Les Indémodables: Chypre Azural & Brand Overview

Les IndémodablesChypre Azural is a radiantly bright, fresh, aromatic orange citrus fragrance that is far from a traditional chypre, in my opinion. Despite its extremely misleading name, it stood out for the high quality of its raw materials which is a specific focal point and signature for Les Indémodables as a whole. I’ll be covering a number of its fragrances in the weeks ahead and, since this is my first time writing about the brand, I wanted to start by telling you a little about it and, specifically, its key selling points and olfactory goals.

Les Indemodables collection. Photo: the brand.

THE BRAND, ITS BACKGROUND & ITS FOCUS:

Valérie Pulvérail of Les Indemodables. Photo: Les Indemodables.

Les Indémodables is an independent niche perfume house founded by Valérie and Remi Pulvérail in 2016. Luckyscent has an excellent synopsis of the brand, its style, and its founders’ background in perfumery:

Launched in 2016, Les Indémodables is headed by wife and husband duo Valérie and Rémi Pulvérail, who have decades of experience in the perfume industry. As a retailer specializing in beauty, Valérie wanted to create rare and beautiful perfumes akin to an olfactive wardrobe for her retail clients that was classic, timeless yet unconventional: Les Indémodables. And Remi, after 20 years as an ingredients sourcer for Givaudan, started his own lab, L’Atelier Français des Matières (The French Workshop of Materials), the site for the production and manufacture of their perfumes and other niche perfumes.

Their model is a throwback to the quality of past perfume production. Rémi globally sources ingredients from producers whose crops are exclusive to them. Les Indemodables uses in-house extraction techniques, creating a unique palette of rare natural extracts. And speaking of transparency and authenticity, not to mention luxury— each bottle lists the percentage of expensive naturals used in each formula. The result? This attention to detail is evident at first sniff: familiar notes—rose, orris, mimosa, ambergris—that smell uncanny, kaleidoscopically rich, and heart-breakingly beautiful. [Emphasis to names added by me.]

There is a Charter of Excellence that sets forth Les Indémodables’ values, including its emphasis on using the best, high-quality raw materials possible. And, believe me, the proof is in the pudding, as they say, because the quality, smoothness, and depth show in all three fragrances that I’ve tested thus far. This is part of the Charter or Manifesto:

A GUARANTEE OF RAW MATERIAL QUALITY

Our guidelines set qualitative formulation constraints on our perfumers, specifically requiring them to use significant quantities of the most valuable natural extracts. This ensures a bright, beautiful and refined perfume rendering on the skin, an undoubtedly more subtle and mysteriously facetted signature.

EXCELLENCE IN MANUFACTURING

Once the fragrance formula has been created, L’atelier français des matières takes charge of the entire manufacturing process of the perfume, finishing with the sealing of the bottle. This makes us unique in the intimate world of Haute Parfumerie.

THE PARFUM MILLÉSIMÉ, OR VINTAGE PERFUME

The olfactive rendering of our perfumes also comes from the lands where the plants are grown and selected. Due to the use of these natural ingredients, the olfactive signature of each formula might differ slightly from one vintage to another. This amounts to a small revolution in the standardized landscape of today’s perfume industry.

The ultimate goal is to create an olfactory wardrobe where the perfumes are made with overdoses of top-grade ingredients and are also freed from trends:

Paying homage to the roots of perfumery without falling into the trap of imitation, she dusted off compositional codes of the great olfactive families, playing with an overdose of ingredients, or with unexpected combinations, while never betraying the foundations of these olfactive compositions. Her answer to this challenge was to create Les Indémodables (The Timeless), a collection that allows her to develop perfumes with real olfactive character, freed from fashions and trends.

CHYPRE AZURAL:

Les Indemodables Chypre Azural. Source: Luckyscent.

Chypre Azural is an eau de parfum that was created by Florence Fouillet Dubois and released in 2016. Les Indémodables describes the fragrance, its notes, and their percentages as follows:

CITRUS CHYPRE
The essential piece in the every-day wardrobe: an extra-fresh trail, citrusy and long-lasting, that will accompany you throughout the day like a second skin

Sicilian Tarocco Orange oil 10%,
Indonesian (Aceh Province) Patchouli oil Grand Cru 5%,
Amber infusion 2%,
Egyptian Centrifolia Rose absolute Grand Cru 1%
Contains Tarragon oil from the Alps

Art by Drypdesigns on Etsy. (Direct website link embedded within.)

Chypre Azural opens on my skin with an explosion of gorgeous, electrically bright, three-dimensional, intense orange. I love it. There is the scent of sweet juices, the crisp, fragrant, aromatic zest of its grated rind, and even the white pith inside. The green border around the fruit consists of fresh tarragon that smells herbal, briskly refreshing, aromatic, and just a wee bit soapy.

The overall bouquet is intense in aroma, weightless in body, and initially moderate in sillage before expanding. With 3 spritzes from an atomizer equal to about 3 sprays from a bottle, Chypre Azural opens with about 6 inches of scent trail that grows to about 8-9 inches after 10 minutes. However, with 2 spritzes equal to 2 small sprays from a bottle, the sillage was about 4 inches which later expanded to about 6-7. In both cases, there really is no trail behind me but, sitting still, I’m enveloped in a cloud that feels both airily voluminous and rich. It’s due entirely to the carrying power, intensity, and concentrated nature of that gorgeous orange note.

Art: Bruno Paolo Benedetti. Source: his Art Finder page. (Direct link embedded within.)

Chypre Azural changes in very incremental degrees and, when taken as a whole, is both simple and a largely linear composition. After 15 minutes, there is a muted, muffled suggestion of woodiness under the orange; I assume it stems from the patchouli but, oddly, it never reads as actual, conventional or typical “patchouli” on my skin. Furthermore, it’s buried so deeply at this stage within the tarragon-infused orange that I think I’m noticing it only because I read the note list, am sniffing hard, and focusing intently.

Honestly, if “patchouli,” weren’t listed, I’d have guessed that the woody undertone to the bouquet was due to petitgrain, the oil distilled from the orange tree’s leaves and twigs.

Artist: Barbara Gerodimou. Source: artistrising.com (Direct website link embedded within.)

In fact, at no time in Chypre Azural’s progression on my skin did the woody aroma ever read as actual patchouli, and I’m a fervent Patch Head so I’d notice. Even later, when the woodiness becomes prominent, it merely evokes and symbolically captures an orange tree from the top down: its fruit (inside and out), its greenery, its twigs, and its woody base. I’m guessing that the in-house extraction method and the strength of the concentrated orange are responsible for the transformation.

As I mentioned above, Chypre Azural is a pretty linear scent and its slow changes are primarily one of degree, not of kind. About 55 minutes in, the bouquet turns soapier, spicier in feel, and woodier. 90 minutes in, the sillage drops; there is no real, noticeable scent trail. 2 hours in, a delicate floralcy appears, subsumed within the soapy, herbal, aromatic, and woody orange, but it reads as neroli rather than rose on my skin and to my nose. In fact, Chypre Azural never unfurled a rose note on me in any of my 3 tests.

Roughly 2.75 hours in or late in the 3rd hour, Chypre Azural is almost entirely a simple bouquet centered on three notes: slightly sharp, increasingly soapy, bright, and juicy orange infused with an increasingly abstract aromatic, herbal greenness and a fruited, petitgrain-like woodiness. The floralcy continues to read as neroli and continues to be a suggestion running under the orange. The only new element in an inchoate suggestion of warm, golden plushness in the base, no doubt from the ambergris. However, the ambergris, like the rose and patchouli, doesn’t read or smell as itself. It’s almost entirely a textural quality, warmth, and indeterminate goldenness.

“Brilliant Orange Vortex,” by Bruno Paolo Benedetti. Source: Saatchi Art. (Direct website link embedded within.)

Chypre Azural enters its long drydown phase at the end of the 5th hour and start of the 6th. It’s simply a soapy, herb-flecked orange infused with a subtle, muted woody undertone. The orange remains sweet but its brightness, radiance, depth, and richness have faded. Soapiness is its primary quality at this point, something which isn’t really my thing so I’m less enthusiastic about the scent than I was at the beginning. Also, Chypre Azural’s simplicity, singular focus, and linearity are starting to tire me out. As I say often, there is absolutely nothing wrong with simplicity or linearity if you love the notes in question. And I do love orange in perfumery. I truly do. But a soapy, herbal, woody orange for hours upon hours on end isn’t my personal thing.

Chypre Azural remains unchanged until its final hours when it finally fades away as a warm, soft, clean, slightly soapy citrus aroma.

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Chypre Azural’s sillage and longevity depend on whether I apply 2 sprays or 3. I’ve already talked about the opening in each case. With 2 sprays, Chypre Azural became a skin scent early in the 5th hour, though it was still easy to smell up close without great effort until the 7th hour. In total, it lasted just a hair under 8.5 hours. With 3 sprays, Chypre Azural became a skin scent in the 7th hour, took effort with my nose right on my forearm to detect in the 9th hour, and lasted about 11.75 hours.

While I loved Chypre Azural’s effervescent, radiant opening bouquet and some parts of it thereafter, I personally find the fragrance expensive at $225 or €190 for a small 50 ml bottle of what is predominantly a linear, herbal, aromatic citrus soliflore.

However, this is a purely subjective, individual matter, and you may feel quite differently. There is absolutely no doubt that the raw materials are top-notch. That is a big reason why I spent so much time at the beginning of this article talking about ingredient quality and emphasis, how they are fundamental parts of each composition, and a key selling point made by Les Indemodables. To put it another way, you’re paying for the quality as much as you are for the particular bouquet in question; and assessments of how much that quality is worth to a person is something completely individual in nature.

I can tell you this: If you’re looking for a truly bright, refreshing, nuanced, high-quality citrus scent for summer and if soapiness, tarragon, or $225/€190 for only 50 ml doesn’t bother you, then you simply must try Chypre Azural.

For other opinions on or experiences with Chypre Azural, you can turn to Fragrantica.

Disclosure: My sample was provided courtesy of Luckyscent. That did not impact this review. I do not do paid reviews and my opinions are my own.

DETAILS:
Cost & Availability: Chypre Azural is an eau de parfum that comes in a 50 ml/1.7 oz bottle and costs $225 or €190. In the US, you can buy it from Luckyscent or Indigo Perfumery. Outside the US, you can turn to Les Indemodables. Samples: Luckyscent and Indigo offer an individual sample for $5. Luckyscent also offers the brand’s official Discovery set of 11 fragrances, each in a 3 ml atomizer, for $54. Indigo Perfumery has its own sample set of 7 fragrances in 1 ml quantities (but in a 3 ml spray vial) for $32. An official 8-piece Discovery set is also available at Les Indemodables for €45. (Scroll down to the bottom of their page.) Each fragrance comes in a 3.5 ml atomizer. Other retailers: You can find a list of retailers from France to Sweden, Germany, Australia, and other countries (UK excepted) at Les Indemodables stockist page.

7 thoughts on “Les Indémodables: Chypre Azural & Brand Overview

  1. Thanks for the review Kafkaesque. I’ve had the same scent evolution experience as yours.

    • With this one particular scent? Because I’ve found the other 2 that I’ve tested so far to have the same simplicity and linearity in their bouquets, too. I need to test mire from the range but, thus far, linear, stripped-down simplicity seems to be a brand aesthetic.

  2. Yeah, I had the same linear experience with Chypre Azural. The one unique thing I can think off is that is smells mostly natural till the end. I have been told by a master perfumer that citrus oil can’t last long and has to be extended by other ingredients (synthetic or natural). I don’t love citrus enough though >_<

    Yeah their brand aesthetics has been skewing minimalistic, crystal clear focus on ingredients. There are two exceptions in the range though and they have a much louder volume. I think its because of the use of woody amber or something dynamic in the base to lift and project the scent (Vanille Havane and Rose de Jamal)

    I do love how clean their ingredients smell. I haven't quite figure out how to explain it but the smell reminds me of how a certain sound aesthetic. I used to be interested in audiophile hobby and certain audiophile brands would aim to present a wide soundstage (clear separation between instruments) with crystal clear focus on different parts of the musical recording with minimal colouring added. It probably doesn't make sense lol but Les Indemodables has this neutrality which I like.

    Sometimes I think of Di Ser (I remember your brief tweet on this brand's samples) when I smell Les Indemodables. They both have this crystalline focus although Les Indemodables fares better projection and longevity wise.

    I do get the stripped down point of view. There's a thread on base notes on Les Indemodables and I think some folks were just plainly unimpressed and trying to figure out the point of the brand. I think they were looking for original and complicated compositions. Even when someone brought up the focus was on ingredients, that may not be enough especially at the slightly higher price entry point. It was fascinating discussion and I can see all sides pov.

    • Excellent, balanced, wonderfully detailed elaboration. Thank you!

      I particularly agree with the points in your last paragraph, esp. the part about ingredient quality not being enough for the size and price in question.

      Also, thank god I’m not the only one who detected a synthetic component in the base of Rose de Jamaal and Vanille Havana! There is one in the new Ambre Supreme as well, though that’s not surprising because I realized long ago that Antoine Lie is incapable of creating a fragrance without aromachemicals. It must have been a deep strain on him to use only the bare minimum amount here because of Les Indémodables’ emphasis on the best and most natural-smelling materials. *snort*

  3. Pingback: Les Indémodables Fougere Emeraude & Cuir de Chine – Kafkaesque

  4. I did get the sample set from Les Indemodables. They sent 10 samples, but sadly Chypre Azural broke in shipment. It was the only one that broke. That said though, opening the pacakge was a pleasant surprise, for it smelled incredible and filled the room.
    Les Indemodables sample size is 3.5, so there was a very good amount of the perume eminating from bagged sample set of which it came in.
    I love orange in perfume, so I did like it.
    I have a good number The Bells of Sanit Clemens from Heeley directly, and I do have Terre De Hermes Eau Frachie, a bit sticky feeling in the heat, plus other orange releated perfumes. So whould I like to own Chypre Azural, for the right price, yes.
    Indigo Perfumery does have discounts from time to time.
    I haven’t seen LuckyScent have a sale in sometime.
    I’ll have to check and see if Les Indemodables has a store locator.
    I’ll also keep on eye out on the forums to see if someoone is letting it go for a good price.
    Yes, these are linear from the ones I have sampled.
    I still have like 6 yet to sample.

    I still have that big box of samples from ETAT to go through that I got from this past holiday season.
    While going through my collection recently, I found samples that I got from Sebastian of YouTube that I won in 2016/2017 that I never even opened.
    I still have a bag of Samples from Serge Luten’s that I haven’t gone through yet,
    and you think I would have,
    MFK, directly from Neiman Marcus, the whole collection almost from 2015.
    I have no idea why I keep getting samples?
    Yes I do, I just love perfume.
    Ya know Kafkaesque, I still have my very first niche sample that I got from Aedes from about 10 years ago, Jubilation XXV.
    I have the sample and the Aedes card that it was sent with in a little zip lock baggie.
    It’s almost sacred to me in my perfume journey.

    thank you for letting us know about the longevity and projection of Chypre Azural.
    eddie

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