Bandit Robert Piguet for women

Scent for your LARP as a butch lesbian who rides a Harley through the forest in her sweaty leather jacket occasionally stopping to crush cigarettes into fresh greenery under boot heel.

Idk what statement this made in the 40's but in our degraded age it's a nuclear "fuck you" to everyone in your vicinity. Amazing stuff.

old school bitter leather very animalic and kind of grandpa fragance smell like green notes that comes from a citric used on those types of fragance, some people may find it smelling simple, some overwhelming, but I love this one, definitely one of top 5, my second favorite leather fragance

The most beautiful moonlit evening murky languorous glowing swamp beneath trees that you will ever encounter...A fragrant fantasy picture image in dark blues and blacks illuminated with gold and silver in the mind's olfactory eye. All this from a fruity leather perfume. Remains mysterious to me even after 20 years when I first encountered it. A mysterious, passionate, perfect love.

Reminds me of raw gingerbread dough mixed with some civet. Meh.

Absolutely outrageous opening - lots of definitely-not-vegan dirty animalic notes in stark contrast to the squeaky-clean aldehydes and “shaving-soap” chypre notes, not really balancing each other out so much as standing at odds with each other, really crazy but special. Dries down to a less intimidating leathery musk with a really gorgeous and very French orange blossom note running through it and the aldehydes providing that note that reads like vintage elegance in the 21st C. Overall the drydown reminds me of the story of how Grasse came to be known for perfumery after leather working because of the wealthy planting scented flowers to cover up the smell of the tanning hides.

Sprayed it both on a tester and my wrist and the green bitter notes are much stronger on the cardboard, I think it does need skin chemistry to mellow out but imagine a lot of people would be scared to spray it right on! Anyway, what a trip, glad to have finally tried this classic. Not suitable for office wear unless you’re the boss I think.

thank u jack once again

"Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather
Whiplash girl child in the dark
Comes in bells, your servant, don't forsake him
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart"

Stunning!

“Bandit is the perfect perfume to create an aura of mistery" and Piguet himself wanted it to appear as bold as possible.
A fragrance that made the history of the brand, Bandit is surprisingly very current.
Aldehydes gives fresh and accents, accompanied by aromatic, green, but at the same time fascinating nuances.
Masterfully executed.
For lovers of aldehydes.

Sophisticated rubber. Bandit is impossible to dislike simply because it never asked you to like it in the first place. I could see a motorbike-riding butch wearing the absolute tits out of this.

In 2008, a friend gave me a decant of Bandit. I heard it was "challenging" - a bitter green leather that took no prisoners. What I got was a beautiful, deep, sexy spicy vanillic musk that curled around me after a briefly bitter and aldehydic top. It was gorgeous and I drained the decant. I hoped to encounter Bandit again someday.

That someday was spring 2023. I managed to snag some mid-1960s airport mini coffrets off Mercari. In one of those coffrets - Bandit. What greeted me when I pried the stopper off the Bandit bottle and poured it on my skin - a VERY bitter galbanum and vegetation note.

However, lurking underneath, after 20 minutes, is that sexy, musky dry down amplified with a healthy slug of baby powder. Unlike the decant I received in 2008 - the musk continues to lurk in the vegetation throughout my entire wear.

My current mini provides the challenge that I expected back in 2008. My suspicion is that the decant I received from my friend had lost its top notes. Some days, Bandit goes very sour and bitter on my skin. Other days, like today, it is a friendlier powdery galbanum bomb.

I'm planning to seek out the current version soon.

Meanwhile - I'd offer up Cabochard (2019 - in the curvier bottles) as an inexpensive way to test-drive this type of scent.

I'm wearing a VINTAGE today and have no idea about this .. newly reformulated "Supreme". IF you don't want to spend a lot on this perfume (vintage OR new) : Take Ralph Lauren's Safari (for Women) and layer it with a basic "leather" perfume . Thank me later.

Lucky enough to own a '70s extrait de parfum version of Bandit. I don't think there's really anything else much to add about this masterwork that hasn't been said so far. An amazing bitter-green chypre, loaded with civet, leather, and oakmoss. A perfume that much like Mitsouko and Shalimar, and perhaps even more, inspired hundreds of others in this genre. Aldehydic opening, making way to the bitter green galbanum, some white florals, and the heavy base comprised of greasy, smoky leather accord, earthy oakmoss, and civet. An Androgenic bomb, to imagine that this perfume was marketed toward women is shocking. I guess back in those days women had more attitude and balls than most men nowadays who wear sweet candy bombs and do their nails. Old but Gold they say...

Wow!!!! This is so interesting, it does takes you back to the war times! It fits so well with that era, just serious,robust, not too playful... just a very good description of the 1940's! Love it

I have never smelled any vintage version of Bandit. When I started to get interested in it, it disappeared from the shelves and Piguet introduced the flanker Bandit Supreme - which I liked but have never really fallen in live with: I absolutely adore oakmoss in perfumes, and I do like galbanum and leather - so even though I would describe Bandit Supreme as a bit harsh and bitter, I enjoy wearing it, I even find it surprisingly easy to wear and quite comforting. But: I do not get any if its heart notes which makes Bandit Supreme quite linear for me - and I must admit after a few hours it starts boring me a bit.

Enter the newly formulated Bandit, now available on the Piguet website. It starts with galbanum but is a lot softer and brighter than Bandit Supreme thanks to aldehydes and some white flowers and fruit notes. The heart notes (with carnation and rose dominating) are exactly what I miss (and long for) every time I wear Bandit Supreme and the drydown is a fantastic bitter combination of oakmoss and leather - again a bit softer than Bandit Supreme.

I must say that I do not find Bandit shocking, brutal, provocative or whatever I’ve read about it at all. For me, it’s one of the most beautiful chypre scents I have ever smelled. Maybe wearing it gives me the illusion of being a bit tougher than I am - but overall it’s one of those perfumes that are just making me happy every time I choose it.
Some reviewers find Bandit Supreme a bit more masculine-leaning and Bandit more feminine, and I would definitely agree. However, to my mind, BS would be a lot more interesting on a woman and Bandit on a man.

One last thing that suprised (and first disappointed) me is the soft sillage. After a week wearing it, I would rate it somewhere between intimate and moderate only. But I’ve decided to be thankful for that - it makes Bandit easily wearable at any occasion.

This is back in stock on the Robert Piguet website, so I think it must be the new reformulation. I snapped it up and by god it’s so beautiful. Bitter green, a bit soapy, powdery, with daring animalic base notes. It’s like a glamorous woman’s leather suitcase that is filled with medicines, powder puffs, fur coats, and leather whips. Sexy and provocative. I love it!

Wow
This is what I imagine it would smell like to time-travel back to the 1940s or 50s. Old and glamorous but polluted with cigarette smoke, car exhaust, and rubber fumes. It reminds me of an old keepsake box you might find at your grandparent's house as a child. It feels like a relic of the past. I suppose most vintage perfumes have that effect, but for some reason, this one is especially poignant for me. I'm so intrigued by this perfume's history and the queer (particularly lesbian) relevance of this fragrance. I have a sample of the EDT version that I bought from The Perfumed Court. I think the EDT version is from the 90s and this version is supposedly quite different from other formulations. I'd be curious to try the other version since I do find this challenging to wear despite how interesting it is.

Leather, cool green notes, and oakmoss are what stand out to me with a whisper of florals.

I have a 2019 bottle that I got from ebay and it is very aldehyde forward. The particular aldehydes it uses smells very modern, however, like a lot of the synthy musks that are out there right now. The real bold, animalic and dirty bandit only comes in the drydown, and even then it is pretty tame. I'm generally happy with the scent, even though it doesn't smell like the EDT that I sampled from Surrender to Chance, and am looking forward to the upcoming re-release that is supposed to smell more similar to the vintage version.

Dirty, dangerous whore. But incredible. A masterpiece of perfumery. This is for the dangerous woman who does not give a darn. I recently got a vintage - I am guessing an edp, it has lost its front label - in a square bottle with a heavy crystal stopper. Proper, original juice with no alterations. I said it before, Germain Cellier was a genius perfumer - no one did what she did. I cannot believe this was issued in 1944. It is as current today as it was when first came out. The rough leather of the top disguises a truly beautiful blend of florals at the heart. Leather galbanum and artemisia on top but sweet, intoxicating, honeyed florals in the middle making the challenging top easier to wear. For me this is a special occasion fragrance. I can just about pull it off, helped by the civet and myrrh on the base taming some of the bitterness. I am simply astonished by it. This would be on my list of one of the most notable perfumes ever made.

For me this fragrance is slightly too animalic and daring. I think it contains some notes of leather, civet, definitely old-school aldehydes, and the spicy carnation. It does not come out as gently or floral, but rather alluring, statement-making and very dark. I think the carnation addition makes its incredibly unique. This fragrance also reminds me slightly of Chanel No 5, perhaps due to the aldehydes. A very classic fragrance, but not something that I need to add to the collection.

Bandit will always be my signature scent. I fell in love with it over a decade ago and despite continuing to explore and collect I always come back to it as my favourite. Do yourself a favour if you’ve never tried it. It’s bold and incredibly attractive and dangerous - classic for a reason, in all its iterations. It won’t suit every single occasion but it’s damn worth it when it does. You’ll probably stop caring if it suits the occasion or not because you enjoy it so much. Honestly, just douse me in it when I die.

This smells like a Black 1989 Cadillac Deville with grey leather seats and chrome trim, with Nancy Wilson crooning on the radio. It smells like older Italian men in finely cut custom suits, expensive cuff links on french cuff shirts, with large gaudy pinkie rings.

I purchased a vintage (1960's) "Cosmpolitan's Collection of Internationally Famous Perfumes" set with this fragrance. Immediately I was reminded of my grandmother in her Cadillac. Not sure this is what she wore but I immediately saw her face and smelled her. But make no mistake this isn't a grandmotherly or old lady scent per se. Maybe it's the leather, civet, and myrrh but I feel this scent would work on men and women. However, it leans more masculine to me.

Bandit is alluring, powdery, dark, smokey, leathery, and sexy. Oh my god is it sexy.

This one. Dark bitter green cucumber peels rubbed over an old military coat, old rubber of gas masks stored in a moldy place. This amazing material, isobutyl quinoline, which was somehow decided suitable for putting onto fragrance: half diesel, half mothballs, with a sprinkle of old world chaleur. Antiquities, some good old galbanum, some animal fur in the cold.
The "boldness" comes from realizing there's something here that's not supposed to be on skin. On clothes - maybe. Some kind of personal history that the wearer brings with her, a natural result of the infusion of different smells because of the things she does and the places she's been. Requires a special state of mind, some carelessness. Appreciated mostly for the iconic piece of history that it is, but I must admit - that greenness, smelled from a certain distance, is to die for.

Created by Germaine Cellier for a man - Robert Piguet's lover - at the beginning of the 40s, Bandit is beyond unisex. Green leather chypre at its best, old-world but avant-garde, maybe too modern for our time. Punk, drag, BDSM, trashy, skanky, in your face, over the top, a slap with a leather glove - or a kiss of the whip.

goblincore kouros

According to the "chat" function on the Robert Piguet website Bandit will be back in stock this year but no date is available.

Anyone know when this is supposed to be back in stock? It's been "temporarily out of stock" for about half a year.

When I die, I would like to be buried with Bandit in one hand and Mitsouko in the other. Of course, both of them must be older than 1970s. Best perfumes ever made, in my opinion of course.

Found a bottle at my local Goodwill today and asked to spray because I was curious. It is very similar to Chanel No 19 or Sisley Eau Du Soir, but more animalic and leathery. In fact, it smells like my own sweaty armpit plus oakmoss. 😆 I can only imagine what a shocker it was back in 1944! I am more into sensual vanillic fragrances these days, so Bandit is not for me. But I respect the composition and can see how many people love this.

I read somewhere that Marlene Dietrich wore this perfume, so I had to try it. I bought a sample to try, and I'm glad I didn't buy a full sized bottle as I would have been extremely disappointed. I really wanted to love it. It's VERY masculine and smells to me like cigars, but fades very quickly to almost nothing. If you want a feminine, long-lasting fragrance, this isn't it.

@myra83

It literally says on Robert Piguet's website that it's temporarily out of stock.

Love it my no 3 scent after fracas and petit fracas from robert piguet house.. its like a burn smokiness amouage interlude men less origano or may be amouage tribute attar vibes while opening. Dry down so lovely rich in classic way.. and its discontinued. I manage to get 1 from Luxary perfume house in malaysia... yes its a last piece i guess so hard and imposible to find anywhere even in ebay also none selling anymore.. consider last peice gangster germ i bought in malaysia 😅😬

I can see how this was groundbreaking when it came out as a butch women's scent. Take Knize Ten, stick in many more unisex notes and nuances, and you have Bandit. If you were to say Knize is a petrol heavy leather, you would say this is a petrol light, mossy green leather. This was way ahead of its time, in the same way A Clockwork Orange was way ahead of its time.
In 2021, it competes in a fragrance world which is 1000x bigger and more daring. Not to mention, one where niche artisans are pushing the envelope way past where Bandit dared go in 1944. I can imagine French Burlesque clubs of the 50s stinking of this stuff.
If you are a he/him looking for similar, go with Knize Ten Golden Edition
If you are a she/her, the newer Bandit Supreme goes off on its very own tangent and sits all on its own. Decants are quite accessible. I have a 30ml glass spray.
If you must have the original, which I also have, it pops up on eBay regularly but only usually in its vintage, premium price form

I blind bought Bandit from fragrancenet in 2014. A bold move, I know. But it was INSTANT love and awe. Germaine Cellier, the nose behind this and Fracas, should be lauded for the absolutely iconic compositions she launched on the world. This absolute powerhouse of a perfume has since become, what I would consider, my signature. I don't wear it often enough to truly call it that, but it is the fragrance I feel the most...affiliated with*.

Bandit is a bold fragrance. Believe the hype. She doesn't care about making friends and she doesn't care what you think of her. She is here to live and live fearlessly.

The leather and civet and galbanum and artemisia are front and centre. And those sexy, inky, isobutylquinolines. It is GREEN and leather and bitter and excellent. Bandit is a fragrance for someone who can appreciate the contrast, the delectable piquancy, of the painful and bitter side of life - who can appreciate the delight in restraint, in sensations that aren't instantly pleasurable. There's a very good reason that Bandit is so frequently compared to the allure of "alternative lifestyles" (I mean that in the truest sense of the term). She is the Janus-face to her sister, Fracas. Where Fracas is the delight of indulgence, Bandit is the delight of denial.

So what does Bandit really smell like? Well, my initial thought is trains. The opening is a lot. There's the burnt rubber, grease and beastly mechanical terror. It's going somewhere and I don't know if I'm worthy of trailing behind, but oh boy do I want to be.

The drydown - like most chypres - is surprisingly approachable. It softens considerably, the leather and galbanum settle down into an no-nonsense partnership. They won't let up but they won't rip you a new one in the process. Like a warm engine, the drydown functions well and is appealing, but god help you if you get in its way: it will plow through you without mercy.

I must note I have tried the vintage. We're talking 1948 here - all the nitromusks and Cellier bases intact. It is and isn't a different thing. The reformulation has carefully and appropriately (I imagine) reinvigorated the shocking fragrance it was back in the day. It retains that absolutely brutal and green and sharp opening. BUT. But. The original formula has all that funky stuff the IFRA has disallowed that gives a...smooth and balanced development of notes. The vintage is much more floral. It is SO elegant. The Bandit we have now has risen to the occasion of a culture of outrage - it is appropriate. The vintage Bandit is softer and smoother. It has more complexity. Experiencing the vintage shows just what we miss by kicking out the ingredients that will likely give us a rash or cancer or whatever. But, knowing that doesn't mean I lust after a bottle of the vintage. No, I happily would and have spent many dollars acquiring the modern formula. She suits me, she appeals to me. I love her harsh edges, her bold AF notes. She empowers me to be me, not a version of me for another. I have no need to appeal to anyone else when I wear Bandit, because I appeal to myself.

*I should note that, upon my first sniff, she (Bandit) unseated Chanel's Bois Des Iles as the 'arome de moi-meme', who had occupied that role since 2005.

Relax everyone, Bandit is not dead - it is available to purchase from the Robert Piguet website again and lives to fight another day. Bandit Supreme is for now only available at a few limited places, and not yet available via Robert Piguet online. EDIT - I ordered a bottle from the website, but then got a personal message that they hadn't got any in stock and it shouldn't have been put back on the website yet. The good news is that it is coming back "for autumn". I wonder if there will be a tweak to the formula, I see that the new Bandit Supreme has oakmoss listed, but the current Bandit doesn't. They may be revisiting that, as it certainly should have a good dose of it.

At thirst, I thought this is men's frag or unisex. But as the scent develops it unleashes its feminine side. The scent from the beginning till the end is quite dusty/smoky and quite earthy but on the dry-down, it shows its feminine side. Not a crowd-pleasing frag. This is purely sophisticated and a bit scary. Chapeau bas for this creation.

PRO-TIP: Now that this is discontinued : vintage Ralph Lauren Safari for Women is pretty easy to get and makes a great dupe of vintage Bandit! I'm only telling you this because remaining bottles of Bandit are sky-rocketing in price. Thank me later.

Armed with an EDT sample I can only assume is more from the 90s than the original 40s-50s parfum...
It's still mouthwatering, swooningly stunning.

Quite frankly, it smells like laundry rather than straight leather. There's a certain clean dry floral that competes with the dirtiness. It seems more like weathered leather gloves; or a freshly laundered garment placed over warm, yet-to-be bathed skin. All while waiting in a cloud of smoke.

I'd still need to test the drydown again, for I worried it had soured and faded directly to that dirty, sweaty skin smell - when up close at the site, though. From farther away (i.e towards the edges of my application area), as dumb as I can put it - it's faded into mossy, earthy lotion.

I've been wanting to be astounded by the one and only Bandit after years of "fearing" leather. Even as the EDT, it solidified my fascination and veneration for leather instead. Only history and expense keeps me away from the prime, legendary parfum.

MASTERPIECE

Finally got this......after sniffing a vintage decant.
However....I purchased a more "current" version,I am sure. IF...mine is a reformulated version...no matter...because IMHO my vintage decant....versus...the bottle I purchased....is 99% the same.
I even hunted down a lovely bottle of Bandit Shower Cream too !!!
So glad to have this finally in my collection.
Reminds me of Cabochard/Jolie Madame/Azuree...but richer and more complex.

The RP website says "temporarily out of stock", I imagine the price will drop when there is new stock available. I highly doubt Piguet would discontinue Bandit, I'd be more inclined to think sellers are using it to drum up fear and move their bottles for a higher price.

I was fortunate enough to find a vintage bottle (1950's) of this on Ebay and, simply because as a perfume junkie with a particular love for pretty much anything vintage, including scent and enjoy realizing that I'm wearing a piece of fragrance history ( it was created for Marlene Dietrich and is almost as great a legend as she) I just had to try it. So this review is of the vintage version of this scent. I understand it is quite different now and when this bottle runs out, if I cannot score another vintage bottle, I may have to try the newer version because *this* is my signature scent.

It was a blind buy (!! Yes, anyone who has tried Bandit will know how stupidly impulsive or perhaps a better word would be "daring"-- and, after all, what bandit isn't? ;) )

When first I put it on, I was sooo not pleased with how much money I had spent on this acrid, masculine chypre scent that brought to mind a dead animal.

But as it settled in over the next little while, I started smelling the floral heart (I get rose, white floral, violet and jasmine?) and the smoky patchouli and leather notes blend in with that in such a unique and...masterful way in this perfume. It's nothing less than intoxicating.

It is very strong so a little goes a long way. I do wear it during the day... I just spray it in the air immediately in front of me and then walk through the mist. But if I had to choose, I would categorize this as a nighttime perfume and you should still go easy on it because it could be overpowering.

As it is, whenever I wear this fragrance, it will not be ignored. I've never worn a fragrance that receives so many compliments. People, mostly men, ask me what perfume I am wearing and seem...intrigued by it and by me. And my boyfriend loves it on me too. It's almost as though it is ...an aphrodisiac or love potion lol.

Bandit is perhaps the best leather scent I ever sniffed! The new formulation is a lot weaker than the original due to new ifra regulations perhaps? But still smell great and I think it's even a unisex scent♥️

I was very lucky to have found a 1950s perfume version of this and since this was created by Cellier and worn by Marlene and Bacall, i decided to try it.
I tried it first on paper and got a bitter and funky animalic piss-like smell but as soon as this hit the skin, it totally changed.
It opens with this coffee/chocolate (maybe due to how old the sample is) on my skin and is followed by white flowers, rose and violet, always mixed with earthy oakmoss, vetiver, patchouli and a very animalic leather. As it dries down, you have a balsamic scent that warms and balances the bitterness of the base ingredients.
It's quite traditional in it's structure yet it is very different from the other vintage style chypres (and i mean VINTAGE).
Everyone talks about a dark and brutal butch fragrance but I don't see it. It's mossy and dry as a chypre should, but you have the balsamic warmth and animalic leather that is never sweet and messes up this polished and usually clean style. Certainly not discreet, but what bandit is?
On my skin, this is an extraordinarily balanced and intimate fragrance, that both reveals a bold spirit yet allows you to keep your world and mysteries to yourself.
A must try if you love an old school style of perfume.
07/22 - Compared the more recent version to the vintage and it's shocking how different they are. Masculine and clean even, gets more curious as it dries with a mix of green/floral heart, slightly makeup-y, followed by the moss and a slightly dirty vetiver with a balsamic quality.
This shouldn't be compared to the original, it shouldn't even have the same name because of how completely different they are. Bad? No, i would even say i like it but the company butchered a piece of their own history.

Just scored a vintage bottle that is at least 30 years old.... holy cow..... very strong - GREAT longevity !
Again; do not BLIND BUY . It took me a LONG time to love this. Uniquely weird.

Sorry, this does not work on my skin. If a cat peed in the grass and someone bottled it in burnt rubber, that's what I get. I'm giving it more time to evolve and hoping some of the other notes come out. Will update review if it improves.

I get nothing but smoke and a vague, dry leather from this right upfront. The notes looked appealing on paper, and I love the history, but this just doesn't work on me.

My thoughts on an early '00s parfum:

This is Bandit...

Vol de Nuit becomes bewildered with, then disgusted by, the concepts of "heritage," "classic," and "pretty." She rips all of that away, escaping the confines of Guerlain in the depths of the night. Clad in a leather biker jacket, she spends her time at truck stops—though, personally, she knows them as "trick stops," a thought that brings a smirk to her face. She sleeps in overgrown underpasses and the cabs of 18-wheelers. Motor oil and burnt rubber occupy her dreams. Ice, heroin, and hepatitis C course through her veins. Her Bible, a ragged paperback of Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son, these scriptures a reflection of her own existence. Her allure—an unconventional sexiness, a dark beauty—haunts every man she's ever encountered.

This is also Bandit...

The Witch, a 2015 horror film. Black Phillip—a billy goat, Satan himself—asks that fateful question: Wouldst thou like to live deliciously? You shed your Puritan garb and Puritan morals, retreating to the forest. The canopy becomes denser. Your soul blackens. You join your sisters, each of you Satan's handmaiden, donning only your own flesh and darkest desires. You smell the witches' potions and ointments, carefully prepared from various greenery, herbs, the hides and musks of innocent babes and beasts. Kneeling for this dark prince, your eyes turn to coal with his anointing.

This, too, is Bandit...

MASTERPIECE.

Bandit was created by legendary female perfumer Germaine Cellier and was released in 1944. Its main accord of bitter galbanum/artemisia, jasmine, and castoreum, leather (isobutyl quinoline), oakmoss and vetiver is very distinctive. It's been around so long that it has experienced some tweaks in the juice and packaging over the years. It originally came in pure parfum and EDT, but in the late 90s or early 2000s an Eau de Parfum was introduced by the brand's new manufacturer.

The original pure parfum was softer, slightly more feminine, while the EDT had more of a hard leather bite. An old advertisement states that the pure parfum was for women while men could also use the EDT.

40s, 50s, early 60s:
The very earliest splash EDTs came in oval-shaped splash bottles with black wraparound label, and cylindrical yellow boxes. This style was from the 40s, 50s, and 60s, and these bottles have an amber-colored juice.

60s:
In the latter part of the 1960s, the white, textured EDT box was introduced and the label changed to a black rectangle against a yellow background.

70s to early 80s:
In 1972 the EDT packaging was changed to the wide, almost masculine-looking splash bottles with the black wraparound label and the black cap. They came in the yellow rectangular box. This packaging continued into the early part of the 1980s.
The juice in this version is often yellow, but that lighter color does not indicate weakness: the scent is strong and lovely. My own bottle of this EDT version has a bit more myrrh than other iterations, taming the acrid sharpness and contributing a very subtle - almost coconut-ty - creaminess to the scent.

All these versions of Bandit EDT smell wonderful: bitter, sharp, beautiful and balanced.

Mid-1980s: The "Orinter" version because some of these boxes say "Orinter Geneva Switzerland" on them (while some have the earlier Robert Piguet address in Asnierres France listed). The packaging changed to black boxes with a yellow abstract geometric design on it, and the bottles changed to rectangular clear glass. There was an informational tag included around the collar of the bottles, in which the company insisted that they had updated the packaging to reflect "a more contemporary look" but stated that the quality of raw materials had remained unchanged. About the smell of this version...I have a 28ml spray and it smells a bit different. I dislike it. It smells like it has been altered a bit to suit a 1980s audience because to me it smells initially a bit like Ivoire de Balmain. After a while, the juice in my bottle does start to smell identifiably like Bandit with the distinctive leather accord emerging, which is nice. I'm not sure if they also reformulated the pure parfum released in this packaging (because I haven't tried it).

Early 90s to mid 90s:
The Alfin version in the black bottle - a stunning, authentic version Bandit, an excellent throwback very close to the original scent of Germaine Cellier. For this version, Alfin obviously did a course-correction and went back to the real Bandit scent with their black bottle release that has BANDIT in all capital letters. Very high quality stuff in both the EDT and pure parfum (I've had both). This version was released in the early 90s I believe. They released a 1/8 oz mini, a boxed .25 oz Bandit pure parfum, and 50ml & 100ml EDT sprays: All of thee came in black bottles with BANDIT in all capital letters. The 100 ml EDT spray has a gold cap (mine fits rather loosely), the 50 ml EDT has a black cap. The box and bottle label of the Alfin version have BANDIT in all caps, it comes in a very glossy black box which mentions "Alfin" on the back, and says "Made in France."
I have seen some dismissive comments about "the Alfin version" online. I believe these negative comments are likely referencing the Orinter version that came before, because the company was linked with Alfin. But as for the black bottle version with BANDIT in all capital letters, any lover of true vintage Bandit would adore this version IMO. I suspect that the individuals who make negative comments about "the Alfin version" (a) are talking about the mid-80s version with the yellow abstract design in the clear bottles, or (b) do not appreciate the smell of real Bandit (because it was definitely an old fashioned and polarizing scent), or (c) may have only been familiar with the 2000s EDP release, which smelled "different," or (d) they tried the LATER Alfin version called "Bandit Femme" which came in an odd clear glass bottle w/ red cap and had "Made in the USA" on the back of the box. It may have been a poor reformulation (I don't know because I've never tried this 'Bandit Femme' version).
But the Alfin version in the black bottle w/ BANDIT in capital letters is an excellent formulation of Bandit, very true to the original. Extremely bitter and sharp, a little more heavy on the vetiver than old versions of Bandit. But just stunning. People who are curious about what original Bandit actually smelled like would do well to buy this version.

2000s:
As for the Eau de Parfum version released by Fashion Fragrances & Cosmetics Ltd. in the late early 2000s, the one with the "Certification of the Original Formula" sticker on the cellophane....My first experience with this version was not good. I received a "bad bottle" that smelled nothing like Bandit. It could have been a fake, or an early mis-step in the formulation process...maybe a bad batch. It was a sealed EDP I acquired (and then promptly sent back to the Ebay seller), but it smelled *nothing* like Bandit has ever smelled like. I will describe the label so people can avoid this version. It read: "bandit DE ROBERT PIGUET" (note the cases of those letters) and it said "EAU DE PARFUM NATURAL SPRAY 3.4 FL. OZ. 100 ML e" on the bottom front of the box. On the back of the box it said "Fashion Fragrances & Cosmetics Ltd. New York, New York" and "Fragrance Factory Limited London NW5 3BH." It also specified "Made in USA" on the back of the box. There was no bitter galbanum or leather, instead the smell was sweet, ambery and quite oriental. Nothing like Bandit should smell. I would recommend avoiding bottles with that specific label.

My other experience with the modern EDP was a little better. I acquired an official sample and it does, thankfully, smell much more like Bandit, albeit a more smooth, de-fanged, sheer version in which very modern aromachemicals can occasionally be perceived. But the characteristic bitter galbanum and leather accord that forms the backbone of Bandit is there and lasts for hours...but unlike the original Bandit, the EDP version segues eventually into a pretty white musk. In Luca Turin & Tania Sanchez's "Perfumes: The Guide," which came out in 2008, Luca's review of the contemporary version of Bandit says, "I've owned several versions of the original Bandit over the years and this is not it....But the magic is all there: bitter, dark yet fresh, beguiling without any softness, and still several unlit streetlights ahead of every other leather chypre around."

My recommendation is to search out the black bottle EDT with BANDIT in all caps, made by Alfin in the early '90s. The box looks almost exactly like the current EDP, except BANDIT is in all caps. That version is amazing, and consistent with the original (i.e. pre-1980s) scent.

Old school leather chypre. Bitter green, unapologetic and desperately dated. It feels entirely out of place in the 21st century and you have to be born well into the 20th to be able to appreciate it. Despite it’s harshness, I would still consider it rather feminine. It was, after all, intended for a modern woman of its time. Today, women can perhaps be the only one wearing it confidently with allure. As a lesson in perfume history, it is marvelous. As something you wish to wear and enjoy every day, it is rather a bumpy road.

This perfume has some of the more colorful type reviews where people will mention that they will buy the shower gel first, then fall in love with the scent. Or - will buy this, but will not wear this out in public. Or - the attorney who saves this to wear on court dates.

Often times, you must look at the historical context of a perfume to understand the full fragrance and its significance to the world of perfume, fashion, and world history -

WWII Dates - September 1, 1939 – September 2, 1945

Bandit - Launched in 1944
Made for the woman who dares to smoke in public -
celebrating the emancipated woman

Smells like Cabochard Gres for women; Azuree
Inspired Aremis type colognes for men.

People who also like this - like:
Fracas, Mitsouko, Clinique Aromatics Elixir, Coco, Opium, Magie Noire, Knowing, Carnal Flower

----------

I really love Fracas, have grown to love that perfume since first trying it. Have been in more of a tuberose phase than before. Wanted to see what Bandit, the sister fragrance is like - because it kept showing up as a fragrance that was under the heading"People who also like this .......... like:" -- and is also by the same house that created Fracas. Robert Piguet.

I will definitely have to try this. It has some of the more descriptive reviews.
This says a lot: "Couldn't be more different to the shallow world of fruity pop celebrity perfumes!"

Robert Holladay, my favorite English teacher in high school (who taught the Honors British Literature courses and Film Society) used to say that everything in the arts and fashion is on a pendulum and that when it swings one complete way - that in time, it reverses and swings back the other way.

If this is so, we have had a good run with the shallow fruity pop celebrity perfumes. Has it been about 15-20 years now? It has been so long that I am bored going to the fragrance counter. The only thing "new" that has been introduced during this past 20 years - has been OUD and possibly the thought that you can layer different scents for different effects.

I've had enough of the cotton candy like smells --
I don't even bother any more. I love perfume, but during this phase of super candy like perfumes, I never gravitated to that to begin with...other than the thought that I may wear it one day out of the year for Halloween.

I'm probably NOT going to be drawn to wearing Bandit (from the descriptions in the reviews) but I'm definitely wanting to move more into the depth of some of the fragrances that I truly loved from the 80's and 90's.

(I still love musks for some reason, particularly fragrances that have that in the dry down. For some reason, I'm liking the dry down in Sparkling White Diamonds, something that has a lot of Tinkerbell in it! With all that has happened since the Covid quarantines began, we definitely need something upbeat and FUN!).

Bandit is my battle dress, it makes me feel invincible. It's my urban steampunk post-apocalyptic fantasy. Death and destruction all around, smoke curls above the ruins and amid the chaos I rise, clad head to toe in black leather, samurai sword in one hand, whiskey bottle in the other, hair streaming down my back wild and tangled, all sweat and soot and power. Somewhere, underneath the smoke, and leather and gunpowder is the musky rosy smell of lost innocence, more a memory of it than a real thing, but you'd have to get really close to sense it — and very few would dare.
Bandit is my end game, it's my steely resolution, it's when I get whatever I want and no one could stop me.
Bandit is an unapologetic blast of bitter galbanum, vetiver and leather, animalistic notes, smoke and sharp rusty metal. Towards the end of the day, if you have enough strength to tame it, it melts into a surprisingly gentle metallic rose. I love it, it's one of those fragrances you'd wear for yourself alone, intoxicatingly empowering.

BANDIT is a real knockout, not for the namby-pamby type. It is beautifully vulgar, unrelenting, a tale of grief, passion, and wonder, a historical parable of a fragrance with its gussied-up florals dirtied up and manhandled, with some animal husbandry thrown in for good measure. It's fierce and ferocious, daring and cruel, bleak and just GORGEOUS.

The opening may be the most intimidating, but to me, its a sensory thrill, with all its soapy aldehydes, bitter galbanum, and sharp artemisia. To my nose, there is nothing characteristically feminine about this phase whatsoever, and its clear, where Aramis and all sorts of subsequent 70s and 80s men's leather stalwart fragrances took their cues.

The mids are more floral, but more of the florals with all the leaves and thorns and dirt. I sense wet vegetation, walks in meadows on late summer days after a long, tempestuous rain. Metallic gardenias and tuberoses dancing around all cabalistic, no proclamation of fecund beauty, but rather violating all the rules and conventions of what is feminine, delicate, and good-natured.

The beast is not tamed in the base, but it growls rather than roars, ashy with desiccated oakmoss, lingering cured leather, and a civet curled up on your lap after a long day of emissions.

(Oh, by the way, this is for the golden capped older formulation EDT with BANDIT in caps on the bottle).

10/10

MAJOR EDIT 6/26/2020 ! When I had first sample Bandit 2 years ago- I had sharply stated "smells like a hard black antique leather medical bag in a museum" and was pretty sickened by it. Bandit was not done with me though (or was I not done with Bandit?) . I saw a great deal on the shower gel and bought it. (Why?) The soapy-ness of the shower gel softened Bandit for me and .. the more I used it-- the more I grew to LOVE it! I was no longer mortified by Bandit ! I savored my shower gel up to the point of buying a FULL BOTTLE of the fragrance. I took a chance on a 1/3 rd full used bottle that was clearly 10 or 20 years old. I did not quite wanna do a big 3.4 oz yet..... Well my partial got here at noon today. Bandit LOVES hot sticky weather -- it "monsterizes" him! This is a classic unique MEN'S fragrance and I cannot imagine a woman wearing this at all! And for pity sake-- I'm a GENDER BENDER (guy who prefers lady smells). How about that? NOTE TO FRAGRENTICA: The photo here is from an old limited edition bottle- this is not what the current BANDIT bottle looks like- PLEASE fix it as it may confuse perspective buyers. Thanks. How ironic that this is a safe blind buy for chaps - NOT for ladies. This is a "hard ball" fragrance not for the squeamish .. at all !

very masculine but a nice leather, though very aromatic and bitter notes; for me this really is about the artemisia and galbanum with oakmoss and leather, wish the florals were more present

BANDIT, as others have stated, is an acquired taste. It is chic and elegant, you bet, but with a green/leather severity to it that is sharp as a stiletto. We used to say that the ideal woman for BANDIT would be... Cruella de Vil, haha. As in: expensive, undeniably elegant, urbane and chic, but severe and haughty to the point of seeming almost cruel and maybe a little B&D kinky.

The current EDP formula offered at the Piguet website is the one you must try, as it is most like Germaine Cellier's original concept, and like her, it is uncompromising. It also features the "prettier", softening notes-- like gardenia and coconut--- which were strangely lacking in 1980's and 1990's releases.

BANDIT is a like a fine work of 1950's abstract art... it doesn't seem to specifically allude to things from the natural world... Rather, it is its own Gesamtkunstwerk, its own intellectual idea.

As I understand it, in the 1960's BANDIT became the preferred perfume of lesbians, at least of the "lipstick" variety. In fact, the smell, wafted about in an urban environment, became a tacit "code" for that very meaning, which "insiders" recognized.

I'm a guy, and will wear BANDIT from time-to-time. Though it may be a little too strident in its declaration to be an everyday scent. It's not warm, cuddly or inviting, but it wasn't designed to be; it was designed to make a dramatic impression of steely, uncompromising "bad girl" chic-ness. In any social gathering, it WILL get you noticed, no question.

If you're serious about learning perfumery, then you simply HAVE to experience BANDIT at some point in your olfactory education.

this is a review for the 70s vintage & the modern reformulation

2 sprays & the vintage opens very mossy, green, & leathery

8-10 mins it starts to project & there's an addition of jasmine

after an hour it becomes soapy cigarette smoke & sour civet...

a kid in the movie theater sitting next to us looked our way & said "it smells like poopy jasmine flowers in here"

after 2 hours it tames down & everything blends together, at this point its less offensive & smells decent but it takes a while to get there, this really was an experience!

2 sprays & the modern opening is powdery, green, soapy, fresher than the vintage, but not as big on the animalic, mossy, or jasmine notes

after 10 mins there is some soft civet & oakmoss but for fans of the original it probably smells like "Diet Bandit"

after an hour or two it settles into a beautiful chypre dry down (maybe one of my favorites) of chlorinated mossy violet-lime notes & this part lasts for HOURS...well over night & into the next morning, this fragrance has taught me the lesson that not all remakes are bad & that perfume remains subjective to personal taste. I will say the vintage is a great learning tool!

2019 has been an introductory year of Chypres for me with Rogue Perfumery - Chypre Siam, Papillon Artisan - Dryad, & a few others so this was a nice bookmark in my journey of perfume discovery & a fun way to end 2019. Looking forward to smelling beautiful in 2020! Happy Holidays!

Oh how much I wanted to love this!

Based on its reputation I was expecting a very dark leather scent.
To my surprise it's more green than dark, and while the leather is certainly there, it's very subtle.
It also has that horseradish (or perhaps English mustard?) note that I get from Tresor, which has no common notes with Bandit apart from the musk. I have no idea what it is, but someone said I smelled like mustard, so maybe it's not just my nose.
It does have a vintage smell, but it's not as challenging or unwearable as I thought it would be.

Certainly an unusual fragrance. Very unisex. Longevity and sillage are good.

I have been slow to test this Chypre beauty. I know why though. It's taken me a while to appreciate Chypres.
It is indeed a leather/oak moss bomb. I dont find it always easy to cope with the leather note but this is fine.
If you are expecting a sweet, mainstream scent this will be a shock.
This is an intense, green and leather scent. The aldehydes are brief and create the BIG opening sillage. The galbanum adds a fresh, green aspect supporting the oak moss.
You wear this and you immediately make a statement. I don't follow the crowd. I'm not easily influenced so don't waste my time. I don't comprimise. Yep, its for the strong and confident.
I much prefer this to Cabochard, Cuir de Russe and Bvlgari Black. This has more green and floral notes. The animalic notes are very low key and the leather is very civilized.
With time the leather wains and it's more about the oakmoss and floral notes. Plenty of my favourite carnation. I can't really make out any ylang and white flowers. It is a well blended masterpiece.
Good longevity and sillage in this cold room. Heaven knows what it's like with warmth!!

Finally I've just tried Bandit (current edp). And I'm really upset about it's interpretations as something connected with crime and the underworld.... Of course, I read all those stories about it's first release. But if I exclude all that and smell only the perfume itself, I would never connect it with crime and prostitutes, lesbians or violence in any form. I smell bitter green herbs, something like gasoline, leather, a tiny bit of powder and creamy florals. It's not feminine in terms of being sweet, innocent, fresh or very floral but still, it's the gorgeous smell of a special kind of women. She has a certain style and character but not necesserily brutal, masculin or anything brutal. This smell is not "nice" but it's something beautiful in my opinion.

A bloodthirsty galbanum wearing a Friday the 13th leather goaltender mask with straps on its back so it doesn't zombie-munch at everything. It lifts it up to smoke vetiver with a long-cigarette holder and blows it to your face like a threat in a retro mob movie. It cracks its black leather whip and starts to stalk the back alleys, blasted street lights and cats' hissings on her path, the seethe of burnt coal branding her steps on recently paved and still wet trail of acrid black tar, a few faces already stapled to the killer heels. A former pirate with a murderous past reformed into a leather-briefcase spy and potential born-again criminal mastermind. YSL leather one-eyed patch included. Germaine Cellier really broke the mold with this one.

So, now this reminds me of Tom Ford Noir Anthracite. Cold and strong, ashy and antiseptic. It is also genderless, but not because it is "unisex", but because it's not meant for attracting anyone -- at least not in the conventional way, being pleasant and warm and so on. No, all the human emotions have been washed away with this aggressive industrial soap film that has been rubbed onto the skin so that nothing would stick from there on. Under that, some beast seems to be lurking, but it's being held firmly on the leash and serves only as a reminder that there's still something organic underneath the cold surface. As a sign of overcoming one's human weaknesses, you are also being presented a full ashtray by some white flowers.

Similarly to Anthracite, I'm intrigued by the smell, but having a hard time imagining the person whom it would fit. Maybe the protagonist from Michael Haneke's "The Piano Teacher", the sexually frustrated middle-aged woman with some hidden kinks? This, or some disciplined assassin. But at the same time, this person might not even be human. Similarly to Anthracite, the most important aspect about this fragrance seems to be all the notes that are missing.

First impressions. Aldehydes'n'funk. I thought it would be more unisex or even masculine, akin to old school chypres like Aramis, maybe similar to Kouros. But wearing it, I got the feeling of wearing Chanel no 5 or Miss Dior or something like that. It is definitely devoid of any sweetness. It is green and bitter. But it also has a lot of aldehydes. And there is a a strong floral aspect to it, maybe jasmine or ylang-ylang. And it doesn't have any warm earthy/woody notes one would associate with masculine fragrances. It is still very interesting, and it is definitely an acquired taste. There's something addictive about it. I'm just suspecting that if you wear it in the public, people around you get only a part of the composition and do that "what's that smell" face, since there is some funk in there that could remind you of body odors, some vegetal matter rotting in the green forest, or some yet unknown delicacy you're not sure about.

I dont really think this is all that dirty, but it totally reminds me of a vintage bar illuminated by candles. Theres even some church-like smell in it, but probably not Christian church, but satanic one. It is kinda masculine, but in a sexy way. For me its not badass, but rather dark and mysterious. It depends on the wearers personality.

I do not recommend buying this without testing it first. It is very VERY strong. I personaly love it, but only on some occasions and in colder weather. Otherwise my head starts hurting.

This 'fume beat me up robbed me of my dignity and then threw me into the dumpster.

I cannot pick out any "scents" but the civet and some kind of floral that kicked me in the shins.

But I bet that on the right people, this has got to be unique and outstanding!

I think my decant is probably the EDP, not sure. Sharply leathery and aldehydic on its initial spray, but settles into a beautiful (and, thankfully for me, more or less wearable) soft suede leather-oakmoss combination, with the occasional floral note that I could smell if I really tried. It almost feels warm and cuddly at times at least on my skin.
I've worn it three times so far, and the first time it reminded me of soap, which is weird considering Bandit's reputation as a shocking and dark scent. Or maybe I just use really strange soap.
(I brought a decant of this to wear for a school dance, and was heavily questioned by a friend's parents.)
FB worthy, I think.

You're traveling in a car that just wrecked and you, along with a burning rubber tire roll down a hill into a field of galbanum, then the tire hits an oak tree and oak moss falls on top of the burning tire and this is all you smell as you lie there in the field hoping it stops soon. And THIS my friends, is BANDIT.

It is not for me at all but at least I can say I finally tried it.

**From 2016**

One word comes to mind when I smell Bandit--rude. There is something so insouciant, contrary, and mean about it that makes it one of the great shockers of perfume history. It is considered a leather but it doesn't smell like leather; it smells like a fistful of burning weeds. Despite its age and French pedigree it is vulgar and trashy, something underscored by its tumultuous licensing history. I believe it became something of a hippie cult hit in the 1970s, evidenced by its presence in Jean Eustache's masterpiece The Mother and the Whore. In the film, Jean-Pierre Leaud and Bernadette Lafont have a dreary open shack-up relationship. When Lafont leaves on a trip, Leaud begins a courtship with a nihilistic, promiscuous hippie nurse played by Francoise LeBrun, who leaves the apartment reeking of Bandit. When Lafont returns she seems more annoyed by the stench of Bandit than the affair. In this context, Bandit does smell like 1970s malaise and regret; the full ashtray the morning after, two abortions later. It would be strange to smell this on someone who didn't have "a past," so to speak.
The received wisdom is that it was in bad form until the late-90s restoration, but my first bottle was a 90s extrait that smelled divine, and all 80s-90s bottles I have experienced smelled without a doubt like Bandit. Because it is a green fragrance, "vintage" hunting is useless, and I have purchased post-90s bottles that were new and boxed and had turned into a powdery nail polish mess. I don't see the extrait listed on Piguet's website anymore so I hope it was not discontinued.
I don't think it smells like Knize or Aramis or Azuree or Cuir de Russie. It smells like a bad woman--fitting, since it was a perfume made by a lesbian for a homosexual designer at a time when those identities relegated one to the criminal underworld.

Blind buy of the contemporary EDP.
This fragrance managed to perform three miracles for me,
Firstly, it liberated me from the gourmand/fruitchouli hell I put myself in.
Secondly, it cured me of my civet phobia.
Thirdly, it’s the only fragrance of the countless I’ve come across I would classify as “Sexy.”
Plenty of vetiver, artemisia, peppery spicy/anti-floral carnation on me - AND LEATHER, holy cats! I was terrified that this was going to smell like those countless, one dimensional generic leathery aromatic fougere’s marketed to men. Not at all. This has depth, it is alive!
On a more personal/TMI note, this fragrance takes me right back to a memorable encounter I shared with my former roommate’s biker bud. This is a liquid aphrodisiac for me.

Bandit is like a great jazz album when musicians were still on the junk, it's got deep soul.

Bandit is a nice old school scent suitable for cool weather and it feels quite manly IMO.

Dominant notes are leather and oakmoss. This is pretty much what you'll get from it with faint carnation, mild aldehydes, artemisia, mild galbanum. I don't get civet. Bandit feels very close to  Aramis Aramis so owning both is redundant. The main difference is that the Aramis feels simplier and slightly more aggresive. In the air I can't distinguish them. I smell Aramis. Performance is slightly better in Aramis in terms of sillage & projection.

I'm wearing a cardigan today that has week old Bandit on it.

This morning, I put on fresh Guerlain Vol de Nuit on my chest/shirt, but VdN is rather weak in it's current EDT... but the combo of faint/old Bandit plus VdN is HEAVEN. I'm so happy right now.

(Super humid/warm Michigan weather, but I'm inside air conditioning)

I like it, and throw stones at me, but I don't see how this is different from any average old perfume.

The 40 years old cologne at my grandparents house smells pretty much like this, and it cost under $5. The only difference is that Bandit has sohpistication, but the scent is not unique at all.

Also I don`t find it animalic at all. It`s just a chypre, pretty green, sour actually and sharp. I get some powderiness. Again, I like it but I don`t get the hype about it. It`s just another vintage scent.

Finally had the chance to try this one out. This is, like some of you said, Paloma's quite close relative. A lot of civet and oakmoss to my nose, just somehow thicker and more balsamic (might be the amber). Almost as if someone wanted to do a plant marmalade. It is definitely a perfume for a strong and confident woman, but to my nose and personality it doesn't necessarily come across as sexy. and if it were to be considered so, it would be quite a masculine, blunt kind of it. Definitely a night-time perfume.

So much delightful bitter green galbanum and rich black leather. I love this fragrance! A true classic. Daring yet elegant and sophisticated. The scent of a a total badass confident lady. Love it.

The Murderess by Edvard Munch 1906
2012

This is a review for the vintage Bandit.

When I was about 25 I once walked home from a party alone after midnight. I was wearing a black corset with skin tight black pants, I felt sexy, beautiful and happy. Some motor bikes came along, the leader pulled up beside me. Devastatingly handsome, the male lead in so many romantic novels throughout time, the mysterious, sexy, dangerous stranger who appears so rarely in ones life. Leather vest and pants, strong arms, broad shouldered, thick lush glossy dark hair, immaculate pencil moustache, humour and sensuality lit his eyes and mouth, and a throbbing black Triumph between his legs..OMG!

He tried to coax me into going to a party... I was sooo tempted! But with several other bikers waiting to see if his masculine charms worked..common sense and survival instincts kicked in, so my head won in a tight battle with my body and the magic of the night. I declined.

Now when my Bandit arrived in the mail today I was transported, reliving that moment in time but with a different conclusion. I can honestly say that if Bandit's hypnotic intoxicating pheromones permeated my senses on that sultry summer's night I would have straddled his bike in ecstasy, screaming into the darkness!

This perfume is amazing, others will describe the notes better than I ever can but I hope I have demonstrated just how magical Bandit is, it's your wanton dream lover in a bottle and nothing is more delicious, sexy or thrilling than that!

(1950s version)
When I first tried this, I hated it, because it came in with a box of fine ladies’ perfumes, and I was utterly unprepared for this handsome rogue. This is not a feminine perfume, so throw out the gender label. This is more masculine than most “men’s colognes” available today. The leather and moss are perfectly ballanced- and it’s not a “smelly old-leather” smell- this is new leather. I really can’t smell the fruity notes in my version - only green moss, with a hint of wood, spice, and mint. I’d like to smell this on a man, it’s very approachable.

I wanted to love this perfume since it was so highly praised. At first spritz, superbly green. 15 minutes later and lasting the entire day, I felt like a walking joint. The "weedy" smell was just too overwhelming for me :(

Review Edit: Almost one year later I just purchased a vintage mini circa 1980. This is a huge difference from the current edp. While the weedy oakmoss is there no doubt, it doesn't arrive until a good 2 hours in, whereas the current just blasts you with a stinky blunt. The vintage really is very soft and you can detect the gardenia and florals softening the blow. While this one is still too green for my taste, I paired it with Fracas and the combination is beautiful. I am glad I gave this one another chance with the vintage.

Yes, another review entry. Haha. But I find it helpful when reading reviews and blind buying to see what version goes with what review. Both of my Bandits are wonderful fragrances, but they are totally different to my nose.

Made in France newest bottle: Dirty, earthy, green, smoky. A bit of funk, but wet earth funk. Very dark and beyond gender because it doesn't fit into any "box". Somewhat linear. Also very green and soapy in the middle. Sharp soap.

Made in the US, 2000-2003 Errol bottle, sticker says "certified original formula" A vintage feminine scent. Aldehydes, citrus, animal, leather, powdery floral, some incense/smoke. Loud and funky at first, but I find it easy to wear actually. Good sillage and lasting power without being cloying IMO. This version on skin comes and goes... I won't be able to smell it, but then BAM-- there she is again. I almost find this version sweet too. This version reminds me of "everything but the kitchen sink" lol..... The moss/aldehydes of Miss Dior/Givenchy III.... the citrus and leather of Shalimar.... the aldehydes and floral of Chanel No. 5. It's awesome.

100% a MAN can wear either version. The US-Errol is masculine enough, and the France bottle is so green-earthy it doesn't have a gender. :)

And now I have an Elfin era Pure Parfum, and it's perfect! It starts out like the US-Bandit and then morphs into something greener and dirtier like the France formulation. WIN!

My rave review was from a "Made in the US" bottle, and the full bottle I bought is Made in France. And they are not the same.
I could tell from the first squirt that the France bottle lacks that huge (Fabulous) punch of aldehydes, vintage funk, etc.... And while France Bandit is still nice... the potency wasn't as strong and the opening was pretty much non-existent. France Bandit is still nice, and maybe I need to let my bottle sit after shipping (shaking), but for me-- Made in the US Bandit is the one I want/love.

I also got a Bandit shower gel! YAY!-- LOVE the shower gel! Great lather, silky soft skin, and $13 shipped from an ebay perfume outlet. The gel smells like the France-Bandit.... so it's rather a generic Bandit... but I'm super happy with it. I used the gel this morning, and then wore Chanel No. 19 EDT to work. Love!

My US bottle is here! And it should be the same as my sample- thank you "z-beads" for my sample and information/knowledge! She helped me find her exact bottle from the sticker on the side. My sticker is 2000-2003 and the signature on my bottle is Errol G. W. Stafford.

Whoa. What a funk! AND I LOVE IT!

Bandit is hard to describe, as others have said. It's a feeling, an overall aroma- instead of note by notes. It's pretty awesome, in a strange wonderful way.

At first it's STRONG and vintage! I love it! The same vintage funk of old Givenchy III, old Chanel No 5, and old Miss Dior. Bandit is very ANIMAL and ALDEHYDES. Bigtime. And boy I love it. Exactly that vintage stank I love now. I can def pick out the galbanum in the first 20 minutes. (I love Galbanum from Vol de Nuit)

So after the animal and aldehydes comes leather, it's also a bit citrus and woody. The leather is indeed like Cabochard, but I only have Cab in a recent EDT. Cabochard is only about 40% of Bandit's magnificence.

Then as it dries down, it's more powdery-- still woody and earthy a bit-- I def get some smoke, still some lingering aldehydes, but it's actually very pretty IMO. A pretty, sophisticated vintage smell- unlike anything else in modern perfumery. But it's also complex. I can't really tell what I'm smelling other than generic feels like "powder" or "animal funk".
The drydown was also a lovely smoky incense/floral a bit, which I've grown to enjoy bigtime.
Overall, Bandit is a real hit with me! I was scared at first, but I'm so glad I tried it!

I have a sample of a 2003 EDP bottle, and now my own is coming. I need this! I've also ordered Baghari because I'm an addict... lol...

I can see how this shocks people. There is a lot of animal civet, leather, incense, aldehydes, etc... but any vintage perfume lover needs this. I have only smelled the 2003 sample, and I'm very happy with it.
The modern Cabochard almost belongs in the garbage compared to this!
I don't find it too masculine and it's def not butch, but I do see how it fits Marlene Dietrich. It's sophisticated, badass, yet proper and classy.
It is "everything but the kitchen sink" in a way, but that makes it unique, unpredictable, deep/layered and amazing! Haha!
I almost found some sweetness in this too.

Anyone else feel like Gemma Teller in Sons of Anarchy? Haha. Vroom vroom! <3

:'( Yes, that was a little tear I shed on my first wear of Bandit. Where's the leather? The femme fatale? The dominatrix? I wanted Bandit to be my superhero.

Instead, the most recent formulation of Bandit is polite and feminine. Green galbanum powder, well blended and well bred. Beautiful, not badass.

I had imagined she would be similar to Paloma Picasso with some shared notes, but with a pronounced smooth leather. But Paloma's leathery oakmoss presents itself at gasoline levels compared to this formulation of Bandit. Paloma has a big energetic, artful personality. Bandit seems like a quieter well-behaved sister. However, both still maintain a level of elegance. Anyway, enough about Paloma.

Perhaps it's the way it plays on my skin, but there is no civet or the hint of anything animalic here. The aldehydes are delicate. I do indeed get a nice brew of carnation, rose, jasmine and ylang ylang tempered with violets -- lovely classic flowers marinating softly in green.

This may still have a place in my wardrobe as I'll keep it in my current rotation and see whether she starts to grow on me or performs differently on different days. I'll also try and get my hands on the vintage to see how it compares. She's definitely likeable, perhaps even loveable with her sensual musky green allure.

And now comes my second review for this iconic antihero fragrance: bear in mind this is regarding the *classic* formulation, probably no later than the 60s or 70s vintage. I said before that it was like a dirty-sexy lover that you hate but are hopelessly addicted to. The more time goes on, the more true that has become. She preys on my mind, making me crave her gorgeous filth over and over again.

This fragrance is narcotic. And like a narcotic, it may make you seriously nauseous and terrified the first few times you try it. But then you're hooked for life. Don't regret it, though; you've been seduced by the best. It's not subtle. The notes are animalistic and leathery. But they're also masterfully blended with pungent herbs and mesmerizing florals. It smells like sex in a field on a hot summer day after a leather clad motorcycle ride.

Now, the reformulation... I tried it. Had to. The vintage is so expensive and so hard to find. And sweet bastard baby monkeys, what a stench! Seriously. I have NEVER... it was repulsive. A mockery. A travesty. A sin. An abomination. An affront to god and man!

Basically, it smelled like an unwashed-sunburned-communicably-diseased hippie who spent the night on a polluted beach then got sprayed by skunk. But if that's what you're into, then sure, absolutely go for it.

To prove it's not my imagination, my esteemed husband, (talented in many things, but not in wine-tasting or perfume-nosing) smelled it and said, unprovoked, "Wow, that's really starting to smell like BO."

But look at it this way: if you want to achieve that "I stayed up all week on a cheap booze and cigarette bender then ate garlic pasta and hit the gym for 2 hours without deodorant" aroma, this reasonably priced fragrance will give it to you instantly, without all the hard work!

I will not be changing my my mind on this version, I can tell you. Not after falling in love with the original. They just got it all wrong. It's a perversion, and not the sexy kind.

I am a Robert Piguet Fan. I have Fracas and Madamoiselle Piguet and LOVE Them both.
But not this departure from prettiness; I got a decant of this from a friend and OH MY...... a freshly polish leather boot is what I get. With a side order of "that medicine cabinet smell"., The leather boot is not NEW soft lether, no-- it's old hardened leather This is polarizing and not for everyone.
This does smell VERY niche. And I imagine this is what Serge Lutens smells like?

Is it really for women, considering civet and leather notes here, or is it more unisex ?

This is a beautiful sharp leather scent with a very slight green herbal hint. It is tough as nails- wear with a biker jacket.

I rarely ''get'' leather notes, or maybe I can't interpret them as leather, but I do here. I do big way, and read Bandit as a woody leather that is very impresive in a slightly inhuman way but very quickly develops into the dirtiest scent this side of Secretions Magnifiques.

The animalic aspect of Bandit is pretty overwhelming - possibly TOO overwhelming - on my skin/for my nose.

So, I did mark this as 'liked' but it's less of a mild love and more of awe mixed with repulsion. I am glad I didn't buy a bottle blind, but now I am still not entirely sure if I want one having sampled this!

This is AWESOME! I was pretty scared after reading some of these reviews but I love leather chypres and I love animalics, so I went for the gold and got a small bottle - blind. I can easily see that if you were to spray this with abandon it could get overwhelming, but a dab of the pure parfum is amazing! It's green, but it's dry. There is a hint of lushness behind it all, as it dries down. Like vegetation drying after the rain. It's so weird, I certainly wouldn't consider this sexy in a conventional way, and I would actually be FINE wearing this to work, in a small dose. I need to wear it for more than a few days to see where exactly this fits in my life. It's got power behind it, for sure.

It is NOT a comfort scent, I can tell you that right now. I won't be reaching for this before bed or on a date like I do my other favorite leather chypre, Rochas Femme. The two are nothing alike. There are no fruits or fuzz in this. This is in line with some of those old 1950s power Dior perfumes, it it's own way - I feel like I need gloves and a hat, like I'm wearing tweed in the rain. OR you can take this another direction and say that it very much smells like the inside of an S&M store, a swingers dungeon, or the inside of a closet filled with dominatrix leather and spiked heels, as well, and both statements would be right. I can see Warhol's Factory stars wearing this in the 60s!

Very strange perfume, and now I can't wait to try everything Germaine Cellier has ever done, because the woman was a genius and this was ahead of its time, and yet also strangely timeless. I feel like I finally understand leathers, now I need to conquer tuberose. Fracas, here I come!

It's scent is exellent but very old.
5/10

I know this is suppose to be a classic, but personally I can't abide it. It smells too animalic to my nose. I suppose that's exactly the same reason so many other people love it. But to me, it's harsh with an overwhelming aroma of leather, civet, and oakmoss.

BANDIT

ROBERT PIGUET

Nose

Germaine Cellier

Year

1944


Bandit is my signature scent FOR LIFE

This is a dark chypre fragrance of solemn & somber tones. The black color/packaging matches up with the smell. In today's context it would pass for a Goth fragrance for the brooding and cynical Heathcliff from Wuthering Height types.

But in World War 2 this was a common chypre floral musk fragrance for mature women; women who wore suits, held down jobs as corporate CEOs, lawyers, school headmistresses or perhaps even politician wives. This is a feminist fragrance and it's very empowering. I am a civil rights lawyer and have worn this to court. This fragrance has become my identity and all that is me in fragrance form.

In the hidden language of women's fragrances, or gender benders, this is a Sapphic fragrance for women who love women.

The animalic accords of civet and musk/castoreum, black leather not to mention the patchouli, galbanum and vetiver, are notes which are found in men's colognes. So while this frag can be worn by men as a unisex cologne, on women it makes a statement and we all know what that statement is:

I am woman hear me roar!

This is a leather based fragrance of power.

Wear it and you can feel like you can take on the world. It has the same effect on me as Opium by Yves Saint Laurent. Just like Opium this fragrance has multiple notes and is deep and complex, transcendent. There is nothing I don't like about this fragrance. It was love at first whiff. I first encountered Bandit at a perfume party when a girlfriend's mother came in with a bottle and passed it around for us to sample.

When you put it on the aldehydes come through and it is perhaps the only fresh and feminine aspect of the fragrance. All the feminine touches appear in the top notes and the early stage of the performance. Fresh and soapy aldehydes, citrus, neroli, oranges and sharp lemon. The lemon note becomes like a barbershop scent of lemony aftershave.

Before long the green notes emerge and it's a distinct galbanum. There is also Artemisia which can also smell of ivy, and a green carnation. Among the toned down florals are gardenia, jasmine and violet. On me the violet is very evident, and perhaps to others as well.

This is a big violet that can also smell like lavender. The flowers are not powdery, no sir. They are spicy florals. I would still call this fragrance a floral but it's of an Oriental floral nature with smokier, darker hues. The galbanum keeps this from being too sweet.

As the florals fade, the patchouli and vetiver develop and continue the "green theme". Quite aromatic. Finally the myrrh and moss come through and smell like incense or a Middle Eastern style cologne. This has less myrrh and frankincense than it does the civet and leather. The musk dominates the dry down. A musk based perfume, all of which thrill me. It's fascinating how this whole thing starts off as a feminine aldehydic citrusy floral and turns into a musky masculine cologne.

Guys please do not be afraid to try a 1944 woman's fragrance because this has so much of what men have worn for years in their colognes. This is an assertive smell, but it has a formality and seriousness too. People like to call this a bad girl perfume or a femme fatale scent but I see this as quite the opposite. She is a beautiful and intelligent but strong and takes-charge alpha female.

What I would give to go back in time to smell this on such women as Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich & Greta Garbo

This is an old school "strong woman" scent, the kind of strong women that came out of World War 2. If you wear Femme by Rochas, for instance, that perfume is more a party girl perfume sweetened with fruits and light woods, but this one is the perfume of a woman of action and who did more for the sake of womanhood and women's rights than some army nurse.

This fragrance also reminds me of my grandmother, my nana Eliza, whom I was named after. She was of Jewish and Polish descent and recalls the invasion of Poland by the Nazis.

A fragrance such as this comes only once in a life time. Bandit was reformulated in the late 90's and I have worn the reformulation and I'm pleased with it. It's lacking in some of the green floral old lady scent of the original and instead turns into a fresher and more modern musk scent, but not nearly as sweet as Musc Ravageur, but still unisex.

I recommend this fragrance to experienced perfumistas, with a sophisticated and mature nose. It's also a perfume for us ladies who go after our dreams and goals and we don't let anyone or anything get us down. We outnumber men, we are stronger together (sorry for the use of the Stronger Together Hilary Clinton campaign theme but it fits the mood of this perfume). This is a perfume of beautiful power. It has captivated me for years and will enchant you if you take away all the prejudices of perfumery. No this is more than a vintage classic, and more than an old lady perfume.

It is a way of life.

The Bandit has stolen only one thing from me:

My Heart

The Bandit Attacks 1944- 1959

With such a name as Bandit (robber, outlaw, gangster) and with the black packaging, even for 1944, this must have struck women buyers as rather unusual. No one wants to smell like a criminal right? Wrong. Only the most acute, shrewd perfumista of the period would have understood what this fragrance is all about. My mother never cared for it, although she wore fragrances that one might say have a similar make-up such as My Sin by Lanvin, a perfume I would go on to wear myself. I greatly dislike comparing perfumes or putting labels on them, but to make a point sometimes one has to do just that. Another fragrance that comes to mind is Tabu by Dana. You know, a dark floral, a smoky, musky, leathery and bold statement perfume to wear on a night out, a powerful aroma that does not apologize for anything.

I first wore Bandit in 1958. It was one of my darker Oriental fragrances, and one thing I liked about it was that even with what was then an authentic civet note; and not the civetone chemical recreation, this was not as musky or animalic as I had imagined it to be. The opening notes include citruses, neroli and aldehydes, a very standard opening to most fragrances of the period. The aldehydes are quite strong, and the citrus is fresh and cold. Then to my nasal detection I sensed the presence of a galbanum. It's green and aromatic, slightly camphorous and beautiful. I love galbanum in perfume. The greenery of this scent embraces Artemisia and a carnation that also smells like it's color is green, like one of those Irish carnations. This fragrance evokes a masculine carnation pinned on a man's suit. I pictured Oscar Wilde, whose favorite flower was the green carnation.

Once the aldehydes have settled down and the citric notes have dissipated, the florals make a brief appearance. This scent can hardly be called a floral. It has that amazing carnation I'd mentioned, but it's also joined by a powdery rose, and never too powdery, a night blooming jasmine, and a violet. These flowers are not as heady or sweet as most typical floral fragrances. Rather they are sharp, a bit soapy but potent with a violet that can also pass for lavender. It's not a bad floral but these notes are not the main attraction.

Once the floral notes fade away, the base notes are unleashed and the bandit attacks. The bandit is nothing more than a civet cat in a Zorro style mask who sneaks up on you and who trespasses on a garden. It's a skunk that just happens to release a more pleasant scent and not a bad odor or stink. The civet here is wonderful, never mind the politically incorrect usage of civet. The leather note also immediately blends in with the civet. Leather is not my favorite note in a fragrance at all and for the 40's and 50's it was an innovation. It took some getting used to when I first wore it. I always thought it smelled like shoe leather but eventually I came to understand it's meaning.

This does smell like leather, a black glossy leather or as some have already pointed out, a leather jacket or leather gloves. It's wearable leather. One might also compare the note and it's mood to a dominatrix and her leather get-up. This is a powerful woman in leather who takes charge, feminist, ambitious, charismatic, willful, and incredibly beautiful. She is a CEO, a Prime Minister, President, Queen, head of state. She is Xena Warrior Princess, Boudica, Kali the Goddess of Death, Athena the goddess of war and wisdom, she is Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn. She is Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Golda Meier, Hillary Clinton. This is truly a fragrance of feminism. Absolutely fantastic. Unforgettable.

When you wear her, you're empowered and you feel as if nothing can go wrong. It's confident and strong. The scent lasts a long long time. The dry down throws up the Oriental notes of patchouli, oak moss, vetiver, incense, myrrh, amber, and resins. This is a spicy Oriental, with musk thrown into the mix. The leather is the reigning accord but the mossy oak wood note and the incense is also quite noticeable. It has a nocturnal air about it, especially in the last stage. At times, this also reminds me of perfumes like Avon's Occur which share some of the same notes including that coconut and civet, and perfumes like Passion by Elizabeth Taylor and not to mention Paco Rabane's La Nuit. Those unisex/musky/woodsy/incense fragrances of the 80's can be traced back to this fragrance. It was never a flop and it won the hearts of women everywhere. It was a very appealing perfume.

Bandit is a complex fragrance, an Oriental floral musk, leathery, seductive. She is a femme fatale, the antithesis of Piguet's Fracas, who is a virginal bride in her white wedding gown. The Bandit Woman is in black leather, a mask, and she's up to no good. She's waiting for the Fracas Bride to come out of the Church in order to rob her! The best part of the fragrance is the instant when the fragrance's citrus and floral notes appear to be trampled over by the civet and the darker almost Arabic oud and patchouli/myrrh notes.

For the longest time, and you didn't hear it from me, Bandit was associated with lesbian women who wore it in the 60's as a statement. Because this smells so much like a man's cologne, the idea was you're wearing a man's cologne to an untrained nose who doesn't know it was made for REAL WOMEN to wear.

I have not worn Bandit in a long long time. Today the air is chillier and it suits the weather. This is a warm autumn and winter perfume and that civet is cozy like a mink stole. This fragrance matches up with fur coats and I'm wearing one right now. Despite the "bad girl" connection, Bandit can also feel elegant and stylish, and quite fashionable like the real fur coats of yesteryear. This is far more full bodied and special to me when compared to the other frags I've mentioned as being some of my old signatures: My Sin and Tabu.

This is a fragrance worth your time and money. However do not wear this without having experienced Fracas first in order to see the differences and just how talented Germaine Cellier was. He has composed such beautiful timeless fragrances: Fracas Bandit Vent Vert, and each have their own personality, moods, imagery and attraction. Fracas is a white wedding (and my wedding perfume), Vent Vert is a green Irish landscape in the spring time and Bandit is a sexy criminal who, even if you put her in prison, she'll find a clever way out of it.

I LOVE THIS! When I first was hearing about this, it came across as a dirty little secret to wear when alone. *blink* I do detect my furry critter, which I love, but it is by no means meant to be kept a secret! Wear it with gusto! So delicious.....another that's better in cool weather. It's going to be such a treat!

I have the pure perfume from the 2000s and I like it a lot. But it doesn't last more than an couple of hours on my skin then disappears completely. Would like to try a pre 80s vintage.

Probably the biggest 180 I've ever done on a fragrance (Shalimar and Angel are the other two). I hated Bandit beyond words for years. I found it absolutely repulsive. I tried it 3 times and each time I thought who on earth would want to wear this!!

Then for some reason a few months back, I thought hmmm why do I think I might like that now? So, I dug around in the hoard and found it. And since then I have gone completely bonkers for it. It's probably now in my top 5. I find it remarkable.

Bandit is also the most appropriately named fragrance I can think of. You almost know what it's going to smell like just by the name. Dark, dirty, animalic, leather, oakmoss (McMoss now)...with green and floral facets, some fruit, aldehydes...it's literally everything but the kitchen sink. Truly a work of art. Masterpiece in my opinion. Even the current version. 10/10.

Robert Piguet's Bandit opens with sharp bergamot, followed by oil-rubbed leather and aromatic galbanum resin. An hour later, the clean finish smells like Irish Spring soap. Definitely an aggressive, multifaceted fragrance that unfolds slowly. Sillage is HUGE- this outlaw Eau De Parfum radiates 5 feet on me! Longevity is also incredible--7+ hours! Overall, masculine and assertive, but lovely.

I'm not sure which version I tried first. I've read that it's best to avoid the Alfin, Inc. version. I now have the Fashion Fragrances EdP bottle. Again I'm not too thrilled with how it begins, but perhaps half an hour later I really like it, though it seems to come in wafts. Mostly I get an aldehydic, leathery, powdery scent with a noticeable amount of galbanum. Once it settles down the blend is very nice, despite not being sweet (I'm finding it difficult lately to appreciate scents that have no sweetness). Also, if you don't mind aldehydes I'd call this unisex.

oh wow, as soon as it's applied it's a super green scent, but in the best way. this is intriguing! a couple minutes in i get a hint of leather. yesss, i love leathery scents when they work for me and this one is lovely. after awhile it's primarily oakmoss, leather and something a bit leafy. i get slight hints of florals, maybe gardenia? it's a warm night in the hothouse greenery and i love it. i have to have more of this. <3

This one will wake you up at first sniff. You will either love it or hate it. Personally, I love it. It's like no perfume I've ever smelled before, almost like someone bottled the smell of a musty old crypt. But I love it. I wear perfumes for myself alone, to lift my mood a bit, to keep me going when I start feeling low. My tastes run toward resin + incense fragrances, I don't like gourmand or florals; so this one suits me just fine. It's intriguing, but just short of what I'd call foul. I keep coming back to it, because for some weird reason, I like it. I'm considering grabbing one of the vintage ones off of Ebay, just for fun.

I'm sorry, but in my opinion this perfume is horrid. It smells like an ashtray in a badly neglected bathroom. Horrid. I know this one has an allmost mythical status, so I was really happy I got the chance to try it. Sprayed it on my wrist yesterday-evening and it was very harsh, loud, and it was still there this morning. Now, more than 12 hours after the spray, there is still a faint remnant, that is quite okay. Not nice, just okay.
I really don't get the popularity of this one..... (and I like special perfumes, I'm not the floral-fruity-gourmand woman!)

This is, without a doubt, the most confounding fragrance I've ever encountered. I was fascinated by the description, then disgusted by the sample. Initially, it smelled potently of skunk, with hints of excrement. The civet and leather? Then it reminded me of an almost-past narcissus bloom: A potent, musk-smelling flower with a narcotic and offensive edge. Or perhaps a very skunky marijuana, as another reviewer pointed out. It was fairly horrible. And intensely fascinating.

Here's the thing: the fragrance stuck in my mind. It was a scrubber for me at first; the only one I'd ever tried actively to remove. And I couldn't! Those odd, animalic undertones seemed glued to my skin. And weirdly, I wanted to smell them again. To decode just what was so awful about them. There was some note that reminded me of old-lady oriental perfumes; the ancient and unpleasant kind. Maddeningly familiar. I suspect my snarky, gorgeous, alcoholic, jazz-piano-player-grandmother used to wear this.

Finally, several weeks later, I went back to Bandit. And loved it. While hating it. It's like that lover that really pisses you off, but you have undeniable chemistry with. This is a very, very naughty perfume. Very atypical. Very challenging. And I love a challenge. I've come to enjoy wearing it under other prettier scents, like my own dirty little secret.

Follemente controverso, radicale, imponente.
O provi amore immenso e incondizionato per questo profumo o lo lasci perdere odiandolo.


<3

Bandit, sûrement le parfum féminin le plus androgyne. Un parfum qui ''vole'' l'attention.

This review is for the bandit edp currently in stores. I secured my bottle from BG in NYC. No doubt a reformulation but it's very respectful of the original from what I've read.

It's a tough but beautiful fragrance. Not for the faint of heart, or for someone who likes 'easy' or 'pretty' fragrances. It's somehow dark, dry and yes, sexy....yet very fresh, if that makes any sense at all.

It's opens a very sharp and green accord, extremely bitter but tempered by a blur of citrus. Before you have time to focus on what's happening, you can sense the white florals pushing through that initial blast, accompanied by a whiff of smoke and spices (nutmeg? clove?), vetiver, some indistinct woods, and finally, leather. I don't smell any civet and if there's musk here, I'm anosmic to it.

Imagine someone took the peels from a lemon, a lime and an orange, a bunch of tuberose and jasmine, a fistful of vetiver and dirt, and smeared it all on a weathered black leather motorcycle jacket, and then sealed that jacket in charred wooden box and you'll get the idea.

While I'm late to join the bandit party, I am beyond thrilled to have discovered it. It has quickly entered my Top 5 of all time.

It's butch and rough but a head-turning stunner. Without exaggeration, bandit has moved me in ways a fragrance never has before.

10/10 for me
Longevity: 8+ hours from a single spray
Sillage: Above average for the 1st hour; be cautious unless your intent is to clear the room soon after you enter.

creato nel 1944, questa meraviglia rude e sfacciata è quanto di più distante si possa immaginare dagli attuali profumi femminili. benchè costruito su un'architettura olfattiva complessissima, zeppa di fiori, legni, radici, resine, l'effetto di massima restituisce un'impressione verde e cuioiata meravigliosamente bilanciata, selvaggiamente animale per certi versi, aspra e altera. dimentichiamo le fragranze dolcemente fruttate o floreali, o gourmand tanto trendy per la donna d'oggi :) qui siamo davanti ad un capolavoro concepito per una femminilità da guerra, senza sentimentalismi o smancerie, radicalmente amara. muschio di quercia, cuoio, vetiver, note animali selvatiche, danno vita ad un cyphre legnoso verdissimo senza tempo. e quella che ho sniffato io è la versione corrente: chi ha avuto la fortuna di annusare l'originale parla di estremismi inarrivati. per il gusto attuale sembrerebbe più maschile (ora che i maschili sono profumi tutti dolci e mangerecci); per me è una delle più sensazionali testimonianze di quanto un profumo possa essere senza genere alcuno, ma adatto semplicemente a chi osi indossarlo. ottimo.

The only other time I have had this sharp green knife edge I've experienced with bandit today was a vintage Chanel no 19 opening 26 years ago. The 19 cut slightly sharper. 19 repelled me... Bandit EDP 1999 intrigues me.

Its a push -pull of attraction and not sure if I do ...Makes it a remarkable fragrance.

Her notes are masculine and strong , yet when you spend time with her moments of gentle floral surface from the strength. There is a beautiful woman in there beneath the mossy humid leather.

It captures a butch woman well. Strong , intriguing, sexy, musky, a bit frightening, yet whispers feminine. Bandit is something different and not mainstream. Bandit is beautiful because its different and doesn't try and please to fit in. She's confidently sexy being Bandit. In control ...

On a man it reminds me of a gentleman walking in the night with his leather jacket on a cool,rainy foggy,night in Seattle near Puget sound.
Definitely a bold unisex choice for unique individuals. I love its confidence.

Edit: had the chance to get the parfum. Much better animal. Not as sharp as the edp and its beautiful. Highly recommend...i get bandit now. Try mixing yin and yang fracas and bandit...

Scent - tart white floral.

Season/Time of Day - I prefer to use this one in the colder months, day or night.

Projection - I didn't get noticed, I didn't get a compliment.

Longevity - I get 8hrs consistently.

I had to change my "like" to "LOVE" after purchasing a mini bottle of vintage Bandit! It was love at first sniff and now I can't get my nose off my wrist. The scent is absolutely divine and so much better than the new version! This is the most seductive leather fragrance I have ever smelt. Deep, dark, earthy, mysterious, wild, alluring and sexy. Oh how I wish I could get a bigger bottle of the original perfume.

My friend Lucia in London has the original 1944 vintage perfume and it smells mostly musky and leathery with absolutely no flowers. Seemed to be mostly a woodsy chypre big on myrrh, vetiver, oak moss and a strong animalic scent which of course was the classic civet. i wore it as an evening perfume to a party. In the 40's this was the antithesis of FRACAS a soft white floral bouquet scent, and of course at the other end of the fragrance spectrum of Rocha's Femme. This is not about flowers, sweet notes, gourmands, or fruity scents. No peach, no vanilla, no plums or cherries. Smells like a man's cologne. People today are surprised why any woman would want to wear this but you have to keep in mind that even Coco Chanel preferred woodsy chypres and not floral fragrances. A lot of women wore strong colognes that wore like men's fragrances to make a statement: we mean business, we are serious professional career women. This is the type of cologne you'd smell on Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, or even Margaret Thatcher. Never mind the note pyramid with the citrus, gardenia and ylang-ylang. The only dominant top note is galbanum. It gives this fragrance an evening perfume vibe and an oiliness, bitterness and camphor. A brief scent of flowers waft up to your nose: carnation, violet, tuberose. But even then the galbanum is taking over letting them know who's in charge. And then something amazing occurs. The base notes completely dominate the entire fragrance: leather, patchouli, musk, civet, oak moss, vetiver and myrrh. All of them are heavy hitters. The patchouli is most noticeable as is myrrh which wears more like a dark strong incense. Very smoky. The Leather in this perfume feels like a leather costume worn by an S&M sadomasochistic woman or DOMINATRIX. It can also smell like leather on a man's trench coat, something out of the leather coats worn by the men in THE MATRIX. If you pay enough attention you can detect a few sweet scents of coconut and even a little rose, but this fragrance is mostly about the base notes. This vintage treasure has been beloved by a lot of different women and men over the decades. I have a girlfriend who is lesbian and a lawyer who wears this when she's actually in court. This is the type of fragrance you wear if you're a successful, professional career person: CEO of a company, suits and ties, or suits for women with pant suits or suit-and-skirts. This is unlike anything I have ever experienced and fell in love with it. For me it has nothing to do with statement or even what kind of woman can wear it. It's a fragrance of power. I will wear it whenever I need to boost my own self esteem and confidence. I feel very confident wearing this stuff. This is something Hillary Clinton should be wearing when she's President. Even though I will wear this I also love and wear Fracas too because I'm into all kind of varied fragrances from soft and girly floral fruity to unisex woodsy musky colognes. This fragrance has been reformulated but smells almost exactly like the original. A highly recommended fragrance for vintage lovers who have enjoyed Shalimar Chanel No. 5 Chanel Coco Eau de Parfum and other classic fragrances that are woodsy and animalic. The bandit is back.

Beautiful, rich, deep, dirty, sexy, would suit men and women in my opinion.
In modern times it would have been an aftershave for men only. This is so deep that it is good as a base for layering. A true classic for connoisseurs.

My vintage Bandit mini bottle is actually smells very similar to my vintage 1970's Cabochard. It begins with fresh, juicy galbanum and oakmoss with a suede background that within minutes comes to the forefront as raw, worn leather. Half an hour into the dry down the leather backs off slightly to reveal the soft sweetness of amber and a smokey, resinous incense which together smell like a sweet tobacco. I also get the hint of some indistinguishable light flowers way in the background. This is such an amazing perfume. It's bold, daring and fierce and I love it. I'm excited to get hold of and to review the new Bandit to see if they did remake it to smell like the vintage.

I just got around to learning about the rakish nose who created this gem. As I've been searching for a deep Leather, I researched this, and hunted down a modest size. An edt was easily accessible. This potion has the same woman-exclusive scent inherent in Jicky, so I had to laugh after the dry down announced her. Rugged leather, oakmoss, aldehydes, touch of civet, and just a wisp of demure floral & spice makes for a rich blend. This is also fun to layer with other scents of complementary notes, though it certainly stands on it's own well enough. This could be the feral version of Cabochard, bereft of the gentility of Anteus, yet more civilized than Aramis. Not for dilettantes, indisputably butch, and definitely not deserving of the vulgar epithets expressed in some of these reviews. The only testosterone here is dominated by estrogen, or I couldn't tolerate it. Invocations of horsehide and sweat, aftter the fact. As most well crafted fragrances, body chemistry has everything to do with the bouquet. This rates right up there with my beloved old Guerlains and Chanels. Bravo!

YUM. This is a vintage Bandit parfum and it is *delightful*

I don't get a lot of leather, just a swirling floral smokiness backed by civet and some moss. It's very adult. Not incense, exactly, and not like when you strike a match, but more in that space than straight tobacco.

It's a glamorous head-turner. I have a tiny splash on one wrist, and over the last hour it's enveloped me in a delicious mini-cloud.

Smokers probably think they smell like this. They don't.

The drydown is more floral, still very sensual. Unlike the big open, it stays close to the skin. I love this

Now before I start, I'm afraid I don't know the vintage or concentration of my sample so feel free to ignore my opinion.
Also bear in mind I love aldehydes (have a vintage Chanel no 22 so know what that's all about) and I love dry greens like Sisley eau de Soir, Chanel no 19, Eau de Balmain, Rive Gauche, etc.
But honestly this is vile. The intial chypre blast is so familiar you find yourself yelling "Ooo I know this one!!" but it is followed swiftly by chorine bleach and sweat. End of.
Scrubbidy doo dah, scrubbidy day.

I love the story behind Bandit, and waited eagerly to smell it and get it... And when i did, i really struggled with it. Describing Bandit as an animalic fragrance is an understatement. But heck, kudos to you Bandit for being so unapologetic! Bandit smells like a man's crotch and she's proud of that lol!

I acquired a 100ml bottle of modern bandit edp about a year ago, as a lover of green & chypres (N.19 and Cristalle i love), i was shocked with this one; main problem; most of the times, 15 minutes after application it just turns to animal sweat galore. A nice animalic tone rounds shalimar, gives a warmth to Coco, but in Bandit it's extreme!

Along with the testosterone/leather/sweat, the first 10 minutes are green and tobacco-ish, the gardenia is there but suffocated by the monster that is civet. But the whiffs that one gets from Bandit are oakmoss-dirty-leather, like after a rough kinky night:)

Respect to you Bandit!; it can be hard to stomach at first but after more than a year i finally got it; we really dont need another squeaky clean scent, and in the crude bitchy dirty scent department, there's no competition.

scent: 7+/10
longevity: 6/10
sillage: 5/10

Animalic indeed.... Unique, original, but unfortunately it smells to me exactly like manure.. Sorry Bandit lovers!

I completely get why people are comparing Bandit to Cabochard, but I think it is closer to Givenchy III. It is as bone dry, astringent and androgynous as Givenchy III - a perfume that speaks to the intellect.

I was able to try this thanks to a generous decant from a Fragrantican. I know it's a classic, so it was a treat to try it. The same Fragrantican sent me Cabochard, which I really enjoyed; while I found Bandit and Cabochard similar, they were distinctly different as well.

Bandit started fresh, aldehydic and peppery, then became quite clean and almost soapy for me--the neroli and gardenia smelled like very good quality, expensive, fragrant soap. At the same time, I smelled a distinct leather smell. However, while Cabochard had a true leather note, very bold; Bandit was much more of a clean, smooth, suede, more understated. I think the style of leather sent Cabochard into a slightly more masculine/unisex direction, while Bandit was slightly more feminine and delicate. The tobacco note in Cabochard is also absent from Bandit, again giving it more delicate style--Cabochard is just a bolder fragrance, and I also found it to have more richness and characer, a spiciness and heartiness lacking in Bandit. Don't get me wrong; Bandit was genuinely lovely, it was clean and pleasant and comforting. At the risk of blaspheming, the drydown of Bandit--soapy white musk with a hint of suede--reminded me quite a bit of the soapy sandalwood drydown of Avon's Candid.

Given a choice between Cabochard and Bandit, I think I would choose Cabochard; I found it to tell a richer, fuller story that had me intrigued from begining to end. If you found Cabochard too rich, too masculine, Bandit is what you want. Sillage was good, fairly strong but not overpowering, and longevity was 8 hours (with even a hint left after my shower).

It's like no other. Wear it for night and see what you get. Compliments, at the very least.

Trying on Bandit today made me realize why I waited so long to try it on,
I must have smelled it here and there and kept a note in the back of my mind-
'You know what this is'

It's really just at the beginning but it reminds me of travel sickness
That kinda nervous queazy unease of being in an environment that is set to fill a very specific purpose, sitting in a public chair (an airplane before it gets ready to take off) thinking about all spills and flakes of skin that were left by those before you, and the cleaners that were used to give the impression that it never happened and has been sterilized-
that you are the first and only to sit in the seat and have this experience
Once they feed you, you feel a little better because you stop thinking about what is going on--
feed me bandit !
EDP

First experience as part of a Piguet mini set back in the early 90's in LA -- intoxicating, a tiny dab gave heady, smokey waves of bliss all day. Nothing else before or since quite compares. The memory of this scent brings a rush of nostalgia!

Would love to buy another mini or a sample if anyone has one to sell, please!

Bandit has been likened to cabochard many times. I personally do not get the similarities. Cabochard is much more accessible. It is, for me, a very warm, close, personal smell. Bandit is more like a whiplash. And sometimes bandit never gets warm but stays in this metallic/cold ashtray mode for quite a bit. Seriously, if you know and love Cabochard, expect to have your feathers ruffled by Bandit, the two share next to nothing on my skin. Having said that, Bandit can be so lovely and chic, it is imperative that everybody'd try it out. On skin. Of course.

I adore Bandit, discovering it was an epiphany of sorts, as far as pushing the envelope.I had already been wearing Cabochard for 40+yrs & Azuree for maybe 30yrs, when I was introduced to this Goddess.
Although they could be kissin'cousins, Cabochard is much more ladylike, Azuree maybe a little abrasive (in a great way!)Bandit takes no prisoners...very empowering.

BDSM in a bottle.

For all of the modern perfumes with edgy ad campaigns, bondage inspired creation stories, and various blood and bodily fluid concepts, Bandit is the only thing I've yet smelled that gives me the distinct dominatrix vibe.

This opens on me knife sharp and green, stilettos clicking on a hard wood floor. This fragrance is not here to play nicely, and the top notes are intense.

As we enter the middle section, there is a slight hint of the listed white floral,really nothing more than a transitional device to introduce the star of the show..... a stiff,freshly oiled leather.

On the final drydown, this is very animalic, frantic lovers lying sated and sweaty on a cashmere blanket.

This is demanding, difficult, and full of delightfully perverse ideas, without having to shout about it in a cloud of sillage. Gorgeous.

I would love to have a sniff of BANDIT before considering a purchase. I mean, I have CABOCHARD DE GRES and I embrace and adore this fragrance so much. But do BANDIT and CDG really smell similar as I read in many reviews?

My perfume of choice when I intend to burn someone's nose down and gift my surroundings with communal migraines. Sour spice that stinks to heaven and back.

I received my sample of Bandit from the most wonderful and amazing leathermountain- Thank you so much!

Bandit opens with a strong oakmoss/galbanum accord, with a faint aldehydic tinge. Warm, green, slightly acidic, not harsh, but pungent. Intriguing more than pleasant, this accord take a while to soften.

In the heart, bitter galbanum is forward, muggy vetiver supports, and I get a tiny bit of peek a boo violet, mostly when I put my nose to my wrist. In the sillage I notice faint drifts of jasmine, strong bergamot, and faint carnation. This is an interesting contrast, with the warm, dank skin scent and the lightly sweet, spicy, airy sillage. I really enjoy the difference between the two- and suspect that others will as well.

In the dry down, rose joins the sillage. It's not a dark rose, but a medium note, very clean. Neroli and coconut are also present in the sillage. On my skin, the vetiver remains wet, damp, and earthy, and is joined by a soft, smoky leather. Again, a lovely contrast!

If you like the notes present in this scent, I think Bandit will be a safe blind buy. However, a number of the elements are not among people's favorites, so for those who know that they don't like the notes- TEST!

But this scent is definitely worth experiencing for the beautiful evolution, and the difference between the earthy skin scent and the airy sillage. Just lovely! Definitely unisex.

This one has some of my most hated notes. Tuberose, oakmoss, civet and aldehydes so of course I don't care for it. I wore my decant for the first time today and the opening blast could kill a small family of cats!! I am on hour 4 and the scents has turned to a majority leather dry down but the other notes are present but tamed down a bit. I can see a wall street type or tomboy wearing this as it screams I'm the sh__! So look at me!!

Bandit smells like a magic shop, in the best possible way. It smells of adventure, and far off places.

It's taken me time to appreciate Bandit fully, several months in fact. Lots of reviews quite rightly highlight the bitter green/black nature of this fragrance. It is arid and aggressive with the merest hint of white flowers peeping through the gloom of a funeral parlour, always suppressed by the overwhelming bitter note. It truly is a timeless, classic fragrance. Ambiguous, rich and earthy. The leather is old, dirty animalic and well worn like the bandit's saddle, ingrained with dust and horse sweat. It's fairly linear and uncompromising. But unlike any other fragrance I have worn there comes a point, a few hours into the journey, where Bandit melds with my skin and I can't tell where I begin and Bandit ends...or maybe the other way round. It is truly glorious, especially in its drydown as it softens and eases its way into your skin, as you would maybe ease yourself into an old Chesterfield.

A couple of things helped me really learn to love this.

1) Try it then give it a miss for a while. Repeat a couple of times, leaving days or weeks in between tries.
2) Don't smoke, or be around smokers, it really brings out the ashtray quality and turns the perfume particularly acrid.
3) Apply in areas which are least likely to get sweaty, again sweat brings out that acrid note.
4) Get someone else to wear it, someone you love, and spend the day with them.

Unique. Genderless. Classic. Masterpiece.

I was given several sample bottles of this fragrance after recently purchasing my favorite scent, Musc Ravageur~Frederic Malle at Barney's. The person who helped me thought I might like Bandit given how much I love Musc Ravageur.

Ugggggggh...I put this on and after a bit, my husband came home and said, "Did you smoke a cigar?" One word-TOBACCO! I so wanted to love this fragrance because I find that others need a break from Musc Ravageur-lololol! This fragrance went on with extremely sharp, shrill pungent grassy notes that initially bothered my nose & throat. After about 15 minutes, the fragrance changed into something that can only be described as the smell inside a cigar humidor~not good at all.

One of my dogs kept coming up to be, sniffing me, sneezing, whining...then my dog would run from me and rub himself into the carpet like he was rubbing himself into some type of dead road kill or skanky spot~not good. I finally had to take a shower.

I feel strangely fortunate that Bandit has revealed it's magic to me.This perfume is quite frankly one of the sexiest fragrances I think I've ever put on my skin :)

Bandit has a very classical or vintage smell to me, yet it does not feel dated. That may be because the fragrance was ahead of it's time and the fact that it's extremely well-blended. The perfume is complex, smooth, dark, very leathery; I get lots of oakmoss, aldehydes and civet; it's very warm and green and earthy. The dry-down is quite sensual and utterly addicting.

Bandit would be perfect for a cold winter's evening :) Both males and females could wear this fragrance as well. A smooth and earthy moderate sillage that fades after a few hours to a skin scent; lasts for about 7-8 hours.

I was actually really loving this fragrance, until after a few hours it started to make me feel ill. Bottega Veneta BV, another fragrance which is heavy on oakmoss, made me feel the same way. I thought that maybe the blending was the problem with BV, but after my experience with Bandit, I'm thinking that maybe I am sensitive to wearing lots of oakmoss for a prolonged period of time. It's not good for your perfume to give you a queasy stomach after a few hours and it's such a bittersweet ending as I'm not sure if I'll be interested in wearing Bandit again... oh, well :)

The notes blend together so smoothly, all I get are abstract sensations.

Yes, it's dark and green. Yes, it's animalic and leathery. Somehow it makes me think of the tropics too, without even a hint of sweetness. Smells like a chilly night in the jungle.

Chacun a son gout, samlove! Like you, I wear Chanel No. 19 and Cristalle, and I ADORE Bandit. Fascinating, enlightening, a whole different idea of what perfume can be. Not for everyone.

Have tried Bandit in EDP version yesterday. The opening is very green and fresh, the leathers come in quickly and a sweet cloud of soft white flowers appears on top of the leathers. From there, the scent becomes linear and just fades away gently.

Performance is ok-- sillage is soft to moderate and longevity is moderate to long.

This scent stays very light and leathery on my skin, the leather notes make it quite dusty as well. This makes it a very well-behaved floral leather on my skin. Maybe a bit too well-behaved. A bit more civet or other dark animalic notes might do the trick. Perhaps this is what the vintage one smells like? Or the extrait?

I definitely like this perfume, and I am considering a full bottle, but I don't feel like a rogue bandit wearing it. I feel like a girl in a pink leather jacket. And there's nothing wrong with that!

Last night I put on Bandit, the perfect perfume to add to the mood of the book I'm reading, Elena Ferrante's "Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay." This morning I woke up with my sweet daughter nestled beside me. She had climbed into my bed sometime in the early morning, and it again fit the mood as the leather, smoke, and sexiness had faded away leaving behind the beautiful scent of flowers close to my wrist. Amazing.

I find that I'm less likely to review a scent I really love than one I simply like because I think that I won't be able to capture the qualities of my favorite perfumes in words. But I must try to describe Bandit. I have the Fashion Fragrances EDP. It is a composition in which powerful green, floral, and leather notes are held in a perfect balance, a kind of three way tension between the anchor points of galbanum, gardenia, and isobutyl quinoline. And I seem to have quite a thing for isobutyl quinoline, the ingredient that gives a very specific sharp leatheriness to Bandit, Cabochard, Azuree, Jolie Madame. I enjoy and wear all four scents, but I pick up Bandit when I want my day to be energized by its fresh bergamot and galbanum and its unexpected and subtle sweetness. (Cabochard and Azuree are drier, Jolie Madame is altogether softer and more refined.)

If there's a woman's fragrance which would be liked by men.....Bandit is undoubltbley it!!!! I bought it without trying it and don't regret it! I love the aroma of leather with a warm spicy tone.
Leather being the main note...both civet, patucchli and myrrh gives it a real luxurious sweet scent. To balance this delicate symphony of complex notes both vetiver and oakmoss helps this fragrance giving a real green/woodsy aroma. To add to this fragrance a floral aroma both labdanum and rose soften the heavy note of leather.
Longevity and Silage is excellent lasting well over 10 hrs...
Finally thoughts,
Robert Piguet was a master creating timeless classics which will never go out of date. To me this fragrance is PHENOMENAL and UNTOUCHABLE. Nothing less than perfect is an insult...this frag is such a deep leathery warm blend definitely worth buying! Rating this obviouse 5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐, 10/10 ♥ it!

I have a difficult relationship with leather: it tends to sometimes ruin a perfume for me.

Imagine my surprise then, when I found out that I love Bandit (EDP)! It was a complete revelation, starting of with white flowers, then turning dark green (the galbanum, oh the galbanum) and then the leather coming out. I suspect I might not love the EDT as it would be probably sharper but here the flowers round it and take off some of the edge of the leather.

It's true, it's a very intense scent and for me one spray is enough. I still haven't worn it out and still don't know whether I can actually carry it off - but I do love it. It's not for the faint of heart and you have to like galbanum to like it.

PS. Some people did predict that I would like Bandit, based on my love of Silences: one was Elena from Perfumeshrine and the other was fellow fragrantican leathermountain, so a big thanks!

Bandit is single-handedly the most uncompromisingly acerbic, driest, leatheriest fragrance I've ever smelled. On first application, it punches me in the face with an instant sourness, and then proceeds to a dusty dark somewhat masculine-smelling leather base, without discarding its bitter edge. Obviously, leather notes do not fare well on my skin.

Cabochard also is not appealing to me, but seems more ashy than bitter like Bandit.

If you like dry leather scents, you might find it interesting to try Bandit and do a comparison with Lauder's old Azuree, which had, if my memory is correct, a more pleasing top note.

I am basically an oakmoss and galbanum girl, and chypre-ish perfumes are my faves, but these leather chypres don't do it for me. If I want to smell what feels to me like a pleasing leather character, I wear Goutal's Passion, or I go for my favorite bombshell animalic chypre from the past: Revlon's original Intimate, which has held up amazingly well.

If you don't like aldehydes steer clear of this one! I like the idea of putting galbanum in this type of composition, but due to the excesive aldehydes I think I prefer vintage Cabochard (which is not at all aldehyde free), for example. What's funny to me is that if you take out some of the florals and the galbanum I think it would be quite similar to Avon's old Leather Cologne, which was marketed to men!

I want to love this so much but I find it a bit sour and uninviting to my nose... Smells dusty green and dirty to me.

This is listed as a women's perfume. I have a sample of it, I'm adjusting, deciding if I can pull it off. I could have sworn they took a sample of this from the men's section.

Can anyone tell me if they make a men's version of this same fragrance? Or is this fragrance just tough enough to sold in the men's section? (I don't want to mistakingly buy the women's if I prefer the mens)

Bandit is the ultimate leather dominatrix. The one that wears her leather gear, her 9inch stilletos, covers her body in white floral scented cream and takes on the night in search for innocent victims. Along the way she has a cigarette or two, and finally arrives at the dark forest she has cited her victim..er, customer, and starts performing what she knows best; making everyone kneel before her! God what a ride! That's why I love her! Can you believe that this piece of art was marketed to women? Very few would dare to wear Bandit today, let alone adore her. Even men seem to be intimated at times. You gotta love Germaine C. If Bandit lets you into its world, after the hard core show is over, you're in for some more. But what's the point of getting home with her when the best part has only just begun? Wear her, adore her, let her do you, and just enjoy the ride. For once you are under her spell there is no turning back! My favorite leather ever and one of my top 5 fragrances. Absolute masterpiece!

This perfume is very green and fresh yet leathery and warm on my skin. I absolutely love it!
Were having a surprisingly cold summer here and I have been wearing this perfume a lot, and for me this is my new go to perfume replacing Maison Margilas "untitled" and Pradas Infusion d Iris as my daily full size bottle of juice.
Reading the reviews one might get scared of this classic scent...It's naturally of personal preference but for me big white flowery scents like for instance Fracas intimidate me much more than a chypre like Bandit.
Bandit is a bitchy, edgy scent that gives me a sense of strength that is uncompromising.
There is absolutely n o t h i n g seducing about this scent it yet it's very sexy in it's own masterful way...If that makes any sense to you. It's not saying come to me...it says I'll get you if I choose to.
And for reference in the leather note department; I do NOT like Tom Fords Tuscan Leather at all.

I remember finding this perfume for the first time, at Sephora. Ah, youth. I would smell anything you stuck in my face in those days. Probably that is how I ended up, for years, with scent as a bad migraine trigger. Revenge of the nose. There are a lot of crappy, chemical perfumes out there, Gentle Readers.

But Bandit isn't one of them. It remains a favorite of mine because it's one of the first I ever encountered that didn't smell like perfume-with-a-capital-P. It smells, as a matter of fact, like sweat.

Huh, you are thinking. Why would I pay for that? I can make my own sweat. But here's the thing: you never know what's going to happen to your sweat after it's on your skin, or worse, soaked into your clothes. With Bandit, you know you're going to smell like sexy sweat. Kink. Good kink. It holds its smell for hours, quite unchanging after it dries down.

The notes I get from Bandit are, in this order of both time and intensity: leather, vetiver, oakmoss, animal raunch, and pepper-for the sting. A classic by the genius Germaine Cellier, God love her.

This review is based on a decant of the EdP concentration. It opens up with a blast of aldehydes then quickly calms down and joins in by civet and white florals. Projection is moderate after the initial blast but longevity is good on my skin. I would imagine someone like Angelina Jolie in the movie Gia wears this.

Whoa - this perfume slaps me upside the head! I put just a dab on one wrist & was engulfed in the scent. All the urban legends about the scent and power of this fragrance are true. I do not think I've ever experienced a fragrance quite like this one. It is relentless; just try to wash this off. Even after scrubbing in the shower there is a complicated scent. I hate it & I like it. It's bizarre. Very heavy slap of leather & dirty musk, animal, myrrh & I don't know what else. I really don't notice flowers on my skin. This is huge and very complicated. I could see a man pulling this off but for me, it's just way too much - it is beyond the beyond. It's more a psychedelic experience than a fragrance. WOW - anyone who can actually wear this, I bow down to you! I am not worthy!

I must give a review, I wrote one and then erased it, too concerned that I might offend a dedicated Bandit fan.She was such a milestone in history this one........ I was so excited to try this one, the reviews, the ads with the knives, " a half wild whore'????? OMG, "skanky" You say?? I must try this one then. My favorite frag is Seductive Goddess by Baby Phat,a smell with out much popularity as it smells like medicine on most people, and many hate it, plus its a celebrity frag and not from a perfume house so its not well known. But i dont care its leather and patchouli and I LOVE it. Many have said the smell is "skanky" or like " a stripper with a leather coat on" so I was like...well, well well what have we here, Bandit you say???Maybe a longer lasting version of what I like. So I ordered a small tester and waited with great anticipation for the dirty leather pants smell. Yes I imagined, it will be like a Mick Jagger hang over.....or maybe a nice leather coat in a bar......I received the small bottle and quick spritze away

NOOOOOOO!!! What a disappointment on my skin!!! It turns into the tamest dried flower smell in the world. What is this?????

I was so bummed! I wanted knives and gross pants with sweaty motorcycles! On me its like pickle juice! its a very strong smell that I think is made very well though, it has huge staying power and endurance as a frag and had I liked it, it would have made a loyal ally and it would have stayed with me along time.

Sadly a no go. I cant really wear Chanel type Aldehydes, but I am still glad I tried this one, it does feel empowering, it feels like it was made to blaze a trail in womens lives. I will keep the tiny bottle but not order more. Bandit I salute you as a woman who can not wear girle girle smells, you are a mighty beacon of turning events for what was to come later, but you shall remain a mystery as you turn to pickle juice and popurri on my skin and I don't smell leather at all. Leather??? What leather??? I am glad you exist though and paved the way.

Just a side note.....to any dedicated leather fans who had a bad experience with this, try Tom Fords Tuscan leather. It might work better.

please note about the dryout...
some green note, strange and addictive. it´s like a note created "just for you" great.

It is a wonderful composition, but must be worn by someone who is daring and likes earthy scents. It is not a perfume to wear to work or concerts. I have found that people who do not understand the beauty of perfume compositions often times find this scent offensive. On me I do not get any leather, which is sad. On me this perfume is essentially oak-moss and civet from start to finish.

Starts green and floral and turns into dark leathery/ rubbery perfume...

It's so interesting to read so many reviews from women who have come to Bandit only after learning of her reputation... and I was the other way around. I was a complete perfume virgin when I discovered Bandit around the age of 21 or so, and it was love at first scent. I knew nothing of Bandit, aside from the fact that I had just stumbled upon the scent of my soul. The experience of Bandit was such a powerful awakening to me.

I've worn Bandit for the past 16 years now, and every other scent to me pales in comparison. In fact, Bandit has ruined me for all other scents. I'm slightly amused by the reviewers who state how careful they are to wear Bandit only in this or that situation, and frankly, I don't know if Bandit is for such a person who wants to be careful. Many such reviewers state that one must hide Bandit in the darkest of places during the day and bring her out to breathe only during the darkest of nights. But since I've discovered Bandit, we've been inseparable 24/7 and throughout all of the stages of my adult life, including my job shelving and paging books in a library as a college kid and my career as a library departmental head as an adult woman. Keep Bandit locked away during the day? Pah! That goes against everything she stands for... apparently.. and I didn't even know what other people thought of her until now.

All I know is that even when I'm home in my pajamas feeling out of sorts, if I spray some Bandit on my wrist, all is right in the world again, and I feel like I could move a glacier. In fact, I've had dreams of swimming in a cold, raging sea of Bandit, feeling perfectly at home (in fact, this would be heaven to me).

I think back over the times in my life that Bandit played her roles... One time, I overstayed in a relationship, partly due to the fact that my man so loved my Bandit. Another time, a man I was seeing told me that he did not like my Bandit, and I immediately started losing respect for him (dump the man, keep the Bandit!). Yes, these things seem silly to say now, and they only occur to me in hindsight, but it's amazing to me how very profoundly I find myself embodied in this scent to where one's opinion of the scent is surely an opinion of me... I think that's how one's signature scent should be.

I regret that I cannot be as scientifically eloquent as some of the wonderful reviewers here are, as I never had a chance to “develop my nose,” as I say, once I discovered Bandit, I never looked back. All I can give here is my anecdotal experience with this stunning masterpiece. And whether you agree with me about Bandit being your scent or not, I hope you never settle until you discover a perfume that affects you as deeply as Bandit affects me.

~Bandit, that sensual androgenous scent that flirts with me insanely in the bottle, more powerful than Cabochard and more refined than Halstons Catalyst and more seductively smokey than Lapsangsouchon Tea... and oh does it tease me... in the bottle...
I spray on my skin and my nose has a heartattack as if the most sexy man has just walked past me...
But after a few minutes on my skin i am wanting it off!
It turns sour like an old maid on my skin, well she ( my skin) is used florientals and the heady flowers of Fracas.
So why did I go there? Well the same emigmatic skin makes cabochard smell like that old cussons imperial leather soap on me... I wanted something a bit more fetishistic, something more sweaty and leather mixed in my thrown flowers!
I supposed cats pee is ( the major dry down on me) is someones fetish somewhere, its not mine.
This is the very first perfume that i can sniff like a maniac in a bottle and actually balk at on my skin... Dam shame.
I bought it blind from all the lovely reviews, as the ones that talk of smoke and leather and subtle floral etc are exactly what I was looking for.
I am that conundrum female... I have been told many times... especially when dressed all masculine wearing the most feminine Fracas ( which my skin loves) and JPG Classic Parfum!
i have an old formula EDT of it too, perhaps I need to get the Parfum bandit? or maybe layer some Cabochard Ambre over it ( yes i know thats scandlous... hehe)
I try that for a starters, but I think ill just put on some Pamala Picasso when Im feeling particularily wicked... or some niki de saint phalle...
I 'll keep looking for the True leather that I can wear
( Im sure it will end up being the expensive Cuir de Russe knowing my luck!) its intersting about the reference to kouros, a friend at school used to wear it with her leather jacket and she smelt great... but then she was a sallow skinned very dark haired girl... maybe Strawberry blondes / fairs can't do bandit? interesting to see what others think on that?

On me, the initial blast was uninteresting - seemed unappealing. But the drydown was gorgeous and stayed very long. I am thinking of layering it with Guerlain Aqua Alegoria Mandarin Basil. I will take a full bottle.

The first blast of citrus and smoked tobacco is seriously demonic, so mean and green and dry, it took my breath away. It's incredibly thrilling, it immediately makes you want to grab the day by the lapels with your fists and shake it into what you want it to be! If you're looking for a pretty-pretty perfume-perfume, then this is not for you.

If you want to channel your inner James Dean (with that amazing haircut of course!), smoking cigarettes through dark red lips on your speeding motorcycle, and strut around a dusty roadside motel room in your panties and stilettos twirling your butterfly knives, planning to rob a bank, because you can and you just don't give a damn, then this is definitely for you.

The leather is not an elegant vintage handbag -- it is a thin, buttery-soft, perfectly worn-in biker jacket that fits and clings to you like a glove, the progression of Bandit is that smooth. The animalic rumble underneath is like a feral femme-fatale on the prowl, not for love, but for trouble and adventure.

Leather-lovers and green-lovers: this is heaven in a bottle! Super modern, super chic, uber bad-ass.

I just received Bandit EDP today, and really like, not love, it. I'll have to give it a few days of wear, as I often change my mind. This is very much like Cabochard EDP, but lusher and smoother. If you want a similar but far less expensive fragrance, go for the Cabochard EDP.

This really is a lovely fragrance, which takes about two hours to tone down a bit from the sharp leather chypre opening. I also get a strong tobacco even though it isn't listed as a note, which is really a plus for me.

This isn't the wild woman fragrance so many refer to; it is very much like the ladies from the early seventies who were probably wearing Cabochard. They were new to wearing pants in Mississippi, pondering women's lib, and suddenly found themselves in a completely different reality, both frightening and liberating. They were actually far more interesting than the 80's Poison crowd.

I would recommend ordering a sample before purchasing a big bottle, as this is strong enough to be scary to the modern watery floral fruit lover. It is a real perfume, honestly, something sadly lacking in the retail market. Even the great Chanel's fragrances come short of Bandit. (Unless you have the great Cuir de Russie.)

somehow the formula has changed!!!!! and doesn't last like before!!!!! too bad for this great scent!

I have tried, and own, only the current edp, and adore it. I don't find it aggressive or butch, I think of it as an energetic, sunny, large sort of scent. It is also the best representation of a carnation I have tried by far, the leather somehow making the carnation redder and more powerful. The leather is creamy and buttery, as though it were melting in the sun. This fragrance is genius.

Bandit, though similar to Jolie Madame, works much better for me. It does not share the same urine laced mustiness.
Bandit opens like this, BAM! I'M BITTER! Artemisia for days. It does pretty quickly transform into a rooty, powdery leather. I agree that it is quite unisex and could be seen as "butch". I do not find it particularly skanky though.
Skanky, to me, implies a certain "loudness". Bandit is strong, but not loud. It's cold, not hot. Bandit is serious business.
I can smell the myrrh and citrus in the drydown, once all the mossy/tarry/bitter notes settle in.
I used to feel that I could not pull off Bandit, but I think perhaps I was mistaken. I could see myself wearing this for certain night time occasions.

wow, EDP tester from perfumed court.. I love it .. this gives me what I wanted to get from my Tabac Blond parfum.. Sharp, cold and not too sweet; I have to let this develop before I further commentbut I think I will need to aquire a bottle :)Happy

I'm glad I got to try this!

This goes through some weird stages on me and in the wrong order, I get wet greenery with a spike of vetiver in the opening. The lush florals are behind giveing a bit of smoothness. Mainly Rich tuberose is what I can smell underneath the greeness. It has a realy dryness to it, and the oakmoss never goes away, it gives it musty feel.

The heart is when vetiver, the almighty vetiver descends with the leather accord bringing up the rear. The drier stages after about 3 hours smell like pure vetiver on me. A bit too much! It's like the base notes are appearing before the heart as it's not one bit floral to my nose.

The flowers can only really be noticed once the vetiver and leather calm down a bit. It does turn more flowery and a bit spicy on me when it's reallllly dry. I like this stage too..this fragrance takes me on the little journey and it's definitley a Chypre for a daring person.

:)

Bandit is Marlene Dietrich in a bottle: A bedroom affectionate, sensual, experienced woman with bright red lipstick, white fur and cigarette in a tube, seducing one with a firm hand! Ahem...! With 3 spritz I have felt her presence all day, and it has been WONDERFUL! Know simply no perfume like this .... I'm in love.

Bandit smells SO bad ass in the opening. It doesn't last, however, and it becomes this hum of car-smell. I personally do not like car-smell, which is too bad because I'm dying to buy this. I want so much to love it!

Bandit is a well-known women's perfume that celebrated perfume reviewer Luca Turin claims is butch enough for a man to wear. And it is. It's a mossy, dirty chypre... it's okay. I like it. However, I find it rather soft despite its well-known skankiness.

I prefer Estee Lauder Azuree Pure, which people claim Bandit reminds them of. That's the one for me, I think.

Aramis? People think this reminds them of Aramis? I don't see that at all!

Note: My favorite leather scent is Tom Ford Tuscan Leather - but in cold weather Elsha works very well, too.

I wish I could get my florals-only wife to wear this...

----------

Tried it again on a paper strip. This stuff is the Oakmoss Queen! I'm liking it more and more.

I see Bandit as Kate from Taming of the Shrew. It carries a lot of heavy baggage that simply isn't true when you get to know it. It is, in truth, GORGEOUS! Others have done such a wonderful job of describing the composition of the perfume that I have nothing more to add other than my appreciation, and I definitely appreciate this wonderful juice!

Poor Bandit has been called so many names: skank, butch, dominatrix. I admit I wasn't sure what I was going to unleash when I opened that sample bottle! Oddly, I find the opening very leathery, but it quickly dries down to a lovely, soft, powdery floral on me. What's all the fuss?

Have I been sent the wrong sample? Well, let's assume that it's right...

My first impression of Bandit was of an estranged but upbeat relative of L'Heure Bleure. Eight hours on, that thought still holds although the similarities aren't quite as stark now.

Bandit's longevity is impressive vs my LHB EDT. At 8 hours, it's lovely and soft and doesn't have the melancholic quality which I associate with LHB.

I've enjoyed wearing Badit very much today. However, as I already have LHB as a fixture on my Favourite Fragrance shelf, do I need to add Bandit to the collection? Well, no. But I want to! ;-)

Robert Piguet Bandit makes every other leather perfume I have smelled seem more like a tiny patch of suede. It is raw cattle hide that was poorly scraped, peed on by the local tomcat, and left to fester for a few months. Or to quote hbomb9410 (read full review below), "It smells like a pair of leather pants, never cleaned, once worn by a grungy rocker whose gender remains a mystery, abandoned to hang in a musty thrift store for about thirty years". If you wear it outside your home you would be well advised to spray in the air and walk through the mist, though the skankiest notes moderate quite a bit over the first few hours.

I rather like it once in a while for the olfactory atom bomb experience, but how it got to be popular with supposedly sophisticated women is beyond my ken. On the other hand, I think the reviews by Ditta70 and blacktaffeta below give two fascinating historical perspectives on this classic perfume.

I have the 2013 EDP, which comes in a plain black spray bottle with an octagonal black cap.

10 / 10 for sheer audacity.

I got a sample of Bandit in a posh London department store, from an adorable SA, one of the rare really interested ones. (I mean really interested in fragrances, not her commission...) She told me the story of Piguet's perfumes, and the fact that this particular one was created in 1944. This in itself blew my mind. 1944...after the rock bottom of WWII in France, Paris gets liberated and someone creates a new perfume. Back to business, life goes on.

According to the SA, the scent on the one hand is a reminiscent of Paris in ruins, the smell of smoke and destruction, but on the other hand it is the fragrance of the War Woman: liberated, strong, autonomous, requiring much more from life than ever before. As I work with the elderly in the UK, I KNOW these women...:-) OK, now in their 80's and 90's, but the glory of their past can still be detected in a glitter of the eyes! I know a lady, who was one of the first women operating the radar, and, as she proudly tells, teaching radar operation to much older officers in the army. Most definitely the war years were the time of her life, in many ways.
I like imagining my clients in their prime, and Bandit helps me in this. This fragrance is feminine without any trace of human warmth. It is no-nonsense, powerful, self-assured. It is a woman dressed in 40's fashion: wide shoulders, bizarre little hats, smoking a cigarette and living for the day, cause for all we know, tomorrow may never come.
I am pretty sure Marlene Dietrich wore it when singing to to troops...
In my humble opinion, Bandit is as colossal a masterpiece, as Picasso's Guernica. I can totally enjoy it as a work of art, but as an everyday perfume...no. It is a memory of times gone by, and as such sheer perfection.

I put it on yesterday, going to my bank to sort out some issues. The lady clerk was wearing one of those churned-out-by-the-dozen fragrances that are launched these days. The difference was as shocking as it goes! Put Guernica together with a drawing brought back by the neighbour's kid from pre-school. (Not your kids, as that is of course the loveliest in the whole wide world!!!)

Also, I had a hard time being my warm and cosy self wearing Bandit...I felt intimidating and haughty, hard as steel and cold as ice. No, definitely I could not wear it, but I will most definitely put it on and enjoy the sheer grandeur of it in the privacy of my home. At least till the little vial lasts...

After searching for years for the perfect scent, I came upon Bandit EDT. It was a rather masculine scent and maybe that is why enjoyed cuddling up to it. The EDT was, however, a one night stand. It began to smell like bug spray and I sold it at a garage sale. I'm stubborn and obsessive so I decided to give it another try. This time I found it in Portland at The Perfume House (what a devine experience). I purchased the EDP and the pure Perfume. The combination of these two were the perfect balance. Most perfumes turn very sweet on my skin and last forever so I prefer a scent that has some weight to it. Florals can end up making me ill. Bandit turn warm and deep and sweet. The green notes and the woods have the most magnificent dry down. I own many perfumes but Bandit is and always will be my favorite. It is certainly not for everyone. It's not a girly perfume but if you want something distinctive, wild and sophisticated all in one bottle, go for it.

Bandit is a strange beast. It smells like a pair of leather pants, never cleaned, once worn by a grungy rocker whose gender remains a mystery, abandoned to hang in a musty thrift store for about thirty years. This was my first encounter with such a prominent civet note, and my reaction was quite visceral. I can't say that I necessarily like Bandit, but I'm intrigued by it. It's skanky to the extreme, but, to me, decidedly unsexy with its heavy aldehydes and oakmoss. I can't think of a single occasion for which this scent would be appropriate, and maybe that's the idea--wearing this perfume makes you feel inappropriate.

This review is for the vintage parfum. Today I received a tiny bottle of it - and now have an orange stain on my arm to prove it! This is some serious juice.

Fragrances like this remind me of an important and salient fact about the time in which they were created. Everyone smoked. During my early childhood in the sixties, all three of the adults in our house smoked heavily, and this was perfectly normal. People smoked in the streets, on buses, in the cinema. Everywhere. Therefore, most people had quite a compromised sense of smell (and taste), and perfumes were strong, so that everyone could actually smell them. Chypres in particular complimented smoking, and of course proper chypres were all the rage back then.

Which brings me to Bandit. Yes, it's a very strong animalic leather scent. For the sixties - normal. For now - it's unbelievably powerful. That degree of leather is not found outside some of the more way-out niche houses, and the animal quality is considered very rude. But the truth, to me at least, is that it smells very beautiful. It reminds me of the leather in my London childhood - bus seats, satchels, my uncle's car. And of the women who came to play bridge with my parents - the younger ones, who smoked and drank martinis and wore turtle-necked sweaters with slacks.

There are some similarities with vintage Cabochard, yes - but I still feel able to go into social situations wearing Cabochard, which I think has more refinement. Bandit is like Paco Rabanne La Nuit in that the animal is very strong.

Needless to say I adore my tiny sample of vintage Bandit and can't wait to find a full bottle. Quite where I'll be able to go once I've got it on is another matter. I may be having some quiet days at home with my new obsession.

BANDIT is an artwork, a unique fragrance suitable for both women and men, who are strong, confident, and independent; those people do not tolerate commonplace and conformism, quite often they break the rules, and break them beautifully, deliberately and well!!!

i smell my uncles.. returning from germany london and greece in their charlie stone trousers and tight unbuttoned shirts ..with their heavy.. masculine.. sharp.. musky.. ambery.. full of incense.. and spices leathers..i think its so much more of a masculine perfume.. very intense.. and sexual ..fit for a really hot italian stallion..a dark ..mysterious.. smokey.. sensuale.. powdery.. aldehydic.. reminiscent of some 80ies bombs ..like magic noir ..and azurie from estee lauder.. or youth dew ..or even jovan sex appeal..there are parts from opium..to my nose i feel its a bit too vulgar.. not an utterly refined.. perfume ..yet it is unique.. beautiful ..confident.. and in a class of its own.. more of an oriental.. chypree ..that doesn't take you high ..its a down to earth ..perfume.. fit for hard working people.. who just want to smell strong.. to cover up all their hardships ..it makes sense that it was made right after world war 2 when women were taking men's jobs.. for its a really masculine perfume.. maybe it made them fit better in to a masculine dominated society ..
oh wait a minute.. its calming down.. the flowers and a hint of subtle sweetness.. is emerging from beneath the rubble..the cigars.. the um the hmmmmmmm maybe fidji guy laroche... and a bit of madam rochas..its a confused perfume.. with schizophrenia..it has so many personalities ..so many facets.. that are so diversely remote from one another.. and wouldn't make sense at all.. in any one full composition.. its a fragmented crazy perfume ..that will make you wonder who am i and where do i belong ?
a bit medicinal..earthy .. resinous..one annoying note of something medicinal.. minty ..fresh green that i can describe maybe green leather ..
bandit i was waiting to smell this for so long bought a 100 ml edp spray i wish i bought the pour out edp smaller extrait..from the fifth floor at harrods knightsbridge for it smelled so much better.. ..

edp 100 ml
p.s
my uncles are in their 50ies and 60 ies now !

Ok, I finally got my order from The Perfumed Court (as far as I know, it’s a trusted source of vintage fragrances).

Now I have the following versions of Bandit by Robert Piguet:
—
(1) Bandit Light Pour Homme EDT (Alfin inc.);
(2) Bandit EDT (Alfin inc.);
(3) Vintage Bandit EDT Original Formula;
(4) Vintage Bandit Parfum Original Formula;
(5) Bandit EDP (Fashion Fragrances & Cosmetics, LTD);
(6) Bandit Parfum (Fashion Fragrances & Cosmetics, LTD).
—
Versions # 1 and 2 (by Alfin inc.) are grossly reformulated, I wouldn’t recommend even trying them, it’s a waste of time and money.

Version # 3, Vintage Bandit EDT Original Formula (obtained from The Perfumed Court): A strong green chypre with a pronounced leather accord. Very nice!

Version # 4, Vintage Bandit Parfum Original Formula (obtained from The Perfumed Court): an absolutely gorgeous three-dimentional fragrance which olfactorily complies with canonical chemical design for Bandit by Germaine Cellier.

Versions # 5 and 6 (by Fashion Fragrances & Cosmetics, LTD) are currently on the market. Both are very similar to the vintage versions of Bandit EDT and Parfum Original Formula obtained from The Perfumed Court, but Bandit EDP from Fashion Fragrances & Cosmetics, LTD is darker, stronger, and a little floral I would say. Dry-downs are really similar between vintage Bandit EDT and current version of Bandit EDP (Fashion Fragrances & Cosmetics, LTD).

I’m still interested in trying Vintage Bandit Parfum and EDT Original Formula versions from sources other than The Perfumed Court .

For now, I would totally stick to the current versions of Bandit de Robert Piguet from Fashion Fragrances & Cosmetics, LTD, USA. I’ve heard that their current nose, Aurélien Guichard, trained in Givaudan, was really careful in going back to the perfume formulations by Germaine Cellier and in trying to recreate Bandit as close as possible to its original.
Note, they make only Bandit EDP and Bandit Parfum, no EDT!

Bandit is the scent of Left Bank larcenists who steal sometimes by stealth, on occasion by sleight of hand but always with an enormous sense of style.

Its leather note is, quite rightly, a legendary knockout punch given power and lift by a physical architecture of aldehydes and oakmoss.

However, there is some playfulness here too, beyond the freshly squeezed citrus and steely galbanum of the opening a teasing hint of florals sits behind the great fist at the heart of the fragrance.

The dry down too is a pleasing affair as the muscular perfume relaxes slightly but loses nothing of its toned character. Here the smoky notes of vetiver and myrhh come together in an accord resembling rolling tobacco.

Bandit may not have the most glamorous of names, but this is the highest end heister you’re ever likely to come across.

This is pilfering made perfection.

*************

A fragrance that Bonnie and Clyde can enjoy together forever.

Short review for Bandit EDP, purchased in march 2012. The first 10 minutes is really hard to handle with it - a very strong pungent smell, you feel like ripping your nose ... but soon, this hurricane settles down in a pleasant - although strong enough and full of character - leather smell, some florals and slight B.O.
After one hour the smell is a tame leather, with more florals and an exciting skin scent. No more shouting tiger... more like a purring kitten in your arms.

Warning, negative review:

Well, now I know what kind of leather fragrance I DON'T like. I don't like one that smells like newly waxed car leather combined with a veterinarian's office.

Bandit is not a friendly, warm, or inviting leather. It does not want to be your friend; it does not want to romance you.

Upon first application I am bombarded with a messy array of jumbled floral notes and leather. Within 15-20 minutes, the floral notes fade entirely, and I am left with a harsh, astringent leather note combined with a car wax/cleaning product scent. It reminds me of the inside of a used car with leather seats that has had years of food, drink, and body odor build-up -- the owner wants to sell it, so he/she tries to cover up the stench with air fresheners and deoderizers.

I definitely don't get amber or vetiver...I do, however, get civet (the vet's office). Also, I have no idea what notes comprise the leather accord here -- it does smell like leather, but I detect none of the usual cade and birch, which typically impart a smoky odor. This leather is sharp and cold.

Honestly, this was a scrubber on me. When I want leather, I will stick with sensual, inviting, womanly leathers like Chanel Cuir de Russie, Habanita Molinard, or Caron Blonde Tabac.

I hate to berate a classic, but I suppose they can't all be positive revelations...

The no-nonsense square black bottle already gives a good hint of what's inside. Don't expect a celestial fantasy garden with little fairies and teddy bears jumping around. Bandit is not like that, it's more the mood of a rainy street in a black and white movie.

The fact that it was released during WW2 absolutely makes sense. Think about the fashion of the era. Wide-shouldered suit jackets, strict lines, what we now call business-style. The shortness of cloth meant that clothes had fit tighter. The pencil skirt was born. All in all more masculine. (Dior's "New Look" wasn't born until after the war, when frivolous use of cloth again was a possibility).
This was also the time when large numbers of women went out and did "a man's job" like never before. Heavy metal industry, truck driving, anything.

Bandit fits in perfectly here with its heavy leather. Fits the lifestyle of women, fits the look of the movie stars too. Actresses looked rather vampy and dramatic during that time, not "cute".

I get the leather straight out from the second I spray, though it's not supposed to be in the opening. Quite masculine, but all the flowers tone down the aggresiveness.
As it settles,it mellows up very much with a distinct sweetness perfectly balanced with the leather. At the last stage the animalic notes adds sensuality and seductiveness - and a sort of understated femme fatale mood.

Bandit is a masterpiece. Depicts an era perfectly, but not by any means dated. (I don't know what "dated" means in perfumery anyway). This type of perfume is so unusual these days, which makes it a real statement fragrance. A beauty.

Taking advicefrom Lovingthealien, I reboot my sense of smell. Bandit may never pack a holler as does Azuree, but I had no idea how refined a composition I was dealing with. Bandit fools you with its monster green of an opening, but even there there is never a hint of screechy harshness to make one gasp. The woodsy burst is joined by flowers not of the loud, brash cloying hothouse variety, but tiny, wild, and sweet and continuing on the herbal theme. Sweet, grassy Camomile tea comes to mind.This is my kind of floral-uncultivated,deep in the meadow.I love when I get earthy whiffs of marijuana from time to time.I also forgot to mention the leather I don't smell at all (which I do like).
I am in awe of Bandit-it is my heroin. I also love Azuree and Cabochard; layering all three is the best. I have established my Holy Trinity of Fragrances.

Ah! The birth of the famous butch leather fragrances - Bandit, Cabochard, Jolie Madame, Aramis, Azuree.

It is most similar to Cabochard, and least similar to Azuree. Bandit is a peculiar specimen, however, different from the others in several ways.

While the others have a tiny degree of sweetness, Bandit really goes overboard on the bitter, dry notes, with the frankincense and civet in particular adding a bitter bite to the earthiness that is the trademark of these leather chypres. While the others have a good blend of sweet citruses in the top notes to ease the opening a bit, Bandit gives it to you straight, with an unadulterated bitter green opening that is truly shocking. Instead of a very blended, subtle floral element, Bandit plays with the popular fresh soapy floral fragrances of the time and bends them into something ugly and dark, mirroring its statement on femininity.

The others, and Aramis especially, are much more accessible. They are catty, certainly, but Bandit is a total bitch. The others are foresty, classy, and chic, but Bandit surpasses them all. It is the very essence of a twisted, poisonous sensuality. I can imagine Cruella DeVille would have worn bandit rather well.

My bottle of the EDP was actually a gift from a generous basenoter who loved Azuree but couldn't handle Bandit. I feel guilty wearing it tonight, because I know what a beautiful treasure they passed on to me.

better stock up now...perfume shrine blog says it is going to on another reformulation process

I have vintage that's on my "I love" shelf, and today's Bandit was a present. Well... Vintage is a tyre on me. It's on the ground. Weeds, dark, green, strong weeds grow in it, through it, around it. A nice flower is about to bloom, too. The scent hides and comes back, it hides again, it comes back... The flower does bloom. The weeds are there with it, making it smell even better, and the tyre is simply wonderful. Modern Bandit tries to smell this way, but it doesn't, it's just another scent that isn't bad, but it isn't Bandit. It's louder, the tyre is too clean, the weeds are too tame, the flower has nothing wild left in its nature.

As im quite new to the "Hobby" that is perfume-mania , I hadnt had any experience with leather perfumes before i got a great bunch of samples off a fragrantican some time ago , when I had realised that one genre missing from my small but growing wardrobe was LEATHER. Getting to opp to test 2 well loved leathers was great :)

I was hoping to love one or the other and then i could make a purchase which would go towards a "proper" frag wardrobe that covers all genres/eras/styles............( Im still a long way off that dream , but im getting there slowly but surely , bottle by bottle , step by step!)

..........On first test all those months ago , i didnt care for either Cabochard or Bandit , however , as i didnt hate bandit as much as the former , i knew id give it a re-test in the future.


Having a quiet night in , i thought id give the 2 popular leathers a 2nd chance. Side by side comparison


I have Cabochard on one wrist on bandit on the other. In all honesty i still dislike cabochard intensely , its too dry , too harsh and it reminds me of old ash trays . Sorry to fans - no offence intended , just stating my honest opinion. On the other hand , BANDIT has grown on me and gone from dislike to like. Compared to the Cabochard it is so much smoother , and a little sweeter i cant isolate any 1 floral , but the touch of sweetness is there. The best thing about BANDIT is I can actually detect a warm, , sexy robust leather smell from start to finish. It reminds me of my dogs leather harness or a horses saddle. Strangely comforting! I can also detect the green chypre facets - Oakmoss n Galbanumn , which is all good as i love oakmoss/chypre scents. The floral sweet nuance is blooming more now ( 2 hrs into wearing) , i also detect a slight BO note , must be the civet ( i have never smelt isolated civet , but im pretty sure its the culprit of the sweat note here!) , the sweat/BO note is not too strong and it goes well with the blend IMO , it doesnt put me off. It actually smells quite appealing , in the way a lovers leather jacket with there body smell on could be an aphrodisiac.

The sweet floral and chypre touches make this BANDIT infinitely more wearable than Cabochard IMO.


I dont know on which occasions id wear this perfume I think it would be nice as one to wear just for myself as a bedtime "comfort" scent. ( i love to smell a perfume on my arm as i fall asleep , does anyone else have this odd behaviour! ) I cant stop sniffing my arm and i think a purchase is in order , a decant maybe. Im glad i gave this a 2nd chance . Cabochard however is a no-no , its just "too much" , maybe it clashes with my chemistry.


A side note on Gres - Out of a 20+ testers the only 3 I disliked were Cabochard-Gres , Ambre de cabochard - Gres, Cabotine-Gres . I had thought that Gres is not for me , until i tried Caberet - which is a lush vintage rose vibe . Thank God for Caberet , or id have written Gres off compleley!

Thank goodness for the lovely and surprising sillage of Bandit (1999). Tempted as always to sniff my wrists, I find the skin scent is all leather and oakmoss, but the air around me is suffused with aldehydes and flowers with just enough leather and oakmoss for that vintage 1940's feel.

I'd love to try the original (no surprise there!). There's a 60ml/2oz vintage bottle going on "that" auction site right now. Only £579/$900 *cough*. I suppose 50 or so of us could pool together for a ml each. ;-)

ETA 30Aug12: I snagged a small vintage (60's possibly?) edt and did a side-by-side testing. Initially they smell identical but after a few minutes the new Bandit releases a slightly fresher, "younger" floral than the vintage. The vintage, though, has a deeper, sexier base that seems to be missing in the new.

Power vintage; oakmoss and aldehydes. It gets juicier and flowerier with time. Creamy bearable drydown. Howevez it remains strong, cloying and semi-syntheticy. It's one of those versatile fumes for either undercover classy and/or boozy nights out,lol
Too much for me. This is geared for mature dominatrix generation to be more specific.

I bought it blind this one,and had to throw it away a full bottle of this nasty perfume, it's a serial killer's fume, freddy krueger wears this!

Strong and far from tenderness leather chypre.

It really reminds made of leather things scent a lot!

Most of all I feel the leather, neroli, jasmine, ylang-ylang, vetiver and oakmoss notes in this fragrance, which make it intensive and a little bit sharp. The vetiver note really makes the leather note more deep and the fragrance more leathery in general as the result. The neroli note is intensive enough and makes this chypre citrusy green. Besides, the vetiver note and the moss note brings associations with a forest scent.

Despite it's strong, it smells understated enough. The lasting power of this fragrance is really good.

I rather like this fragrance than don't, but I think that it will be suitable only while wearing the leather jacket or something like this to seem rather elegant than rude and overpowering.

I don't like to leave short reviews but there is no need for a long winded discussion about Bandit (Current Version).

Someone mentioned in a review that it reminded them of Tom Ford "Black Orchid". I say very true but I'd like to add :

" Smells like a toned down floral TF Black Orchid with musk and a mild leather note. The leather is muddled and not in front as much as I would like. The musk is more obvious to me. Exotic spices can be smelled hovering on top"

I was looking for a replacement for Cuir De Russie Chanel because of longevity issues. This is not the one !

Bold and Brash but in a feminine way. I can get into some gender bending scents but I WOULD NOT want to be in public wearing this.

Since I've bought this I've worn it almost non-stop, and all I can say is: Leather, oak moss and civet? I'm on board. This fragrance is fearless yet vulnerable; pure sex yet loving; so subtle and yet so dirty. This fragrance is for those who understand sex and love and heartbreak and breaking hearts. I would spend a night with someone wearing this, wishing it would turn into an eternity, but knowing it will all inevitably end with the sunrise.

IT
Ho incontrato questo profumo al Smell Festival 2012 di Bologna durante la presentazione meravigliosa FRAGRANZE MAI UDITE con Bernard Bourgeois – Osmothèque Paris. Non sono riuscito a credere che sia stato creato nel 1944. È un vero capolavoro dei tutti i tempi: animalesco, fiorito e aromatico, sensuale e provocativo, magico e seducente. Ogni volta che lo annusi, senti una nota diversa che improvvisamente salta fuori dalla composizione. Le note di testa neanche loro vengono svanite, ma si abbassano come la luce del tramonto, come i ricordi lontani del passato, come l'amore mai perduto, che con una nota animale dominante scuote l'animo ancora e ancora.

EN
I came across this perfume on Smell Festival 2012 of Bologna during the wonderful presentation FRAGRANCES EVER HEARD with Bernard Bourgeois - Osmothèque Paris. I could not believe it was created in 1944. It's a true masterpiece of all times: animal, floral and aromatic, sensual, provocative, seductive and magical. Every time you smell it, a different note is suddenly pops up. The top notes are never vanished, but dim as the light of the sunset, as the memories of the past, such as love which can never be lost, and with a dominant animal note shakes your soul again and again.

I am very happy that I was able to get my hands on a pre-formulated mini of this perfume. Let me preface this review by saying that any scent with leather as one of the main accords in it is hard for me to like. I primarily associate leather based fragrances with scents marketed toward males, anyway. But Bandit is pretty good. The immediate scent is definitely leather, almost overwhelmingly so. This leather is wonderfully different...a beautiful, rebellious, trailblazing, yet vulnerable type of woman would wear this leather (think Gia Carangi back in her hey day), not the kind of leather you would find on the Kelly Caleche twinset wearing, tennis playing girls at the country club. Soon after, the vetiver comes in and settles plushly into a background of soapy smoke. My fiancee and I both put it on last night and we both love it! I don't want to use it up, so I'm going to use it sparingly, but the rumors are true...Bandit is awesome.

Everybody seems to want to show off when they write reviews of BANDIT. I am not like that. I have been wearing a succession of formulations of BANDIT since 1977, and this makes me an authority. I was aghast when I rewatched LA MAMAN ET LA PUTAIN (1973) and heard Francoise Lebrun say "I hate that scent!" How could she, how dare she? I will tell you this: if you are a dummy, and you spray great troglodyte squirts of BANDIT, you will never understand how it smells or what it is like to wear it. Enroll in a remedial class in finger control - then try once more and tell me your revised opinion of BANDIT... I am quite simply appalled at this state of things...

Luckily I just bought a trial of this perfume. I was looking so much forward to wear this, I was intrigued but....I just can't make myself like this one. I've tried it a couple of times but I get headaches from it. I do smell the wonderful sides of it, and also the lesser ones, but it leaves me cold, and I feel as if I'm surrounded by concrete buildings and heavy traffic. This is a no go, unfortunately!

I just smelled this for the first time and only one thing came to mind: Deja vu.

Bandit is HUGE. Massive. It's big, brash, take-no-prisoners bold and a total throwback to everything that you would expect from an outspoken woman's power bomb. Smelling this was like a trip back into the 80's when something like this -- it smells so familiar to something else I simply knew but couldn't identify -- was the norm of fragrance, except this was even more than just the norm.

It pronounces that the wearer has entered the room and now owns it in no uncertain terms. The leather/civet/amber/musk combination at the base is surreal. It's a truly great fragrance, though on many it will seem anachronistic and too powerful and without subtlety. It's strong, but the subtle message beneath is animalic and signals enticement -- that it draws others in is the subtlety.

But it's certainly not for everyone and something you need to spend a day wearing to understand the reaction from yourself and others.

Yes; there is two different version of Bandit edp. Another reminds Azuree or Cabochard, another is more floriental-chypre, but beautiful as it is. I have them both. Labels are similar, only liquid inside differs

Minna<3

Hi Bandit:

Yes I am sure.
I like heavy scents, so maybe I am used to wearing them.
I bought a new sample on the net, to test it.
If you want to, I can send you the sample..?
Let me know!

to fanny:

Are you 100% sure you tested Bandit? Because everything you said doesn't fit, imho:

It's strong like hell and not subtle at all, very un-80s, strong strong leather, no "soft" flowers. It's the bomb to my nose.

EdT (older) and the extrait are more subtle, but still throw themselfs at you.

Or did they change the formulation the last three to five years? I'm a little frightened right now...

EDIT: As fanny let me kindly sniff her (genuine!!!) sample, I'd say, that the sample was off. I guess, Bandit is still the beast. :)

I like Bandit.
At the same time, this reminds me of so many 80's chypres, which, actually had more character.
Very subtle for a leathery scent, later on, soft flowers.
Sure, I will gladly use up my vial (probably in less than 2 days, as it is rather weak), but I don't think I'll be buying this Piguet.

EDIT 27th march 2012
After correspondence with Bandit (sic), she tested my vial and it seemed weak indeed and must be "off".
The above review is no longer valid..!

Received a tiny bottle of vintage parfum this morning, dabbed a little on the back of my hand and the opening was total skank! Civet, I guess. That opening settled down very quickly and turned into a heavy floral over a hint of dirty ashtray. After an hour and a half, I had to lightly wash some of it off so I could bear to explore it throughout the day. It was just....too much.

It's not that I don't like it, I'm just not sure what to think of it. I've never smelled anything like this!

My first thought was, this is one naaaaaasty perfume, and I don't mean that in a bad way. A very unsettling perfume.

I can hardly wait to shock someone with it.