Le 3eme Homme (or The Third Man) by Caron

It's a partly cloudy day, the sun blazing out at intervals, and windy with the Texas humidity barreling back onto the scene after its blissful Autumn/Winter absence. So in honor of what I suppose is the return of the perpetual heat, I received three new fragrances in the mail -- well, three new fragrances to me. Le 3eme Homme by Caron, Declaration by Cartier and Timbuktu by L'Artisan Parfumeur.

I unboxed each one, set them on the counter in front of me, then reached for Le 3eme Homme (for whatever mystery reason that will forever remain buried in my subconscious) and sprayed it on.

I was immediately struck with its quickly crisp, bright sensation -- not sharp, like mown grass or a tree branch freshly stripped of its bark, but more like a citrus flower in the sun -- that seamlessly incorporated a bit of dry smoke for a result that was unapologetically pretty for something with the word "homme" in its title.

I walked into Brian's office and asked him what he thought. He buried his face in my neck and said, "Hmmm, citrus. Clean. You smell clean. Nice. Hmmmm, it reminds me of something . . . oh, I know. CK One! Not exactly CK One, but it's that fresh, clean scent that I remember CK One having, oh, 12 years ago."

And he's right. Le 3eme Homme has quite a lot in common with CK One -- its crisp, fresh character; its ability to be present without being overpowering; its light sillage; but it also differs from CK One in significant ways. Le 3eme Homme is more beautiful (if not ravishing) than sweet, more natural floral than flowery soap, and it has a shimmer of incense smoke across it that incites a tug of reverence, adding a layer of introspection, a haunting refrain of the blues, to what would otherwise be a straight-ahead dose of Greet the Day Happy.

It also doesn't last very long, which is an understandable consequence of its light touch. It's four hours later and I can barely smell it on my wrists save for just a smooth pull of sheer musk, whereas I was still grooving on the rich, whiskey sweet hues of New York over seven hours after I put it on.

It's an obviously expert fragrance concocted by an intelligent perfumer who knows his sh*t, and if I were to make one final comparison to CK One, I'd say that Le 3eme Homme is CK One's older, smarter brother who moved to Paris to finish his doctoral dissertation on the confluence of 18th century French Literature and 21st Century American Politics while ever refusing to don a beret.

Mon Dieu!

UPDATE:

When I returned from the coffee shop, Brian gave me a hug and said that he could still smell the Le 3eme Homme on me, but at about an 80% lower volume level. The remainder was smooth, polished wood with a slightly sweet, resinous tone. Completely unobtrusive, and noticeable at only intimate distances.