Rogue Perfumery L’Homme M.LaCroix courtesy of Manuel Cross
I am bewitched with the rogue’s company. If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, I’ll be hanged.-Falstaff, Henry IV, Part I, by William Shakespeare
Ladies, tap your inner River Song or Moll Flanders; gents, don your silk shirt and rapier: Rogue Perfumery L’Homme M.LaCroix has boarded ship. The first leather fragrance from Manuel Cross – one of our most keenly talented perfumers – is a gorgeous combination of rough-and-tumble and refinement, earthiness and elegance. L’Homme M.LaCroix combines elements of classic citrus and leather chypres, then roughs them up with a slap of scoundrel before smoothing them out into the smoothest, silkiest leather to hit these shores in years.
Jacques Cathelineau by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Triosson 1824 via wiki
The fragrance is inspired by Cross’s ancestors, les hommes LaCroix, who fled France for Ireland in the early 1700s, eventually coming to America and reinventing themselves as the Crosses. Using all natural ingredients as perfumers would have done in 18th century France, Cross has created a fragrance that is everything you could ask for in a leather perfume – expensive-smelling, complex, equal parts brashness and elegance, like a Fielding novel in olfactory rendering. And it’s perfect for anyone needing a bit of swash and buckle on a grey winter day.
Manuel Cross, perfumer for Rogue Perfumery
The opening is pure buccaneer – an exuberant, brazen slap of lemon and bitter citrus with a hint of cedar wafting through from below deck. Next up is birch tar, whose tarry smokiness can easily dominate leather fragrances and make them overtly butch. But Cross has an adroit sense of when to pull back on big notes. Here, lemon spins like a careening top around the other citrus notes while birch tar cracks its expensive whip without making too much of a fuss. There are aspects here of violet-y vintage leathers such as Chanel Cuir de Russie as well as their roughhewn cousins, such as Santa Maria Novella Peau D’Espagne. Cross’s restraint gives his fragrance room to bloom into something much more complex and original than a simply a riff on roughhewn vintage-style leathers. Using cassie absolute to temper the birch, Cross creates a central accord that is similarly elegant and expensive to highbrow beauties such as Chanel Cuir de Russie without their obvious floralcy, roughed up with a hearty slap of bright citrus and generous helpings of bitter green oakmoss.
Alex Kingston as River Song in Dr. Who, image BBC
The flowers do, however, play an important role in L’Homme M.LaCroix. In the mid-section, they add the silky lushness that helps give the fragrance its luster. Initially, my nose doesn’t separate out the flowers, but after a bit of time, I detect some green floralcy, which must be orange blossom, and later, the peppery velvet of geranium. The fragrance smooths out as it travels, becoming richer and smoother thanks to sandalwood and labdanum, but also darker and greener with additions of patchouli and vetiver.
Coming back to Rogue Perfumery L’Homme M.LaCroix about half an hour later, it reminds me a bit of Parfum D’Empire’s Cuir Ottoman but smokier and less sweet. Reapplying it, that comparison disappears, and I realize again how unique this fragrance is. This time, I get more a more animalic introduction from the cassie, which I notice much more now, and the creaminess of orange blossom is very much at the forefront in the opening. Glints of vintage peek through L’Homme M.LaCroix’s trajectory, but the fragrance maintains its freshness and verve throughout. One of the best modern leather perfumes out there. It’s going straight into my top ten of the year.
Notes: Bergamot, lemon, petitgrain, orange blossom, thyme, geranium, cassie absolute, vetiver, orris, cinnamon leaf, rose absolute, labdanum, oakmoss, birch tar, cedar, patchouli, tonka, sandalwood.
Disclaimer: Bottle of Rogue Perfumery L’Homme M.LaCroix generously given to me by Rogue Perfumery. My opinions, as always, are my own.
Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
Bottle of Rogue Perfumery L’Homme M.LaCroix, image via the brand (size shown is 75 ml)
We have a treat for you: thanks to the unmatched generosity of Rogue Perfumery, we have another 30 ml bottle of Rogue Perfumery L’Homme M.LaCroix for one registered reader in the U.S. or the EU. To be eligible, YOU MUST register and leave a comment saying what strikes you about Rogue Perfumery L’Homme M. LaCroix based on Lauryn’s review and tell us where you live. Draw closes 12/15/2022.
NOTE: Last week’s giveaway winner has not been announced for Video Editor Steven Gavrielatos interview with Manuel Cross on his creative process for L’Homme M. LaCroix but will be soon. So if you missed that one, you have a second chance.
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