Frapin 1697 Absolu Review

I keep meaning to review Frapin's 1697 but I always get sidetracked with something else. When I first heard about this being released last year, I was kind of excited. I was going through an odd phase of just randomly buying full bottles of Frapin perfumes. Espirit de Fleurs and Passion Boisee left me underwhelmed and one of them left me a little nauseated. I'm guessing that I was so enamored with Frapin's 1270 that I thought that the others would be in the same vein. Passion Boisee and Espirit de Fleurs were nowhere near the same vein as 1270. Then, I got my hands on a decant of 1697 when first released. I was reading a lot of perfume blogs to see what other's were saying about it and the results were mixed.

On first contact with skin, there is a massive blast of booze along with what I can maybe identify as pineapple. I've never had a huge liking of fruity perfumes but Frapin did a fine job with fruit in 1270 but in 1697, I think it (the fruit aspect) was overdone along with the boozy aspect. I've noticed after three hours of wearing, the fruit and booze mellows out but still packs a huge punch. After 12 hours, 1697 is still going strong with no signs of slowing down. To tell the truth, I find this to be a much harsher and louder version of 1270. Would I buy? No, not when there is the mellower and much better 1270.

**Please note that 1697 is no longer sold in absolu form. The current version is an EDP.