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JeannieMer25 – :
My gosh, this floors me!! Instant green/chypre and citrus giving away to loads of cinnamon, and ending in resins and spicy earth. So good!
Warm yet dry crunchy autumn. Woody spicy heaven! I think this could still be worn to a late night summer bonfire. 🙂 but not for hot sunny weather.
So, I’ve been wearing for hours, and I get the Mitsouko comparison, but there is no mistaking Mit’s peach, and Apercu has the cinnamon. And Mit smells like Guerlain powder. But fans of Mit need this asap. I bought a back up.
Sillage isn’t huge, and I wish it was.
While the opening is gone, the drydown still smells distinctly fall… cinnamon, cloves, smoky dryness/earth/wood. It’s quite smooth, smells like some kind of cider barrel.
max1121 – :
A deep resinous fragrance, elegant and refined. It’s not for those who love sweet fruit cocktails, this is a haunting, woody, spicy concoction. I note some comments comparing it with Mitsouko – more of a Mitsouko layered with L’Interdit I would suggest.
This is priced mid range, and I think it’s quite a bargain for such a classic vintage lady, eminently wearable with good lasting power.
kuznec – :
Thanks to your reviews here, I just blind bought myself a bottle online the other day. The sites I normally purchase from were all out of stock, but I was so set on having it NOW that I hunted a bottle down and it is on it’s way as I type! I’m in Australia and I’ve never heard of it or seen it anywhere here. I CAN’T WAIT to get my hands on it! BTW I have also got a sample of Mitsouko coming too so will be interesting to compare them. I am 100% convinced that I will totally adore this fragrance. I love green and chypre fragrances. Chanel No 19 is one of my all time faves and today I’m wearing Halston Classic which has also become a hot favourite of mine. And as another reviewer or 2 remarked here, Apercu has already been discontinued and could well be the last of the great oakmoss/chypre fragrances of our modern times! I am seriously thinking about stocking up…but might wait until I’ve at least sniffed it first. I’ll be back with a review asap 🙂
….Finally it arrived. First spritz I put on a friend’s arm and smelled it on her. The lasting impression I got was one of a pretty full on chypre. Earthy and mossy. Next time I sprayed it on my hand. Again, a fleetingly fresh opening evolving quickly to a very dry, earthy, woodsy scent. I love oakmoss but it didn’t strike me as mossy as much as dirty, like earth. Eventually, it changed to a lovely soft geranium scent. Today I tried it again. It was raining today (I recalled what another reviewer wrote about trying it in the wet) and I sprayed it on my chest. This time I got a lovely brightly fragrant opening, citrus and floral. Very nice. While it definitely became earthy (the patchouli I presume) again, it was less severe. In fact, it was a much more blended scent and much more enjoyable for me. Then it evolved into that beautiful geranium scent with still a hint of dryness. I can’t say I find it especially “green”, not in the manner of Chanel 19. And I’ve not yet really detected much in the way of spice either. But if it’s like a lot of other fragrance experiences I’ve had, it will be a work in progress. Often it takes several wears before I begin to understand and appreciate a fragrance properly. But I am definitely falling in love with this one.
BTW it’s also a lovely bottle. Got a touch of the “olde worlde” about it.
EDIT: This is another fragrance that benefits from being left to linger to your nose rather than burying your nose in it. When left to linger, it is a much more balanced scent, not so dry and mossy all at once, and the geranium comes through as well. It’s really beautiful. But as someone else mentioned, it is a quiet scent and stays close to the skin.
bart149 – :
I don’t know what it is about this fragrance! It reminds me of Mitsouko (?) did I spell that correctly by Guerlain. This is not very sweet not floral and one might even call it unisex and it is most assuredly a chypre and a green but it’s so nice. It has a mysterious autumnal air. Smells like a forest in the fall. Green grass, brown leaves, golden leaves, red leaves, yellow leaves. This is a greener and woodsier version of Quelques Fleurs which is all florals. This is throws up a lot of green notes that border on smelling like pure grass and oak moss in the way that Chanel No. 19 can do. It is mature and hard to pull off in the wrong season. Wear this in the fall and winter. It matches up with scarves and coats. Smells great in the rain! When it’s been in the rain it smells like wet earth and wet tree leaves.
There is a medicinal and tea like scent in the first spritz. Tea is not listed as one of the notes but I find it similar to the lemon tea aura of Mitsuoko. Mitsouko is very citric and here we have the same kind of top notes. A zesty lemon and a fragrant neroli. O my good that opening is to die for. Once the citrus disappears I get a jasmine flower and not much else. A very lovely but shy jasmine, perhaps a bit of ylang and either a very faint rose or geranium. There is also tuberose but it is as silent as the jasmine. This is not as floral as a traditional floral fragrance. It couldn’t be. It is not the spring time. It is the fall. The scent evolves quickly into all the greenery of green moss. Some patchouli herbal leafy scents. There’s spices thrown into the mix like cinnamon and some earthy scents of cloves and woods. Very lovely. Spicy. Green. Aromatic. Gorgeous fall fragrance.
This perfume is not very well known and I’m surprised that some people have worn it and reviewed it. This is not going to be a big statement fragrance but it does come off as mature. If you want to wear it to a public place in the autumn it would smell great in church or cathedrals. This is also a unisex scent. The flowers are barely there and its mostly green notes, moss and wood. This can be worn successfully by a male who has experience with green chypres. This is a beautiful fragrance and it would smell great on my upcoming camping trip with my friends from Nashville. I am so enchanted with this perfume.
Thanks Fragrantica
toliker77 – :
Apercu and the Last Days of Oakmoss
To the reviewer below me, yes, this is chockchockchock full of oakmoss (but I disagree that there is nothing more.) In fact, if you are searching for a true oakmoss/chypre perfume I would pick this up–in a few years I’m sure this will no longer be available, as it was d/c’d a long time ago. I am surprised that Houbigant would try to resurrect something like this as late as 2000. Apparently the original Apercu was first created in 1925–who knows how close it is to the original? It does remind me a little of Mitsouko (1919) so maybe the Houbigant perfumer liked Mitsouko and decided to put his own spin on it? All I know is that this is a heady, woody, spicy, dense fragrance, totally unlike anything released even in 2000.
Apercu (pronounced Ah-pear-sooh, I had to look that one up as I have zero background in French) is a perfume loaded up primarily with basenotes and spices: Oakmoss, patchouli, vetiver, cinnamon, clove, resins, and smoke. When I describe what this smells like, keep in mind that those notes are the dominant ones, and the other notes are merely the supporting cast. The opening gives way to a smooth green apple + bergamot, that gets a little greener as time goes on, the florals come out after the apple fades off, first demure white florals, then a very sultry, red rose and geranium. The rose + geranium is very velvety and rich and lasts for several hours. Also during the wear I can smell something like smouldering campfire coals along with wispy smoke. Keeping up with the outdoor woods accord is the patchouli that for several hours smells like 100% dirt. Loamy forest soil covered with crushed autumn leaves, but dirt nonetheless.
The really amazing thing about Apercu is the way it wears– it’s not loud at all. Even though it is loaded up with super heavy notes, it really wears fairly quietly, the sillage is pretty light, I think this could be worn anywhere. However, it lasts a full 12 hours with 2 or 3 sprays, and I have no trouble smelling it on myself, which is nice. I hate when I can’t smell my own perfume properly.
I love love this, Apercu is a true spicy/floral chypre and probably the last perfume of its kind. I adore the smell of oakmoss and woods and dark flowers and spicy resins and autumn, I just started wearing this perfume and it has become one of my favorites. This had no time to be reformulated because it was discontinued soon after its release, so the bottles you find will all be the original formula. For those who do love Mitsouko or Aromatics Elixir you may love Apercu, too. This is why after all these years I still like to test perfumes, in hopes that I will bump into something exactly like this.
Maksim-VDV – :
Ugh, the ugliest chypre. All oakmoss and nothing more. Hate it.
no_name – :
This wears like the woodsier version of Quelques Fleurs. This is a forest scent for winter and autumn. It’s a walk through the woods. Instead of picking up flowers to smell you’re picking up leaves and tree branches. A definitive chypre. Apercu begins with a blast of aldehydes and citrus: neroli, lemon, bergamot and orange. There are some green notes too but they become bigger and bigger as the scent reaches it’s final phase. This is hardly a floral fragrance as I could only detect ylang-ylang. It’s a fleeting scent and it goes straight into the spicier woodsy base. Oh it has cinnamon, patcouli, cloves, oak moss, oak wood, vetiver and cassia. For me this felt like a warm spicy scent of woods that I hadn’t experienced in a long time. It’s not quite a Chanel No. 19 Ivoire de Balmain or Aliage by Estee Lauder but it’s in the same family. A chypre of quality. Spicy, green, aromatic, woodsy, patchouli based, a tad masculine. Totally unisex, gorgeous. If you’re looking for more wood in your perfume this will do. 65 bucks on Fragrance X the best and fastest online fragrance business. LOL Now I sound like they pay me to promote their business lol
tasya – :
This is very much an old school chypre. I was so excited when I received the sample to try after read all the reviews and was floored when I opened it. My mother and said it reminded her of a cheap perfume from the ’70s called Tigress. I thought it smelled a bit like Clinique Aromatics Elixir. Many people love those scents but it was not attractive to me. Pungent and takes a long time to die down to a wearable volume. I just found it too overwhelming.
Oblighblotham – :
If someone told me that Aperçu (with ç and NOT C) was created in the 1920es, I would believe that.
If they told me it was created in the 1950es, I would also believe.
It has that class, refinement, discreet opulence of the perfumes that we, who have lived more than a couple of decades, long for and regret no longer exist.
This is a stunning chypre, of outstanding quality, very long lasting and with perfect sillage. You wear it, and people around you are captured but not strangled by your scent.
Oakmoss is the key that gives life to this scent: if many modern scents and old reformulated ones, have non existing lasting power, it is because of lack of oakmoss, which was the fixative par excellence.
Remember the old O de Lancome? You know the newest version? Can you compare the respective lasting power? Good, you see what I mean.
In Aperçu the oakmoss, the spices, the woods, the citrus and bergamot unite in a wonderful symphony where the only flowers I detect are geranium and jasmine.
But no one else is missed.
MASTERPIECE.
denis_95 – :
Review is of parfum concentration, teardrop shaped bottle with a red tassle, the one currently available from discounters.
Apercu is a classic-style oakmoss-y chypre so beautiful, so widely available, and so inexpensive that I can’t understand why it doesn’t get more attention from lovers of Mitsouko or Rochas Femme. It is very much in that same family of fragrances, a spicy chypre for cooler weather.
Dare I write it’s even easier to wear than those two classics? It is! Apercu’s development moves from a tender bud-like green opening (nothing sharp or galbanum-y here) through floral notes to dry down to a deep, spicy oakmoss. It ends up in a place somewhat similar to Mitsouko, only its starting point is even further removed than Mitsouko’s is. This long development never has an awkward or harsh moment. It is soft and graceful throughout.
The version available at discounters now is a year 2000 re-release of a much older fragrance. This version went into production and was discontinued shortly before IFRA’s restrictions on oakmoss went into effect. All the more reason for Apercu to deserve attention from chypre lovers: the bottles available now are still fresh and have intact topnotes along with an abundance of oakmoss. Not many chypres on the market can boast the same.
simacaulay – :
After re-reading the reviews from others, I know that I have to try this one again because spicy is definitely not a word that I would have used to describe it. I had to wait several months before really trying this one because I could tell right off that it was a cold weather scent and I bought it in the spring. I applied it in a hurry, someone was coming and I wanted to have something/anything on. Around 2 hours later I remembered that I was wearing it . . . but it had almost completely disappeared from my skin! And this is an EDP! I will try again and if I have a more favorable reaction, I will edit this post.
Completely forgot about this one until it was mentioned in a thread on chypres. It starts out smelling wonderfully old fashioned on me!! If it was reformulated when reintroduced in 2000, they did not change it much at all!! I can easily imagine this being very popular in 1925. So many wonderful chypres were first introduced early last century.
Alas, once again it disappeared in around an hour. I tried to check the batch code, but couldn’t find any site that worked.
As much as I love classic chypres, this one just isn’t right for me.
xKillEvilx – :
I have a much older bottle of Apercu parfum that I think is from the late 50’s to mid 60’s.From what I’ve read this scent was created in 1925 and relaunched in 2000. Does that mean that it was possibly reformulated at that time?
The fragrance in my bottle is exquisite and reminds me again of how awesome the early Houbigant fragrances were!
leonvurd – :
I got my bottle of apercu this past spring, and while I found it beautiful, summer isnt the season for it. Today though, its in the 60’s, breezy, overcast. Perfect fall weather for this beauty! Its gorgeous. Its like a time machine to an autumn day, with my family together, much needed warmth of the sun, crisp breeze, leaves falling to a red and orange leaf carpet….picking out pumpkins and buying fresh apple cider.
We took a fall ride every year. My dad worked a lot so time together as a family was special. This perfume brings to me one of the best memories of my childhood. Absolutely beautiful.
crow177 – :
I got a sample of this and really like it. It has an autumnal feeling to it. It’s spicy and green and reminds me of walking through leaves on a Fall day with a bit of smoke in the air. I’m not sure that it was created in 2000, it seems like a vintage fragrance to me. Have you ever been in a fruit cellar? There is a slight fruity note in it, not the modern type but like fruit in a basket in a cellar, very appealing with the spices and greens, feels like natural, quality ingredients were used.
Любовь Евгеньевна – :
Apercu opens sharply, mostly cinnamon and powdery green. It’s warm, spicy, and dry. I get a musty aspect initially, but it’s faint and dissipates quickly. I catch a whiff of citrus as well, bringing to mind a dried orange studded with cloves. In the heart, blossoms develop and Apercu changes from a sophisticated, spicy chypre to one that is simply wonderful. The warm spices and bitter greens balance like a waltzing couple. Florals harmonize sweetly in the background. (They stepped forward when I drank a cup of jasmine tea while wearing it.)
At first glance, Apercu is so pointedly cinnamon and spice that “Overview” doesn’t seem like a good name. However, once the dominant notes settle into a melody, it is a wrist sniffer, not to decipher and appreciate note by note, but to savor as a whole. The overview is where the pleasure of Apercu lies. It is a masterful composition. It’s also definately a wintry scent; when I sampled it in the summer it was suffocating. Thank you Fragranticans; I’ve never seen this in a store and bought it blind based on descriptions here. It is wonderful.
Apercu has prominent green notes, but it’s a red-brown fragrance. I’m reminded of ‘Killing the Blues’:
Leaves are falling
Just like embers
In colors red and gold
They set us on fire…
Sillage and longevity are both good. A couple of spritzes will last all day. As the day progresses the scent gets better, sweeter, more intimate, less formal.
tigr555 – :
I have to say that I just don’t get along with this scent and I’ve tried wearing it several times.
The colors rust and brown come to mind instead of green. The top is pure acetone turning to a cinammon and oakmoss combination which feels very heavy. The first 5-10 minutes, I sniff it skin close it actually smells good with a distinct touch of clove. But after an hour of wear I find myself wrinkling my nose and asking “what the heck is that dank smell?” The sillage is pervading and everlasting, a dark and too spicy cloud that seems to follow me around and bring down my whole day.
I wish I could appreciate it but the smell reminds me more of a musty home that’s been closed up for many years with no air, dusty baked goods sitting on the counter and a slow water leak, than a beautiful fragrance.
In short, it just smells horrible on my skin and I won’t be wearing it.
Zeniatage – :
Stunning, elegant and refined. The vintage feel makes it beautiful and it takes you back to when fragrances were more than just fruity. Definately worth testing.
ihp404elipseskism – :
tested it, getting it, it was beautiful and well made. You can just tell from the first spray. It lasted nicely too. Classic for sure, gotta have it in my collection.
Shiersrepresy – :
Quelle surprise! I got a sample of this almost as an afterthought as I did not know much about it. Tried it today, and fell in love. Chypre is my favorite group, and this one would make an excellent addition to the collection. If I had to choose one word, I would describe this fragrance as balanced. In the vial, there is a bitter scent that dissipates immediately on the skin. Lightly floral without sweetness, a light citrus-green tone, with a warm spiciness. A little of everything and rather than being a mish-mash, it is a luscious, sensuous yet somehow light fragrance that stays fairly close to the skin, and has very reasonable longevity. Glad I tried it!!
Эльвира – :
Amazing fragrance!!!
It is dry, spicy with moderate sweethness. I feel clove from the start and even suspected peper here. This composition is so pleasant to my nose, that, I think, I could die happily sniffing Apercu:)
vtorma2 – :
Love love LOVE this, it is loaded with oakmoss and not sweet, yet there is a deep spiciness to it as well. I have to think that it is pretty good reinterpretation of the original. This is probably the last decent Houbigant scent before the house fell into the hands of yet another company that does not care about the greatness it once had. This house is only a name now, very sad. Get this and Demi-Jour in their original older versions if you love oakmoss. Apercu is a wear everywhere, always proper type of scent, yet it’s not like the mass marekt scents of today. A classic!
nikolka1960 – :
Apercu is a very classic, very green (oakmoss) chypre. It wears a little ‘warmer’ than some other green chypres I’ve tried, probably due to a nice cinnamon note and maybe the sandalwood.
Although it was released relatively recently, it definitely has a vintage feel and, as a result, may not appeal to those who like more modern floral or fruity chypres.
For fans of scents like EL Knowing, the original Jean Louis Scherrer or K de Krizia, Apercu is a must-try.
Танита – :
I’m not sure my sample was the relaunch or the 1925 original. What I smell is a soft, vintage fragrance that is very much a chypre scent. Definitely old-style without seeming dated or old-fashioned.
Pooley – :
Aperçu is a perfume you can wear anywhere. Not too strong, yet with good lasting power. Not too sweet, but elegant and unmistakably feminine. Easy to live with, but not so popular that everyone else is wearing it.
The fragrance is dry and spicy over a fresh citrus top note, but has a floral bouquet at the heart. If it were a piece of clothing, it might be a tailored jacket with a sprig of forget-me-not pined to the collar. Its quiet ease is a nice contrast to the overpowering or cloyingly sweet fruity-florals and woody-vanillas that have predominated perfume counters lately.