Trance
Betrix (1988)

Trance opens with a slightly sweet deep, jasmine spiced fruity hybrid pruned plum accord with a vague woody undertone. Moving to the early heart, the spiced pruned fruit melds with the woods as co-stars, with smoky amber joining in support. During the late dry-down the majority of the fruit vacates as slightly powdery remnants of the amber join the jasmine spice and wood through the finish. Projection is outstanding and longevity excellent at well over 12 hours on skin.

Trance is one of those obscure discontinued late 80s compositions that have fallen under the radar of most perfume enthusiasts. It quite frankly would have done the same for this writer had it not been composed by Edouard Flechier of Parfum d'Homme, Havana, Une Rose, etc. fame... Oh yes, and of course there is also his mid-80's blockbuster, Poison, which actually is what Trance most reminds this writer of. Indeed, as soon as one sprays Trance on skin the tie to vintage Poison's jasmine and plum is all too apparent. In the case of Trance, Flechier takes a lot of his winning Poison formula and tweaks the plum to a more dried prune-like fruity aspect, while adding in some vague but far from synthetic smelling woods. Trance's late dry-down goes in a different direction than its predecessor, with a gorgeous combination of the woods with the remnants of the floral jasmine spice proving an intoxicating combination. So in short, while the original vintage Poison is a masterpiece and needed no alterations, Trance really proves equal to the task, adding yet another winner among so many others to Mr. Flechier's vast repertoire. The bottom line is the long-since discontinued and extremely rare Trance may have significant ties to Flechier's own earlier masterpiece Poison, but it proves that similar to how he changed Montana's great Parfum d'Homme into the equally great Havana by Aramis, with a bit of tinkering vintage Poison's formula works yet again in Trance, earning it an "outstanding" 4.5 stars out of 5 and an extremely strong recommendation if you can find a bottle or sample (and yes, it is definitely worth the effort to do so). Chalk up one more masterpiece for Mr. Flechier!