Monday, March 16, 2009

Cartier Le Baiser Du Dragon


Le Baiser du Dragon by Cartier is a 2003 release, but feels like a perfume from another era. It starts big and bold, like orientals from bygone days. The amaretto note, a sweet almond liqueur, is very balanced: not too boozey, not too yummy, never crossing the line between a perfume and an after dinner treat. It draws you in with a lot of promise, which is where things get a bit tricky.

I really like Le Baiser du Dragon and I think (hope?) I wear it well, but there's a note there in the middle that feels a bit jarring. It's most prominent in the EDT which I find sharp and cheap, but also sticks out from the smoothness of the EDP. According to Basenotes, the heart notes are iris, musk, cedar and Bulgarian rose, but on my skin I can't detect anything specific. It might be the rose or just a general floral mess (my skin can do atrocious things to innocent flowers), but it goes away quickly, especially when I layer the EDP with the extrait de parfum, which I always do. The parfum is a golden perfection as far as I'm concerned, dark and velvety. It also amplifies the patchouli drydown.

And for me it's all about that drydown. I get hours of chocolate-like patchouli that glides easily from under the milkiness of the top notes. It's not very earthy or dirty, though I'm sure those with a patch-aversion who make the hippie connection would not have an epiphany and start loving it here, elegant bottle or not. To me, Le Baiser du Dragon feels like a grown up option for a gourmand mood, more dressed up than other perfumes in this category, more feminine than Borneo 1834. The base ends up with a mellow vetiver note, once the patchouli eases up a little. It's a dry and woody vetiver, without any bitterness or green.

A man can probably pull it off with the right skin chemistry(Nathan gave it a try, though he was not impressed) , especially the parfum. I have yet to try it on the resident male in this house, though, so no guarantees.

Cartier Le Baiser du Dragon is available at decent department stores (I saw it locally at Saks and Nordstorm), but you can find it better priced from online discounters or on eBay. Despite the rumors, LBdD has not been discontinued (yet. I doubt that it's a big seller) and you can see it on the Cartier web site.

Image of the chocolate dragon: blackmagicmarkers.com

2 comments:

  1. I should have known you would love this scent! ;)

    Hey, did you see that we share a positive impression of Montale Chypre Vanille? I about fainted when I discovered that . . .

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love it too and so does my man...

    ReplyDelete

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