Ego Facto Perfumes- An Overview

Ego Facto is a perfume brand that was launched in 2009 but hasn't caught much traction in the US, mostly because unlike in its native France where it's sold at the ubiquitous Marionnaud chain (basically on every street corner in Paris), here it's only available at Luckyscent. Well, there are also the names of the perfumes, or at least some of them, that go from unfortunate to kind of silly. These names are actually trying to evoke cultural and musical memories from Marilyn Monroe to Billy Holiday and Melina Mercouri, but as is usually the case, perfumes need to stand out on their own merit more than for the marketing stories their creative director has spun around them.

The creative director in this case is Pierre Aulas, a French musician, who recruited some big names ( Anne Flipo, Alberto Morillas, Jean and Aurélien Guichard, Dominique Ropion, and Laurent Bruyère) to compose the seven Ego Facto perfumes. Out of these seven, four are labeled feminine and three are masculine. In my opinion the pour femme ones win (and not just for ladies. I'd prefer to smell them on a guy rather than the brand's pour homme offering).

Ego Facto founder and creative director Pierre Aulas

I managed to misplace, lose, or completely skip one of the masculine Ego Facto samples (Piege a Filles , which seems to be the most interesting of the bunch), so these mini reviews include only six. My apologies.

Poopoo Pidoo (by Dominique Ropion). On the days I've worn Poopoo Pidoo I was fully prepared to answer any inquiries by civilians regarding my scent of the day with "vintage Chanel No.5". Because, seriously. I guess I'll need to come up with a better reply because eventually I will own a bottle of this utterly adorable creamy floral with a powdery rice heart and more cream in the musky base. It's delicious in a rice pudding and vintage makeup kind of way (I also get some spice that isn't listed in the official notes). It's ridiculously sexy and I actually get the Marilyn Monroe reference: think of the skin in her cleavage peeking out from a fitted satin gown. The name is utterly forgiven.

Me, Myself, & I (by father/son team Jean and Aurélien Guichard). This is actually my favorite of the line, even more than Poopoo above, and my least favorite name (ditto). It's a unique blend of tuberose and fiery vetiver (how come no one thought of this before?) that fits me like a second skin and makes the husband quite happy. It's a dark fragrance, smoky and thick, that takes the best of the two dominant notes and tests their boundaries without using a safe word. There's a quiz thing on the Ego Facto website that's supposed to help you find the right perfume. I guess it worked because I got Me, Myself, & I as the answer, right with this description: " You are someone of character who plays on her/his ego, but this doesn't stop you from being generous, even if you can sometimes transform yourself into the sweet empoisonner. You are so « addicted » to your perfume that you couldn't care less what others think."  Ya think?

Fool For Love (by  Laurent Bruyère). A tropical fruity-floral with a nearly insufferable opening. They weren't kidding about the punch accord, I can tell you that. The dry-down is a nice creamy-coconut kind of thing that would appeal to the mainstream shopper more than to the fragonerd (why does coconut have such a bad reputation). I could wear it if forced, but I'm glad I can give it a rest.  Maybe next summer.

Prends Garde à Toi (another Jean and Aurélien Guichard creation). This is a shampooy floral that develops much better than the opening might suggests. You can buy me with a good hyacinth note, which Prends Garde à Toi has in spades. The jasmine is less impressive: too watery and green (the muguet doesn't help any). I can see it smelling fabulous on people who aren't me.

Sacré Coeur (by  Laurent Bruyère). A spicy ginger fragrance labeled for men but completely void of gender. I was put off at first but learned to kind of enjoy Sacré Coeur upon subsequent wearings. It's fruity (Kevin of NST smells grape and he's spot-on) and utterly mainstream in its sensibilities. It could have been worse, I guess, which things did with the next one:

 Jamais le Dimanche  (by Alberto Morillas, who has quite a bit of 'splaining to do). The fragrance srarts with a very generic watery citrus over a pale washed up wood straight from Sephora's discount shelves and progresses into a watery incense thing that isn't much better. All of the Ego Facto fragrances that I've tried have what seems like an intentional synthetic aspect that doesn't take itself too seriously and makes them rather cute and easygoing. But Jamais le Dimanche takes the joke too far, and to my nose into some very unpleasant ozonic realms. Never on a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc. Just never.

Other than Kevin's review that I linked above you may also want to read Denyse's overview of the brand and its perfumes on Grain de Musc.

Ego Facto perfumes ($100, 50ml EDP each) are available from Luckyscent.