L'Artisan Parfumeur- Fleur de Liane

Here are some good things I can say about L'Artisan Parfumeur Fleur de Liane:
If you use enough of it and spray liberaly, it's a very long-lasting perfume.
It's not offensive despite the obvious aquatic notes and the stuff that registers as a melon.
The green parts and tropical flowers are nice.
Fluer de Liane is obviously thoughtfully created and well-made.

Not bad for a perfume I have no desire to wear again.

I've tested L'Artisan's Fleur de Liane many times since it was released three or four years ago. On good days I felt it ws just meh. On bad day it reminded every perfume genre I dislike. Because seriously, watery greens? pale florals? MELON? Please don't. But I have a fondness for L'Artisan and felt that even Fleur de Liane deserves consistent and more in-depth testing, so I did.

I don't like the opening note. The perfume smells like watered-down fruit juice blended with an abstract green thing that didn't come from nature. That's what has always sent me scrubbing in the past. Things do get better, even if I feel the white floral heart of tuberose and magnolia is too sheer and abstract to be fully satisfying. I admit Fleur de Lieane is friendlier and easier to wear than assertive white florals with a side of green. No one would complain if you wear it to a cubic farm or spray yourself silly before boarding a plane.

The weird thing is the slightly green floral heart that hangs there forever (10 hours easily with heavy spraying) never develops further. It remains in this wet magnolia stage until I wash it away with no sign of the promised base notes.Is it even considered an official dry-down? I don't know. Fleur de Liane lives in constant limbo, kind of pretty, a little boring and completely devoid of an edge.


Notes: green fresh notes, guava leaves, magnolia, tuberose, vetiver, cedarwood, patchouli and pockwood

or:
green notes, sap, guava, magnolia, tuberose, frangipani, marigold, guaiac and cedarwood, vetiver, patchouli, moss

Depending on whom you ask.

L'Artisan Parfumeur- Fleur de Liane ($95, 50ml) is available from Aedes, Luckyscent, MiN NY, Beauty Habit, Barneys and Henri Bendel (NYC).

Photo originally by LumixFZ28 on Flickr, manipulated and ruined by me.