Maison Margiela Replica By the Fireplace Perfume Review
Maison Margiela Replica By the Fireplace Eau de Toilette has always made me think of burnt marshmallows with their gooey centers dripping out; black smoke tendrils from the charred exterior mixed with the sticky, sweet vanilla interior. The fragrance is enhanced by a strong nuttiness, light spice (the clove doesn’t dominate), and a smooth, woody base. I find that most of the notes are well-blended and don’t stand out individually except for the cade oil, chestnut, and vanilla.
- top notes: pink pepper, orange flower petals, clove oil
- heart notes: chestnut accord, gaiac wood oil, cade oil
- base notes: vanilla accord, Peru balsam, cashmeran
The pink pepper hit first, but then was quickly swallowed by sweet orange wafting through a campfire where people were roasting their marshmallows, dense fog of smoky vanilla with spiced cloves, and their chestnuts, nutty and hot. The perfume very much delivers on replicating the idea of “By the Fireplace.” Cade oil is distinct throughout the opening and through the first few hours; it was dry, smoky, and tarry, which was what gave it the “fireplace” smell.
The darker, smoky undertone lingered for the majority of the wear, but it softened inch by inch as the fragrance developed on skin as the nutty, woodsy notes intensified and the sweetness became thicker and more resinous with a vanilla-amber swirl. By the fourth hour of wear, it was much subtler, while the spiced vanilla and woods made up the majority of the aroma, which lingered for several hours more.
Application
For testing, I used half of a 1ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise.Ā
Longevity
For an Eau de Toilette, it had exceptional longevity for me. It’s a scent that I can put two sprays on in the morning and find myself with remnants 12 hours later. I don’t find it has a long trail nor a ton of projection, but it has some projection for the first hour or so.
Personal Thoughts
I’ve owned this scent for awhile now, and it’s something both my husband and I use! The bottle has less than half to go, so you know it’s something that gets used frequently (though less so lately, given my penchant for testing all the new scents!). It has just enough of the dark, black smoke to invoke char but not to the point where it dominates, and the sweetness of vanilla, nuttiness of chestnut, and the spiced, ambery woods wrap it into a warm and cozy scent.
Available Sizes
- 100ml for $135
- 30ml for $72
- 10ml for $30
I’ve worn By the Fireplace for quite a few years….more than 5, I’m sure. I was surprised a few years ago when my daughter asked for a bottle of it for Xmas. She didn’t know I wore it but had discovered it on her own. I was thrilled – my own personal experience has been that quite a few women won’t or don’t wear the fragrances their mothers wore. My mom wore Diorissimo, White Shoulders and Joy for special occasions. I like Diorissimo but wouldn’t wear it….it just seems too much my late mother’s scent.
My mum wore Miss Dior (old version) and I went for Dioressence. I love those chyprebombs. Somewhere (packed) I have a boxed Joy perfume flacon. Donāt wear it; think it was too popular BITD. It was the Baccarat 540 of those times and there was just too much of it. In recent perusals of all time classics, it doesnāt make the cut. I do like to channel my mum, but my mgm not so much. She wore Shalimar, which isnāt my fave Guerlain at all. Also Royal Secret which I loved until a bottle opened in a suitcase, flying home from college. End of that, obviously.
Love all the MMM scents, they are so beautiful
Iām a vanilla lover and when this came out I scampered to get a small tester. Yikes! So much going on. So much overlapping that I never did find the vanilla. I do appreciate complex fragrances where obviously much thought goes into the making of the juice but for me, sometimes less is more. This has happened with a few classic Guerlain perfumesā¦.just tooooo much.
Me, with the old chypre Guerlains: LāHeure Bleue and Mitsouko. And Jicky, which was even older and on the sporty side for Guerlain. Their Vetiver seems less complex and Iām seeing it on some menās recs for spring. Not spring to me. Scent sometimes behaves like m/u. Your chemistry āeatsā some of the notes and what youāre looking for never shows up, lol.
Ahh I love that you reviewed By the Fireplace! This has been my permanent fragrance for the past four years, coinciding with whenever Elizabeth & James retired their perfumes. I use this everyday (I know itās a seasonal fragrance for some, but I forever want to smell like a toasty warm marshmallow in the dead of fall) & it has such a lovely wear on my skin all day.
SAMEEEEE
My favourite perfume! This is my second bottle. So cozy! Perfect for the colder months
This is one of my favorite fall scents. I have a bit left in my small spray, but Iām jonesing for the full size. I love the sweet smokiness of it.
I really like this one too. I must say im not even familiar with half the notes in this fragrance! I so find MM fragrances to not last as long as i would like but do like this one. I might buy the full size next year as im using a deluxe sample right now.
I really enjoy By the Fireplace. I’ve gone through two travel sizes in the last five years and might finally splurge on the full size. It’s the most gourmand commercial fragrance I’ve found to be sweet, dry, and NOT like sticky wet cheap sugar candy.
Our skin treats this perfume very differently! It completely disappears from me within a few hours. Even my clothes can’t hold the scent, it’s so odd. (not “scent blindness” either. I rotate perfumes, rarely wearing one more than a day or two in a row, and some – like BtF – I only wear every other week or a few times a month. spray usually gets on my clothes during application and will remain until laundry day…but not this one. So weird!)