Spraying Audace, a Rochas perfume created by Marcel Rochas in 1936. discontinued at the end of the 1930’s; totally reinvented/reborn in 1972 but, gone by 1979 – this is a familiar theme with the house of Rochas (they must still own the intellectual property as there is a brand new Audace out now in 2025, a bottle so ugly I refuse to put it up) – the only audacious thing I could find about this coniferous aldehydic chypre, ‘young, dazzling and extremely elegant’ as the ad states below, was its shameless audacity in ripping off Hermes Caleche.
And yet, might this perfume, a glorious find for me, actually
be even better ?
I am not sure I had even heard of it. But it is really quite beautiful. Graceful and fresh, familiar in structure and bearing, with its bergamottian galbanesques of rose/jasmine/iris rinsed in aldehydes, it is the juniper and pine at the core of this cold marble statue, with carnation in the heart and a perfectly chypric oakmoss patchouli base that steers it away, ultimately, from the comparable Caleche which on me, always ends up with the loveliest sandalwood (rather than the classical, darker chypre base). Audace goes through a psychologically broodful period for a couple of hours where the prominent rose note does a doleful, even angry, pas de deux with the woodier elements — until it eventually decides to snap itself out of its mood and come out sublime and citric and hale, like the exquisite white soap dish gentlemanly perfection that was the original Signoricci.
I love it. I shall treasure it. Wear it only when the weather is right (cold; sunny).
But how did you encounter this marvel, I hear you ask.
At a junk shop.
The other day I got a remarkable haul of vintage perfumes for next to nothing – after an inkling I would find something interesting and steering myself in certain directions – for a fifth or sixth of the price of a currently overblown niche.
I had been vehemently craving some more vintage Mitsouko for my Year Of The Pauper. I require some form of elevation on a daily basis and hark ! the heralds led me to two beautiful bottles of eau de cologne as well as a wonderfully tarry and spiky eau de toilette. There were two unopened bottles of Cabochard extrait, 30ml and 15ml – in olfactory perfect states – darkly leathery and replete with patchouli (there are times, rare though they may be, when only that perfume will do); the best bottle of Aramis I have ever smelled; a miniature of Audace and the incredible spray parfum de toilette version I have been describing ; as well as a museum- worthy 30ml extrait de parfum of Guy Laroche’s J’Ai Ose that is now being proudly displayed in our seventies Opium den kitchen – and, dare I say it, all for just over forty quid.
TREASURE, I tell you.
