We have certain preconceptions when thinking about perfume: it’s fragrant, pretty and generally pleasing. Perhaps (if you’re feeling daring) you might opt for something more lushly seductive but it’s usually thought of as ornamental, luxurious and slightly pretentious, if not a little boring.
Then again, Etat Libre d’Orange is about as far from a ‘normal’ perfumer as you could possibly hope to find. In conversation, creator Etienne de Swardt invokes everything from the films of Wim Wenders to the poetry of Victor Hugo when discussing their complicated scents and tells me: “I was born a storyteller and not a perfumer”."The perfume is designed to literally smell like sex: blood, sweat, semen and saliva"
A bottle of the semen smelling 'Secretions Magnifiques'. Photo: Courtesy of Etat Libre d'Orange
The scent has notes of blood, sweat, semen and salvia. Photo: Unsplash
The fragrance imbues the implacable scent of saliva. Photo: Unsplash
I Am Trash was launched with a specially commissioned short film, featuring fruit decomposing in front of viewers’ eyes and worms writhing around fecund matter, before flowers sprout and bloom from the rot. Again, the perfumery hovers at the intersection of beauty and disgust. “We like the contrast,” de Swardt says. “We don’t like absolutism at Etat.”While this might not be for everyone, Etat Libre’s perfumes have impressed the experts. Marcello Aspria is a Teaching Assistant at Erasmus University Rotterdam, with a research interest in perfume and “smell culture”. He sees many of Etat Libre d’Orange’s perfumes as having roots in the literary Decadent movement."The perfumery hovers at the intersection of beauty and disgust"
The perfumery also has an unusual scent called 'Jasmin et Cigarette'. Photo: Etat Libre d'Orange
Etat Libre d'Orange's full collection of scents. Photo: Etat Libre d'Orange
The company's motto: 'Not just a fragrance – a state of mind.' Photo: Etat Libre d'Orange