Parfum d’Empire Eau Suave : Perfume Review
My first impression of Parfum d’Empire Eau Suave was that it was a rose fit for a king. I was therefore surprised to find out that I was utterly mistaken and that Eau Suave was inspired by Josephine, love of Napoleon, and was meant for empresses and other women. I had it backwards. This is the kind of trouble that you get into when you don’t bother to read anything about a perfume but simply smell it from a vial, taking a cue only from the name and more importantly from the vial’s contents.
In this case, “Eau Suave” seemed like the name of a cologne for a dandy or for a dandy’s modern equivalent. I opened the vial and out rushed a red, red rose that had a pitch characteristic to me of male fragrances. Shows what I know. But it did make me think about how we perceive fragrances as masculine or feminine and what signals or clues we use to arrive at that decision.
