Le Père Fouettard

[Hystrixia]

Whip leather, coal dust, gaufrette, and black licorice.

 

First off, I’d like to thank delighted for providing me with this decant. This sounded so nice and with the Christmas season upon us, I was dying to try this!

In the Decant: Le Père Fouettard (2013) is bright yellow oil that smells of mouthwatering sweet licorice pontefract cakes and clean black leather straight from the vial. It smells like a brand spankin’ new leather jacket with pockets full of sweets!

Top Notes: Fresh on my wrist, I get a quick lashing of sweet and slightly medicinal black licorice before the leather note takes the reins. The soot is noticeable and adds just a touch of sharp earthiness to the sweet, muskiness of the leather. So far this is a very sexy masculine scent.

Middle Notes: An hour or two later, the dominant leather note has softened and warmed up with the introduction of the vanilla waffle cookie (think of those pizzelle cookies that come in stacked side by side in the clear box). The combination of the soot and cookie is actually very pleasant and, as other reviewers have noted, gives it that fresh off the waffle iron feel. The licorice is still in the background and adds just a dash of greenness to the blend. It just barely teeters between being a foodie scent and masculine musk.

Base Notes: Four hours later, and the remaining notes are warm leather laced with waffle cookie crumbs. It’s wonderfully warm and comforting.

Overall Impression: "Daddy Whipper" indeed! If you took Santa’s evil twin out to a leather bar, Le Père Fouettard would be the result. It’s a dominant, sexy, and masculine fragrance that manages to maintain a bit of the cheery holiday foodie vibe in the process; something very rare as most foodie scents come off as feminine. If you’re the type of person who would prefer the idea of dashing through the snow on a snowmobile over a one-horse open sleigh during the holidays, this is the scent for you. The only way this scent could get anymore awesome would be to layer it with a vanilla cookie scent for extra umph. Le Père Fouettard’s scent colors are the colors of debauchery, smut, and flesh: gleaming black, dusty charcoal, and warm bisque.

Both sillage and longevity are moderate, so application throughout the day isn’t a necessity unless you really want to slather yourself in this stuff.

Final Verdict: Le Père Fouettard has me whipped. I’ll be keeping this decant, adding this onto my wishlist, and start hunting around for a bottle.

[Katillac]

This was my holy grail back in 2010.
Someone frimped me a half decant with a swap, and i was in LURVE. Like, "I will write songs about your beauty every day!" style LURVE.

If you are a female that loves leather, with a bit of sweet, you NEED to get this.
It's just as beautiful as i remember it being.

Never knew i was into leather smells (i was strictly foodie/floral back in the way back), and then this one happened.
Wet, it is mostly licorice, but (for me anyway) the licorice basically only comes up like pfeffernusse cookies. Then it's just sexy leather.
I really feel like if cookies had an S&M club after hours, this would be their scent. It's just sexy, and gorgeous, and i love it.

I was worried about the coal (kind of, Crimson Christmas also loves me, and i him), but sometimes "coal" goes to baby powder on me (any musk other than "red musk" does. It's sad, honestly.), but it's so nice.

It's not a "nice" smell, so anyone hoping for happy funtime cookie yay! should just not...but i'd say if you want a more badass/non vanilla Liz, you're safe with this one.

[Casablanca]

2016

 

I got to sample this as one of my friend’s decants last night. Everything in the notes list appeals except the wafer, so I had skipped ordering it myself.

 

On the wand, I smell mostly coal, and a mingling of other things I can’t identify.

 

On my skin, though, I smell a brown-sugary, cakey wafer, coal dust, and a hint of black leather. I’m intrigued and quite drawn to this at first because I love smoke and leather. The cakey note is giving this something homey and a little sweet, but it’s still as sooty as a Christmas chimney sweep. Each time I sniff I think of Smokestack. A little black licorice shows up in the drydown. I really like this, though I can tell it wouldn’t be an everyday scent.

 

After a half-hourish, the non-smoke notes disperse and this turns into nearly single-note industrial smoke on me. This is sad ‘cause it’s kinda boring by itself.

[LizziesLuck]

2016 version

 

My Yule decants came Friday, and of course I have been on call all weekend and too busy/tired to test them (plus I have such a huge back log of testing, my goodness! How did that happen??)

Anyway, when I opened my back of decants, I could immediately smell something awesome. I sniffed the outside of each decant, and it was this one that smelled so good! Right through the vial! I took the cap off and sniffed more, and immediately found myself a partial to purchase, without even putting it on my skin. It needs a proper review now.

 

Wet: This is such a rich scent! I expect sootiness and darkness, and instead get glorious rich sweet anise. I had to look up what gaufrette is, and now I get it!! It's a wafer. The coal dust is actually an incredibly pleasant smell, dark and glittering, and keeps this from being too gourmand. I love this. As it dries down, my favourite leather note starts to emerge. This only gets better!!

 

Dry: This makes me happy. I keep catching whiffs from my arm and thinking, "man, I smell good!" Glad I snatched up that partial immediately, wondering if that'll even be enough. The base is leather, with lots of anise and hints of that glittering coal dust note. Altogether unique and glorious. Love it!!!

[Blood onmy hands]

This is a pale, sad shadow of its former self. I wish that bpal would change the name of their blends when they differ so much from their original version. 2008 LPF is one of my favorites - heavy, slightly smoky black leather, rich and sweet black licorice and thick vanilla. It lasts 12+ hours on me and my bottle is almost empty I bought the 2016 expecting it to be at least similar, but it's not.
2016 LPF is a weirdly sour black licorice, what smells like actual dust, no leather and no vanilla. Has almost no throw and lasts 45 minutes tops on my skin. I'm sad that I wasted money on this.

[VetchVesper]

So, a couple years back I got an imp of this from 2008, and I loved it, so in 2016, when I saw it offered, I snapped up a bottle. So this review is a comparison of those two years.

 

2008's version is a little more salty/musky. The licorice from it has a masculine vibe like in Potteskafil. The leather is more prominent in this blend. There is a foodiness from the cookies (gaufrette) but it's really very much a part of the whole rather than gourmand smelling. Everything is well blended b/each note is present and balanced. Like the above reviewer said, it lasts FOREVER. It smells more leather/licorice/musk on me and a little more cookie/foodie on my husband. It's nice on both of us though, and I QUITE like it - hence the later bottle buy.

 

2016's version is more buttery. More cookie. Lighter on the musky, verging on animalic vibe. It also doesn't last as long. I have 2008 on my right wrist, and after 6 hours, its still wafting up nice and strong. 2016, on my left wrist is all but gone. That said - I still LIKE it. I just like 2008's more. I'm thinking maybe the age makes the difference? Here's to hoping.

 

If Le Pere Fouettard 2008 is blackstrap molasses cookies, Pere Fouettard is the same recipe with light molasses. But all molasses cookies are pretty good in my book.