Thanks to the wonderful Kafkaesque, I have been led down another obsessional and dangerous path….that of vintage perfumes. A few months back, Kafkaesque sent me a wonderful selection of perfumes to include some great vintage scents. Of course that led me to want to try more…and then more…and then soon enough I’m trolling eBay for the next great buy. The great thing about finding some of these vintage fragrances is that you can typically find some of the more common, unopened and in the box. And you typically can find a smaller size so while you are blind buying… or taking a chance on whether the juice is still good, you don’t have to break the bank. As these fragrances are vintage, I hope I can tell if the fragrance is still good… but so far I have not been disappointed. Also, since the fragrance are vintage, I’m not going to modify my review format a bit and won’t be giving them a bone rating. Why? If I did that, then everyone would be hunting down these jewels and the next time I go on eBay I wont’ be able to find them. 🙂
YSATIS – Vintage Parfum
This is the one that started it all…
WHAT I SMELL: Ysatis isn’t shy. When the juice hits your skin it’s like opening a big waxy honeyed floral bouquet. It’s thick and over the top and for me, mixed so beautifully that I can’t really pick apart the notes besides the heady ylang-ylang. The flower power never wains, but it increasingly becomes warmer and creamier as it radiates off your skin. About 15 minutes there is a slight civit note added to a bit of spice which gives the fragrance a bit of sex. Yes, I think this is a very sexy fragrance. I don’t just love smelling it, I want to consume it. I bought 2 5ml bottles a few weeks ago and one is almost drained. I will be buying more without question.
Ysatis Notes from Fragrantica:
The top notes are citrus, ylang-ylang, galbanum, coconut, rose wood, and aldehydes. The heart notes are jasmine, rose, iris, tuberose and narcissus. The base notes are musk, amber, vanilla, vetiver, patchouli, sandalwood and civet.
WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: A giant flower bomb!
GIVENCHY III – Vintage Parfum
WHAT I SMELL: A blast of aldehydes and oak moss give this a bright, green and mossy opening. It’s citrus, bergamot and head spinningly sparkly without being sweet. The oakmoss almost has an incense quality in the background, but it’s more dusty than pure incense. There are so many floral notes that are mixed together in harmony, but it’s not overtly floral, but instead when sniffed it breathes a green and floral stem like life to a beautiful and warm flower arrangement. As it develops it takes on more patchouli and amber and it remains intoxicatingly beautiful. Fragrantica classifies Givenchy III as a Chypre Floral. I get the chypre and the floral, but if I would have read that without trying this I would have thought this to be sweeter. Instead it never blasts off from its initial sparkle, but then winds down to a warm and cozy hug. My one regret is that Givenchy III doesn’t last as long as I would like it to and eventually after a couple hours it all but disappears but for a little soapy ending. No problem though, I’ll just apply more.
Givenchy III notes from Fragrantica:
The perfume opens with aldehydes with bergamot, mandarin, galbanum, peach and gardenia. The heart includes lily of the valley, hyacinth, rose, jasmine and iris root, while the base carries patchouli, oakmoss, amber and sandalwood
WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: 1978
The Scented Hound 
April 27, 2013 at 5:18 pm
Dear Hound
I have a fear that the antique fragrance market may be the gateway to financial oblivion for The Dandy… oh well, I shall go down beautifully scented.
Ysatis is quite something else, isn’t it? It does seem as though perfumers were so much less shy when t came to florals in the near past.
As to III, I actually rather like the current (possibly itself now discontinued) version, but the original to my mind is warmer and has that more definite background smoked dust quality that you allude to. Oddly, it seems to hang around me forever…
All of which indicates one of the joys of vintage collection: all the perfumes having been stored differently and themselves being of different batches and even formulations, there really is no way to know what you’re getting. A free surprise with every fragrance!
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
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April 28, 2013 at 5:36 pm
My dear Dandy..I am sitting here at my computer wearing Ysatis. It makes me want to put on a ball gown and go to the theatre. But the reality is that I have to get the grill going to cook some pork ribs. Thankfully Ysatis can work for me that way too 🙂 xoxoxo Steve
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April 27, 2013 at 6:40 pm
My dearest Mr. Hound, I’m so, so very glad. 🙂 May I suggest next vintage Opium? 😉 Not a chypre but the one true Oriental, a fragrance which owns me heart and soul. xoxox
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April 27, 2013 at 6:48 pm
My dear – you have been reading my mind. Opium is on my “must try” vintage list. Trust me I’ve been trolling eBay! More to come with the vintages…btw, you have made me spend too much money. I blame you! 🙂
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April 27, 2013 at 7:05 pm
LOL! How did the vintage 24 Faubourg work out for you? Were the peach and orange notes too concentrated? (I suspect they would be, given how those notes can be iffy for you.) While you’re contemplating the vintage rabbit hole, may I suggest other things you may want to consider? On the men’s side, Vintage Bel Ami & Egoiste. On the women’s: maybe Guerlain’s Samsara and Chamade, (but stay far away from Jardins de Bagatelle, given your issues with tuberose and white flowers).
In terms of chypres, please consider Parfum d’Hermes which has now been renamed as Rouge d’Hermès but I am almost certain it’s not the same thing (even apart from the vintage/reformulation issue). Look for the Parfum d’Hermès which has an Hermès brown ribbon on the box/packaging, an oblong-ish/round bottle and a little, indented donut-shaped oval in the center. I think that would be a better fit for you than 24 Faubourg. At one stage in my life, I wore almost nothing but the Parfum d’Hermes for almost a year straight and it is one of my favorite vintage, chypre-oriental hybrids.
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April 28, 2013 at 6:17 am
Kafka- you have sent Mr. Hound down a rabbit hole he is NEVER going to come out of!!!!!!! Don’t try vintage Opium….it is so unbelievably gorgeous you will never want to wear anything else and will obsess over hunting down bottles :D!!!!!
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April 28, 2013 at 6:19 am
Nice reviews. There was only one vintage perfume I tried in my life so far and it was vintage L’Heure Bleue. I liked it but L’Heure Bleue is such a fragrant statement and it doesn’t find many occasions for me to wear that I absolutely don’t need it and don’t have to hunt for an old bottle.
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April 28, 2013 at 5:37 pm
I have to admit that these vintage scents for me aren’t for day wear, but more for wear in the evening. My purchases have been smaller quantities thus far so I’m kind of wrapping myself in them at home.
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April 28, 2013 at 6:19 am
And may I add having been raised to wear nothing but vintage/classics it spoils you and makes it harder to appreciate the contemporary stuff and the re-formulations.
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April 28, 2013 at 10:38 am
I love Ysatis. It’s all I wore for a while in college. I went through many, many bottles. Glad to see it has another fan. It aways seemed to me that it was an overlooked and under appreciated fragrance.
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April 28, 2013 at 5:39 pm
Wow, you had great taste in college. I do think of this as a more mature scent though…but if you’re my age?? and you were around in the 80s we all spritzed big and bold!
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April 28, 2013 at 7:03 pm
Yup. Late 80’s, big and bold. I most definitely left a scent trail.
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April 28, 2013 at 4:58 pm
Dear Scented Hound – I missed the Bone Ratings! I usually go by that to determine if it is worth my while to seek out. I do have vintage Ysatis EDT. If you have tried the EDT and the parfum, how do they compare?
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April 28, 2013 at 5:41 pm
Just for you, I give Yastis a 5 and Givenchy III a 4. As for the parfum vs. the EdT. They smell very similar, with the parfum having a little more warmth and depth. If you look on eBay you can get some great deals on the EdT.. for some reason my small parfums were a great deal, but the other parfums listed since that time have been horrific in price.
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April 29, 2013 at 7:30 pm
Why did you skip the rating? Because those are vintage or did you decide not to do it any longer in general?
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May 1, 2013 at 6:17 am
You are the 2nd person to ask about the bone rating. I left them off because they were vintage, but I’ll have to rethink that when I do another post!
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April 29, 2013 at 4:38 pm
Fabulous reviews Houndy – your enthusiasm is captivating! I’ve also had my nose on a lot of vintages recently – it’s not obsessive yet for me thankfully, but I’m totally understanding the charm.
How does Ystatis compare to Haute Claire? Sounds wonderful 😀
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April 29, 2013 at 7:23 pm
Ysatis is much bolder and bigger than Haute Claire. Ysatis is very 1980s… it beautiful and very full and Haute Claire although a beauty is much more subdued and a bit more classic if that helps.
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April 29, 2013 at 7:33 pm
I remember trying both of these many-many years ago and back then I didn’t like these. I suspect that today I would have felt different about them but I do not actively pursue any vintage perfume (but my two favorites – Lancome Climat and Dior Miss Dior) so I’ll try these when I try if I happen to come across them somehow. But your review makes them sound very appealing.
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May 1, 2013 at 6:17 am
Miss Dior is on my list of “to try”…Climat huh?
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May 1, 2013 at 2:01 pm
You see! We found at least one more thing I cansend you: I’ve just got a small bottle of vintage Miss Dior EdT in good condition, so I’ll include a sample of it in the package.
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May 1, 2013 at 6:40 pm
Yippee!!!!
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January 5, 2019 at 5:57 am
Have no fear as Givenchy II hasn’t been discontinued and the new release is as beautiful as the original. I know. I have both. Side by side and over time they smell almost exactly the same with the exception being with the new. It’s opening is a little more sparkling. How they managed it retain the fragrance so closely to the original with all the EU regulations I don’t know, but Givenchy managed to achieve that miracle. No need to go hunting down the vintage for this beauty.
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