The Scented Hound

December 9, 2012
by The Scented Hound 23 Comments

A long lost love: Chypre de Coty

Last week I received a package of samples from Kay from the That Smell blog. What I was not expecting is that she would include some vintage perfume. In fact, what she sent was one fragrance, Chypre de Coty, but in two different formulations.

Chypre de Coty – EdP, early 20th century

When you look at this fragrance in the bottle it’s deep auburn in color; it almost looks like port wine. Upon application, Chypre de Coty is incredibly mentholated and musky. It’s strong and powerful and not feminine at all. It’s also very warm. As it develops it becomes more patchouli like and and very earthy with the oakmoss very evident. As it develops some more it becomes softer and more creamy. This fragrance feels natural, almost like it has a soul. After some time it does become more floral and feminine but I could easily see myself wearing this. I am hooked, not just because this is a rare find, but because it is nothing like any fragrance I have smelled before. It’s old, substantial and truly a work of art. Chypre de Coty’s longevity is amazing. One dab on the back of my hand will fill the room and after wearing it for 12 hours, I woke up in the morning with it ever present.

Chypre de Coty – EdT, post 1960s

In the bottle you can see the difference, where the older EdP is dark and heavy, this version is light and green. When applied its immediately sweet and powdery. There’s a warmth and comfort about it that strikes me of my youth as it smells of 1960s pencil dresses and white gloves. It doesn’t develop like the older version, but remains in this green and somewhat tarty sharpness. I want to like this like the older version (in a different way), but in its warmth there is a cold and distant edge that makes me pull away because as it develops it almost has a tinge of what seems like body odor… could this be the civet?

So this is what I found for notes, although I am sure there is some difference in the reformulation:

Top notes: Sage, Thyme, Bergamot
Heart notes: Jasmine, Rose, Spices
Base notes: Oakmoss, Labdanum, Patchouli, Civet

I’m not going to give either of the versions a bone rating as they are no longer available. What I am going to do is to thank Kay for her wonderful gift because neither of these would have probably entered my universe without her generosity!

Please check out what Kay has to say about Chypre de Coty on her site: That Smell

December 7, 2012
by The Scented Hound 19 Comments

Spiritueuse Double Vanille by Guerlain

WHAT I SMELL: The first spritz is oh so boozy, but where’s the vanilla? There’s some spice and it’s almost herb like….oh wait, after a few minutes you can start to smell the vanilla along with a very weighted and buttery incense. I’m not a huge fan of incense, but this is different as it’s almost like a warmed blanket of smoked spice. As it develops there’s a point where this smells almost like hot buttered rum. After some time the booziness retreats and out comes some cedar and it becomes a bit more woody. Based on the name, one would expect that all you would get would be vanilla. You know it’s there, but combined with the other notes you never feel like you are drowning in vanilla. The smell is intoxicating and sensual and very grown up. Double Vanille develops over a long period of time and it’s a great ride. Finally, After many, many hours, you’re left with a comforting light honeyed vanilla.

Spiritueuse Double Vanille notes: Top notes are pink pepper, bergamot and incense; middle notes are ylang-ylang, cedar, bulgarian rose and jasmine; base notes are benzoin and vanilla.

WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: Effortless confidence and sophistication.

THREE ADJECTIVES THAT DESCRIBE SPIRITUEUSE DOUBLE VANILLE: warm, smooth, intoxicating

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT SPIRITUEUSE DOUBLE VANILLE: PereDePierre, Olfactoria’s Travels, That Smell

BOTTOM LINE: At first, SDV is weighted, bold and is a fragrance that will fill your lungs with a heavy and moist concentration. As time goes on, it mellows beautifully and for a vanilla fragrance it never gets very sweet. And it develops and develops and develops in a way that is seamless. I have the feeling that Spiritueuse Double Vanilla will be my signature scent this winter!

Bone Rating: 5 out of 5 possible bones
Scent: Oriental
Nose: Jean-Paul Guerlain
Classification: Marketed as a feminine fragrance, but I believe this suits both men and women
Expense: $250 for 75ml EdP

December 1, 2012
by The Scented Hound 25 Comments

New York City – Part 2

Day 3: Let me just say… I love Bergdorf Goodman. From top to bottom, the store is a class act all the way. Bergdorf’s home store to me is one of the best. You can find items there that you wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else. And albeit it’s small, their Christmas section is always filled with some unique baubles. We ended up at the store on Monday and we must have gotten there early enough because the store was pretty empty which made for fun shopping. As for the beauty section, it’s great to walk through a store without people shoving things in your face or who are extremely aggressive about selling. I spent a good deal of time at the Guerlain store and the sales associate was a sweet as she could be. First I wanted to check out the new Les Deserts d’Orient line and really liked Rose Nacree du Desert and upon more sniffing found Oriental Brulant and Angelique Noire to my liking as well. After getting a few samples for testing, we toddled off once again and spoke to the woman who was working the Dior Privee collection. What is with those 250ml bottles that look like they are meant for shampoo? Finally there was a really fun sales associate who was selling Houbigant Fougere Royale which my husband was much more into the beautiful bottle than the fragrance itself.

We then headed off to the BG Men’s store across the street only to find another CELEBRITY SIGHTING! It was Kelsey Grammer. Again, he looked exactly how you would expect, maybe a bit bigger as he was about 6 ft tall and looked pretty normal.

Next, off to Barney’s to get a glimpse of the coveted Serge Luten’s Bell Jars. For some reason, I was expecting these iconic jars to be much larger than they were. They seemed so tiny and delicate. The sales associate could not have been nicer and after sniffing the scents, I again was drawn to Chergui. My sweet husband told me that I should buy a bottle, but part of my brain just couldn’t let me purchase something that is twice as expensive as it is overseas. We then went toddling off again. One comment, when we were going through the fragrance section, the sales associates (besides the SL one assisting as with the bell jars) had some attitude issues. I hate snotty sales assistants!

After doing some non-perfume shopping it was time for a rest before cocktails and off to the theatre to go see Newsies. I had really no desire to see this show, but friends of our got tickets for us all. I’m glad they did, the show was incredible. The dancing was amazing.

Day 4: While my better half went off to work, I went off to the Museum of Art and Design to check out the Art of Scent exhibit. Now, I’m not going to intellectualize the exhibit; that I’ll leave to others, but I did find it interesting. It’s not a large show, basically it’s comprised of 2 rooms. The first part of the exhibit, you enter a large room void of any visuals except for a brief description projected upon the wall that introduces a scent, it’s creator, the year it was introduced and its place in the evolution of the perfumed arts. Next to this description is an indentation in the wall in which you insert your head only to have the perfume described released in a spray of fragrance. There were 11 fragrances in all, stemming from Aimee Guerlain’s Jicky (1898) to Martin Margiela’s Untitled (2010).

The next room contains a table of all of the scents in the exhibition, the same 11, in the traditional perfume liquid form. What you are asked to do is to dip the strip in the perfume and then record your thoughts on the perfume using a computer with a list of descriptors. The descriptors are then displayed in real-time on the screen so you can see what others have thought of the same scent with the most used descriptors projecting as the largest. It was fun to be part in the exhibit.

The final part of the exhibit was designed to show a perfumer’s development of a fragrance. In this case, Sophia Grossman described how she developed Tresor in 1990 going through various compounded steps. As you go through each step, you pull out a
card from the wall which describes what she was doing in that step. On the back of the card is a pull back which releases that accord and what it represents. If you take each of them as a separate entity you wonder how this fragrance could come to a successful end. But the 5th and final card represents the final product and you can really see how all of the accords came together so beautifully. I would have to say that this was the most interesting part of the exhibit.

I was glad that I had a chance to see this exhibit and I recommend that if you’re in NYC in the next couple of months to go check it out. The exhibit ends in February. More information can be found on the Museum of Art and Design website.

It was a really rainy and slightly snowy day so after the show I trudged back to Bergdorfs determined to find something to buy. That morning I had tested on my skin all of the Guerlain’s listed earlier in this post, but none were pushing me to a FB purchase. Finally, after a 2nd round of sniffing, I found my love; Spiritueuse Double Vanille. For tax savings, etc. I ordered this but have yet to receive it. More to come when it arrives.

Finally, we ended our day with the theatre in which we saw Chaplin. It was really well done, but the lead actor who play Charlie Chaplin was exceptional. I highly recommend the show.

In all this was a great trip, but I could have spent another week there as there was so much more that I wanted to do!