L’Arc Perfume Balade – spring is smelling good! featured on That Luxurious Feeling – an educational platform dedicated to premium beauty.

I shall be perfectly honest with you (as I always am): whenever I have the chance of getting familiar with yet another niche brand it scares me a little bit. Why, you might wonder? Here’s the thing: I’m not trying to be pretentious, complicated or eager to please only a few people from the industry. I read most marketing material and laugh (or cringe inside) because the language describing either the fragrance houses, their inspiration or the perfumes often enough just complicate things!

I most definitely prefer niche over mainstream, but I don’t want to make perfume look or sound inaccessible to curious perfume lovers. It’s not my style.

With a new year and all talk about getting a fresh start; I’ve been focusing a lot on slowly adding an update to my fragrance wardrobe. Yes, I actually call it that way, because I tend to match my shoes, earrings and perfumes when I put together an outfit. While having the opportunity to get to know French perfume brand L’Arc Perfumes two things immediately struck me:

1. I really don’t get the brand at all or the history behind it; and I’m a history major.
2. It doesn’t really matter; what matters is that I DO get the perfumes. In fact; I completely adore them and fell head over heels in love with the Female range. I can safely say that I’d gladly wear each and every one of the blends.

January and February have been all spent in a cloud of this beauty: L’Arc Balade Tiare de Tahiti.

The brand describe themselves as being a house dedicated to all of the seekers of grace and artistry. I might sound harsh here, but I haven’t yet found a niche brand not dedicated to this…

Either way, all fragrances are products of the said journey that Architect Maître de Claude embarked on. Upon trying to reach Tahiti, there’s where the inspiration to Balade was found.

What made me instantly fall for it is the rare complexity of a fragrance being so warm and powdery, while still belonging to the crisp, white floral family! It is thrilling how it develops on the skin.

As it captures the strong fragrant Tiaré flower, it should technically be too much feminine power for me. Yet, it is just perfect.

One you spray it onto the skin, the top notes of Zesty Tangerine, Powerful Rose and Sweet Honeysuckle starts dancing around. As I’m a sucker for the latter, I was sold already at the application even though most of the top notes fades out as the heart of the scent takes over.

Fragrant Tiaré, wonderful Peony and warm Jasmine gives the perfume a very flowery kick without being sweet or overpowering. Although Gardenia is the star of the blend, what makes me love the scent so much is actually the Peonies. It reminds me of summer nights back home in Scandinavia. The powder and warmth washes away as the perfume goes more sparkling.

With a base of sensual and sensible Sandalwood, Musk and Patchouli I find that the perfume reaches a nice balance and take a good step away from being just another super-sweet feminine blend. Whenever I’ve worn this I’ve received questions on what the blend is. It is quite rare as people in my circle are used to my work and fascination with perfumes and rarely pay attention to my #sotd anymore! This is the perfume that stands out in the most positive way.

Some of L’Arc Perfumes have been developed together with Nose Julien Rasquinet. I’m very happy with Balade which was created by Jean Claude Astier and strongly recommend it if you’re on the hunt for something sweet, warm and floral, yet fizzy and grounded. All contradictions rolled into one. Also, let’s face it: the bottle design with its attention to details is true eye candy! ♥

Love, M