Browsing by tag: institut tres bien

Institut Très Bien is one of several historical fragrance lines (Lubin, Rancé, etc) that have been revived by new owners in recent times. Frederic Burtin, whose grandmother reportedly was a patron of the original Institut Très Bien spa in Lyon during the 1930s, found an old perfumery book with a recipe for the spa’s Cologne à la Russe, and with the help of perfumer Pierre Bourdon, came up with a fragrance “as close to the original as possible” (via cosmeticsint.co.uk, 9/1/2004) At the same time…

“We thought about how the range would have developed had the Institut not closed,” said Burtin, “and we produced Cologne à la Francaise and Cologne l’Italienne.” (ibid)

I gave all three scents a very quick try shortly after they were launched, and liked them well enough. Of the three, my early favorite was the Cologne à L’Italienne, a refreshing blend of citrus, herbs and orange blossom, but at that time the line was only sold in France, and given how easy it is to find a nice summery citrus in the cologne style*, they didn’t strike me as WIFFY**.

Now that summer is coming and the line is more readily available in the United States, I thought I would give the trio a more serious smell…

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