FREDERIC MALLE En Passant Eau de Parfum

So beautiful, so so beautiful. I've been hearing about this one for ages and the descriptions usually sound like poetic hyperbole. But lo and behold, it really is all that.

On the blotter, it smells like a sepia-toned photograph of a lilac. But on my skin, it's like catching the scent of lilac in the air on a warm spring morning, just before the dew burns off. Somewhat like with Philosykos, Giacobetti created not just a scent here but an olfactory mise en scene. It's stunning.

I'm testing out a sample now but not sure I would invest in a full bottle. I'm noticing a pattern with Frederic Malle perfumes - they are scents that I feel like I need to keep samples of for reference, just to be able to smell now and again because they are incredible works of art and heartbreakingly beautiful, but for me they might not be so wearable.

With En Passant, although I appreciate it and even love it, would I actually reach for it? It's so translucent and ephemeral. I wonder if it would get exasperating to feel like my scent is always passing by on the breeze, just out of reach.

I cried when I smelled this for the first time. Smells exactly like a neighbor's lilac bush I used to "borrow" branches from when I was a little girl. Also smells like baking bread in the background, which reminds me of walking around this one bagel store in Fells Point (Baltimore city). Reminds me of happy, innocent times. It's as if someone broke into my head and turned memories into a perfume. I don't think I'd ever wear this because I actually love it TOO much.

En Passant is beautiful, elusive, and ineffably chilly.

It is precisely lilac, without the romance of a bouquet of blossoms. There is a rainy, green austerity in it. These are the neighbors’ lilacs, and you are not allowed to touch them. You can only stand by the fence and smell them through the raindrops.

The cucumber-water notes lend it a health-spa-zen character, and—reminiscent of DUMBO lemonade—it’s way too cool for sugar, and leaves me chasing the flavor.

This is a low-key power scent. It’s distractingly faint, but undeniably present. A go-to for hot days, and those occasions when you want to smell cool and imposing, and have everybody wonder, but nobody dare ask you what you’re wearing.

After spending the day wearing this, I rolled on some Pacifica French Lilac, just for the uncomplicated sweetness of it, and it felt like eating ice cream in bed after a day of elegantly composed salads.

En Passant is a modern lilac masterpiece. My own opinion takes me by surprise because at first it seemed like a light and boring soliflore. I regretted spritzing myself all over thinking "I could have worn a better fragrance, and now I'm stuck with this boring soliflore that will never match up to Crabtree and Evelyn's Lilas perfume" (discontinued around 1998).

At first I smelled a cold and crunchy cucumber with freshly cut lilac; along with a weird, synthetic, plastic-like scent that irritated me and ruined what "could have been perfection." The perfume started out watery and clear.

As the day wore on, a marvelous scent kept making its way up to my nose. By the third time I noticed it, I figured it must be coming from me. When I put my nose to my wrist, it still didn't smell that great. But when I put my nose a few inches from my wrist and wafted, that's when the magic happened. This perfume is truly worthy of its name, Passing Through. It's the scent of purple lilac bushes in full bloom; a scent that rides around on waves of air, sneaking up on you at unpredictable times--so close that you reach out to grab it; but it slips through your fingers.

I was taken by the depth of the perfume. At times it seemed there could be more florals in it than just lilac, but I think the magic is that En Passant takes lilac to a whole new level. It's no longer a soft, innocent flower, but a velvety, rich one. The best way I can describe the scent is lilac in 3D. Lilac perfected to the point of being almost unreal. I would still love to have an $18 bottle of Lilas like in the old days, but honestly, I'd want En Passant too. It's worth the price tag.

Lilacs are my favorite flower.

This scent transports me to my Nana’s old garden that was charming and full of lilac bushes. Purple is my Nana’s favorite color.

The scent reminds me of the springtime, from the beautiful scent of lilacs wafting in the air, to the freshly cut cucumbers in my salad.

This isn’t just a fragrance, it’s an emotion, it’s a memory of happier times, and I have to thank the perfumer for her treasures.

Philosykos reminds me of my father and his passion for his fig trees, and his mother, my nana and her beloved lilac bushes is bottled in En Passant.

Thank you Olivia Giacobetti.