Chypre Mousse was launched in 1914 and is the centennial fragrance of Maison Oriza L. Legrand. From their website: After the first rains of September, the woods exude scents of peat, moss and petrichor – the ideal time to stroll under the dripping canopy and enjoy a much-needed cool breeze after the scorching summer heat. Autumn has come, the time to meditate, to observe nature as it prepares for the coming of a swift winter and its first hoars. The thickets and the glades wear their many-colored dress, their tender copper leaves smelling of soothing scents. Soon now, the mossy paths, precious jewels of the undergrowth, will welcome a layer of dead leaves burnished by the waning rays of the sun. Chypre-Mousse reminds us of nature’s last colored garments before the first snowfalls of winter. The fragrance of damp forests by the glen, of golden barks and maroon leaves, of fresh treemoss and roasted chestnuts by the hearth.
Chypre Mousse features top notes of wild mint, clary sage, wild fennel and green shoots; middle notes of oakmoss, galbanum, angelica, fern, wild clover, mastic and violet leaves; and base notes of vetiver, pine needle, oakmoss, mushroom, fresh humus, roasted chestnut, leather, labdanum and balms. It is an eau de parfum, edp.
ORIZA L. LEGRAND CHYPRE MOUSSE REVIEWS
Fragrantica: Oh no I cannot be the first reviewer here ! This is unbelievably drop dead stunning. It is like ,dark navy blue chilled night under the glittering stars. Superb quality and persistence - I say this because so much modern fume is just a flash and it's gone,like the zip less. Hell this is in the pantheon of beauty that we cannot ignore... Please excuse the autocorrect I will leave it up to,babel to interpret. This has a stunning unique cold minty open instead,of,the usual,blast,of orange. Presumably they are using the same aromachems as everybody else but hell this is amazing. Absolutely haunting and beautiful...next time I am in Paris I am going there...another Mitsouko... The ethereal almost medicinal open is extraordinary and never quite leaves. Although not noted this seems to have a blast of patchouli like the blast in Angel that thing that happened all those years ago and upon reflection made me think,that Tuberuese Criminelle,was a pun on Angel.this is a strange and lovely thing.just extraordinary and how rare is that!! I have never smelled anything like this; it is more like aromatherapy than perfume ... Don't worry about making a splash on the opposite sex, this is conquer the universe stuff...futuristic...
Fragrantica: Opening a velvet curtain of rose, vetiver, and mossy woods, without being (too) musty. Somewhere the scent of bread crust. Methinks I'm in a 17th century stone kitchen, with the garden just outside. A masterpiece of olfactory art! Amazing longevity. The drydown becomes quite masculine, so would recommend for men.
Fragrantica: Mint, earth, sage, fennel, everything. This perfume is incredible and I could simply smell like this forever. Drop dead gorgeous. Aura of an excellent forest green and smells remarkably natural, and it's definitely unusual; I can't put my finger on it, but this (right behind Marescialla, Santa Maria Novella) is one of the creepiest perfumes ever; there's something about it. Upon putting it on, I get a lot of fennel-anise sort greens. The dry down is WAY different from when I first put it on my wrist. The potency is good. I went to load the laundry into the wash and the entire stack of clothes smelled gracefully like Chypre Mousse, and I used a few drops on my wrist only once a couple days before that. It's subtle yet heavy, and long lasting. It's a strangely addictive, and it's difficult to describe it because it reveals new notes every time I wear it. I'll have to wear it several more times. It's a real shape-shifter. And based on other reviews, it seems this perfume unfolds differently on everyone. 10/10
Fragrantica: This is a little bit of an anti-perfume in the tradition of some of the ELDO, CdG, Slumberhouse or Andy Tauer creations. It has a dark, evocative power to bring to life forests, damp green underground, a bit claustrophobic and deliberately difficult. Everyday on my way to work I walk through a park next to a lake (in the North of England) and depending on the season, I get variations of this from the damp, rotting vegetation, the soil after the rain and the shrubs and trees next to the lake. It is not a crowd-pleaser and it is quite assertive. I have been rethinking this a few times and this wasn't helped by a couple of reviews by respectable reviewers who don't seem to like it. However, I decided I like it and it is firmly on the shopping list.
Fragrantica: Well, I am impressed. Its obviously a savoury mousse from Cyprus and a very tasty one at that. I really love it! I've been looking for a "green" fragrance and I think I've found it at last. On the opening its fennel, mint, angelica and clary sage in that order. There is a little bit of earthiness but nothing off putting. There is sweetness from the honeyed clover that bees love. Its fresh and spring like with the galbanum and clary sage keeping it bright and stimulating. I'm a keen gardener and a very experienced one at that and this is a perfume that any gardener would love. I feel I am transported to my herb garden. A large sillage and good longevity.
Fragrantica: Wow, this is so beautiful and incredibly unique. Simply put this is walking through the forest after rainfall in the fall all bottled up fostering some of the most stunning juice. It starts off with a sweet mint and fennel, then dries down to a very realistic wet earth, decomposing leaves, earth/soil, and lots and lots of green. Oakmoss is definitely prominent in the base, and it sits on your skin all day beautifully. Every time I've worn this I get something different, most recently the mushroom and pine notes came through and damn, it's so nice. I feel like I'm deep in the woods surrounded by nature when I wear this and it makes me so happy. Definitely one of my all-time favorite fragrances. This alongside Le Labo's Baie 19 are two of the best earthy fragrances out there. I wouldn't change a thing about this fragrance, it's perfection. You can wear this any season, any time.
Fragrantica: Chypre Mousse by Oriza L. Legrand is truly atmospheric, like a walk through the woods in November. It’s earthy, damp, and enveloping, capturing the essence of moss, wet leaves, and crisp air.
Fragrantica: Picture, if you will,a deeply shaded forest. Rotting logs covered with the softest, springiest moss imaginable, the distant sound of a slow running brook. The canopy is so thick, shafts of sunlight pinprick their way through, like the beams of a PAR36 disco light trained on a mirrorball. In these shafts of light, tiny winged insects dart like motes of dust. The forest floor is ripe and fertile with dark composted things which smell at once of geosmin, pine needles and cones, tobacco leaves and a pot of hot black tea. On a bed of angelica, clover leaves and ferns lie two entwined naked bodies in the aftermath of serious bliss, their skin grubby and damp, their eyelids fluttering lanuidly as they try and fail to resist the narcotic scents and brain chemicals of a hot summer's day well done in the undergrowth. This is not a subtle fragrance. This is how chypres are supposed to smell. This is the base of every sexy perfume pre-1975. This is what is missing in today's slew of antiseptically clean candies, fruit salads and OTT blasts of calone. This is what it's all about. To a barefoot in the grass type nature girl like me, this is, if used sparingly, heaven on earth, lasts 4 days on a spill, and is the best thing ever for keeping the cat off my duvet. As time has gone on (as it inevitably must), I have found that small amounts of Chypre Mousse in the layering process brings other chypres to dazzling life. Do not be afraid to try!
Fragrantica: A long hike through a damp forest. I am hesitant to say much more than that because of how photo realistic this perfume is. This is more of a chypre in concept than in practice. While the traditional chypre structure is mostly (bergamot substituted here for mint and fennel) present, it is far from obvious. Much more compelling are the fennel, chestnut, mushroom, and soil tincture. This perfume seems to begin the moment that a torrential storm has ended, and the forest is still recovering and waking up. Oriza dates this to 1914, which would actually be three years before François Coty’s Chypre originated the genre. I am hesitant to believe the marketing materials here, and even if there was a perfume in 1914 called Chypre Mousse, it was probably a different beast entirely. Still, Chypre Mousse is a trip worth taking. Be sure to wear the right shoes.
Kafkaesque: I’m not sure how to best describe Chypre Mousse. It’s not the typical oakmoss fragrance; it has neither the dark grey, mineralized, dusty fustiness of some oakmoss fragrances, nor the bright green, softly plush, fresh mossy feel of others. To me, it smells like the damp forest floor, wet leaves, dewy violets, earthy mushrooms, drenched forests, and a symphony of green, brown, grey, and purple. Again and again, I go back to Oriza’s description of “green shoots,” because there is something of youthful life that is pushing through the wet floor of a verdant forest. Chypre Mousse opens with a pungent but sweet oakmoss that feels as though it’s sprouted right off the bark of a tree deluged by rain. There is a dark leather underlying it, covered in resinous, piney tree sap, swirled with darkened mosses, and speckled with reddish mushrooms. The strip of leather lies atop a mound of leaves whose autumnal oranges and browns have turned darker with dampness and water. All around are bunches of fresh violets, pushing out through the soil, past the green shoots, and in the wet space left untouched by the gnarled, woody roots of surrounding pine trees. The dewy, sweet purple flowers form a bright spot of colour in the dark, green forest. The leather, wood, mushrooms, wet leaves, violets, grass, and moss are backed by traces of other notes. The sweetest black earth, the freshest of green herbs, the stoniest of grey boulders, the darkest of tree sap, and just the subtlest hint of smoky incense. The forest has come alive in a symphony that is leafy, earthy, green, woody version of Serge Lutens‘ delicate floral masterpiece, De Profundis. There is the same sort of haunting delicacy, of dewy wetness, of youthful life. The two perfumes are fundamentally different in notes, but they share a very similar feel. And, oddly, there is something of a chrysanthemum undertone in Chypre Mousse. Perhaps it’s the slightly piquant, peppered, floral greenness created by the other accords together that creates that strange impression. Whatever the cause, Chypre Mousse has the same haunting, evocative impact on me. The most interesting aspect of Chypre Mousse may be the more unexpected notes. I have no idea what the “hummus” reference in Oriza’s list means, but the mushroom-y touch is fascinating. So is the combination of that leather note which has somehow been transformed by the other elements into something familiar, and yet not. This is leather that has been left out in the rain to have Nature and the forest absorb it, transforming it into something that is more a part of their world. Yet, what I consistently found myself thinking about were the violets or pansies, whose tender refrain wraps its ribbons around you. The funny thing is, I never knew Chypre Mousse included them in my four or five early wearings, and I thought I was quite mad for detecting their delicate, purple hues in a scent intended to be a mossy, mushroom, earthy, forest one. In fact, long before I actually looked at Oriza’s list of notes, I sprayed Chypre Mousse on four people, and asked if they could detect violets. They merely scrunched up their eyes, responding with some form of dubious: “I guess.” For them, Chypre Mousse was something indescribable, inexplicable, odd, but utterly mesmerizing. A swirl of unusual notes in a well-blended, seamless, elegant bouquet that they couldn’t place or categorize. One Paris fashionista who tested it took a single sniff of her arm, and immediately said, “I’ve never smelled anything like it. Where can I buy it?!” She couldn’t describe it, and neither could two others. A fourth tester was an experienced perfumista, and just looked at me with bewilderment. “What is this??!” Her initial response was uncertainty, but every passing minute changed that. She loved how she couldn’t put her finger on the scent or what lay underneath it. Even more so, she was astounded by the trails of aroma that followed in the air around her. As someone whose skin squashes both projection and longevity, she couldn’t get over it. That brings me to Chypre Mousse’s sillage and longevity. It’s outstanding, even on my crazy, perfume-consuming skin. Two small sprays will create a large cloud all around me for the first hour, followed later by projection that extends about six inches. Later, when the sillage drops around the end of the third hour, Chypre Mousse continues to send out ribbons of scent in the air around you. And it lasts for ages. On average, I get around 10 hours with two small sprays, and well over 12 hours with more. Chypre Mousse sings to me as well. I think it is an absolute masterpiece. To me, it doesn’t smell old-fashioned or dated for one simple reason: I’ve never smelled anything quite like it. From any age.
Cafleurebon: Oriza L. Legrand is another of the old perfume houses which have been recently resurrected. I really liked the effort that was put into the line in re-creating these early fragrance recipes for today’s tastes. With Chypre Mousse perfumer Hugo Lambert had his work cut out for him when one of the key ingredients couldn’t be used anymore. The choice he made was to return to the earth, and forest, for his inspiration. As a result Chypre Mousse has a wonderful mustiness reminiscent of a forest floor after a heavy summer rain. M. Lambert starts Chypre Mousse off with a coterie of wild things as fennel, clary sage, and mint combine for sense of green growing things at the height of their fecundity. This opening takes my breath away especially because if the mint is out of balance I am often reminded of dental products. In Chypre Mousse the mint is an equal partner to the anise-like quality of the fennel and the clean green of the clary sage. They really mesh so well together that it is only when I allow my analytical brain out of the box that I can find and focus on the components. The green theme is deepened with galbanum and clover before M. Lambert uses an acerbic violet leaf to slice through the density with a sharp knife. The base is full of the notes which make up the alternatives for oakmoss; a pinch of pine, a dollop of vetiver, a soupcon of leather, a swirl of labdanum, and a fabulous earthy mushroom. Chypre Mousse has ridiculous longevity, well over 24 hours, and equivalently impressive sillage. Four sprays lasted one whole weekend in November. For all of us, including me, who are worried about the survival of the chypre despite the best efforts of IFRA as King Arthur; Chypre Mousse replies as strongly as The Black Knight does at the end of his battle, “I’m not dead yet!” M. Lambert has crafted a fabulous velvet smooth example of a chypre that suffers not one whit for the lack of oakmoss. Long live the chypre.
