Escada Casual Friday by Escada

Smells weird, but if you’re looking for something better crafted, with longer lasting power, and for much less money, Ted Lapidus Pour Lui is your guy.

I bought it twice; if I’d known it was the last time because they discontinued it, I would have grabbed five bottles. I can barely remember the scent now, just that I’d smell it and smile; it was super rich, vanilla, tonka, amber… that’s how I keep it in my memory, and when I saw it was gone, I pulled my hair out.

Smells like a Holy Week synthetic disaster: mix Le Male with Rochas Man and add two drops of Lolita Lempicka Au Masculin, as if it were for successful men who want something more relaxed on Fridays. They throw in a clove so it’s not that fantasy disco parrot it’s becoming. And the bottle? Why not invent a 1987 design that looks like a canteen but also a souvenir from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas? And the ad? Well, a couple in a car ready to spend the weekend at their country house, all very WASP and Ralph Lauren-esque! In my life, I’ve never seen a perfume where everything—absolutely everything, from the marketing to the aroma—is such a disaster as this critter that was seen but not really there: a fragrance with the appearance of a late-80s relic but the soul of a greedy fougere from MTV. And you know what? I enjoyed this strange, grating hybrid, this cyber/preppy bastard whose style Le Male pioneered when it tried to bring Caron Pour Homme into the nineties, without any guilt whatsoever. Only for fans of overpowered vanilla-lavenders and suffocating, heavy tonka-anises. Dominique Ropion, who is like a nose without its own style, capable of both the best and the worst, really shined here. For better or worse, I don’t know.

It’s a good perfume; you can tell the patchouli and bergamot, but combined with the other notes, it leaves a sweet yet masculine aroma. After letting it settle, the patchouli comes out mixed with amber and vanilla, which is truly rich. Good longevity and sillage.