Le Labo Baie 19 Review (Frank Voekl) 2019 + The Path Ahead Draw

October 20, 2019October 20, 2019

Le Labo Baie 19

Follow the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road

Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow-brick road

Follow the yellow-brick, follow the yellow-brick

Follow the yellow-brick road –The Wizard of Oz movie

Maybe you’re not, like me, raised with bloody bedtime stories and bloody history fables and bloody fairy tales (no joke, Romanians’ favorite dessert, without exception, is our national *funeral* pudding, “coliva”. That, in case Dracula isn’t enough, should tell you plenty about our penchant for the gory). But if you did, you know that success in a quest- if there is some to be had at all- comes from two things: serendipity, and determination.

Serendipity ain’t got much to work on, but determination is a different story. Every teaching moment, every fable, every legend and fairy tale takes the hero (and, occasionally, heroine) through a dire expedition, during which they need to 1. resist temptations, 2. help as many bees and ants as they can (seriously, they always turn out to be a queen in need, who’s willing to spare, as a reward, a magic wing) and 3. DON’T. STRAY. FROM. THE. PATH.

Of course, things are not easy and temptations abound at every step: rich tables pop up on the side of the road, filled with debaucherous festins; water springs in the hoof marks of horses long past, clear and crisp under the scorching sun; fairies sing and dance, alluring and trying to get you off the path. Basically, lift your eyes from the road—and you’re doomed. What is it about restraint that makes it rewardable? Is it the glamour of the temptations in need for an equally shiny counterpart? Or is it the power over one’s self, proven through turning down the external and lensing in on one’s own journey?

Le Labo Baie 19 by Sr. Perfumer Frank Voelkl of Firmenich is just like that- incredibly familiar, repetitive, and zoomed-in. It opens, singular and focused, like the first sound of the first step: camphorous, crispy, and clear. There’s no echo and no context- the scent develops as you sniff along, like a path building, fairy-tale-like, in front of you as you lift your leg for the next advancement. Everything that follows is equally simple and equally inward, repeating this feeling you’re looking down (and only looking down) at your feet: water, porous bricks fogging up in terracotta fumes, slight patches of moss crushed under your own shoe, your own breath dropping into the morning mist and mixing in to create the only living nuance. Around it, complementary impressions of sharp forest brambles limit the voyage by bringing attention back to the middle, and back down.

Le Labo Baie 19 ends up being both incidentally natural (like a rain shower one afternoon) and clearly man-made, like an old road overgrown after the freeway opened. And present, even after it subsides, like the vague memory of walking after a long, solitary promenade.

Official notes: dry juniper berry, patchouli, green leaves, ambroxan, musk, petrichor, cade

Other perceived notes: camphor, pine resin, steamed wood, aldehydes

–dana sandu, Sr. Contributor

Disclosure: La Labo Baie 19 sent for testing, opinions my own

From our samples, we will reserve and offer 3ml of Le Labo Baie 19 for one registered reader in the USA, EU or Canada. To be eligible, please tell us what spoke to you in dana’s review of Le Labo Baie 19, and where you live. Do you have a favorite Le Lebo fragrance? Draw ends October 24, 2019.

La Labo Baie 19 was added to the classic collection and is not a city exclusive. I interviewed Fabrice Penot, the co-founder of Le Labo in 2011. At that time the fragrances were for “her” and for “him”, and I asked him why assign gender to perfumes? Please take a moment to read the interview here.-Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief

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