Coty Nokomis Perfume, ready to wear or make your own?

Vintage Perfumistas on a budget needn't fall for the same tired old perfume snobbery. There are many fine vintage fragrances tucked in among the drugstore releases of yesterday. Coty is a case in point. Once a leader of classical French perfumery today Coty rules the shelves of CVS and Wal-Mart. Don't underestimate the modern drugstore variety Coty fragrances, either. There are hidden gems waiting to be discovered among the bargain bins.

Perfumes often became rare before word gets around about which ones are going to become future classics. But once people catch on prices quickly inflate.  A case in point is a cult favorite of Coty's: TRIBE. Released in 1991, it had the heart of a fine fragrance hidden under cheesy teen beat packaging and drugstore marketing. Today you'll only find it on Ebay commanding prices equal to what you'd pay for many expensive new niche perfumes and then only if/when you can manage to win it in an auction.  

 NOKOMIS is yet another drugstore offering with some of that old Coty magic. Classified as a sharp oriental floral fragrance Nokomis has notes of jasmine, sandalwood, musk and vetiver. Named after a mythical Native American Moon Goddess, Nokomis was released in 1997. A decade later Nokomis has basically vanished from the retail market scene. Yet it gains fans over time rather than fading away. As a testament to its growing popularity of late, a number of hobbiest perfumers have published their own kitchen recipes for Nokomis. Excepting a few bottles that are available on Ebay, Nokomis is fast becoming scarce and growing highly collectible.

If you happen to find a bottle tucked into your Christmas stocking this year or if you already own Nokomis, count yourself lucky. But in case you left it off your list this year, here's a little Christmas bonus for you- that is, if you've ever thought about dabbling in perfumery yourself. Nokomis is a great perfume to try your hand at making for yourself. Why not whip a batch up, decant some into a few pretty little bottles, decorate your own labels and viola, you have your first batch of homemade vintage perfume (or potpourri) to give out for New Years, House Warming, Hostess gifts etc.

The notes for Nokomis are easily available and the results smell great even for beginners. You just need the following: for base notes musk, sandalwood and vetiver oils. As for middle heart notes, you will need a good jasmine. For top notes, use your choice of either bergamot and or lavender. But I might add a dab of rose or rose geranium too (or instead?), since I detect a hint of rose in Nokomis' opening. 

To make the recipe: add to 15 mls of 190 proof ethyl alcohol, 24 drops of each of your base note oils and adjust the resultant base mix by adding a drop or two of whichever base note your nose tells you to... Once you get the base adjusted just right, add to the blend 18 drops of the middle note (jasmine). To this base + middle concoction you will add your top notes. 

This is where the recipe leaves you some room to play since there are no specified top notes for Nokomis. You might need to try a few different top note blends side by side- lavender only, bergamot only, then maybe a mix of two or three top notes until you get something that smells right. You might want or add some of each of the top note blends to your base mix and work from those 'mods' to a final product. Blends often require some sitting time in order to meld so don't work too fast; let things stew a while before you adjust.

I personally love both the home-made and the original version of Nokomis although truthfully, I love the Coty version more. But that's only because they use such a good quality sandalwood and their jasmine is so delicious smelling. Give it a try and see if maybe Nokomis deserves to be part of your perfume collection, too.

The Vintage Perfume Vault, where the scent of yesterday's vogue lives.

perfume recipe from Melissa Jordan-Reilly
moon witch vintagedancers.com

Santa with Perfume from pennyprintables
Tribe ad from perfumepurist
Moon Goddess vicstitch.com

Marigold in Perfumes: Carme Poppy Musk Cologne & Coty 001

                                                                  image: planetpoint
The bottle of Carme's Poppy Musk cologne was an impulse purchase for my step-daughter. It seemed like a cute idea at the time... After all, it bares her name and being a musk, well, what could go wrong, I thought? Of course as you probably already know, plenty can go wrong. But in my defense I will say that with vintage perfumes, sampling is usually just not possible and it's often just as difficult to find any type of smell and tell; we really do have to make blind purchases.

So it turns out the problem with Poppy Musk is a pesky Marigold note.

Otherwise known as tagetes, Marigold has a pungent, bitter odor that reminds me of chrysanthemums- and indeed both of these plants seem to have adapted their scent in order to repel a variety of garden pests. Now I can appreciate bitter notes in perfume when used judiciously and in harmony with the rest of the composition.  There is something in the pretty/ugly, expected/unexpected contrast that gives identity and form to some of the most beautiful and complex perfumes. Ralph Lauren's original (ruby red flacon) perfume made perfect sense with a strong Marigold note, as did Nikki St. Phalle's original (blue cube) perfume. But used improperly it can mar a composition, throwing everything off balance. And in Poppy Musk, it is used as a blunt instrument. It literally pounds the soft, diffusive musk into submission, and the over-kill just doesn't make sense. There is also a strong fruity chemical-acetone note in Poppy Musk, which might be age related but I think is simply fallout from the fight between all the smothery musk and that incompatibly sharp floral. Recent incarnations of Elizabeth Arden's Sunflowers seem to have a similar Marigold note but there its sweetened, and less obvious.

Normally, I wouldn't say anything about Poppy Musk, but I've had bad perfume luck- featuring Marigolds- for the past few weeks, so I'm spilling it all here.... The trouble began with my blind purchase of Coty's ill-fated 001, a high-concept limited edition scent that was released in 2001 and distributed via Internet channels only. The history of the company and the concept initially caught my fancy. The magnolia and praline gave me high hopes. And the bottle is really lovely, a frosted crystal glass stopper, the pale cornflower blue palm-sized flask, the sandblasted lettering instead of a paper label- lovely. But the scent! Unfortunately it has a half-life similar to plutonium and the nasal cringing crunch factor due to a distinct Marigold note, along with a strong dose of licorice, all immersed in Calone (?); the overall effect conspires to thoroughly vex my nose.

                                                                     image: vouge.uk.com
It even took Etat Libre d'Orange's Like This from me. Had I smelled ELDO's fragrance first, it would have been fine (I think). But 001 shares something in the structure of the base with Like This. Especially on paper, and after some time, I can really hardly smell a difference between the two... but the similarity also pops out on skin, too. It makes wearing Like This less than satisfying, if not down right bothersome.
It seems that some notes force the perfumer to work much harder...
 Pardon the somewhat Scroogy review; I promise to return with Something Wonderful soon...

The Vintage Perfume Vault, where the scent of yesterday's vogue lives.

Vintage Cordon Vert eau de coty : How Coty did Cologne

Coty's Cordon Vert became famous to me because it is included in Guy Robert's Les Sens Du Parfum as one of the top must try scents of modern perfumery. One of only five Coty "must try" fragrances, Roberts places it alongside Chypre, Ambre Antique, Emeraude, L'Origan; Coty's Cordon series included Rouge and Vert. I believe both were both created in 1905, despite the oft given year 1909 (a bit of misinformation found in many reliable sources). I get the 1905 date directly from the label of a bottle of Cordon Vert in my collection- which plainly states "creation 1905" at the top of the label. I have seen images of Cordon Rouge with the same label style as my Vert bottle and those appear to share the date on the label but never seeing it up close I wonder if perhaps the Rouge date is marked 1909, whereas the Vert is certainly 1905. Not that those few years matter to you, dear reader, but the vintage nose around here obsesses about these things...

 I'm less clear exactly when Cordon Noir was created- was it in the early 1900s or much closer to 1939 as several sources claim? And if the latter date is correct, then were Cordon Vert and Rouge re-released or promoted along side of the newer Noir? I think they must have been. I recall hearing these scents spoken of as a trio; also I have seen versions of all three with identical bottle/label design- which makes them look very much like a trio.

But it isn't so simple since I find evidence of Cordon Vert and Rouge 'eau de coty' both in print advertisement and/or actual bottles, dating through 1900s to the late 1930s. But it's tougher to find much about Cordon Noir- except for the fact that I missed an auction for a bottle of it this week- you can see the photo of the Cordon Noir by looking it up under completed listings on Ebay.fr. I just can't make a direct link to the image or grab the image to show you here. But the item number is 300470570038, just in case you too wanna check it out.

Never-minding Cordon Rouge and Noir, I embarked on this journey because I wanted to smell Cordon Vert. I can report to you that it is a perfectly handsome cologne loaded with juicy but not sweet mandarin, touches of woody-green petitgrain and a whisper of patchouli. It is quite bracing and refreshingly lovely of course. I learned from Mimifroufrou at the Perfume Shrine that Eau Fraîche (EF) was commissioned for Dior in 1955 and that it was modeled around no one other than Coty’s Cordon Vert (CV) eau de cologne.

I haven't even ever smelt vintage EF, only vintage Eau Savage (ES). I hope the ES is close enough since that's what I used for the side-by-side comparison. Overall the CV stands up to ES very nicely, indeed. On skin the ES seems lighter for a good while. In fact it burns a little at first because its citrus opening is packed with bright lemon - lime notes. Meanwhile, the Vert has an almost momentary dusty note before the orange begins to bloom and come on really strong. At that point the orange nearly overwhelms, to the point of having turpentine-like overtones. Pouring both into clean cotton handkerchiefs and inhaling repeatedly, I eventually found more depth and polish in the Savage although they are strikingly similar. The lighter brighter citrus of ES paired with herbaceous and grassy notes (Vetiver perhaps) adds a distinctive (and masculine) edge to Savage. The Cordon Vert is more linear, smelling over time of a very true Mandarin citrus- bright and yes nearly harsh but fruitier due to the orange and with just a kiss of jasmine and the barest underpinnings of wood and earth. There may be a bit of lavender in there as well. It avoids being overtly floral, sweet or spicy.

My bottle is probably circa 1930s or possibly 1940s - the label boasts the concentration is 10% oils, made exclusively of essences of fruits from Sicily and flowers from France. The cap is emerald green plastic and besides the embossed Made in France on the bottom, there is an additional black ink stamp on the bottom repeating "Made In France"- making me think it may have been imported to USA post WWI (Bottle labeled  SDA NY 1345.

The Vintage Perfume Vault, where the scent of yesterday's vogue lives.

images:
Cordon Rouge ad: cgi.ebay
Cordon Vert bottle: specialistauctions.com
Dior Savage ad internationalpostergallery.com

Double o' One: Coty (001Coty) Cologne

001Coty

2001; Limited to an edition of 5000 bottles.

Top Notes : Almond Blossom, Marigold.

Middle Notes : Fresh 'Electrostatic' Accord, Tuscan Magnolia.

Base Notes : Tonka, Warm woods, Licorice and praline.

Coty brought in Jim Krivda from Fragrance Resources to create the scent of 001 in 2001. Looking to the internet for inspiration, Coty talked about "fusing the human with the virtual" for this concept fragrance. At the time Coty said they planned to release a whole series of these limited edition art scents that were to "test the boundaries of what consumers expect from the idea of a bottle of perfume". But nine years later 001 has been discontinued with no follow ups and the concept seems nearly forgotten.

Although we now hear newer rumors... it seems that Coty likes to do their homework and after looking a little further into the whole internet-and-perfume-thing, they discovered that items from their earliest catalogs still generate more excitement than the flood of new, niche and high concept scents coming on the market.

For now we'll have to wait to see whether there will be a 002Coty... or perhaps a new La Rose Jacqueminot, A'suma, or even a new Coty Chypre may appear first (or instead)?

Even so there will never be another real Coty Chypre, anymore than the sterile yellow juice within those gold and green soft shouldered bottles is...

Excuse my grouchiness, but I know the real stuff- the fine 1920-1930s version, a dark nectar the color of stiffly brewed tea. How sublime it really is... .I think I was reading on one of the big review sites- MUA or Base Notes, and was surprised by some of the lackluster opinions for Coty's Chypre. I wonder if those who regard it as a ho-hum underachiver have only smelt those 80-90s reissues? But if you've good imagination or you've smelled other any good quality vintage chypres then you've an idea of what I'm saying.

But I digress... Back to our 001 story...

From Rick Kinsel of Coty's concept and design team "We wanted to revisit the fundamentals of perfumery as an art form. We were thinking integrity rather than commerce" So at least here we can expect to believe they spared no expense and were able to use the same or better quality ingredients than are in many of the contemporary luxury or niche creations. Coty even created a new "fresh electrostatic accord" specially for 001.

According to Wired: "Krivda and his team put a piece of polyester in a dryer and extracted the smell emitting from the static electricity caused by the interaction of the fabric and the heat. By using a tiny syringe-like device to gather the odor, they then inserted the scent into a machine that breaks it into its molecular components. Krivda combined the "digital" elements with the scents of almond, marigold, magnolia, licorice and praline to complete the fragrance. Krivda also conducted the same procedure on the odor emitted from a freshly opened box of computer hardware."

Coty is a venerable house and I'm somewhat obsessed with perfume history (ya think?). Plus I personally love those notes so I plunged and bought a bottle of 001 recently, unsniffed. Marigold piques me, it can be sharp and strange... I sort of love/hate it but I can't wait to see what I'll think when I smell it incorporated into 001, especially with something electrostatic-y (solar-ish, or more like hot wires??) mixed in there. But the almond blossom-magnolia-praline sold me and I kinda dig ironing smells too so it could be a win-win, right?

In any case, I love the bottle. Inspired by an early 1900s Coty bottle, Coty collaborated with Pochet, a renown perfume bottle maker, to reinterpret the original design. The result is the sleek 001Coty bottle which slips into a soft pale rubber casing. According to Base Notes, the bottle was "the first limited edition ever to receive the endorsement of the International Perfume Bottle Association". Grant says it also won a FIFI in 2002 for Men's Fragrance Star of the Year Non-Store Venues.

I'll be back with a review soon!


The Vintage Perfume Vault, where the scent of yesterday's vogue lives.

images:
Robot Girl by 3D Keaton

Helmetropolis from I, Sexy Robot
Google pics
Passionforperfume

BASENOTES

The Ghost of All Yesterday's Parties: Coty Nuance

(image: stevesvintageads)

Coty's Nuance was released in 1975. It was the era of women's liberation and Helen Reddy had a little diddy on the radio that you may recall titled, I Am Woman. In that same year, Prince Matchabelli released Aviance, a fragrance marketed to the suburban housewife with fantasies of liberation. The tag line: "I've been sweet and I've been good, I've had a whole full day of motherhood, but I'm gonna have an Aviance night." Even if it was just a moment in the 70's I recall those ads vividly. A frumpily dressed house wife strips into lacy nothings and greets her man at the door. The print campaign consisted of a  full-page shot of the man leaning against the doorway, as seen through the bare legs of what is his loving, laying-in-wait wife- but you can't find that ad online!

(imagestate.com)

Also, recall the revolution that was Charlie, the scent for the modern woman released by Revlon just two years earlier in 1973. Charlie was raking it in with its cute, fresh working woman advertising campaign. So there was for mainstream, middle class America a multitude of images competing to define the "new" modern woman. She brought home the bacon and fried it in the pan (nothing new there but it was recycled to sound pretty good for those with short memories), even if she was portrayed as a strictly neophite version of the working woman... These scents were part of  the landscape of the brave new world of the 1970s. The fragrances were designed and driven by their advertsing campaign and marketing strategists, rather than having the advertisement designed to serve the real product, fragrance. The makers of these scents were more driven by Wall Street concerns, than any tradition or practice of art. They needed something to appeal to the spirit of the day and sought something that would oppose the conventional tastes of previous generations. In the case of perfumes, that happens to include some glorious, stunning creations, fine fragrances of  the 1940s and 50s from Dior and Guerlain and the like. So instead they gave the American consumer something new, something cheaper and also much more vulgar. In a way, the new fragrances didn't even need to smell so good. There is a quote from someone at Prince Matchabelli, I think, saying something like that Aviance sold well, despite not smelling very good, even to the ones who were making and selling it. But it appealed and in the end, won many dollars of sales through its advertising story. It promised just the right thing, at the right time. Nuance was Coty's answer to what perfume the modern 1970's woman wore. Coty tried to be right there with the 1970s zeitgeist but chose to play up the indivdiuality aspect, and struck a chord with the do your own thing generation. Nuance's selling point wasn't about it's big up-front message of a new attitude, but just a deft use of one of the oldest tricks in the book- "if you want to capture someone's attention, whisper... " It was touted at the time that it developed differently on each woman and created a lasting, evolving impression. Don't forget that Coty was once a great French house and had the tradition of designing great fragrances in their past. I recall magazine advertisements at the time, or possibly television spots, telling that Nuance gave each woman something of her own signature scent. I think I actually bought it for my mother one mother's day, comforting myself that it was a truly special gift by virtue of it's magical property of smelling different on different women. She was very sweet to wear it a while back then.  It was ubiquitous in the stores back then, too, and for many years afterwards. I believe it has been discontinued, and if you check at on line etailers it is growing more scarce, although I know there must be plenty of new old stock bottles out there collecting dust across the USA.

(image: mississauga at kijiji)

I have my stash of Nuance from an old drug store byout that resulted in a number of small Christmas tree decoration style bottles full of the cologne version. Coty often offered it's yearly perfume releases packaged as Christmas ornaments during the holidays (...to continue the tangent thread of my nutty, out of time Christmas fragrance binge...). Nuance opens with a burst of aldehydes and soft fruity rose, a touch of cinnamon spice and more than a touch of finely milled, mild French soap note including hints of woody aromatic lavendar. It has shadows of a woody, even mossy greeness and the whole is blanketed in Coty's 1970 era musk, which has a rich vanilla sweetness to it. Nuance does indeed tell a story; it opens in control and assertive, the office gal who plays it pretty tough at the local bar after work but quickly reveals herself to be more tender and tentative, a shy and probably pretty girl who only lets her hair down loose when she thinks no one is watching, in the garden. The spice and aldehyde give it that inital push in the brash direction, and the lavendar lets you know this isn't just any shrinking violet in a skirt but before anyone forms any firm conclusions, the vanilla softens 'em up and reels 'em in.  The lasting impression is soapy, musky and a little sweet. I think Nuance probably has some well deserved fans out there because at this point, even to me, nothing smells exactly like it any more. It's ironic, because at one point in time Nuance was impossibly derivative; now it is more like iconic. And better smelling than Aviance or Charlie, imo.
The Vintage Perfume Vault, where the scent of yesterday's vogue lives.

Coty Perfume Rare | Noise Putty

(images from pzrservices.typepade.com and stevesvintageads)

Coty Perfume Rare Noise Putty

The Vintage Perfume Vault, where the scent of yesterday's vogue lives.

True Chypre Perfume (Vrai Chypre)

Today I dove into a real find- Vrai Chypre from Frédéric Geille. I've been wishing lately for an old chypre, a new one to add to my collection. One of truest of grails and just the type of plunder to see one through even the roughest of patches in one's pursuit of scented nirvana.... especially the pursuit of a vintage scented nirvana. And Geille A Paris is perfect for me- a really obscure name, circa 1930-40s. There is another Geille perfume, Cœur Caucasien or Cuir Caucasien from 1943, also by Frédéric Geille, pictured on the Museu del perfum site.

Vrai's bottle strikes me as a release rfom an earlier date. The tightly wrapped cord of silk under tarnished metal- silver washed copper perhaps- had essentially rotted and clotted around the sealed bottle. After sawing through the cord, I found the stopper was stuck... and a single chip along the outer edge of the stopper, as if someone previously had attempted to prize it loose with a pliers sometime earlier. But my husband has gotten pretty good at popping stuck stoppers off. So yeah, it yielded without any further damage to the bottle or lid, which is always a nice thing.

I love the name of this perfume as well, it translates to something like "True Chypre". We're always looking for a real chypre, aren't we? Coty did not originate the Chypre but I like to think he codified Chypre into mythological status. A large, sealed bottle of late 1920s Coty Chypre is still the centerpiece of my entire vintage collection, hundreds of bottles later. Magically, it was the second original period Coty Chypre I've came across. my husband actually brought that first bottle home to me. I found it sitting unceremoniously on the coffee table one frosty autumn morning, surrounded by silver coins, pocket knives and fishing lures... glittering like a precious crown jewel . The bottle was open and I took to wearing it just long enough before letting it go on to another collector, to become thoroughly enslaved to that authentic, old school style of chypre. Crepe de chine, vintage Femme and several other "no name" chypres have followed, plus the more accessible classic 'modern' chypres (Ysatis, Paloma Picasso et al.) But there's nothing like the real thing, baby.

I don't want to bore you to tears but especially if you don't already know how older chypres smell, you might like hear about the notes. Vrai is a leathery floral chypre. Chypre is a formula built around earthy patchouli and loamy, smooth oakmoss plus labdanum. Labdanum is a richly fragrant lichen-like substance that was first combed from the hair of goats who picked it up grazing on the Mediterranean rock-rose shrub. The patchouli is refined and sublime without any of the spikey, sinus penetrating fumes. This base is rounded out by the classic harmony of citrus against a floral. The rose begins dusty pale; the bergamot was shy at first but it bloomed thanks to a muggy evening. The leather has a savory/creamy tang similar to goat's milk and under it all is a surprisingly familiar musky finish. I just wish I could share it with a wider audience.

The Vintage Perfume Vault, where the scent of yesterday's vogue lives.

Coty Imprevu

Today we have a daring vintage Coty- Imprevu. Notes are scarce to find but this is a beautiful Chypre scent that would be a smash among a certain set that prefer serious, stunningly made perfumes with decidedly adult and edgy ideas presented. This chypre feline has claws, more lithe cat woman in a skin-tight leather suit than little kitten with a collar. The whole affair



kicks off with an initial kiss of bergamot bitter orange and candied citron; in piquant contrast is a mildly tannic leather note that is delicious. This traditional cologne quickly deepens as coniferous resins, young cedar shoots and shady oakmoss come into play giving it a deep and foresty but also grassy and sappy feel. The florals are restrained, a sharpish soapy/creamy carnation and not much else I can detect provides a perfect back drop for the dramatic multi-tonal pallet of greens.



And beneath this sophisticated emerald array we are left with a sublimely adult dry down of extremely discreet clove and tobacco with a touch of musks. This could be an every day signature fragrance for the right woman- I picture a beautiful bohemian girl, like a young Sophia Loren. She wears no shoes and drinks wine from an old mason jar while exploring ancient gardens with her lover on the lost weekends she steals away from the world. The rest of the time she wears high heels diamonds and fur and rides in her benefactor's chaufered limosine. Her perfume is Imprevu.