon is too soon for a back-up bottle. Short answer: I’m crazy for it!
I can see where you are coming from, and I think that you’ll find that the CJ is one of those fragrances that is meant to be sprayed to be fully experienced— it’s related to CQ and PdP, but not too closely.
Since I’m mailing your BG prize package today, I’ll send you a spray decant of CJ too— that should help you make a decision (and hold you over until you do)!
This was really enlightening, Dee. I’m so surprised PdP is more rose/violet than leather/skank. I’ve been most interested in PdP and Like This but haven’t tried anything from ELd’O because I thought they’d be hard to wear. Obviously that’s not the case for all of them, so thanks.
Tara, I haven’t tried very many from the line, but like Lucy said above, they’re quite refined— and at department store prices, are very much worth trying (if you can stomach the names, that is!).
PdP really is pretty, and highly wearable. Appropriate for the office, but not boring by any means. 🙂
Speaking or rose/violet scents, the latest Sonoma Scent Studio apparently is such an one. I’m looking forward to sampling it, although I do also like Laurie’s Cameo – also a rose violet – very much. Cameo does not get as much attention as it should. Gonna do a BOTO post on it one day soon …
I can’t wait to read your post on Cameo! It’s no secret that I’m an acid SSS fan, and I am very much looking forward to trying “To Dream”. I just love Laurie’s signature base— it feels custom blended for my skin— and even though heliotrope and I don’t often get along, I have fight hopes for this one. I also suspect that it will be different enough from the few other rose/violets I have that it won’t be redundant. 🙂
So it’s not just me thinking Putain de Palaces was similar to Citizen Queen? Except quieter, maybe, and less leathery-musky. (Wore CQ to bed last night. Yum. My decant’s almost gone.)
Must try To Dream – never tested either Cameo or Lieu de Reves, so have no reference for those. Laurie’s scents either Really Work for me or Really Don’t, and I have no way of telling from the notes which will and which won’t.
Mals, I haven’t done a side-by-side test (and already sent my PdP on to another ‘fumie) but I do agree that they are similar—enough so that I think one or the other in a collection is sufficient; unless, of course, you are a rose/violet ho. I’m just a plain ol’ rose-ho, sans violet, so my bases are quite well covered!
I have a sample of Lieu, and it did not love me. Not one bit. But I’m thinking that this one will… I guess I’ll know soon enough! 😉
If you are a rose ho, I’m just a straight up perfume ho, and I think that makes me a bigger ho. 😦
ROTFL! I just choked on my chewey Sweet Tarts. 🙂