Guerlain ~ Mitsouko
Mitsouko parfum is one the best things I have ever smelled. There’s just something about it that melds intrinsically to my skin, and it is hard to tell where I begin and Mitsouko’s sensual chypre ends.
The notes are blended so superbly that it is a hard fragrance to pick apart bit by bit. A pyramid breakdown, as per Basenotes, includes bergamot, rose, jasmine, spices, peach, oakmoss, and woody notes.
As it wears, the tart top of bergamot and florals melts, rather than disappears, into a grassy green and spiced fruity heart. Mitsouko’s peach does not smell precisely like peach at all, but instead blows in a humid breeze from orchard trees hanging heavy with allusion. Drying down, the woody accord at the base continues the spicy chypre theme with a tiny note I’d describe as smokey vanillic. However, I also find a distinct animalic ping to the fragrance. I wouldn’t describe it as musky, since I find the animalic ping more at dog that rolled in something bad. Which sounds awful doesn’t it? It’s not. That naughty and very dirty dog magically lends Mitsouko an air of authority. And no, I don’t know why that is. I can only shrug up and say it just does.
All that formality would seem to make the fragrance a special occasion choice. However, Mitsouko is in such good taste that it is a whenever the hell you feel like it choice. You can smell opera gloves and elegance. But you can also smell a picnic barbeque in it - the sunshine, the grill in action, and paper plates with hot dogs and potato chips. Mitsouko fits in everywhere.
Image: Peach Blossoms - Villiers-le-Bel by Childe Hassam
July 17th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
Yes! A lovely review of one of the loveliest of fragrances. The parfum reigns supreme, of course, although the EDP ain’t bad. Judging the fragrance on the roughness of the EDT is just a mistake, no wonder so many people dislike it. Mitsouko was the first fragrance that made me step back and consider — really consider — the beauty of the tiniest dollop of dog-rolled-in-it skank.
July 17th, 2006 at 5:21 pm
I love Mitsouko in parfum, too. And it’s funny that you mention it being appropriate for a barbeque as well as the opera (I read it quickly, I think that’s what you said)… the last time I smelled it on someone else was on a German friend of my mother’s - at a backyard barbeque in hot, humid Florida. It was wonderful.
I actually fell for this parfum when I smelled it on Roja Dove - I had come to the Guerlain event thinking I would buy Jicky (another love), but then smelled Mitsouko on him and was completely taken by it.
I also love mixing the edt with the edt of L’Heure Bleue. But I wouldn’t dream of adulterating the parfum!
July 17th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
March, I’ll have to take your word for it on the edp - sounds like I might have to check that out as a more cost-effective alternative to the parfum. I really can’t believe I like the dog rolled in it skank, either. It’s surprising.
Minette, that’s an interesting layering idea. Huh, interesting. I took one sniff of the edt and dismissed it. That’s a great suggestion, thanks. Mitsouko wears as such exceptionally good taste, and it’s easy to see why your mother’s friend would wear it to something as casual as a barbeque. I can’t honestly imagine a place where it would not be a great choice.
July 17th, 2006 at 5:58 pm
So many people are enchanted with Mitsouko, but I have never been able to “make it work” with my chemistry. Mind you I have only tried the EDT, so maybe I would find the perfume more pleasant.
I’ve never been able to perceive the bergamot, peach and grass that everyone raves about. So far on me the EDT just smells very musty - and almost medicinal, like something found in the bottom of a jar in an old-fashioned apocothery.
It’s kind of like one of those “magic drawings” - everyone can see it but me!
July 17th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
cheezwiz, yup, I know exactly what you mean about smelling very musty with the edt. I’d tried the edt first, and thought “ewwww.” It wasn’t ’til someone decided to send me the parfum until I figured out what on earth folks were raving about.
July 17th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
Hey,
I don’t know why you’re saying so many bad things about the edt! I thought it was just fine in the old days at least.
On a different note, I just re-tried L’Artisan Orange Blossom for the 3rd or 4th time and bing! sure enough I get my 3rd or 4th headache. Aouch, it hurts. The End. It was not meant to be.
July 17th, 2006 at 8:54 pm
Rapture!
My first true love- and yes, it can be worn anywhere, in any weather…being an old, unrepentant hippie, I can’t recall how many gents associated me with the perfume[combined with English riding boots, knee-length hair, and a vintage 1950’s Schiap natural brown Persian lamb -and nothing else].
Sigh…
July 18th, 2006 at 5:09 am
It doesn’t meld to my skin at all, not even in the parfum form *pouts*
It sits there screaming at me, take me off! take me off! I don’t like you! You are not worthy of me!
(it doesn’t help, of course, that my mother in law wears Mitsouko and nothing but Mitsouko, and has done so for 50 years :-) )
July 18th, 2006 at 6:04 am
Oh, Marina- I’m sorry about your mother-in-law [perhaps she is an out-law?].
It’s never about worthy…some fragrances just don’t sing on us- nothing to be done about it…
P.S.-for many years, my late mother-in-law Salomeja subjected me to olfactory torture- NOT a pleasant thing for those of us who live for our noses-
July 18th, 2006 at 7:01 am
I’m with cheezwiz and Marina, unfortunately. I think this smells so intriguing in the bottle, but on me–bug spray. Really, there’s no other way to describe it. Bug spray…and not even the kind masked by “country fresh” scent. *sigh*
July 18th, 2006 at 7:02 am
The edt has a harsh edge, but it’s not so bad. I first fell in love with Mitsouko with a edt decant. When I purchased the parfum, I swooned. My favorite stage is the top note of deep peach. I haven’t smelled anything like it in other scents.
July 18th, 2006 at 7:15 am
Actually, I have layered the EDPs of Mitsouko and L’Heure Bleu. They smell lovely together.
July 18th, 2006 at 7:41 am
Mitsouko only remotely works on me in parfum, and that is subject to the weather. That said, I’d love to be able to smell it on someone else. Great idea! Will test on DH.
July 18th, 2006 at 9:21 am
Lovely review, K, although this one doesn’t work on my skin at all. Yet. I will never give up.
July 18th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
I love Mitsouko it’s a rich perfume, real balanced and a bit odd.
July 18th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
Just wanted to say that the idea to mix Mitsouko with L’Heure Bleue should be credited to Wallis Simpson. Rumor has it that she did that and then claimed the resulting scent was something special Guerlain had whipped up just for her. Not sure if that’s real history or not… but it’s a fun story.
July 18th, 2006 at 9:57 pm
Thank you for bringing yet another point of view of Mitsouko, one of my favourite perfumes ever, a true perfection.
July 19th, 2006 at 3:57 am
One of the best perfumes ever created. Compositionally it is …just perfect! It places this lovely little dirty dog in the middle of a decent living room without disturbing the elegance and solemn atmosphere. You look at the little doggy while having tea and suddenly you feel a touch of wild nature in your well managed, cleaned up, civilized living room world…. you grab your partner (if you have one, otherwise anybody else) and disappear behind the sofa….
July 19th, 2006 at 6:00 pm
Mimi, well, you know Guelain, always tinkering with stuff that should be left well enough alone ;P
chayaruchama, heh! What a fun image - how cool to associate it with a memory like that.
Marina, I suppose it’s just one of those Guerlains that either fits perfectly or doesn’t fit at all, with no middle ground.
greeneyes - bug spray? Really? Wow. I can only guess it must be the mix of the citrus top and the skank at the base that’s caused such torture. Eeeek! Glad I don’t get that.
Iris, you know I just don’t quite get deep peach. It’s peach-ish, but not a real peach. Shoot, now I want to have the superpower of teleportation so I can sniff your wrist and see what that’s like!
Ina, heh great idea. My husband rarely deigns to wearing anything other than Pi. It has to be something real special - good luck! Heh!
Robin, that’s the story with me and Shalimar, too. Well, the story I think with lots of folks and certain Guerlains (and Carons, too, come to think of it.)
Jenny, yup, just a bit odd, which makes it just perfect!
Minette, ooooh, thanks for that detail! How cool. I’d never heard that before, neat. What a cool bit of apocrypha about her.
Ayala, you have excellent taste, so I should have known it is one of your faves. :)
Andy! You wild man you! Heh heh. What a lucky partner you’ve got! That’s a fantastic description. I think your version sounds much more fun than mine! Alas, once you’re a mother, there’s never any disappering behind the sofa with your partner, because privacy is a foreign word to little boys who need to ask “Mom, whatcha doin’?,” “Mom, I need water,” “Mom? Mom? Mom!,” every five minutes. Of course, with seven year olds, there’s also no such thing as a well managed, cleaned up living room world either, heh!
July 19th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
I`m with cheezwiz. I try to smell the greatness, but I get only a nondescript, perfumey smell of a chypre that has turned. No bergamot,no spices, no fruit… Last time I tested it I got some oily note, possibly similar toolive oil. That surprised me, because according to what I read on MUA, a) people experienced the olive oil note in EDP and b)the edt is supposed to be superior anyway.
Must get my hands on a drop of parfum.
July 19th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
Ach, yes, if nothing else once you try it you can at least rule it out completely for yourself! No really, the parfum’s simply lovely (I say having never smelled the edp, however, so take with the proverbial pinch o’ salt.)
July 20th, 2006 at 10:51 am
Hello,Minette!
1) smelling Roja Dove is love at first sniff, isn’t it? Also tapping his fabulous brain [and he’s a great hugger!]…
2) Wallis was quite the piece of work, aqccording to some sources…it was hinted that she had her swimsuits designed to disguise the presence of an appendage that gave her hermaphroditic charm. Ain’t that hot?
July 24th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
Wow. I don’t know what to say about that second piece of your comment. Heh! Never heard that one before either. That’s wild.
January 20th, 2008 at 9:46 am
I am not surprised this one has many fans. After reading your reviews and comments on it, I went to my dresser and spritzed on four sprays of the Mitsouko edp. It’s bitter cold here today in Cincinnati, a mere 2 degrees, and somehow Mitsouko fits so beautifully on a cold winter’s day. I get the “deep peach note” which, to me, smells like the woody pit. It’s opulence is sublime. Never a scent created that touches this one! It really conjures up for me images of old. Truly a heavenly perfume.
January 20th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Katie,
I LOVE your blog!
JM