Frapin – 1697

Every time I try 1697 I anxiously feel not ready to goodbye to summer because this perfume has a strange autumnal gravity. If you’re into seasonal fragrances, you’re probably starving to celebrate autumn on your toilet desk or wherever you show off your perfumes. Yes, the variety, the richness of smells, and the tenacity of cold season fragrances are incomparable to those of the summer season. Especially I suggest you uplift your style with a boozy spicy perfume with prominent god knows what! So keep relax with a sip of cognac and enjoy the trip through 1697.

First of all, this perfume is made by an independent perfumer named Bertrand Duchaufour who is the notorious god of undecipherable compositions. He makes perfumes in a way you swear you know the smells but you strain to name an ingredient!

Duchaufour plays like a magician. He twists yummy notes in a way that they stay delicious but they don’t represent gourmand classification. 1697 is a twisted gourmand boozy and spicy fragrance that punches in your face at the beginning like the odd smell of wine cellars. There is an unnamed feeling of hesitation to love or to repulse the opening. But you would have a wide smile on your face after a few minutes from the application.

There’s a robust oriental tendency in the opening with dried fruits and dates and cinnamon. Rum adds extra sugar to this composition, but from the other side pink pepper, artemisia and cloves keep the sugar down to a level you don’t need insulin!

The result nevertheless is savage and bulky, and massive in performance. 1697 is a perfume of omnipresence, a perfume to announce you’re there and to do it loudly.