Friday, December 12, 2008

Mandel Brother Chicago Vintage Perfumes: Come to Me


Sorry for the dark grainy photo above... This is a vintage bottle of an Eau de Toilette "Come to Me". This bottle (I guess 1930's vintage) came from Mandel Brothers, a now defunct "fancy" department store in Chicago that imported and blended scents. I have seen some beautiful and usually large bottles from Mandel Bros advertised on-line usually for hundreds of dollars, with "no name" fragrances. But this bottle came to me from a friend who got it from an antiques dealer and since it's stopper had been stuck for ages, and the bottle is not spectacular she considered it trash. I figured I'd give opening it a shot since my husband has developed a pretty good technique for removing these frozen stoppers, but the stopper on this bottle has an extra long neck and the bottle had a weak small lip. So in this case we had no choice but to drill it out and extract the fluid. The scent inside? I must admit it is somewhat a disappointment- big fizzy nose-crinkling top, faint non descript soapy and spice florals and a mild amber dry down. I guess the name- Come to Me, mislead me. I expected a sweet sillage, something with Heliotrope in it or almondy. But instead, it seems a little bit of almost everything from citrus to leather to aldehydes but it seems somehow pale and wan. I may need to try it again later.

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