ambery 50's (was Re: Intro and question on blending)

[Guest guest]

Anya wrote:

> Shocking, Tabu, L'aimant, Fete, Joy, My Sin, Chanel No. 5, Femme. I

> adore the original Femme. All definitely had civet. I had little bits of

> them passed on to me by my mother or her friends. I remember not liking

> Tabu or Fete.

>

> Others may or may not have had civet, and they were still quite

> animalic and thick, syrupy. What's that horrid one from Estee Lauder?

> Oh, Youth Dew! Horrid. Sits on my skin like a radioactive waste deposit.

> Guess it was the amber, tolu, benzoin and patchouli.

>

I love chanel No5...don't mind Tabu....but Youth Dew makes me feel ill.

(I like your description of radio active waste dump....I remember

recoiling in horror the first time I smelled it...and wondering what the

hell was wrong with other peoples noses that they could find it pleasant!)

And it's because the base is overshadowed with things that to my mind

just don't fit. So you end up with a clash of scents that has a nasty

acrid sting to it...

Amber, Tolu, Benzoin and Patchouli are lovely to me...they are all

sweet, ambery or vanilla combined or on their own....the trouble (for my

nose) is when you start adding florals and things like Petigrain and

then dry notes on top. Youth Dew to me has an intense, dry, musky

base...that clashes horribly with it's intense floral middle notes and

the artificial toilet cleaner top notes.

But this seems to just be my taste...most of the chypre/aldehyde recipes

make me uncomfortable. It's like there's an untuned key in the chord

that sets my teeth on edge....

Chanel 5 to me is a lovely balanced scent...it has the nice dry warmth

you expect from the aldehydes...but nothing on top to clash with

it....it stays dry and warm all the way through....if that makes any sense

[Guest guest]

> Shocking, Tabu, L'aimant, Fete, Joy, My Sin, Chanel No. 5, Femme. I

> adore the original Femme. All definitely had civet. I had little

> bits of them passed on to me by my mother or her friends. I

> remember not liking Tabu or Fete.

>

> Oh, Youth Dew! Horrid. Sits on my skin like a radioactive waste

> deposit. Guess it was the amber, tolu, benzoin and patchouli.

I used to like Tabu in high school, as well as Chanel No. 5. Got a

bottle of Joy for Christmas about 15 years ago, but got it from an

ogre ( & I associated it with him -- dang), so I gave it to my

Grandmother - and the person she hired to run her errands lifted it

from her.

Never smelled the others. Except Youth Dew. OMG, I think I nearly

dropped dead from olfactory shock the first time I smelled it. My

mother smelled like The Grim Reaper when she walked around in that

stink. I remember that it was thick-looking and dark brown --

viscous. It smelled like death. Funny, since tolu, amber, benzoin

and patchouli sounds like a lovely starting point for a blend, to

me... But boy did the perfume creator at Estee Lauder get it wrong!

(Oh -- and also: Ciara and Cerissa. Big time gag-fest. My mother was

not fun to be around in that stuff. I liked her Shalimar and Mitsouko

SO much better!)

Can't even conjure up what any of them smell like now. Probably

couldn't do it if my life depended on it. When I realized that

perfume was making me sick, I think I erased the olfactory memories of

commercial perfumes from my brain. Has anyone else had that happen?

I'd recognize them if I smelled them again, but the memory isn't at my

" fingertips " now.

Andrine

P.S. What I wouldn't give for a few drops of some of the old stuff,

original formulae, for olfactory reference. Sigh