To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
gsjyth – :
The spice cabinet has been neglected in perfumery. I imagine this has to do with perfume producers not wanting to be pinned down by the literal, the prosaic, the kitchen. From the consumer perspective, I don’t know if there is much of a market for culinary spice perfumery, but the need is probably met by aromatherapeutic products. I know that there are others spicy/bakery/culinary perfumes: Tauer’s Eau d’Epices, Lutens Five O’Clock au Gingembre, l’Artisan’s Tea for Two, but I’ve never tried them.
I do see a train of thought that goes from Estée Lauder Cinnabar/Dior Opium to Serge Lutens Arabie to Un Crime Exotique, though. For each of these, the spice is in the syrup. A syrupy quality in perfume usually implies an overt sweetness. Generally, in terms of nose feel, syrup = sweetness + viscosity + flavor. The flavor might be vanilla, maple, cinnamon, cardammom. The ‘flavor’ is the spice. Crime Exotique skips the implied syrup (Cinnabar) and the overt syrup (Arabie) and takes the spice in a different direction. The touch of syrup that Crime Exotique gives you is firmly grounded in clove, one of the few cold spices. The chilly blast of clove in the topnotes of the perfume surround you at first but subside by about 80% fairly quickly. The syrup goes the way of the clove hurricane, and Crime is soon revealed as a woody perfume. When not drowned in sweetness, spices like clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, even ginger are shown to be characteristically woody in scent.
Un Crime Exotique takes the wood and runs with it. What appeared to be syrup is actually more of a resinous quality that the perfume builds on to make a rich woody floral. The perfume settles into a cool vanillic range that maintains the drying, antiseptic character of the clove, but links it to a floral quality. Parfumerie Generale list osmanthus among the notes.
Un Crime Exotique flirts with the gift-shop candle vibe, but is just nuanced enough to escape. The opening notes of the perfume are a refrigerated blast where clove overpowers virtually all the other notes. The heart is evenly balanced, and the spicy, woody and floral notes move around one another respectfully. The drydown gets a bit grey, non-descript. It smells like a muffled version of Lutens Un Bois Vanille’s cool, woody vanilla. A little blurred, but not bad at all.
from scenthurdle.com
mercol – :
This perfume has a distinct scent of fresh tea mixed in with gingerbread and sandalwood; it’s a lovely a gourmand with an herbal twist rather similar to Sacrebleu by Nicolai Parfumeur. Un Crime Exotique smells similar to a coffee shop/vintage book store during Christmas time; it’s festive and warm with a penchant for nostalgia.
The opening is cinnamon, chai tea and gingerbread. Though on my skin I find the gingerbread to be dominant, with cinnamon notes contributing subtle whiffs of spiciness. Sandalwood and tea create a cozy accord that makes me think of pumpkin pie fresh out of the oven and sprinkled with a generous amount of nutmeg and allspice.
I see comparisons to Pacifica’s Mexican Cocoa and I have to disagree, MC smells to me like dark chocolate with a heavy dusting of coco powder and an almond filling. It smells decadent and buttery unlike UCE which is spicier in a totally optimistic and cheerful way.
Un Crime Exotique is a wonderful scent that manages to encapsulate the holiday spirit for all seasons and occasions. It’s simply a delicious and happy fragrance, nothing complex or extravagant. It’s a perfume I’ll end up using as a room deodorizer because it reminds me of pies baking in the oven; it’s also great for concentration or to help with relaxation and sleep.
Vienna.Pink
kizak – :
A Cinnamon bun, yes, and definitely gourmand, yes, but it’s so much more…gingerbread gives it that sort of baked goods/pastry feeling, but there’s also a hint of tea, anise, and chai…I would buy a bottle if I could find one!
I only get tiny tiny whiffs of Holly & Osmanthus as it dries.
Sandalwood comes out in the base, but I don’t usually notice it much.
msv – :
I agree with Pinnacos – it’s nice, it’s gourmand, but it’s the smell of festive candles in winter. At first a big whack of cinnamon and star anise then it dries down gradually to a spicy warm gingerbread. A novelty scent for winter, lovely after the initial blast, but not a serious personal grooming item, is it? I walked along thinking “I smell like pot-pourri – a Christmas candle – or room scent.” The osmanthus is struggling against the cinnamon, to be honest. Having said all that, it’s cheerful. Required wear for all Santa’s elves and maybe the reindeer as well 🙂
qelmira – :
“Dude, you smell like a Yankee Candle”
xoro888888 – :
INSTANT love at first sniff. This had been on my ‘want’ list for so long, and all the anticipation was worth it!
Admittedly, the reason I love this fragrance so much is that it’s 100% reminiscent of an Arts & Crafts store like Michael’s at fall/Christmastime. It is all cinnamon, vanilla, gingerbread and tea. Simultaneously a little bit gourmand, a little bit spicy, slightly milky and warm, and a little bit potpourri. Very warm, cozy, inviting, and comforting.
Definitely potent, probably not very practical for every day wear – but will that stop me? Nope!
The longevity is several hours – Spice clings to my skin very well, so on me, this fragrance is at least a 10 hour wear. Sillage is also pretty huge, I was impressed. Many ‘tea’ scents are very close to the skin.
If you love the holidays and fall beverages, check this out.
yuriysds – :
Now i have a bottle of this and I really like it very much indeed -for the two weeks of the year that its appropriate to wear it. Why only two weeks? Because it smells exactly, and I mean exactly, of Christmas pudding, on fire, bathed in a seriously good overproof Rum -probably Lemon Hart 151 if you want to get into specifics.
For this reason its also the most inappropriately named perfume i’ve encountered. Bloody good name though. Completely squandered in this capacity of course..
Other reviewers have accurately described it as a novelty fragrance. But nonetheless i have a bottle, because its rich, smooth, delicious and lovely and when i break it out every Christmas it will be just the right thing for the holiday season. Nom nom nom…
NikaJ – :
I found a bottle on EBay with maybe 10mls in it. It’s so strong, I can’t imagine the person who wore almost the entire bottle! This little bit will last me a lifetime, I’m sure.
On me, it smells like a sexy cinnamon bun. The cinnamon almost knocked me out at first when I sampled it last night.
Have you seen the videos people post on utube when they try to eat a teaspoonful of pure cinnamon? Well, that was me when I first sampled it with my usual 3 sprays. I figured out that this is one of those that you have to spray into a perfume cloud and walk through it. Direct application to the skin is way too much.
Some of the reviews compare it to Chai tea and some compare it to Pacifica Mexican Cocoa. It has the ginger in chai and the spicyness in PMC, but that’s it. On it’s own, it’s not milky like chai tea and it’s not chocolately like PMC is, but it is very warm and spicy.
Anyway, this is a must have for cinnamon bun lovers. It’s discontinued, but worth the effort – and this comes from someone who usually can’t wear spice!
chadov – :
This smells a little bit too literally exactly like a chai tea. It reminds me of being at my favorite brunch spot, which is pleasant enough, but I don’t like my perfumes to remind me of hot milk, or really any kind of dairy product. It’s pleasant though, in a quasi CB I HATE PERFUME chai-bomb sort of way.
Александр XXX – :
The first time I sprayed on this scent it smelled good, like a nice sweet cinnamon and vanilla. I now realize that I did not put enough of the juice on to properly analyze it. The second and third skin trials yielded different results. The cinnamon was immediately overwhelmed by a strong anise note and then both were totally overtaken by a sickeningly sweet and rather cloudy, skunky and overwhelming chai tea scent. I like tea scents that smell clean- this one definitely does not. This is funky, too sweet tea with yak butter in it and spices. Not my cup of tea let us say. My experiments with this scent will not be repeated. It is not for me.
gadina25 – :
On my skin, much vanilla and cinnamon. The gingerbread brings a delicious gourmand nuance, and at the base, with less attention but without ceasing to appear, a incense light vibe and aroma of hot tea those use creamy milk, used in place of water, spectacular.
Exceptional aroma, delicious. Longevity very good and Sillage moderate/good.
Ps: Sorry about my english.
armagedon_kr – :
This offering from Parfumerie Generale reminds me very much of drinking a steaming-hot cup of apple cider on a cold winter’s day. The cinnamon, anise and gingerbread bring a sweet, aromatic spiciness to the fragrance right from the beginning. The spices feel as though they have been stirred into a hot mug of tea or cider, providing a warm and comforting sensation. The vanilla is not especially apparent – this isn’t a thick or creamy vanillic number – though I expect it adds to the overall sweetness and warmth.
Un Crime Exotique is a delicious scent, though it’s simpler and lighter overall than what I prefer in this type of fragrance. Personally I enjoy the combination of sweetness and spice in a more substantial oriental composition like Hermes Ambre Narguile, or even Parfumerie Generale’s Indochine, which has a woodier base anchoring the sweet/spicy notes.
dimasssss – :
The notes describe this one well in that it sits somewhere between chai tea and gingerbread. As with a number of the PG line, it’s tastefully balanced and not nearly as sickening as many other gourmands on the market, offering a more nuanced experience due, in part, to the smart inclusion of the anise that favors freshness over syrupy sweetness. The name feel like a bit of a misnomer at first, but you could imagine this scent emanating from Phyllis Dietrichson’s mug as she maps out her husband’s death. Consequently, there’s a weirdly incidental, noir-like quality to it that could potentially calm the nerves during sketchy dealings.
PG has brewed up a gourmand for those who’d rather not smell like ultra-sweet cake dipped in sugar and coated with caramel. As a tea scent, it’s more mimetic than it is interpretive; so if you like the idea of smelling like chai—without smelling like you rolled around in sugar for an hour—this one might be worth exploring. Although it’s not my personal cuppa’, it’s one of the better one’s out there right now.
Timakov35rus – :
Translation of meama’s Review:
or is the crime or is exotic?
it is a perfume syrupy but opens onto a beautiful cinnamon very soft. It was only after half an hour the next pastry spring.
Obviously this is very well done but … this is a very nice crime than stealing a biscuit.
My Response:
I would buy a sample of something that made me smell tasty! :*
abc825Bessinepome – :
10)little boy crime
where is the crime where the exotism?
it is a syrupy scent but who opens onto a beautiful very sweet cinnamon. It was only after half an hour than the pastry side spring.
Obviously this is very well done but … it is a very nice crime to steal a cookie.
où est le crime où est l’exotisme?
c’est un parfum sirupeux mais qui s’ouvre sur une magnifique canelle très douce. C’est seulement après une demi-heure que le côté patissier ressort.
Evidemment c’est très bien fait mais … c’est un crime bien gentil que de voler un biscuit.
Volshvid – :
Molto buono…viene voglia di mangiarlo…
gomer517 – :
If you love the smell of those cinnamon-scented pine cones at Christmas, you’ll love this! I rather enjoy cinnamon perfumes and seem to have gravitated towards them in my scented journeys, but this one is STRONG. If you can wait out the first hour+ of cinnamon Christmas potpourri, you will be rewarded with a smoky-sweet drydown deliciously reminiscent of fresh baked gingerbread with homemade frosting or more specifically, hot out the oven pfefernusse cookies.
gette555 – :
And I’m left breathless, i have thing for these kinds of scents and I just can’t get enough of them. After I first saw the notes I knew I’m going to be completely in love and yes I am. There is everything I love – anise, tea, cinnamon and vanilla.
After I applied it I got the most amazing cinnamon which reminded me of home baked cookies, scent wise, the opening was very similar to Sacrebleu by Parfums d’Nicolai. Anyhow, then I started to get sweet tea with a bit of syrupy osmanthus, but just a tiny bit and it faded away rather quickly, yay for that as I’m not so fond of syrupy scents. The next thing that arrived on my wrist was dark and smoky sandalwood.
Sexy, alluring, comforting. It has it all, simply lovely.
iyod – :
nothing to do with crime and not so much exotique, more homecoming to a cosy kitchen after baking cookies for christmas or having a glass of spice milk at a winter fair
still, I ike it but I do smell like a gingerbread man
Menug337Bessinepome – :
After a harsh initial blast it reminded me of a cannoli. I’m not a huge fan of this kind of fragrance so perhaps I didn’t pay much attention to it. I do like Genie in a Bottle, though, which is also too harsh at first. The drydown on that one is much more dynamic, with a great interplay of several distinct notes that offer some contrast. If you want to smell like a cannoli, though, this may be the way to go. Another in this group, IMO, is Iris Noir by Yves Rocher, which has an herbal quality and a powdery quality, so I also prefer that one for being more interesting, despite how it reminds me of a cannoli (to a lesser degree).
jlj964elipseskism – :
To me this smells like a steaming mug of spiced apple cider with a cinnamon stick floating in it, really wonderful.
Dries down to a mellow warm vanilla, with a hint of the floral and sandalwood coming through, lightly dusted with sugar. Sweet but not saccharine. Subtle and comforting.
I’ll be pulling this sample out again come autumn/winter.
aak74 – :
Bold with gingerbread and spice, a lot like very rich chai tea with some serious smoothness.
I find though that the osmanthus is completely overwhelmed by everything else and I get very little of the soft, floral-apricot nuances.
Albeit well done, this is too much of an unoriginal novelty fragrance to be considered part of any line’s Private Collection.
kokslutsk – :
Private Collection Un Crime Exotique by Parfumerie Generale
This name alone creates a sense of..
Heightened DRAMA…..
something will happen or is about to happen
and your in the middle of it .
Intrigued and lured by its Old Hollywood Film Noire name
I ventured to sample it ….
“INDOCHINE”
might have been a better suited name ….
Allow me to set the film up….
The Decadence of the French living in Vietnam and the exploitive evils of Colonialism….
A exotic place all Steamy and Humid!
Languorous visits to hidden
Mandarin “OPIUM DENS”…
All the while you are floating on a “JUNK” on tranquil waters…..
When suddenly you are awakened by the rude shots of a gun….
You feel the wetness of liquid on your chest. the OPIUM has dulled your sense of pain ….
Is it blood ? NO!
The smell of fragrance fills the air …
Your favorite crystal decanter lies on the floor shattered….
You smile …
having cheated death one more time … you return to your revelry.
Then …
Un Crime Exotique would perhaps make a bit more sense.
I really like this Spiced Tea Infusion scent.
The fragrance is so heady with GINGER and Spice… predominantly Saigon Cinnamon.
Perhaps this mysterious sounding ingredient ..called
“Osmanthus”
which in CHINA is infused with green or black tea leaves, to create a scented tea called guì huā chá (OSMANTHUS TEA)
creates the “CRIME EXOTIQUE” in this Potent,Intoxicating and Long Lasting Fragrance….
A 50ml bottle for 100.00 bucks