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I’ve only really tried the ‘main’ FM’s but I’m steadily working my way through the ones that have been out years but I didn’t get to yet. My main objection to this is the name...because it’s not outrageous is it? I mean notes like cellophane, pebble, dew drop, or squid...now that would be outrageous, this is just meh. It’s a synthetic, musky citrus accord with that classical edc element of white florals which are non typical but still not outrageous, on a cedar type base. I didn’t think much of it after the okay opening, then when it settled I actively wasn’t much of a fan but then (and this is usually the case with many perfumes) when dried right down to faint basenotes, I thought mmmm...that’s really nice actually. Outrageous averages out to be OK that is all.
Outragous! then. Well, on a personal level, I love technical elegance in perfumery and it would be hard to deny that Sophia Grosjman doesn't epitomise that. Her commonly used collection of woody, floral, musk and ionone materials creating a signature accord is akin to taking a well established three chord progression and crafting a hit song out of it. What's Outrageous about this perfume is perhaps that it takes some of that approach and applies to a high end art brand, rather than a more modest and affordable high street one. So...The price is Outrageous basically. I'm joking of course, value in perfume is certainly not judged that way in this camp, and for a moment there I honestly thought I'd fallen in love with this perfume, but on reflection, I can't quite justify the expenditure, even at a reduced price. Outrageous smells bright and such in the opening, it's not very analog as expected, it's a fruity powder for the digital age. What I do like is just how minimal and uncluttered it is. The apple note is not annoying, the orange blossom is so squeaky clean it barely has any of the naturalism which makes orange blossom so interesting, the wax and animalic indole or even the pairing with spices like caraway or cumin from perfumes like Serge Lutens, Fleur d'oranger for example. Yet this sanitised version of orange blossom (that's what dominates to me) is somehow satisfying and not lacking, because it's providing me with something else I crave, a perfume which allows me to wear and enjoy and almost switch off any kind of critical thought or deep emotion, usually something I'd say a perfume needs to have, but the lack thereof is what makes Outrageous (ALMOST) special. hmmmm...I think I need to continue this at some point.....
À warm, orchard apple opens this perfume, the sort you'd make cloudy apple juice from. Then as it dries down cinnamon and aldehydes (ever so slightly cheesy) are revealed, then finally the trademark EDP musky base. Bizarre, complex and wonderful. Update after two years of owning: This is a very strange, stark combination of aldehydes and spice, with fruit, but not in an old-school way. The fruit is like weird, plastic, abstract fruit, or maybe some apple slices in a condom, and eventually dries down to a musk with wafts of apple pâtisserie. It's a series of notes found in orientals of days gone by, but presented in such a skewed manner as to be unrecognisable as such. Pure genius, although I can understand why it lurks in the background behind other Malle scents. This one isn't loud, it isn't a show-stopper, it's more of an intellectual, academic study of old-school perfumery through the most aloof niche lens.