Mandom!

In honour of my man's birthday, I present Mandom!



Don't you love it!? I'm dying to smell this. If anyone has some vintage 1970's Mandom, please let me know.

Happy birthday BÖ.


Update:

There are more!

Parfums Grès - Cabochard

A once beautiful woman

Cabochard, the first perfume from the fashion house of Grès, was released in 1959 and had it's 50th anniversary in 2009. I've never smelled the original juice, just the modern bottle I bought this year in a discount store. It's too bad. Luca Turin, in Perfumes, The Guide, says "Cabochard was once the greatest leather chypre of all."

One of the things I find most interesting in the history of Cabochard is that Madame Grès originally wanted to release a lighter, floral perfume, but was convinced to go with the leathery, green-chypre because the more popular perfumes then on the market were stronger, like Bandit. What a change from the way things are today! How I wish that things were now as they were then and more perfumes like Cabochard were being released.

Cabochard uses the same chemical, isobutyl quinoline, to create its leather note that Bandit and Cuir de Russie both use.  In Cabochard, the leather is much softer and  it has less (almost no discernable) oakmoss. I like the soft tobacco and leather notes that I catch in my sillage, but these two notes seem to hover over a green base that, when I sniff closely, is thin and a little synthetic smelling.

My husband says he smells dandelions, which I think means he is smelling the tobacco and green notes, combined to make him think of sweet green weeds.

I don't think it's bad. I'd rather wear it than any of the water lily, peony, melon perfumes on the market, and most of the patchroses as well. But Cabochard is not as wickedly beautiful as it must once have been.

House: Parfums Grès
Nose: Bernard Chant
Notes: Galbanum, ylang ylang, rose, jasmine, oak moss, vetiver, musk, patchouli.

Photo: Madame Alix Grès, for Harper's Bazaar, February 1964

Chanel - Cuir de Russie

This is what luxury smells like

Cuir de Russie is the queen of leather fragrances. This gorgeous perfume is the embodiment of luxury today, just as it was when it was created.

First, a little history that will already be familiar to the perfumistas. Cuir de Russie was created by Ernest Beaux in 1927. It was reformulated in 1983 by Jacques Polge and is now part of the Chanel Les Exclusifs line.

Early 20th century Paris culture was very influenced by Russian émigrés and refugees from the revolution in Russia. Chanel's fashions featured Russian embroidered blouses and fur-lined coats. Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel herself is rumoured to have had affairs with Igor Stravinsky and Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich. It was Pavlovich who introduced her to perfumer Ernst Beaux.

Beaux created Cuir de Russie as a perfume for the modern woman; a woman who wore masculine clothes (Coco herself favoured trousers) and who smoked in public. He used the same floral/aldehyde accord from his earlier Chanel No.5, but paired it with a smooth leather note that I assume is the "Albanian birchwood" mentione in the notes. Birch tar was traditionally used in tanneries in Russia. 

The history lesson is over, so what does it smell like? Cuir de Russie smells like smooth grey suede and iris. It's like the inside of a fine leather clutch, one that's held a woman's makeup and her cigarettes. After a little while I smell the aldehydes and the rose/jasmine/ylang ylang combo from No. 5. It seems to open up the suede, but never supersedes it. The drydown is a touch darker and more animalic, but it remains smooth and sophisticated, never raunchy.

Cuir de Russie remains, for me, the ultimate leather perfume. If you want to smell like pure luxury, this is the one to try.

House: Chanel
Nose: Ernest Beaux
Notes: Albanian Birchwood, Jasmine, Oriental Rose, Ylang-Ylang, Tunisian Orange Blossom, Calabrian Bergamot and Sicilian Mandarin.

Photo: National Types Of Beauty - Russia #33, "Sarony Cigarettes - Series of 36 (1928)"

Perfume in the News: The Pre-Christmas Fragrance Wars

There are two interesting articles today.

The first discusses the ramp-up of perfume advertising that starts in September and leads up to the big Christmas sales for perfume and two new video campaigns.

Big name directors are involve in this advertising; and a lot of money has been spent. Guy Ritchie directs an ad starring Jude Law for Dior Homme, and Martin Scorcese directs one for Bleu de Chanel. 

Check them out.

Also, tomorrow the latest from Paco Rabane, Lady Million will launch in the UK, in a bottle shapped like a giant diamond. "Hedonism and opulance" seem to be a contrary reaction to the current climate of financial uncertainty. The article lists some other perfumes that might make you feel powerful this season. ( I can vouch for Tauer's Orange Star, it's lovely.)

Read it here.

Photo: Stuck in Customs

Heeley - Cuir Pleine Fleur

Leather daddy

Cuir pleine fleur is a french term for fine leather. According to the Heeley web site, Jeames Heeley meant CPF to smell like the most luxurious leather. To do this he added the floral notes of mimosa, violet and hawthorn to the traditional leathery note of birch and castoreum.

I definitely smell violet and suede in the first minute, which I liked quite a bit. Unfortunately, the violet disappears and a strange tri-part fragrance takes its place, composed of sweet floral cucumber-ish note (the mimosa?) in the top layer, a rooty iris/vetiver in the bottom, and a strong, raunchy leather sandwiched in the middle.

Cuir Pleine Fleur gives me a headache. The castoreum might be too much for me. This leather is more leather daddy than gentleman.

House: Heeley
Nose: James Heeley
Notes: Top: violet leaf, bergamot
Heart: acacia flower (mimosa) aubépine (hawthorn), suede
Base: vetiver, birch, atlas cedar

Robert Piguet - Bandit

Seductive, headstrong  and dangerous

From the Robert Piguet website:

Provocative and sultry, this chypre fragrance is an intense combination of exotic leather, wood, spice and floral notes including neroli, orange, ylang ylang, jasmine, tuberose, vetiver, oakmoss, patchouli and musk. Bandit is the perfect fragrance for creating an aura of mischief.

I adore Bandit. To get Bandit visualize one of my favourite movies, To Have and Have Not (1944). Lauren Bacall's character, Slim, would be the perfect face for Bandit. Beautiful, seductive and headstrong, with sharp shoulders and a bitter attitude, she can handle with the toughest man but she's all woman.

Bandit was created in the same year, 1944, by legendary perfumer Germaine Cellier. Slim and blond, with a penchant for suits and an attitude of her own, Cellier was like Slim herself. The first major female perfumer, Cellier created famous perfumes such as Fracas, Vent Vert and Jolie Madame. For more information of the formidable Cellier, read the biography at Fragratica written by Ellena Vosnaki from Perfume Shrine.

Bandit starts with a vintage vibe, powdery and a big hit of what we perfumistas like to call "skank." (Read more about skank on Perfume Posse.) It can be indolic, animalic or sweaty, but skank for me is a little bit of a personal smell, or sexy skin and "lady business." In fact, the story goes that Germaine Cellier sniffed models panties to get a better handle on the smell of a woman for her perfumes. In these first moments it reminds me of Bal a Versailles. (My EdT is also a little sharp in the opening, which may not happen in EdP, or it may be because it's vintage.)

Then Bandit turns beautifully bitter and green. Galbanum and oakmoss, how I love them. This fantastic greeness is joined by a heart of leather. The dry down is earthy, woody moss.

Slim and Steve are back from a walk in the mossy, green woods. She's wearing her man's leather jacket and has leaves in her hair; what have they been doing?


House: Robert Piguet
Nose: Germaine Cellier
Notes: Top: galbanum, ylang Mid: leather, jasmine Base: patchoulie, oakmoss, vetiver

Photo: Lauren Bacall, To Have and Have Not (1944)
Photo of Germaine Cellier borrowed from Basenotes
Photo of bottle of Bandit: mine

P.S. Bandit is a perfume for a strong woman but would work just as well on a man. My bottle is an Eau de Toilette that may have been aimed at a male market. I have no idea what year it is, it may be from before the reformulation in 1999. It certainly smells like a lot of oakmoss! If you recognize it and know what year it might be, please let me know.

I bought it at Fritsch Pharmacy in Kitchener. If you live near Kitchener, and you like perfume, visit him. I almost don't want to tell anybody, but Micheal Fritsch has a lot of vintage stock and he was very kind to spend a couple of hours showing me his treasures.

Tauer Perfumes - Carillon pour un ange

Death and lilies

I'm really sorry to have to write this. It's terribly disappointing, I do love several Tauer Perfumes, but Carillon pour un ange just doesn't work for me.

When I heard that Andy Tauer has created a lily of the valley perfume, I was excited. He tells a lovely story on Fragrantica of how his mother wore Diorissimo, the queen of lily of the valley perfumes. Mine did too. I love the rich smell of those little white bells that bloom in shady places around my home in May.

But I don't smell lily of the valley in Cpua. At first, I just smell something wrong. It's green vegetation on top and some citrus but underneath it's damp and dark.

Then I do smell lily, a very strong lily, but not lily of the valley. I smell regular lilies and leather. It's a pungent but dark smell, like hearing a very high loud note played at the same time as a very low note. The leather has an almost earthy smell of soil and roots and, well, dead leaves.

As with Tauer's other perfumes, you can tell the Cpua uses quality materials. This is a strong Eau de Parfum, and has considerable sillage. My husband complained about me leaving this one all over the his keyboard. He could still smell it hours after I had left.

I admit, have never liked the smell of lilies. I'm afraid I associate them with funerals, so perhaps that's why I can't get the idea of dying flowers out of my head. The drydown is quieter and adds moss and wood to the leather and the lilies.

House: Tauer Perfumes
Nose: Andy Tauer
Notes:
Head: rose, ylang, lilac
Heart: lily of the valley, jasmine, leather.
Base: ambergris, moss and woods.

Photo: ericarhiannon