Thanks to Galilu Neo-perfumery some fragrances from Arquiste line finaly arrived to Poland. I’ve been curious about few of them so I quickly ordered few samples to sniff and take my time doing some testing. I bought samples of three – Fleur de Louis, Alexandr and Boutonniere No. 7. Fleur de Louis quickly became my clear favourite in this small group of Arquiste scents I got to try.
Arquiste Fleur de Louis was created with notes of neroli, jasmine, iris, orris root, rose, virginia cedar and pine. Rodrigo Flores-Roux is a perfumer responsible for making this scent. The perfume take’s its inspiration from the wedding ceremony between Louis XVI and Infanta Maria Teresa.
Fleur de Louis begins with sheer, quite cold neroli (African orange flower if you please). The opening is very clear and the neroli is so intensive it almost crosses the border between sharp and mellow. Luckily Rodrigo Flores-Roux handled neroli with a lot of care – it smells naturally and it lacks that plastified floral sweetness that some neroli perfume can develop after first two hours of wearing it.
Iris comes next and if I were to color it I would say it’s light purple with gray spots. The powdery smell is not really accented, it’s more subtle and neroli translates the iris to more floral, velvety smell of the petals. Jasmine joins the flowery companions introducing the substantial element of femininity. If Fleur de Louis didn’t have this note I would call it a unisex perfume, with jasmine it’s much closer to the ladies side of the spectrum. I was surprised that jasmine warms up the compositon.
After few hours iris changes its costume. It takes of this light, almost transparent lace and dresses in a dress in a dark shade of gray. It’s a journey from petals to the roots. Orris root is a magnificent thing here. It’s rooty, not earthy, clean, but not soapy, light but with a character. It’s also accompanied by a handful of pine needles and a rose which turns quite seductive in this very environment. And it lasts, lasts, lasts and lasts for many hours for a whole working day losing its power hour after hour.
Fleur de Louis by Arquiste is concentrated at eau de parfum level and it comes in 55 ml bottles.
Chemist in the Bottle 
Thank you for another tempting post, Lucas. I find jasmine quite strange. Sometimes I love it, but there are perfumes that I can not wear just because the jasmine in those smells horrible to me. I suppose it depends on how indolic it is, and perhaps I prefer the cleaner, flowery type. But Fleur de Louis sounds very pretty.
Jillie, I’m with you! I’m new to jasmine and sometimes I like it and sometimes I hate it. I definitely like it light and creamy, not metallic and indolic.
I was just spritzed with this by Carlos.
What a coincidence!
Dear Lucas
Brilliant review.
I really like your description of some neroli scents as having a ‘plastified floral sweetness’ so true – it can even be true of the essential neroli oil.
This does sound like a very elegant composition, being a fan of both orange flower ad orris I am tempted, but I can find jasmine if to sweet and overpowering can put me off a perfume, is it well integrated into the structure here?
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
Thank you mr. Dandy!
Some neroli can have that plastified sweetness. Don’t know about neroli essential oil itself but I can check that later in the lab 😉
Fleur de Louis is elegant (ispired by a wedding ceremony afterall). Don’t be afraid of jasmine here, it’s really well blended and doesn’t dominate over other notes.
Oh, I love Fleur de Louis! Another beautiful iris, I think it will soon find its place on my shelf, beside ISM, Mythique and Iris de Nuit. Absolutely fabulous. Do you feel hyacinth, too? I do, and in this perfume it’s a gorgeous note. On my skin this perfume is a perfect blend of those two flowers, not too sharp or greeny, or rooty, but powdery, chalk-like. Like passing by a building site on a hot day – cold smell of fresh cement.
I have sampled all the line, I find it exceptional, although only FdL is really my type. Well, I have to try Flor y Canto in the hot weather and we’ll see, now it’s too delicate and innocent for my taste (white flowers should be carnivorous). But what a name!
pozdr. z warszafki;)
Glad to hear that you like it! It’s not a typical iris but a good example. I didin’t get hyacinth while trying but I’ll try to detect it next time I wear it.
I agree that there’s something chalky in it. So it is your favourite? I guess it’s mine too, along with Alexandr.
Pozdrawiam!
This one sounds intriguing! Rose and orris root are right up my alley! Where did you purchase your samples from, the website or through a decant service?
Right? I also like rose and iris (orris root) but I’ve never seen them together in one perfume so far.
I bought my samples in a niche perfume shop Galilu in Poland.
It sounds very interesting. I’m intrigued!
Good! That was supposed to be that way!
[…] Fleur de Louis at The Chemist in the Bottle Boutonniere no. 7 reviewed at Notable Scents Boutonnierer no. 7 at Australian Perfume Junkies Anima […]
thanks for sharing!
Lucas dear, this could be another lemming. I forgot to mention in my STC comment in Kafka’s blog that I also ordered a 2mL sample of this on account of your review. I will report back once I try this!
Yaay! You can’t imagine how much I like it when you order some samples because of me. I like when we can compare out thoughts
I love the whole line and would love to own every bottle. Often, I’ll walk by the Arquiste display and spray Fleur de Louis on one arm and Infanta en Flor on the other. But my favorite is Anima Dulcis. Swoomy! Which is my new made-up mash-up word consisting of “swoon” and “yummy”!
This far I only tried the 3 I mentioned in the introduction to the review but based on what Kafka wrote – Anima Dulcis must be super delish.
Swoomy is a great word! I like it!
I need to re-try the complete line because my previous encounters with it weren’t too successful.
I have a question… actually two. Why did you list in notes iris AND orris root? And have you ever come across an iris flower that actually had a scent? I keep smelling all the irises I see – in stores or in nature – and none of them had the faintest scent.
I see, maybe another try will be better for you.
Well, I listed what Fragrantica says. As far as I know iris flowers are almost scentless (their level of smell is below our detection levels) but it gains the smell once you “apply” some technology to it (I mean once you make an essence)
I haven’t tried this one, but it sounds nice. I’d be curious to try it, even though I’m not a huge iris fan. The one shop here that carries Arquiste doesn’t carry Fleur de Louis. They do carry Infanta en Flor, which I have tried. It was ok but was a little soapy and powdery for my taste.
I think you could eventually order a sample of Fleur de Louis via one of those decanting sites. Or you can ask if someone could give you a sample when a new post of Perfume Fairy Godmother will start at Perfume Posse is May.
I’m headed out to smell this today, I have considered a full bottle. Your post makes me want it even more!
Yaay, let me know what you think!
[…] Fleur de Louis at The Chemist in the Bottle Boutonniere no. 7 reviewed at Notable Scents Boutonniere no. 7 at Australian Perfume Junkies Anima […]
Congrats to the winners and thank you for sharing my Fleur de Louis review.
[…] Fleur de Louis at The Chemist in the Bottle Boutonniere no. 7 reviewed at Notable Scents Boutonniere no. 7 at Australian Perfume Junkies Anima […]
thanks
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