26 Vintage Fragrances Every Perfumista Should Try

Posted by Angela on 26 November 2012 143 Comments

Bourjois perfumes advert Parfums Caron advert

[Ed. note: 5 years ago, I wrote an article called 100 Fragrances Every Perfumista Should Try. Every year since, it has turned out to be the most-read article on Now Smell This. I was less than satisfied with it when I published it, and 5 years on, it’s really showing its age. This week, Angie and Kevin are adding to the fun with lists of vintage and men’s fragrances respectively, and I’ll be making some updates to my original article. Jessica will join in with a list of rose fragrances next month. Robin]

How to choose 25 vintage fragrances of the thousands of discontinued and reformulated perfumes out there? In compiling this list, I tried to choose fragrances that are important yet have changed substantially over time, or that have been discontinued yet left a significant mark in perfume or cultural history.

For instance, Guerlain Shalimar, while a landmark fragrance, is all right in its current incarnation, so I don’t mention it. Chanel No. 5 and Patou Joy have been monkeyed with, but they’re still recognizable (although real fans may want to hunt down the older versions). On the other hand, Lanvin Arpège is a whole new story these days. I aimed for perfumes that will add to your olfactory knowledge, even if you don’t love them. I also included a few that are just plain wacky and, I think, deserve a sniff.

So, let’s go. In alphabetical order:

1. Balmain Jolie Madame

A tough Germaine Cellier sharp green-violet-leather that is still in production, yet has lost its teeth over the years. In molding Jolie Madame to the times, her fusty goodness has been smoothed away…

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Perfume: Giving Thanks

Posted by Angela on 19 November 2012 96 Comments

perfume

It’s so easy to complain about perfume these days. Beautiful materials are banned or restricted; the market pumps out hundreds of cheaply made, mediocre fragrances yearly; many of our favorite old perfumes have been reformulated beyond recognition; perfume advertising is often laughably banal; and more.

But we’re still here, loving perfume. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’d like to list some of the reasons I’m grateful for fragrance:

First and most important, exploring scent is profoundly rewarding. Before I fell headlong into perfume, I loved the smell of coffee, old leather purses, and lilac bouquets, for example, but I had little appreciation — or awareness, even — of balance and structure in fragrance. I couldn’t luxuriate in how a scent transitions as it ages on skin. I didn’t see how a hint of ugliness throws a perfume’s beauty into relief. Now I know that appreciating perfume has less to do with having a keen sense of smell and being able to pick out individual notes than it does with understanding a perfume’s whole tableau.

Now for something less grand but still gratitude-worthy: travel sizes, sample sets, rollerballs and 30 ml bottles…

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Rochas Mystere ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 12 November 2012 49 Comments

Mystere de Rochas advert

So many perfumes smell like things we know: flowers, fruit, wood, food, spice and funk. A few fragrances — mostly created before the disco era, it seems — are more difficult to pin down. They smell only of themselves. They’re sophisticated, and they’re undoubtedly a challenge to fall in love with in the thirty seconds most perfume shoppers these days take before making the decision to purchase. Rochas Mystère is that kind of fragrance.

In response to a post a few weeks ago, a commenter lamented Mystère’s disappearance. I didn’t have a lot of confidence in my decant, a bonus in a swap years ago, shoddily labeled with scotch tape and a sharpie. As fate would have it, I stumbled over a bottle of Mystère Eau de Parfum at Goodwill just a few days later…

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Blumarine Innamorata ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 5 November 2012 42 Comments

When I passed through Nordstrom last week looking for a fragrance to review, I sprayed on some Blumarine Innamorata and liked its peppery freshness chased by warm, chewy benzoin. A decent department store perfume! I snagged a sample and emailed Robin that I wanted to review it.

Four wearings later, and I don’t know what possessed me. To me, Innamorata is the sort of perfume that inspires others to say they don’t like fragrance. It’s the perfume that leaves you mystified: how did a company presumably aiming to launch a money-making fragrance choose something neither sophisticated nor easy to love? Worse, it’s the perfume that mimics bees loose in your skull, trying to escape through your nasal passages.

It’s my own fault for choosing Innamorata to review, and I don’t want you to suffer through another thumbs-down post without getting a little something out of it. So, not only will this review examine Innamorata, we’ll also look at what makes a fragrance annoying. I hope you’ll comment with your own thoughts on what defines an annoying perfume…

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What’s Your Favorite Perfume?

Posted by Angela on 29 October 2012 244 Comments

Blossom Dearie

Maybe this has happened to you: When people discover how much I like fragrance, often they tell me (1) there’s this perfume they used to really like, you know, the one with the tall bottle with the blue thing, and might I know its name?; (2) but really they don’t like perfume very much, because, face it, most people wear too much, including that lady who always gets in the elevator with them in the morning, pee-yoo; and (3) that they know it’s sacrilege, but they don’t like “the Chanel” at all. Then they lean forward and ask, “Tell me, what’s your favorite perfume?”

Mostly I (1) ask questions about the forgotten perfume and try my darnedest to help them, but often fruitlessly; (2) sigh and say, “Isn’t it always the case that the person with the nastiest perfume wears too much of it?”; and (3) about “the Chanel” reply, “You mean No. 5?” and steer the conversation away, since No. 5 can smell like heaven on the right person at the right time, and it’s just too complicated to get into it.

But as far as telling people what my favorite perfume is, I haven’t come up with a good response…

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