L'Empreinte

L'Empreinte is the fragrance Courrèges used to relaunch its perfume arm in 2021, and the brief was unusually severe. In 1971 the house's first scent, Empreinte, was a full-dress chypre by Robert Gonnon, thick with aldehydes, iris, oakmoss and castoreum. Half a century later, under artistic director Nicolas Di Felice, perfumer Nicolas Beaulieu was asked to keep the idea and throw away the architecture. What is left is a bergamot and patchouli accord sitting on ambroxan, and almost nothing else. It works because each element is doing several jobs. The bergamot supplies the sparkling, faintly bitter citrus lift a chypre needs, but it is sweetened here rather than sharpened, so the opening reads warm. The patchouli is the modern fractionated kind, dry, spicy and clean, without the earthy damp of the raw material. The ambroxan underneath is the reason the fragrance behaves the way it does, giving it a mineral, salty-ambery glow that clings to skin and clothing far longer than the small note list suggests. It is frequently mentioned in the same breath as Baccarat Rouge 540, and the comparison is fair but flattering to L'Empreinte, which is airier and considerably less shouty. Projection is modest after the first hour and the wear is closer to a scented aura than a statement. Genuinely all-year and all-purpose, it is at its best worn casually, and it suits anyone regardless of gender. In lane terms it is a modern minimalist amber chypre from a fashion house that has taken its perfume seriously.