I smell nods to Edmond Roudnitska's style in Remarkable People, Cécile Matton's 2015 creation for ELdO. I think it's the curry and champagne notes. The curry is slightly sweaty and smells more like cumin, which Roudnitska favored in several of his older creations, including Femme and Eau de Roche. Matton preceded Remarkable People five years earlier with a scent for the same brand called Josephine Baker, in which the same two notes are paired. (Josephine Baker was the first edit of this scent and was an exclusive European Sephora release that was discontinued to make way for Remarkable People.) Structurally, it is all but the same perfume with merely a different name. One might deduce that she has an interest in creating a signature accord, a type of commercially viable unisex freshness built around unconventional spicy notes, and here she succeeds. Remarkable People is coherent, smoothly blended, and subtle in a way only a deft nose can manage. It's a pleasantly understated fresh-spicy composition that works well for me, albeit with at least one major fault, which I'll get to.
It opens with a citrus-infused champagne beigeness that is both bright and oddly warm, feeling the way carbonated wine tastes after it's been left out a little too long. Cardamom essential oil adds much-needed body and a bit of green woodiness, while spiced jasmine and Mane's trademarked Lorenox dominate the drydown, lending a soft, delicately textured synthetic woodiness to the base. The floral component wafts up to me throughout the wear, which lasts about eight hours, and the sillage is limited to intimate encounters, rarely straying more than three inches beyond my shirt collar. Despite that, I appreciate the way the curry, reading as cumin, adds a subliminal skin tone where an otherwise sterile scent would be. This quietly animalic nuance elevates the experience just enough for me not only to notice Remarkable People, but to genuinely like it. It's not super remarkable, nor is it something that will stick in the memory for ages, but when it's on me, I can settle into it. I also like that it suddenly had me pondering Roudnitska. There's something to be said for a contemporary perfume that conjures memories of a master perfumer's works.
The big problem with Remarkable People is the question of its target audience. Who is this actually for? ELdO is a pricey niche brand that commands premium prices in the luxury perfume space, and this fragrance is no exception. But why would wealthy suburbanites or urban tastemakers gravitate toward something so soft and simple? This kind of colorless freshness was once popular on a much larger scale in the 1990s with fragrances like Chanel's Allure and Dior's Dune, but Remarkable People lacks their heft and bone structure. It comes across as limpid, timid, and a touch watery. I'm all for plunking down big bucks for something well made and olfactorily compelling, but I doubt that Remarkable People clears that bar. It could simply be a case of faulty concentration. The current formula feels more like a fortified cologne than a true eau de toilette, so perhaps modifying the dilution ratio of the fragrance compound would do the trick. All in all, it's a good effort with the potential for greatness, and one that the brand would be well served to revisit at least one more time—and this time, with feeling.