Orient Express: Traversée du Bosphore

By Tom L'Artisan is a house that I kind of have a love/meh relationship with. Frankly I think it's me. I admit it, I am an American, more specifically an (immigrant) Californian, even more specifically a resident of Beverly Hills, where the bling is big. I saw a Bugatti Veyron making a left onto Doheny from Wilshire yesterday and my only thought was that in white it looked like a blancmange. We don't do subtlety. L'Artisan is all about subtlety, and Traversée du Bosphore is nothing if not subtle. Meant to evoke "a listless day spent exploring Istanbul" I feel from the scent that the exploration would be more in the manner of an Agatha Christie novel, or better one of those sumptuous movies from the 70's made from them: there's leather and tobacco and fruits and nuts and saffron here, but while Uncle Serge would shove our face in it and add some camphor or armpit, L'Artisan keeps it safely in the Wagon Lit with the Hermes luggage, Pratesi sheets and attentive staff. There's musk there, but it is gentlemanly, like the man who opened your bed was slightly overworked. I like this, really I do. I know it reads like I am damning with faint praise; I'm not. It's a literal representation of one of those Agatha Christie movies with Lauren Bacall or Mia Farrow: all the glamour with the unpleasant bits glossed over. You're crossing the Bosphorus, but you're doing it First Class. Sometimes, perfume-wise (to mix metaphors) I like to go below decks... Traversée du Bosphore will be availble at the usual suspects soon, $155 for 100ML. I cribbed my sample from ScentBar