Gobin Daudé Parfums • Biche dans L'Absinthe • Fragrances
(23 reviews)
| Average Rating. | 3.6 |
| Would buy this product again. | 43% |
| Package Quality | 3.9 |
| Price | 4.2 |
| Ingredients | |
*TOP REVIEWER* ayala on 5/17/2008 2:01:00 PM more reviews by ayala
Age: 30-35 Skin: Combination Hair: Brown Eyes: Green
Doe through the Artemisia bushes… Her coat glows in the warm autumnal sun. Freedom is happiness. And the single notion that being is all there is to life.
Victoire Gobin-Daudé, a gifted French independent perfumer, who unfortunately whose line was discontinued, unfortunately, uses only natural essences in the five perfumes she released to the world to enjoy for a limited period of time.
Biche dans l’Absinthe offers yet another perspective to the bittersweetness of green and aromatic fougeres: the pairing of animalic with herbaceous.
Opening with sweaty notes of cumin and the underlining warmth of immortelle, the doe has just paused from a brisk morning gallop in fields of semi-dry hay. It is mid Autumn, and the first sunrays are warming her shiny coat, releasing steam of animal sweat and morning dew from the surrounding vegetation. Citrus notes play a subtle role of diffusing the bitterness of Artemisia (absinthe) while bergamot creates a soft powdery aura, complementary to the cumin.
There is a hint of floral in the heart, alongside the Artemisia. It might be orange blossom, or perhaps neroli. It is very subtle and is present only to soften and blend the phases together. The base is at once dry and sweet – with dried tobacco leaves, the abovementioned immortelle and its animalic yet herbaceouse-dry sweetness, and hay of course, for a good measure of coumarin and nourishment for the doe so she can run freely on my skin for hours to come.
Top notes: Lemon, Cumin, Bergamot, Lemon Leaf
Heart notes: Artemisia (Absinthe), Neroli, Lavender Absolute
Base notes: Tobacco, Immortelle Absolute, Hay Absolute
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*TOP REVIEWER* whataworld on 3/15/2007 7:13:00 PM more reviews by whataworld
Age: 30-35 Skin: Dry, Olive, Warm Hair: Brown, Straight, Fine Eyes: Brown
Hey, I love cumin. Kingdom, Femme, love love love cumin. Sadly, this smells like chicken soup: pepper, stale cumin dust, something green and dry like thyme, more pepper. Smells like you were cooking, practicing voodoo, and pruning bushes all while wearing the same sweaty burlap sack. If you just want to smell weird, go for it.
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TScarissa on 12/31/2005 10:59:00 AM more reviews by TScarissa
Age: 36-43 Skin: Other Hair: Other Eyes: Other
Biche dans l'Absinthe (Doe in Absinthe)
The most poetic and profound fragrance I ever encountered - just wear it and picture the shy and startled little doe wandering through a shaded wood , princess of nature, quivering, wild and sensual, happily surrendered to the magic of foliage...
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
*TOP REVIEWER* cristaline on 6/3/2005 12:12:00 AM more reviews by cristaline
Age: 19-24 Skin: Normal, Fair Hair: Brunette Eyes: Brown
As a perfume, I find Biche dans L'Absinthe really weird. It smells exactly like a cup of Eastern medicinal tea, which smells and tastes rather odd and foul, albeit is very effective. With that said, despite the likeness, it's not completely unpleasant. Save the great top note of gooseberry, which vanishes faster than the human eye blinks, it quickly becomes a strongly herbal scent that conjures an image of cracked portions of tree bark, shells and twigs brewing in hot water to procure some kind of nature juice. This is exactly what the house smelled like when my grandmother brewed this Eastern medicinal tea in the crockpot all day. It pretty much tasted the way it smelled. Well, not only do I have no desire to smell like this tea, I can easily get a whiff of this without a bottle, since I curiously enough voluntarily drink these concoctions today.
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sands1974 on 5/10/2005 4:45:00 PM more reviews by sands1974
Age: 30-35 Skin: Combination Hair: Brunette Eyes: Green
A lovely and festive scent, a bit "Renaissance Festival" or somehow Middle Ages, dark woods, velvets, something deep and all knowing. Definitely forests, not so much the smell (maybe of the barks) but the FEEL. My husband said it reminds him of the sweets eaten in December here in Holland, which are a peppery sweet sort of cookie or cake called "speculaas"...the taste is sort of a peppery cinnamon which must be the cumin smell mentioned by others (immortelle flower, artemesia / absinthe and tobacco leaf...?). One thing I like so much about Gobin Daude perfumes is that the poetic descriptions she's created for her perfumes really do fit the image literally created by smelling them. The perfumes paint a picture, actually materialize something IMO, even something three dimensional that could be entered and experienced, instead of merely a smell that brought back memories or perhaps exploded the olfactory senses into heaven. Her perfumes could do this, but the added component of the image creation gives them a depth where other perfumes may fall short of such a kaleidoscopic experience and range...such a huge pity that these will soon be discontinued due to lack of sales...
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
*TOP REVIEWER* KelseyP on 2/7/2005 9:45:00 PM more reviews by KelseyP
Age: 25-29 Skin: Normal, Fair-Medium, Cool Hair: Blond, Straight, Medium Eyes: Blue
I have to give this a 4 for it's unusual coupling of heady spices (read: cumin and curry) and the light undercurrent of green absinthe, and a sweetness that comes out almost like blackcurrent deep underneath. It's highly unusual, but completely unwearable on my skin.
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BubbaJab on 12/26/2004 7:24:00 PM more reviews by BubbaJab
Age: 44-55 Skin: Other Hair: Other Eyes: Other
Beautiful aromatic leather scent with spicy crisp.
Elegant, confident.
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*TOP REVIEWER* reihasama on 12/11/2004 6:08:00 AM more reviews by reihasama
Age: 19-24 Skin: Combination Hair: Black Eyes: Black
VERY bitter and dry scent. Disgusting leather and tobacco on my skin. I can't stand this.
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*TOP REVIEWER* dreamstorm on 11/30/2004 10:47:00 AM more reviews by dreamstorm
Age: 19-24 Skin: Normal Hair: Black Eyes: Brown
Cumin cumin cumin cumin cumin cumin cumin cumin. Curry curry curry curry curry curry curry curry curry. Tenacious lasting power though for a Gobin Daude (well, what can you expect when you smear the remnants of last night's meal all over your wrists) and a fun name to mispronounce in your head.
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*TOP REVIEWER* schminken on 10/17/2004 8:54:00 AM more reviews by schminken
Age: 30-35 Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium Hair: Brunette Eyes: Brown
NO: This reminds me of Tea for Two but with a heavy cumin note. I hate that note! I'm like other people. I like to eat curry but I don't want to smell like it.
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*TOP REVIEWER* perrier on 10/3/2004 4:20:00 PM more reviews by perrier
Age: 30-35 Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Neutral Hair: Brunette, Wavy, Fine Eyes: Brown
This is one of my HG fragrances. Lush, wet, sweet and mysterious. A wonderful mixture of rain misted foliage and honey. Like the reviewer below, my BF said he smelled curry. I think that it must be the cumin note. But to my nose this scent is much more complex than that. It is comforting, and foody in a fresh fig sort of way. Staying power is great.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
marinablue on 9/4/2004 11:08:00 PM more reviews by marinablue
Age: 30-35 Skin: Other Hair: Other Eyes: Other
This is so wonderful and dry. I feel like I am turning pages of a botany book that has preserved plants on each page. I have never smelled anything that reminds me so much of the artemesia shrubs in my grandparent's yard. Very sick of women who get this and call it or themselves the Bitch. They don't deserve the fragrance.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
staceyrose on 9/4/2004 3:57:00 PM more reviews by staceyrose
Age: 30-35 Skin: Combination Hair: Brunette Eyes: Brown
It smells like curry! As much as I love a good ruby, no way do I want to smell like one.
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*TOP REVIEWER* Kate123 on 2/18/2004 1:39:00 PM more reviews by Kate123
Age: 36-43 Skin: Other Hair: Other Eyes: Other
Well, what a weird fragrance! Starts out all herb-y/weedy. I guess that's the artemisia. I like that, although it's a little intense. Then this cumin note pops out, _really strong_. I guess that's the everlasting. Sort of a BO smell, (in college we used to joke that "cumin smells like human", if you know what I mean). I'm not crazy about that. But then there is this warm spiced pear in wine scent which is really delicious. I think that's the gooseberry, and it's very inviting and yummy. I would like this so much, but I'm having a hard time with that curry part. A friend says I smell like I've been to an Indian restaurant. I like Indian food, but if I want to smell like that I'll just go have Indian food for lunch, it's a lot cheaper. LOL. Anyway, the reason I am still smelling my wrist is this wonderful gooseberry note. I think there is some cinnamon and clove in there too, it's really an intoxicating fruity drydown, but then that curry jumps out again! It's really interesting, and I could love it, but it's an odd duck so try it before you buy. I may consider it, wearing this makes me feel very warm and sensual, _But_ why does it have to be so expensive!!!!!!!
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vlb2176 on 2/15/2004 3:40:00 PM more reviews by vlb2176
Age: Unknown Skin: Other Hair: Other Eyes: Other
I was impressed with the fact that this smells like a mixture of cooking spices and pipe tobacco. Sweet, smoky, pungent. Very linear though, did not change much from when top note to drydown. Best worn during cold weather I'd think. Once again, though, price keeps me from committing to a full bottle. I just don't see paying that much to smell like a tobacco shop, albeit a refined and high-end one! I'll just have to nurse my sample for as long as I can.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
MarksCarltonLane on 2/10/2004 7:05:00 PM more reviews by MarksCarltonLane
Age: 44-55 Skin: Normal Hair: Brown Eyes: Blue
A perfumer's aspiration is to create the most affective sensory experience through the scrupulous assembly of well-paired ingredients. Throughout the centuries, the best noses of their times often broke ground with compositions that challenged convention and, at first, puzzled or even offended consumers. For example, Mademoiselle Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel and her master perfumer, Ernest Beaux, intended a revolution in fragrance in the 1920s and achieved it by introducing aldeyhdes -- organic compounds that fortify a scent's composition -- that took many years for consumers to accept. When the tide of acceptance turned, a singular scent -- Chanel No. 5 -- began its climb to the loftiest spot in fragrance history ... and remains at the pinnacle of popularity in the 21st century.
With that preface, I caution those who are puzzled by or even dismiss Victoire Gobin-Daude's 2002 creation Biche dans l'Absinthe to hold fast and for long. In my unqualified judgment, there is more substance to this upstart scent than immediately meets our olfactory nerve. Universally, this scent seems to have found highest favor of the original five scents that she introduced through 22 stores in six countries and it has begun to elevate Gobin-Daude's reputation as an outstanding perfumer.
How does it smell? First, its classification is leather, the smallest group among fragrance classifications. Its arrid notes of warmed, curing tobacco leaf and young, fresh green hay set Biche dans l'Absinthe far apart from the clutter of endless new fragrances in other classifications (chypre, fougere, amber, citrus, floral and woody). In a word, Biche is quite different, perhaps too different to be meet the immediate expectations and gratification of consumers. Other prominent notes are of cumin, immortelle flower and artemesia, of the wormwood family. The effects of the scent are of a warm, spiced, herbaceous and luxurious leather with excellent -- I repeat, excellent -- durability.
Biche dans l'Absinthe may not, itself, change the fragrance industry; it is not Chanel No. 5 in that sense. What it is, however, is a surprisingly pure and defiant upstart in the sea of mass-produced, mass-marketed scents made with lesser ingredients and far less originality. Biche should turn our attention to its creator, too, for it heralds a proud beginning for an exceptional nose who appears to be deeply respectful of and knowledgeable of the history of fragrance.
If you are undecided or bewildered by this leathery, herbaceous and slightly spicy scent, like many, you will magnetize to it again ... someday. I hope this one goes on forever!
9 out of 10 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
*TOP REVIEWER* jennyb on 2/3/2004 1:55:00 PM more reviews by jennyb
Age: 30-35 Skin: Combination, Fair Hair: Blond Eyes: Green
The heart of this scent is a complex and startlingly attractive tobacco note, not as it's usually done in perfumery, but like opening a fresh packet of unfiltered cigarettes. Unfortunately the dry down is all meaty curry, mouthwatering but ultimately not something you want to smell behind your ears (or anyone else's for that matter). It reminds me of the exquisite articulated polished wooden dresses which Hussein Chalayan showed a few seasons ago: astonishingly beautiful and finely crafted, but entirely unwearable.
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Kyahgirl on 1/28/2004 11:24:00 PM more reviews by Kyahgirl
Age: 36-43 Skin: Dry Hair: Brunette Eyes: Blue
A lovely green floral. Spice, incense, tobacco. An unusal combination that remind me of eau de Givenchy but a little less perfumey. I want to give this one a go.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
wmiumiu on 1/27/2004 11:00:00 PM more reviews by wmiumiu
Age: 25-29 Skin: Other Hair: Other Eyes: Other
This is definitely exotic. Unfortunately, I have to say the scent has a strong hint of "curry" on me, which means it's spicy, with some herbs in the mix. Yucks.
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*TOP REVIEWER* Liv24 on 10/2/2003 8:30:00 PM more reviews by Liv24
Age: Unknown Skin: Normal Hair: Brunette Eyes: Brown
As a perfume, I find Biche dans L'Absinthe really weird. It smells exactly like a cup of Eastern medicinal tea, which smells and tastes rather odd and foul, albeit is very effective. With that said, despite the likeness, it's not completely unpleasant. Save the great top note of gooseberry, which vanishes faster than the human eye blinks, it quickly becomes a strongly herbal scent that conjures an image of cracked portions of tree bark, shells and twigs brewing in hot water to procure some kind of nature juice. This is exactly what the house smelled like when my grandmother brewed this Eastern medicinal tea in the crockpot all day. It pretty much tasted the way it smelled. Well, not only do I have no desire to smell like this tea, I can easily get a whiff of this without a bottle, since I curiously enough voluntarily drink these concoctions today.