Alaïa Paris - Alaïa Eau de Parfum Blanche

In 2015, the fragrance world welcomed couture designer Azzedine Alaïa with his launch of Alaïa (created by perfumer Marie Salamagne).  Last year, Alaïa was joined by a flanker – Alaïa EDP Blanche (“Blanche”).  The original fragrance was a leather whereas Blanche is a floral woody musk.  I was drawn to test Blanche as Alaïa’s couture aesthetic of celebrating the female form, while simultaneously making a woman feel powerful, is very much in line with my own ethos.

Traditionally, fragrances are described as having top/head notes, middle/heart notes, and bottom/base notes.  We see a deviation from these descriptives as with Blanche, the notes are further described as impressions.  With the wearing of Blanche it becomes clear that “impressions” could not be more accurate.

Like the extolled female form, Blanche feels very curved to me.  The opening is a confident vanilla tinged almond that has a floral feel to it.  It’s bold and at the same time elegant.  I get an animalic musky undertone that’s polite society rather than skank.  There is also a very subtle woody undertone present.  As the juice wears, it circles around with the notes each becoming softer and more pronounced; it is the epitome of note impressions.  Blanche has an innate sexiness without being overtly “here I am”.  The drydown is the very similar lovely soft, somewhat powdery vanilla woody floral musk.  It’s as if the perfume lets us say that yes, we are confident with who we are and we are beautiful.

Blanche wears on me with moderate projection for roughly 8 hours.

Notes: almond, heliotrope, animalic notes, musk, vanilla absolute

Perfumer: Marie Salamagne