Le Feu D’Issey from Issey Miyake is a strange beauty — boldly synthetic, oddly distinctive and way too cool for school. It’s like a 16 year old math protege who can build a time machine but still can’t get a date to the prom.
Luca Turin gives it a five star (out of five) review in his book, Perfumes: The Guide, calling it “the smell of portable intelligence” — but the fragrance bombed so badly in the marketplace that it was yanked shortly after it was introduced.
There’s a sweet spiciness (what Turin labeled the smell of lime peel and Vitamin B pills) underscored by the odors of vinyl flooring and hot spa rocks. You either love it or you hate it — indifference doesn’t seem to be an option. Personally, I have a deep affection for its overt geekitude.
There aren’t many bottles of Le Feu D’Issey left for sale, but I managed to snag one from a seller on eBay. Below are a few photos of the packaging and its poison-apple bottle:
UPDATE:
Other discontinued favorites I’m presently hoarding in my bathroom cupboard:
*Matthew Williamson Incense: the original version, not the recently reformulated, and subsequently ruined, version.
*Elternhaus MoslBuddJewChristHinDao: I’m assuming it’s discontinued because I can’t find it for sale . . . anywhere!
*Maître Parfumeur Et Gantier (MPG) Soir D’orient
*Yohji Yamamoto Yohji Homme
*Yves St. Laurent M7
{ 8 comments }
While I could comment on how I always enjoy your prose and posts, I must say the first thought today was…
Hooray! More package porn!…er, glamour shots!!
Thanks for all.
I actually burst out laughing when I read your comment — glamour shots. So true!
I love taking photos of the perfume packaging when it’s creatively put together, and I’m happy you’re enjoying them. Most of the reviews are from 1.5ml spray samples, so it’s actually a lot of fun to get a real bottle in my hands, and it’s double the fun when the bottle is cool.
It’s nice to know I’m not the only package por — uh, perfume packaging fan.
I’m so curious about this one, but it is so hard to find. Conceptually, it reminds me of the CdG Odeur series – would you say there is any similarity in the actual scents?
I smelled Odeur 53 a number of years ago, and it’s difficult for me to recall the experience with complete accuracy — but I remember that it was unusual and extremely synthetic.
So I would say that, yes, Le Feu d’Issey marches to the beat of a similar drummer. It’s weird and wacky and way more of a mind-f**k than a nice, pretty perfume . . . frankly, I can never be certain if Le Feu d’Issey is sharing the joke with me, or whether it somehow roped me into being its latest punchline, instead. Either way, I’m fine with it.
I gave the BF a big whiff of it the other day and he thought it was cool because it was so genuinely odd.
I ordered my bottle from a seller on eBay. He had two bottles remaining. The service was prompt and the perfume arrived in pristine condition, so if you’re interested, there might still be some left.
I’m wearing this right now. Opened with a huge dose of … canned peach with the metal still in. And something else a bit sour. Milk?
Definitely weird. So far a bit plasticy floral for me. I don’t mind the perfumer having a joke with me – every time I wear Dzing! I laugh. But I think I don’t get this one. So sad.
Yes! It is jokey! But I’m sorry to hear that you’re not amused. To me, it’s odd and strange and artificial, yet also pleasant . . . but not traditionally pleasant. It’s pleasant precisely because it’s so odd and strange and artificial.
It reminds me a lot of my visit to Tokyo and walking through small shops crammed floor to ceiling with the widest and weirdest variety of consumer goods.
I completely understand why it didn’t catch on with the general consumer, but I can’t help but love Luca Turin’s description of it — as a multitude of concepts whizzing by.
It requires further thought – because it was alllllmost unpleasant and yet, I didn’t take it off. I tried Chaos the other day and Jubilation 25 and had to removed both of them within an hour. But this is…something to think about anyway. Very much like walking by a half strange, half familiar place, and trying desperately to pin down what it is it reminds you of. As it has dried it’s gotten less sour, but it’s – more of a brain teaser than a perfume in some way. I enjoy the exercise, but…..
I fully agree with you on that point. Le Feu D’Issey is a challenge. I rarely reach for it, and when I do, it’s because I’m looking forward to getting my brain in a twist — or I want to make the people around me scratch their heads and wonder where. in. the. hell! that oddly intriguing smell is coming from.