Mint Wears a Wool Coat: Revisiting Eau des Princes For Cold Days

If you think mint is a summer fling, consider this your gentle scandal. I’ve been wearing Eau des Princes from L.T. Piver in bitter weather and it behaves like frost on velvet. The story starts in 1850 with Louis-Toussaint Piver, and gets a 2022 rethink by Joëlle Lerioux-Patris at MANE. Reformulations can be graveyards. This one feels like a restoration.

First spray is icy, crystalline mint that snaps to attention with clean citrus and silvery herbs. Not toothpaste, not mojito. More like mint leaves bruised on a marble windowsill. There is a classic cologne brightness, but the temperature sits a few degrees below zero, which makes the air around you feel sharper and your posture mysteriously better. I detect a shimmer of neroli and petitgrain, maybe lavender, the kind of top that calls for crisp light and a wool scarf.

Then it tilts. The heart warms into mossy greens and faint balsamic shadows. Think a thin sun over old stone, not fireplace smoke. The base is gentle, slightly woody, with a whisper of musks that keep the structure taut. In cold air the sillage hangs in a fine line close to the body, elegant rather than shouty. Longevity surprises for a mint-focused cologne style, clocking a solid workday on knitwear.

What changed in 2022? The bones feel intact. Joëlle Lerioux-Patris has polished the architecture, cleaned up the edges, and given the mint a cooler, more faceted profile that reads modern without ghosting the heritage. The result is clear and aristocratic, never sterile. The name says Princes, but the wearing is beautifully unisex.

How I wear it: two sprays on collarbone, one under the scarf. Morning meetings, late afternoon walks, quiet dinners. It cuts through indoor heat and city haze alike, a mint that refuses to be seasonal and refuses to be simple.

If you file mint under summer spritz, Eau des Princes will change your map. It is winter brightness with lineage, a reminder that elegance can be chilly and still utterly inviting.