Bottle of Etat Libre d’Orange Jasmin et Cigarette, photo by The Perfumed Dahlia

Oh, I was moved by your screen dream
Celluloid picture, living
– “To H.B.,” Roxy Music

Etat Libre d’Orange is an audacious, insolent, and exuberant perfume house that, from the first, has pushed the boundaries of how consumers and perfumers define, enjoy, and experience fragrance. Founder Etienne de Swardt is a maverick, a self-described “refined chameleon,” who built Etat Libre d’Orange as a fantasy world where daring fragrances help showcase the beauty in strangeness. Over the years, I have purchased and worn through bottles of Fat Electrician, Rien, and True Lust, among others. But I stayed away from Etat Libre d’Orange Jasmin et Cigarette because the name pushed at a boundary I didn’t realize I had. Subconsciously, I imagined it would smell like an ashtray or stale smoke, and I suppose I wondered how there could be any “rebel yell” in a note as familiar as jasmine. I now shake my head in silent reprimand of this oversight. There is nothing simple about the jasmine within Etat Libre d’Orange Jasmin et Cigarette, and it certainly does not smell like an ashtray. Rather, it is a love letter to “The era of the grand studios when Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich magnetized men with a Hollywood look in the eye, smoking a cigarette in a smoky black and white ambiance,” according to the Etat Libre d’Orange website. “Jasmin et Cigarette is the smell of a woman’s skin when she exposes her freshness to the dark seduction of night. A hazy atmosphere. The reminder of a fantasy, of an indelible trail she leaves on a dress at the break of day or in the intimate memory of the man who made love to her.”

Greta Garbo by Clarence Sinclair Bull

I decided to take a closer look at one of these stars, Greta Garbo. She was born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson was born in Stockholm, Sweden. The Gustafssons lived in a 3-bedroom apartment in a working-class district that was considered a slum. Garbo would later recall that “It was eternally grey—those long winter’s nights. My father would be sitting in a corner, scribbling figures on a newspaper. On the other side of the room, my mother is repairing ragged old clothes, sighing. We children would be talking in very low voices, or just sitting silently. We were filled with anxiety, as if there were danger in the air…”

In 1919, the Spanish flu spread throughout Stockholm and Garbo’s father became ill. He lost his job, and Garbo cared for him until he died in 1920, the same year Garbo was first cast in film commercials advertising women’s clothing. Two years later, she caught the attention of a director who gave her a part in a short comedy, and she entered the Royal Dramatic Theatre’s Acting School in Stockholm. In 1924, Garbo played her first leading role in the 1924 Swedish film “The Saga of Gösta Berling.” Supposedly Louis B. Mayer, Vice President and General manager of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), saw this film and was struck by Garbo’s performance. In 1925, Garbo was brought to Los Angeles from Sweden at his request — then ignored for weeks, until a Swedish friend helped coordinate her screen test, which was a success. MGM began grooming the young actress – straightening her teeth, making sure she lost weight, and arranging English lessons. According to fellow actress Norma Shearer, Garbo did not necessarily agree with the image the studio was establishing for her: “Miss Garbo at first didn’t like playing the exotic, the sophisticated, the woman of the world. She used to complain, ‘Mr. Thalberg, I am just a young gur-rl!’”

 Greta Garbo, Mata Hari 1931 © photo by Milton Brown

However Greta Garbo felt about it, the MGM studio machine did portray her as a vamp very successfully, and she skyrocketed to fame with rave reviews for her nuanced, expressive performances in silent films. She was one of the biggest box office draws of the 1920’s and 1930’s, during which she successfully transitioned to speaking roles – despite her insecurity and discomfort with the English language. Remarkably, eerily, Etat Libre d’Orange Jasmin et Cigarettes captures the trajectory of this narrative – like an olfactory biography for Greta Garbo’s story.

Jasmine photo by James Wesley via Pixaby

Etat Libre d’Orange Jasmin et Cigarette is a deceptively straightforward jasmine, but its simplicity belies a devastating talent. At first spray, the realistic jasmine even includes the hint of sweet, ripened banana that you would find if you buried your face in a spray of jasmine, newly opened on a vine or bush. It is dewy, vaguely melancholic — suggesting the insouciant pout of a moody silent film star. But, simple it is not. This is a freefall of jasmine, Alice tumbling down a jasmine-laced rabbit hole. There are layers to this – it is damp and green one moment, even as it exudes the glamour-filled elegance of a delicate white floral. There is a feeling of looking down a well, or into someone’s fathomless eyes.

Cigarettes photo by RJA1988 via Pixabay

And last, to address the shock factor of the fragrance name – Etat Libre d’Orange Jasmin et Cigarette does not, to me, smell like an ashtray. There is no sense of secondhand smoke, stale smoke, or the smell of a smoker’s skin. There is however a soft note within this fragrance that is reminiscent of the smell when a new pack of cigarettes is unsealed, when the shiny paper is torn off to expose the cigarettes within. It’s slightly powdery, a hint of tobacco. It feels like a part of the jasmine flower that I never noticed before, but it is distinct — a nod to an impossibly beautiful woman with a long cigarette holder, delicately picking a speck of tobacco off her tongue, staring into the distance, perhaps remembering a very unglamorous childhood in a far-off land.

Notes: jasmine absolute, tobacco notes, apricot, tonka bean, curcuma, cedarwood, amber, musk.

Disclaimer: A bottle of Etat Libre d’Orange Jasmin et Cigarette was generously provided for this review by Etat Libre d’Orange. My opinions are my own.

Dalya Azaria, Senior Contributor

Bottle of Etat Libre d’Orange Jasmin et Cigarette, photo by The Perfumed Dahlia

Thanks to the generosity of Etat Libre d’Orange, Çafleurebon has a bottle of Etat Libre d’Orange Jasmin et Cigarette for one registered reader in the EU, UK and USA. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what appeals to you about Etat Libre d’Orange Jasmin et Cigarette based on Dalya’s review, whether you have a favorite Etat Libre d’Orange fragrance, and where you live. Draw closes 4/5/2021

Editor’s Note: Jasmin et Cigarette was composed by Antoine Maisondieu in 2006

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