Etat Libre d’Orange – Secretions Magnifiques eau de parfum review

Secretions Magnifiques is a perfume by Etat Libre d’Orange niche brand known for its twisted, weird and interesting perfume creations that can boast with high-quality ingredients (an elusive quality for most mainstream brands) and inspiring compositions. Secretions Magnifiques is a creation that made ELDO part of perfume history as it is one of the most repulsive, disgusting perfumes ever. But we can’t say we weren’t warned.

What to expect from the perfume named Magnificent Secretions? Let’s see what the makers say:

Like blood, sweat, sperm, saliva, “Sécrétions Magnifiques” is as real as an olfactory coitus that sends one into raptures, to the pinnacle of sensual pleasure, that extraordinary and unique moment when desire triumphs over reason. Masculine tenseness frees a rush of adrenalin in a cascade of high-pitched aldehydic notes. The sensation of freshness is gripping. Then the fragrance reveals a metallic side, precise and as sharp as unappeased desire.

We are on a razor-edge… skin and sweat mingle, and tastes of musk and sandalwood. The slightly salty marine effect stirs, arouses, and sets your mouth watering. Tongues and sexes find one another, pleasure explodes and all goes wild. Confusion reigns supreme. A subversive, disturbing perfume. It’s love or hate at first sight. Sensuous jousting is rarely satisfied with half-measures… In between Don Juan and the woman who offers herself, arms are laid down… Who will be the first to surrender?

I can’t say I agree with all said above, or even most of it. But somewhere, between the lines, there is some truth. Secretions Magnifiques is highly polarized, love or hate perfume. Just one thing, though, I haven’t met a person that loves it. Although many love to hate it. It may be the most hated perfume ever made. Why? What’s in Secretions Magnifique that causes such strong, negative reactions?

First of all, the perfume has all the pleasant, delightful scent notes the other perfumes have. It is made out of fantastic ingredients: iris, sandalwood, opoponax, milk, coconut. The problem is the way those notes are combined. This is why we can’t decide on a perfume based on the notes written in the perfume description. The thing is how they are mixed together.

Perfume composition of Secretions Magnifiques

Secretions Magnifiques opens fresh, citrusy, almost innocent. My nose detects orange, although it is not mentioned among scent notes. But the innocence rapidly becomes metallic, organic and unbearable. Like the scent of insides of a freshly gutted pig. Barbaric. Primal. The instinct is punished by the civilization judgment: No perfume should smell like this! And indeed, if the perfume function is to smell nice, then this is an anti-perfume. Some even call it a conceptual perfume, perfume not meant for simple pleasure but perfume as a work of art that gives a different kind of pleasure. We can’t say that enjoying the ugliness is foreign to people – just remember Umberto Ecco and his History of ugliness or Baudelaire who was ecstatic with pleasure while sniffing garbage, dirty underwear and carcasses. But more on that in my Perfume Psychology section.

Be that as it may, Secretions Magnifiques is a challenge. A challenge for your nose, your taste, for everything you find good and valuable in the perfume world. Does this mean you shouldn’t give it a chance? If you’re looking for a perfume you will wear daily, perfume to seduce certain something or yourself, stay away from this. But if you have an adventurous spirit and your nose desires the adventures from Alice’s Wonderland, then go to your favorite niche perfume shop and face with the ultimate and magnificent dare – Secretions Magnifiques.

Perfume creator is Antoine Lie.