The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Michel Almairac built Try To Follow Me from a single, specific moment: a night crossing the Atlantic on an A380. The brand's own copy tells the story best, two strangers, a poker player heading to a high-stakes final, fresh mandarin and vetiver doing exactly what fresh mandarin and vetiver do. The fragrance translates that eroticism of the initial encounter into scent: bright, green, alert. Then the deeper notes arrive. Cedar. Amber. The kind of warmth that doesn't shout but stays. What begins as a spark of attention becomes something more lasting, the scent of a chase that could go anywhere, or nowhere at all.
What makes this composition interesting is what it does with two materials that usually play supporting roles. Cedar and vetiver aren't novel notes, but here they carry the entire middle, supported by green notes and mandarin in the opening, moss and tonka in the base. It's a structure that rewards patience. The fragrance doesn't announce itself with fireworks. It earns attention the way a good conversation does: incrementally, then all at once. At extrait concentration, the material is substantial enough to last through whatever the day, or night, throws at it.
The evolution
The opening arrives quick: mandarin's sweetness, ginger's clean heat, a whisper of green. The black pepper adds a slight prickle, enough to make you pay attention. As the top notes begin to settle, the heart takes over. Cedar and vetiver, working together. The cedar provides the body; the vetiver provides the intrigue. This is the phase that defines the fragrance, the middle hours where it stops being about citrus and starts being about atmosphere. The drydown unfolds gradually. Moss and amber ground the cedar. Tonka bean adds a faint sweetness that keeps things from getting too austere. Musk stays close to the skin throughout, tying the whole thing together. The scent moves from bright to warm, from alert to intimate, without ever losing its sense of purpose.
Cultural impact
Part of the Histoire Privée collection, Try To Follow Me occupies a specific space in the LEN catalog, a fragrance that treats scent as storytelling. The poker narrative gives it a built-in intrigue that resonates with wearers drawn to fragrance as more than just a pleasant smell. It's the kind of composition that invites you in with its opening and rewards patience as it unfolds, shifting from citrus brightness into something woodier and more complex.
