Chypres - survivors and fallen warriors

Being a lady of...a certain age, I have a soft spot for chypres. In my late teens, as I was beginning my fragrance journey, they were still a big deal in perfumery. Wildly out of fashion today, of course. These days it seems that unless a perfume is diabetes in a bottle it just isn’t considered ‘feminine’. In my opinion that’s just nonsense - many of the great female perfumes of the past weren’t sweet at all so I don’t get why sugary = feminine. *Sigh* I guess I’m just showing my age here.

I should just be glad that so many of the old warriors of yesterday are still standing - some still fabulous although others are battle scarred to a greater or lesser degree. I have a few in my collection

Aromatics Elixir - quite a polarising one, this. It’s quite surprising that so many people are, apparently, still buying this, as it’s so far from what’s current. Every Clinique counter still sells it though. The first time I tested this I was repulsed for the first few minutes but had no opportunity to scrub it off, which was my first instinct. I’m glad of that now because within a few minutes it began to morph and after half an hour I was back at the Clinique counter buying a bottle. I have several back ups now too. I have no idea if it is true to the original formula or not, never having tried older versions, but the current juice is beautiful. I’ve seen it described as ‘difficult’, but apart from the first few minutes I would have to disagree.

Mitsouko - I adore Mitsouko, one of Guerlain’s grande dames. She’s been around for almost 100 years and has weathered the IFRA storms surprisingly well. Apparently the earlier reformulations were diabolical but fortunately for this stately lady Guerlain seem to have recaptured her magic. A lot of people describe Mitsouko as ‘cold’ or ‘melancholic’ but to me she is neither - she’s like a warm hug from an old friend. I’ve never received so many compliments for any other perfume as I have for Mitsouko. 

Timeless - from your friendly neighbourhood Avon lady! Well, it originally would have been, but I got it from Ebay, because it’s a vintage. I am always on the lookout for an even older version. I have a new bottle too and I have to say it’s not bad - a little ‘thinner’, longevity is not so good, and it plays it’s song in a faster tempo. I prefer the vintage though. There’s a sharp, galbanum heavy opening and then it dries down to a warm, womanly, powdery amber scent that wraps you like a favourite sweater for hours.

La Panthere - Cartier’s beauty. I’m not sure this counts as a proper chypre in the traditional sense, as it doesn’t seem to contain labdanum, but it does contain bergamot and oakmoss and I’m guessing the patchouli makes it a ‘modern chypre’, whatever that means. It’s gorg though so I’ll give it a pass.

Sikkim - this one is Lancome’s fallen warrior. A real, old school chypre, a cousin to Dioressence but rather warmer, and sadly no longer made. I’ve seen bottles go for extraordinary prices, so when I saw this little bottle of bath oil going for a song I snatched it up. The fragrance is still intact, and I wear it occasionally although not too often, because once it’s gone, it’s gone. 

Another vintage beauty I would love to get my paws on is Lancome’s Magie Noire. I had a bottle of the reformulated juice, but was unimpressed. This goes for big bucks quite often on EBay too, but I live in hope. It ha