My infatuation with Frapin 1697 led me to explore the rest of the line, Caravelle Epicée was the only Frapin I had heard of before. And there are mostly good things to be heard.
Caravelle Epicée is easy to love. For a spice lover that is, which I am. It is a fairly straight forward fragrance that does not disappoint from initial burst of hot spices to amber-y drydown.
It was created for Frapin by Jeanne-Marie Faugier and features notes of coriander, nutmeg, hot pepper, pepper, thyme, Gaiac wood, patchouli, amber, tobacco and sandalwood.
Caravelle Epicée starts out spicy (duh!) and segues into a slightly woody, but ultimately amber-y drydown. Its base reminds me of Ambre Fétiche actually.
It is very wearable, great year-round in my opinion, although winter would be the most obvious choice for it, I love to wear it now, when the sun shines and the wind is still cold. It provides an additional layer of cozy warmth around my shoulders, but does not overheat me when the sun is out. It is a perfect outdoors fragrance, something a rugged forest ranger might want to wear just as much as a city-dwelling lady on a walk through the park.
It is unisex, it is highly wearable, it lasts for a reasonably good amount of time and its sillage is average.
To be straight about it – I like this a lot, but I would not want a bottle. Let me rephrase that, it somebody insisted on giving me one I would be glad and it would probably get many wearings, but I would not buy one right now. My new frugality has me paring down my list to things I really, really want and this does not make the cut.
Said list is astoundingly short, I imagined it would be miles long by now, but the effect I wanted did indeed come to pass, I know better what I really want in my collection, what really captures my heart and what is just an infatuation or what would be no more than a nice, but ultimately redundant addition.
Caravelle Epicée is highly recommended if you don’t have an amber scent that does not skimp on the spices. It is your workhorse spicy amber, and that is a big compliment, even if it does not sound like one.
Caravelle Epicée is available from Luckyscent in the US and First in Fragrance in Europe, in 100ml Eau de Parfum.
Olfactoria's Travels 
Funnily, the 1697 also led me to investigate the “rest” 🙂
You know I have my own parfum-embargo (I’m sure lots of us has it after a certain time…), and my most important last questions are “Do you really need it, or is it a “transit-craving”? Would you like to sleep few nights over it ?” But, of course, one has to be really honest with her/himself…
Interestingly most cravings have a way of disappearing after a few days, only if those few days were not that hard to get over… 😉 If a craving fro a particular perfume is still present after a week, I take it seriously and on the list it goes.
What do you think of the “rest”?
I quite liked the rest – well, I tried only 3 of them : Caravelle (yum), L’Humaniste and 1270 (deeeeeep, earthy, …). They’re all done very well. If I’d find them on my doorstep one day, I’d definitely take them – but they’re not on my list, so far.
We are on the same page here. 🙂
Only a couple of months ago the list was long, no? 🙂 Ah, the jadedness is setting in. The I’ve-smell-it-all-ness *insert sinister laugh here* :)))
Good old & wise Marina… 😉
I am afraid I am not really there yet (thank Goodness!), I have not smelled way too many things to start being jaded. But I started being more discerning and more realistic as to how much perfume I can actually use, space and time being limited as they are. 🙂
Epicée and I got on quite well; I really liked it immediately, but for me, it was the far dry down that really did it. I wore it as a sleep scent several nights, and the aroma that would greet me in the morning? To die for!
There are similarities in the base to Amber Fetiche, as you noted, and it also felt related to Mitzah; which, as it turns out, is a good thing 😉 That must be what I like so much about the Frapin!
It is a very well-made and lovely perfume. I’ll do what you did and wear it to sleep again tonight…:)
Don’t Frapin make wonderful scents for a cognac company? I’ve only tried 1270 and Terre de Sarment so far but I like them very much. It’s funny, I don’t like the taste of wine/alcohol but I love the smell! My sample of 1697 is finally on it’s way (after a mix-up) and I have no doubt – judging from your review – that it will be even more swoonworthy than the rest. Can’t wait!
Oh and it’s great that your embargo has been so beneficial in so many ways, not just financial. I like the idea of “curating a perfume collection” (as dicussed in the NST article of the same name) and it sounds like that’s what you’re doing now. It was a brave decision to make (particularly as it was so public!) but it’s really paying off. Congrats!
They do indeed!
Terre de Sarment is on my sampling list too.
Please let me know what you think of 1697, I am so curious whether you like it.
Thank you for your encouraging words, Tara! But you know, sometimes I just want to go to a perfume store and just buy everything that strikes my fancy, a kind of perfume binge…but it won’t happen, sigh. 😉
My workhorse amber is Anarchy (the dupe by Irma Shorell of DK’s Chaos). But DK started producing Chaos again (a reformulation, blah!), so Irma Shorell had to stop making Anarchy, which was well made and true to the original. So I have a large bottle hoarded away now, what will my next workhorse amber be? I mean, a workhorse has to be available, not hoarded, right? So sad. Ambre Fetiche smells great on other people, but like shrimp shells on me, weird!
-Marla
Shrimp shells – how interesting, but I agree it is probably not the best scent to project to the world. 😉
But on the up side, now you have an excuse to happily test your way through all the available ambers out there!
Must look up Irma Shorell…