Le Chevrefeuille was impossible to find in the U.S. until the last year, when it was happily reintroduced as part of the Les Soliflores collection. I’ve been dying to try it ever since reading Tania Sanchez’s tantalizing review in Perfumes: The A-Z Guide:
Honeysuckle is impossible: you can make it happen in photorealistic detail for an exciting half minute (see Demeter’s Honeysuckle), but you can’t build a full perfume on it because it never holds together. That’s why Goutal’s honeysuckle isn’t one. Instead, it’s a garden fantasy of citronellal and tomato stems, a tom yum soup without the fish.
Tania’s right, y’all: this ain’t honeysuckle. In fact, it’s not even a floral! Le Chevrefeuille is centered around a tart, leafy note somewhere between tomato leaf and lemongrass. The scent is completely linear and lasts about an hour (par for an Annick Goutal). Le Chevrefeuille occupies an interesting place as the gentlest and least sharp of the “stemmy” fragrances (think Diptyque L’Ombre Dans L’Eau, Aedes de Venustas Signature Eau de Parfum, or Jo Malone Blackberry & Bay for the other end of the spectrum). Le Chevrefeuille is desperately pretty, and a pleasingly zingy choice for the summer. I’m glad the Annick Goutal gods have returned it to us.