This is the last of the By Kilian line I plan on reviewing. The one missing from the ten perfume collection L’Oeuvre Noire, that bears the quite a bit less modest title Black Masterpiece in English, Straight To Heaven, the most masculine leaning perfume in the line. True to form, I don’t really like it, so for now, it will remain unexplored. (I’ve been known to come around though, so that can be subject to change. 🙂 )
Created by Calice Becker in 2007, Liaisons Dangereuses includes notes of coconut flesh, prune absolute, plum, blackcurrant buds absolute, crystallized peach, cinnamon bark oil, ambrette seeds absolute, rose Damascus, geranium bourbon, Australian sandalwood oil, oakmoss extract, vetiver java oil, clear woods, vanilla extract, white musks.
Katie Puckrick calls Liaisons Dangereuses “a tea party in a rose garden. In heaven.” What a lovely, and fitting description.
In Liaisons Dangereuses, I find nothing reminiscent of the story it is named after (Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos’ Liaisons Dangereuses). It is a lovely, friendly, fruity gourmand without a hidden agenda or an ulterior motive.
Liaisons Dangereuses opens fresh and sweet, full of ripe and juicy plums and peaches. A slight hint of cinnamon accompanies the fruit as they slowly get richer and jammier, rose comes in and adds a floralcy that is beautiful, but the fragrance firmly remains gourmand. It is sumptuous and luscious, opulent and airy, rich and transparent all at once.
As it dries down, Liaisons Dangereuses becomes less fruity and more softly vanillic with a dash of mossy-ness, that I wouldn’t mind at all if it were a little more pronounced. Unfortunately in the dry-down a synthetic, artificial note creeps in, like artificial flavoring in sweets, that I don’t much care about. This strange note is not always apparent, but when it comes out, it is enough of a bother for me to scrub off the perfume.
Liaisons Dangereuses is a fruity floral, but a classy one. One where you can smell the quality and the care that went into it. As long as that jarring note doesn’t appear, that is.
On a good day, I am enjoying this liaison very much, the only danger I see then, is that of addiction. But unfortunately the artificial fruit note makes it altogether too dangerous for me to wear the scent.
Olfactoria's Travels 
Choderlos de Laclos’ story of Liaisons Dangereuses is my obsession – I have the book in several languages, the films, the theatre plays… And therefore of course (or unfortunately) I had great expectations – all those masterly composed intrigues and machinations, betrayals and lies, and well, love and erotic adventures too… – I found non of those in the scent.
Kilian just doesn’t work for me. Then again : considering the prices I’m not so sad about that…
Well, this scent certainly doesn’t do the book justice, I’m totally with you there.
I am loving the fact that there have been a few By Kilian reviews lately, I love it because for once I already have all the samples to hand so I can go away and smell them and compare to your reviews. I must say that I am coming round to beyond love and considering putting it on my FB list, who knew, a tuberose that I would like enough to buy??? I have only briefly tested Liaisons Dangereuses but so far not on skin, that will be on my to do list for tonight. 🙂
It’s great that you have the samples set now. That was such a great PR gesture from Kilian.
It worked for them, I bought a travel set as did my friend, I am also considering my second bottle before Summer. 🙂
It sure worked! 🙂
I tested this one only once on skin and I remember that I liked it and thought that it was very nice but too simple for the price. I will revisit it soon (with all the rest in the collection) but I’m curious: do you think this one justifies its price (not for you specifically but in general, as a creation)?
Wow, that is a hard question, and I’m surely not qualified to answer it. For me personally it is not worth the price, but many in Kilian’s line are.
I was hoping/expecting this one to be darker and jammier. What I got was a rather light, bright, sweet rose and that’s not really me. I wish it was a lot more dangerous!
Oh, yes. Dangerous this is not!
It is too rosy to sheer to me. It just is. It’s not bad, but it is nothing special. The scent actually nicely done but without depth. In this collection the only one I cannot like is Back to Black. No matter how I try. Still. Tuberose got me too! By surprise;-).
There is something for everyone in this collection, it is a good thing finacially that not all ten are perfect. 😉
Yes, luckily for my money.
Exactly! 🙂
Sounds like a interesting fragrance but because of price constraints, it will be something I will not try. I find it sad that most niche perfume price ranges have skyrocketed into untouchability for a lot of people. I have a price limit as to what I will pay for any fragrance, so there are many that I
love reading about , that will not be on my to try list.
Prices really have gone through the roof. 😦
Unfortunately, I missed out the free samples given out by PR but I am fortunate enough to have befriended the Kilian sales associate at my local Saks. She’s given me pretty much samples from the line – including Incense and Rose Oud (missing Pure Oud). I’m sorry this didn’t end well with you as it is my favorite jammy plum scent. On me I get a tart, pucker sensation in my throat after the fragrance settles – this is not a bad thing. It introduces a sensation of eating the ripest, sweetest flesh of a plum.
That said, I have a hankering for a plum tart now!
As you know, from FFF, my other favorites are Love and Tears and Rose Oud.
I would take some plum tart now too, please! 🙂 I will try it again from time to time, but in my five full wearings for the review, all ended on that synthetic note. 😦 Too bad, since I love the start of this perfumevery much…
Great that you have found a good SA at you local Saks.
It’s okay to strike out every now and then…yes, even if it’s by Kilian! hahaha 🙂
But he is so cute… 😉
This remains a no-no for me despite repeated trials. I get the synthetic note of which you speak from the off – and it triggered a headache on each occasion. I am not one for fruit + spice at the best of times, and this reminded me of a sort of updated Poison with the slightly plasticky facet of Amarige.
That said, it is a while since I have tried it, so I might not have quite the bad reaction if I was to brave it again! I seem to be mellowing on a number of fronts. “Mellow fruitfulness” fronts, even.
: – )
Maybe Keats would be a fan of Liaisons Dangereuses? 😉
I love to see you opening up to new fragrant experiences!
Such a shame that you get the synthetic note! I find it one of the best scents in his collection and wear it regularly. It lasts a good twelve hours on my skin and every time I catch a sniff of it I smile because I love the plum note so much. Dangerous it is not – I agree. Unfortunately for me many of his perfumes work remarkably well for me. My poor wallet is already cringing at the future releases.
Amber Oud is out in March I believe. Still time to save up! 🙂
I’m glad you like LD, without that screechy plastic I get, I would so love the rosey plum too!
I liked this one, though it reminded me quite a bit of the cheerful “Miss Charming” from JHAG— available for a less aspirational price 😉
Ultimately, I need a little more danger in my dangerous liaisons!
Me too! I never tried Miss Charming, because the name put me off from the start. 😉
I’ve been going through the sample pack as well and haven’t got to this one yet. Perhaps tomorrow! I do like Straight to Heaven quite a bit, even though I generally do not like masculines. I didn’t find it masculine myself, but extremely sexy – however, my husband agrees with you (and Luckyscent, which lists it as unisex) and he told me that I smelled like a dude!
I’m sure I will try Straight to Heaven again at some point, but for now, it is not for me…
I get the synthetic note, too, but right from the beginning. The result is that it smells cheap to me, even though by the description I wanted to love it. (I think there is some synthetic ingredient I’m hyper-nosic to because there are some brands that just smell too much like chemicals to me, even as other people rave about them in terms of natural sounding notes.)
That is interesting, it would be great for you to figure out what it is that stands out to you in such an unfortunate way. But thankfully there are so many perfumes to love out there as well. 🙂
This one reminds me of Stella, which isn’t a bad thing at all, but Stella is infinitely cheaper and doesn’t have the odd synthetic thing going on in the dry down.
Pleasant enough but not amazing like a lot of the other Kilians.
I completely agree.
But there are enough wonderful Kilians to keep me happy!
Amen to that.
So odd, on me this is green with some fruit! And green in a very “I can taste a dew-dropped stem” way 😀 I’m so excited (and yet disappointed) that I am liking – no, loving – 3 of Kilian’s scents so far… Bye bye holidays… Bye bye savings for future wedding/children’s college/etc….
The Kilian discovery set is a great investment, especially since all ten are really nice, not a dud in the bunch.
Agreed 😀 So excited to give them all a full wearing, which is what they deserve! The stingy Dutch side of me wishes they weren’t sprays but dabbers though… 😛
Lol, the hedonist in me is very happy they are sprays, I can’t really judge a perfume when I only dab.
Pingback: Calling Forth the Beaches – Review: Parfums M. Micallef Ananda | Olfactoria's Travels
Pingback: Beach Vacations » Blog Archive » Calling Forth the Beaches – Review: Parfums M. Micallef Ananda …
Pingback: By Kilian Liaisons Dangereuses EDP Perfume Review | EauMG