Favorite Vintage Perfumes

Cyn · Jun 5, 2010

Source for vintage perfumes

This may have already been mentioned as I didn't go back and read all 5 yrs worth of posts in this thread but, The Perfumed Court has a lot of rare and vintage perfumes and sells decants of them so literly anyone can afford at least a little of anything. You want to be careful with this type of site but this one has an execellent reputation for honesty.

Tourbillion · Jun 6, 2010

Lusti Weather said:
I don't really get all the Mitsouko fuss, but I've only tried it in the EDT concentration. Vol de Nuit is one of my favorites though. The extrait is heavenly but out of my budget at the moment. That must be some chili vodka!

Mitsouko sometimes smells great on me, and at other times really smells "off". Some other perfumes do this on me, they "change" from wearing to wearing, I also get sick of some after a while.

The worst offender for me, Guerlain's Djedi smells like my spit. It is the only perfume I ever got terrible comments about from my boyfriend (and I wear weird ones and odd vintage ones), and he agrees that it smells like I have been licking my wrists. I need to work on my really bad review for basenotes, right now it has all positive reviews and I feel that I need to warn people how nasty this stuff really is so they do not end up wasting $40 on a 1 ml decant of spit like I did. Yuck!

Lusti Weather · Jun 7, 2010

Tourbillion said:
The worst offender for me, Guerlain's Djedi smells like my spit. It is the only perfume I ever got terrible comments about from my boyfriend (and I wear weird ones and odd vintage ones), and he agrees that it smells like I have been licking my wrists. I need to work on my really bad review for basenotes, right now it has all positive reviews and I feel that I need to warn people how nasty this stuff really is so they do end up wasting $40 on a 1 ml decant of spit like I did. Yuck!

I've seen Djedi sell for sky-high prices on Ebay; after reading this, I'm guessing that has more to do with the rarity than the actual scent!

TillyMilly · Jun 11, 2010

I am hoping someone can recomend a fragrance for me to try- i'f like to find a signature scent. I use Cyrstal Noir at the moment- but Id like somethign a bit more sophisticated. I'd liek an oriental/ floral-oriental fragramce- I've tried Mitsouko (hated- think it's the tobacco), Shalimar, Poison and Palmoa Picaso (dislike intensely). Can't remember trying Opium though. I like Arpege but would like something muskier, deeper and warmer- but not too 'masculine'. I like 1920's Vamps if that helps. Here are some clues which might help:

I like:
Vanilla- but not too much
Sharp smells- aldehydes
Incense/ Frankincse
Musky smells
Woody smells
Floral smells but not overtly lavender or rose etc.

I dislike:
Fruit/ citrus e.g peach
Food smells e.g. orange
neroli
Lilly of the valley
Tobacco
Leather

Thanks in advance if anyone has any suggestions.

Trish

Tourbillion · Jun 12, 2010

Trish,

Since you don't like leather, tobacco and lily of the valley, and already ruled out Shalimar, Arpege and Mitsouko, you have eliminated many of the 20's vamp scents already.

Avoid Tabac Blond, Habanita, En Avion and Chanel's Cuir de Russie, as they have the offending leather or tobacco notes. BTW, these are some of the most vamp-like scents still available today. They are however, some of my favorites, so if anyone out there likes leather and tobacco, check these out.

There aren't many left for you to try now, but here are a few. Some are hard to find, but at least they aren't discontinued like most 20's scents. I only listed scents originated between 1915 and 1930 for this list.

Orientals
Emeraude
My Sin (Lanvin)

Woodies
Bois des Iles (Chanel)

Florals
Gardenia (Chanel)
Chanel No. 5

If you include the 30's there is Tabu and Shocking too, but these are more difficult scents to wear (especially Shocking, I like Tabu personally though). There just aren't many vampy scents left. There are others that are from the 20's but I am not sure that they were for vamps, like Blue Waltz, Red Roses, Nuit de Noel, Tweed and Evening in Paris. I can't imagine vamping it up in Tweed or Red Roses, you know? You might like Blue Waltz, since it is a vanilla (once the lemon goes away, I haven't tried this one though) but it seems like a nice girl scent to me.

Since you seem to like more modern perfumes too, you might consider sniffing out Must de Cartier, it is musky with vanilla. Since you like incense, you might try to track down Creed's recently discontinued Angelique Encens (1933), it is really vampy.

Lusti Weather · Jun 12, 2010

Tourbillion said:
Since you like incense, you might try to track down Creed's recently discontinued Angelique Encens (1933), it is really vampy.

This is my all-time favorite; I still lament its discontinuation. It's available at the Perfumed Court, but I think they raised the price a lot when it was taken off the market. I recently tried Montale's Blue Amber, which I thought had a definite resemblance to AE. It doesn't have the history of Angelique Encens, but it would be cheaper/more readily available at this point in time.

Black Dahlia · Jun 13, 2010

I love a variety of scents, which depend on the mood I'm in.

I love Violeta di parma, classic Violet scents like the two below.

BinkieBaumont · Jun 13, 2010

"A 1973 Advertisement for Guerlain, featured in "Honey" Magazine, Love the Vol de Nuit photograph"

Lusti Weather · Jun 13, 2010

That ad is awesome, thanks for sharing! The VdN photo is my favorite too.

Annichen · Jun 13, 2010

Oh dear..I have a rather large collection of perfume,mostly vintage brands,but my favorites are:

Quelques Fleurs (For eighter going out or just because I really like to smell it all the time) - This is one of the perfumes my grandmother used and it was the first perfume I got, a bottle from my grandmother

Chloé ( this I usually wear in the summer..) - Also from my grandmother.

Champagne/Yvresse - Another of my going out perfumes. I used this as a teenager and then I just stopped wearing it when it changed name but I "rediscovered" it a few years ago.

Arpege - This I bought only because of my love for the late 20s, I do not wear it often but when I do,I love it!

Angelique Encens - For those very special moments

Joy - This I wear a lot actually, at home or out shopping.

Shalimar - mostly at home, I always wear perfume..FYI

..and a lot more but those are the favorites.

Miss Peach · Jun 14, 2010

I'm really interested in trying Guerlain Jicky. Has anyone had any experience with this one? If Sean Connery likes it on women I have a feeling I can stand it...

Tourbillion · Jun 15, 2010

I tried Jicky at Nordstrom's a while back. If it wasn't expensive I would buy and wear it a lot. It is a strange scent, a fougere or fern scent, but the dry-down is amber and really nice.

I don't know if everyone would like it, but I do. Of course the only feminine scent I have ever tried and really disliked was Djedi out of hundreds. There were a few vintage ones I didn't like too, but I forgot which ones.

It is definitely worth a try, but I don't know if you should buy an expensive bottle unsniffed, unless you are willing to send it to me if you don't like it.

lolly_loisides · Jun 15, 2010

Miss Peach said:
I'm really interested in trying Guerlain Jicky. Has anyone had any experience with this one? If Sean Connery likes it on women I have a feeling I can stand it...

I splashed out & bought myself a bottle for my birthday! I love it. Tourbillion is spot on, it does have an initial fern like scent, then it mellows out to a lovely amber scent. I tend to use Jicky as a summer perfume & Shalimar as a winter perfume, to me they are similar (though Shalimar is a heavier scent).

I say it's worth the money

Miss Peach · Jun 15, 2010

Thanks, ladies! I trust your noses.

I first read about in Sally Benson's Meet Me In St. Louis (the mother, Mrs. Smith, wore it) and her daughter wrote about what a memory it was for her. As the fair was in 1904, I figured it must really be something to last that long and to make so many impressions on so many.

I'm quite excited now to try it out!!!

Miss Peach · Jun 15, 2010

I forgot to match your smiley faces.

There, now I feel better.

TimeWarpWife · Jun 19, 2010

As the European IFRA has banned many natural ingredients like oakmoss in Mitsouko and limited the amount of jasmine that can go into No. 5 in favor of synthetics, it's getting harder for me to find vintage perfumes I like. I almost cried when I smelled the politically correct version of Mitsouko which now smells of burnt plastic and assorted other chemicals.

So many of the vintages have been tweaked over the years to the point that they no longer smell like the originals. Right now my vintage favorites are Coty's L'Aimant, L'Origan, and Muguet de Bois. I also like Caswell-Massey's Gardenia and own the edt, powder, and soaps. I don't know how long this has been around, but for some reason it smells like it should be vintage to me.

Lillemor · Jan 25, 2011

I haven't tried it, don't know if it's still around but I'm curious about Wind Song Perfume by Prince Matchabelli because it was supposedly Patsy Cline's favorite and she's one of my favorite female singers.

Miss Golightly · Jan 25, 2011

Lillemor said:
I haven't tried it, don't know if it's still around but I'm curious about Wind Song Perfume by Prince Matchabelli because it was supposedly Patsy Cline's favorite and she's one of my favorite female singers.

You can get the cologne of this on Perfumed Court but it's not the vintage scent unfortunately.

I have tried loads of samples of classic vintage perfumes from Perfumed Court and there isn't one that I have liked - Shocking, Nuit de Noel, Apres L'Ondee to name but a few - I'm not sure that older fragrances are for me....

Lillemor · Jan 25, 2011

Miss Golightly said:
You can get the cologne of this on Perfumed Court but it's not the vintage scent unfortunately.

I have tried loads of samples of classic vintage perfumes from Perfumed Court and there isn't one that I have liked - Shocking, Nuit de Noel, Apres L'Ondee to name but a few - I'm not sure that older fragrances are for me....

I don't know if old fragrances are reformulated or if I'm just not accustomed to fragrances pre-70s. Most fragrances I like are from around the 1990s when I first began to use them regularly.

I Adore Film Noir · Jan 26, 2011

Lillemor said:
I haven't tried it, don't know if it's still around but I'm curious about Wind Song Perfume by Prince Matchabelli because it was supposedly Patsy Cline's favorite and she's one of my favorite female singers.

I know for a fact that the Wind Song that's out now is exactly like the Wind Song I wore in junior high. You should find a tester and spritz it.

Here are the notes:

Top
Bergamot, lemon, tarragon, coriander

Middle
Lilac, rose, jasmine

Base
Sandalwood, vetiver, amber

Favorite Vintage Perfumes

New in Town

Practically Family

One of the Regulars

One of the Regulars

Practically Family

One of the Regulars

Call Me a Cab

Rude Once Too Often

One of the Regulars

Familiar Face

One of the Regulars

Practically Family

One Too Many

One of the Regulars

One of the Regulars

One of the Regulars

One Too Many

Call Me a Cab

One Too Many

A-List Customer

Similar threads

Log in

Forum statistics