[unpaid/sample/affiliate/ad] I’m going back a bit in time here and expecting many to already know this fragrance, but it’s my first time with Goutal Eau de Sud which launched in 1996. It’s a good way to observe how radically fragrances have changed over the past years – this is enveloping, rich and so French if I can describe it like that. My first thought on it was its ‘Frenchness’ and how it typifies warmth and sensuality and when combined with skin is something almost explosively feminine.
The juice was created by Annick Goutal but now lives under the Goutal label – Annick’s daughter, Camille, has taken the reigns since Annick passed in 1999. The opener is fresh – bergamot and orange, with middle notes of lemon verbena, lime, mint and jasmine with the jasmine doing its usual takeover of everything. So, that heavy bloom scent that jasmine gives is what wraps the entire experience. My brain quite often pings up images when I smell something for the first time – this time it was heavy cream satin – and then it made me think of the time I saw Isabella Blow having tea in a full length cream satin shift dress with a netting fascinator crossing her face (Philip Treacy perhaps). She was surrounded by six or seven young men in suits – they were hanging on her every word. So, I suppose that Goutal Eau de Sud is the scent of that moment that makes one human beguiling to others. I bet there is a word for it in the German language which excels at naming nuances.
The base notes are oakmoss, vetiver and patchouli but I don’t think I can pull them out individually in this. I get citrus and warm jasmine, mainly. Anyway, what a discovery – do you know this one already? I’ve read other reviews of this that are so at odds with my thoughts – many seem to find grapefruit and sandalwood notes and high citrus content, and while, yes, citrus is there, it’s less dominant to my nose than the jasmine. Perhaps the notes have changed over the years, but there is a mysterious amount of conflict! I’ve found it at Escentual for £68.40 HERE, non-affiliate HERE.
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16 comments
I’m almost tempted to buy a bottle based on that review alone. Everything I love in a fragrance.
check out other reviews too though Ann – everyone seems to have differing experiences!
That sounds like SOME perfume…I’ve not smelled it before and I’m not even sure it’s for me but my goodness I really want to test it!! The power of words…! I bought and still wear to this day one of my all time favourite fragrances Hiris by Hermes based on a review written by Hannah Betts I think in which she described the fragrance she loved as “almost unpleasant “ – I’d never been more intrigued, and she was right!!
Honestly, I know where she is at with that and it’s a very attractive scent to some – I love night blooms and also jasmine but there is a tipping point where it can start to smell of decay which is such a weird sensation.. being attracted to notes that are on the turn…
I am in need of something different and like the sound of fresh, citrusy and minty then jasmine! Jasmine scents (especially Fragonard’s) make me feel and visualise yellow, white and pale green in the sunshine, with a gentle wind blowing in my freshly laundered hair (after its first post lockdown trip to the salon of course)…eek too much I know.
Lovely ideas on a scent that turns, a “great carrion” moment. I am having a love / hate relationship with L’Heure Bleue which is sooo lovely but so melancholic and deliciously vintage, always a challenging one to wear.
For some German words: betoerend und verführerisch are good starters.
Schoenen Abend Jane, everyone. xx
I’m wearing it again today because I’m mystified – definitely a sharp opening but jasmine is predominant to my nose. From what you say I think you would really like this. Fragrance can often trigger colour images – I think you can probably train yourself to it more if you take your fragrance like a wine (not drinking it!) by savouring all the notes and seeing what happens. Thanks for the words 🙂
Yes I knew Eau de Sud very well some years ago. I loved it but for some reason I haven’t had any for a while, and it certainly does sound as if it has changed a lot. I knew it as a citrus aromatic, in the Cologne style. It had lots of sharp and bright citrus; lemon, lime, grapefruit and maybe also mandarin if I remember, and it notably had herbs; basil, mint and verbena, and some little florals in the heart, but it was by no means a floral fragrance. It had great clarity and crispness and it lasted quite a long time for a fragrance of it’s type. It was very bright, and very elegant. It was lovely for women and men. It’s sibling Eau d’Hadrien seemed to be more popular but I always loved Sud more. The perfume that you describe sounds lovely Jane but it’s also a shame really, because Sud was so fantastic as it was.
I’ve spritzed again today – the opening notes ARE really sharp but within moments, in comes the jasmine! I know that fragrances can react differently and of course, noses can smell differently. It’s such a mystery ….
Hi Jane, I don’t normally comment but I had to today because I re-discovered my bottle of Sud last month and have been wearing it again. It reminds me of one or two scents from the 80s that i loved and i’m really enjoying it. I wouldn’t call it a floral, or even particularly feminine, but I agree with the sensuality – it’s a fragrance to have sitting quietly on your skin rather than entering a room in front of you! It’s one of my favourite of Annick Goutal’s and I prefer it to Eau d’Hadrien.
Interestingly I don’t get a lot of jasmine from it – so maybe they have re-formulated or it just works differently on different skin?
Like Chrissie who commented I get yellow, white and green too! I don’t think it’s an ‘easy’ fragrance particularly but it is very French!
I’m so pleased you have commented! I’m a bit unsettled by the fact that I get something different to everyone else but even trying again, the jasmine is just what speaks to me. I’m pleased though that you agree with the sensuality of it – it just sits with your skin, you’re right! It could be that a reformulation is what has happened.. I’ve been through the Bois de Jasmin site and there is a commenter referencing a reformulation (in 2014) but can’t find anything ‘official’.
Interesting! I even hunted in the cupboard for a Jasmine candle to compare – but can’t find one. Once we’re released into the wild again I’ll try a Sud tester and see if they’re different. Guess I bought mine a few years ago now – perhaps 4 or 5 – but i keep it all packaged up and it doesn’t strike me that it’s changed much. But then, so many fragrances do seem to get subtly altered over time.
I really enjoy your reviews and was pleased and intrigued to see you’d picked Eau de Sud. It’s worth talking about and maybe one of its joys is that it can be slightly different on each person.
Thanks so much Nancy! It’s so strange that I experienced something so different. I’ve got Songes up next and Une Maison de Campagne candle … just things I’ve never tried before. But candle is in a long queue 🙂
Love this brand! I have Hadrien, Le Chevrefeuille and Mandragora (sorry if there’s any typo – French isn’t my forte..).. Me too lately get “time machine” with perfumes – but I went further back in time: found my childhood memory JáiOse from Guy Laroche! This time not as pure perfume, but eau de perfume (like this format more) – but I still recognize it as remembered from then… intense, slightly bitter, rich and fab…
Amazing.. my dad used to bring back Ma Griffe miniatures from his travels – I don’t know if they were airline freebies or hotel amenities..
This has been my go-to for years, on and off. A highlight was going into an Annick Goutal boutique in Paris years ago to buy a bottle and having the sales assistant spray me – very generously! – as I left with my parcel.
And recently in London I took part in a perfume workshop where we made our own scents – I took my bottle of Eau de Sud along as my inspiration.
I tend to gravitate towards citrus-y scents, and had been an Eau d’Hadrien fan before discovering this. It’s got the citrus, but also a bit of a dirtiness/earthiness to it. Almost a sweatiness (I realize this may make it sound unappealing haha).
Love love love.
Oh how lovely to have such a great memory of Paris! They certainly know how to present fragrance. I like citrus too but unfailingly this is giving me Jasmine!