Tom of Finland. Etat libre D'orange.

Tom of Finland. Etat libre D'orange.


Perfumist: Antoine Lie.

Notes: aldehydes, lemon, cypress, pine, safraleine, pepper, cypress, galbanum, geranium leaves, vanilla, tonka, iris, vetiver, styrax pyrogene, suede, musk, ambergris.

It could be the “Vraie Blonde” version for the male.
Despiste the previous “avant garde” launches, (fantastic recreations by my taste), ELDO now reaches a new challenge: create a perfume for the mainstream without losing the nickname of "enfant terrible". And, honestly, they raise the topic, with a good result.

The packaging is quite erotic orientated, so, "Tom of Finland" can be easily categorized as a gay perfume, or even as a promiscuous perfume for any sexuality, but the reality is that, beyond the controversial perception of the scent, it is, predominantly abstractly elegant, even a bit of the "childish" in there.
This is difficult to express with words.
You have to wear it to find out for yourself!.

TOF opens with loads of aldehydes.
Oh, I do love aldehydes!; all this synthetic head on are just simply delightful.
Instant dejá vú of "Vrai Blonde" or "Miroir des secrets". But the aldehydes goes here goes beyond. The companion of lemon makes it a really clean ozone-like note with a touch of vanilla. Lovely.

Aldehydes combined with overdoses notes of iris, resinous pine & cypress brings a metrosexual twist of femininity against a masculine atmosphere.
Makes you wonder: -Oh, no. Not another overly feminine cologne for a man-.
But the iris fades away and the combination start to smell like skai, or latex, kind of plasticky, but not in an industrial, synthetic way.
The saffraline gives a metallic like accord combined with the geranium leaves. Just a hint.

The juice develops in the heart aldelhydeic + plasticky. Sometimes reminds me a clean "Secretion magnifiques" + leather. Strange.
The iris comes back and stays.
Powdery but discreet, till the drydown.
The styrax just smells like tar, and the scents come rather musky, with light notes of leather, in a "frozen" watery way like "Rien". Still clean. Not animalistic.
The iris fades giving a discreet touch of baby powder on the drydown.

The idea and description is quite psychedelic but the result is frankly gorgeous.
Maybe the closest description will be an innocent fragrance that plays at times with the ambiguity, but fades into pleasant and clean, masculine, but innocent perfume.

The scent develops close to skin, but the longevity is quite good.
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