Scentzilla!

Jeanne Arthes is a company that appears to specialize in distributing low to mid-end priced fragrances. While none of the Arthes fragrances I’ve tried are exceptional, none are outright terrible, and some are very nice.

Cassandra Blanc is very nice, indeed. And it’s quite affordable at €10 for 100 ml.

It begins with a creamy lemonic note that causes me to think of lemon custard ice cream. Suffused through the fragrance is a warm cuddly woodiness, calling to mind sandalwood and light cedar, and a very yummy honeyed vanilla. The creamy lemon unfolds into a fruity accord. This fruit reminds me of the ambrosia fruit salads church ladies would bring to church picnics when I was growing up. (Well, they’d bring that along with a whole smorgasbord of dishes. There was just something about South Dakota church ladies and cooking that I think always took on a dimension of kindly decadent excess.) The drydown retains this creamy ambrosia salad, but it allows the vanilla and wood to gain prominence nicely.

Cassandra Blanc’s affordability is presumably due to use of very cheap ingredients. And you know what? So what. It’s enjoyable and a pleasure to wear. I like it as an everyday fragrance, because it’s so easy to slip on and it always fits. (Now if Arthes would only offer a matching body wash I’d be as pleased as punch.)

The most reliable, and frequently cheapest, source (for those of us in the US) is directly through the company’s online site. The site can be viewed in either French or English, but you will have to be able to navigate their shopping cart for payment and checkout in French.