SOTD: Etienne Aigner No 2

Etienne Aigner No 2 (1976)

Another men's scent that gets a big thumbs up from me. Clean and soapy in the best way, as if woodland fairies had created a cleansing tonic made from all the finest pickings from some wild alpine meadow. No 2 is a eau de toilette but has a cologne feeling. It never fails to uplift, energize and calm me. Plus it has a wonderful soothing dry-down and packs great lasting power. Some sources claim No. 2 is still in production but after looking around a bit, I think it may be fading away. If you're looking for a cologne style scent for summer- and have been craving something off the beaten path, with a vintage flare, but still accessible online for a reasonable price of around $50, then look no further. Very 'unisex', if you believe in such male/female scent distinctions.

Top Notes: Lavender, Clary Sage, Bergamot, Lemon
Middle Notes: Geranium, Vetiver, Heliotrope, Fern, Sandal, Orris, Cedarwood, Rose
Base Notes: Musk, Moss, Vanilla, Tonka Bean, Labdanum

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

SOTD: Geoffrey Beene Grey Flannel

No more experimenting with my skin! I'm back to vintage this morning and wearing Geoffrey Beene's Grey Flannel. Released in 1975, it's a wet/dry green violet with many subtle shades and tones thanks to a complex formula that marries woody, oriental and floral forms. Perfectly suited to cold and rainy spring days, this scent was made for men although I find it's one of the most wearable violet scents in my arsenal. Sillage and longevity are excellent! Some folks complain about the modern reformulations. My bottle is from a few years back- the label is stamped with maker 'Jacqueline Cochran, New York'.

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

SOTD: Bijan for Men 1981, or is it 100% Bijan?

Chris von Wangenheim (1942-1981) 

EDIT: Bijan is a funny company- founded in 1987-ish, it is one that none of the usual suspects- Fragrantica Basenotes nor Perfune Intelligence, have well documented all of the various releases. So it appears that there may have been a pair of scents released in the mysterious "b" bottle I mentioned in this post originally- one for men, one for women. I believe this is the case, since I've had two 'b' bijan bottles, one distinctly masculine and one more ambery, oriental and complex- a feminine version or entirely distinct scent- called: 100% Bijan.

If you read far enough into the Bijan threads on Basenotes, the guys do describe such a 'b' bottle containing a masculine scent but in the post referred to it as 'Bijan 1981'- and then I see an entirely different bottle on Ebay, definitely one of the 1981 releases by Bijan for Men. But it comes with a swirled turban looking cap, and a fat round bottle (and looks quite feminine). So it's really kinda confusing. But here's a photo of that mysterious 'b' bottle, and so now you know. BTW: The bottle in the photo is EDP, whereas mine is EDT and the EDP was not made by 5 Star Fragrances , like mine. Can't say how it smells, though from text, it sounds similar and the juice color is right. An d now I can smell the tuberose, vanilla, rose etc... Still delicious, but guess I'm just not as manly as I thought!

Original Post:
It's raining cats and dogs this morning!  My scent of the day: I'm wearing the enigmatic, complex and controversial (does it or doesn't it?) Bijan for Men 1981. If you're not sure which Bijan this is- it's the one in the funny bottle- no, not the one(s) that look like a doughnut! It came in a bottle that looks sort of like the letter 'b'. I've had two bottles of Bijan for Men, both in the same bottle and both made by Five Star Fragrances but they smelled totally different. The first, fougere and tangy but this Bijan is more like it- for me anyway. It is robust, resinous, amber, patchouli, leather and waves of that well known barnyard lurking about, occasionally emerging from the cloud of incense and hints of other bits floating past like so much confetti after a parade. To me it smells wild and oriental like a midnight taxi ride through Chinatown, SF- circa 1981...

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

Royal Copenhagen & Vintage SWANK Colognes

image: dreamagic

Swank colognes were de rigueur for the well groomed swinger circa 1960s. Today I'm looking at a johnny come lately 1970 Swank release: Royal Copenhagen. All burly sailing imagery aside, Royal Copenhagen is an enigmatic, complex fragrance camped firmly in unisex territory.

image from Vintage Ad Browser

Top notes are aldehydes, lime, lavender, green notes, bergamot, cardamom and lemon; Middle notes are carnation, patchouli, orris root, jasmine, vetiver, cedar and rose;
Base notes are honey, Tonka bean, amber, musk, oak moss, vanilla, heliotrope and tobacco.

Can you believe this deliciousness was originally made just for men? Maybe so, if you take a look at this Royal Copenhagen porcelain figurine! The original Royal Copenhagen cologne is so yummy many women would enjoy not only smelling but wearing it.

image: Royal Copenhagen Pan Kissing Maiden figurine box, circa 1930

from Shapiroauctioneers.com

Alas Royal Copenhagen was reformulated and the new version, has been out for years now. It is by most accounts a bitter, pale shadow of the original.  But if you like powdery scents with a kick of spice and a ton of attitude it's worth seeking this one out in original vintage form. It is a cologne so if you do try it, be sure to apply liberally. It also helps to splash a bit onto your scarf or blouse and allow it some time to develop before you judge it. On me it evolves first into a musky tobacco blossom scent and then dries down to a gently spiced and powdered leather. I only wish it were much stronger, in which case I might make comparisons to Habanita.

image of "original" Swank Royal Copenhagen, eurofinegifts at Ebay

 

The juice in my bottle has grayed with age and that's the color you want to see- avoid anything that looks bright blue. Despite its age, I can still pick out the citrus fruits, cardamom, aldehydes, carnation, cedar, musk, vanilla, amber, patchouli, tobacco and oakmoss notes. The original glass bottle version came with the cool tri-color aqua, white and royal blue metal sleeve over a plastic screw-on cap, topped with a white button bearing the image of a blue lion. There may also be a few examples of original Swank formula found in vintage solid silver tone bottles with silver tops as well. Look carefully as the newer glass bottles do not have the white button with the lion on top.

image: newer version, googled

Newer Royal Copenhagen cologne is often attributed to a maker of the same name, i.e., Royal Copenhagen. Only older bottles indicate RC as made by SWANK. Swank also distributed (and perhaps made?) the popular 1950s-1970s classics Jade East, Jade Gold, Jade East Coral and Jade East Golden Lime, any of which I've happened across have also smelled quite nicely.

all images of Jade East colognes from Found in Mom's Basement

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

Dante Original Cologne

This is an oil on canvas of Dante at the time of the death of Beatrice, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1871). Note the canopy strewn with flowers to sweeten the death bed; Dante holds a small posy in his hand as well to sweeten the aire of this last kiss.
I'm always delighted to make a new discovery of some vintage gem of a scent and this week it is a cult favorite, a men's cologne that although discontinued many years ago continues to have very ardent fans.

This novelty bottle of Dante Original Cologne has a loving cup trophy cap and a gold label proclaiming WORLD'S GREATEST DAD on the back. Dante Original Cologne is a fairly obscure vintage scent about which little is known. It was distributed through a company of the same name, based in New York as recently as the 1960s. It is a very lovely cologne which I recently reviewed (very briefly) on Basenotes, mostly because there weren't any reviews and that seems a shame, but I'm featuring it here because it is also a prime example of what I love, unusual and American-made vintage scents. I've been wearing a dab or two of it all day and I think of all my vintage collection, it most resembles Houbigant's Quelques Fleurs (a decidedly feminine scent), but with less rose and more iris, which makes it a surprisingly floral men's scent. But somehow, its also a perfectly appropriate smelling scent for a 'man's man'. It has just enough coumarin to let you smell an impossibly blonde tobacco. The balsams remain extremely transparent, hovering about and throwing out a gentle sillage that encourages nuzzling.

To keep the comparison going, HQF dries down soapy-rosey and pollen-y powdery while the Dante remains brighter, with bergamot, the aforementioned iris and fluffy sweet hay-tobacco forming an almost holy trilogy accord. At first, I compared Dante to Tabu because of the cola/rootbeer note that they share (which is an iris note I think, that is always very sweet and honeyed and almost watery in the living flowers I've smelled but comes across more fizz and soda like in these perfumes). Tabu doesn't share Dante's mellow smoothness, and it is sharper, stronger and almost minty compared side by side. Dante is very gentle and soft yet it is also very strong making it a very compelling masculine scent. What a shame more Daddys won't be wearing it! When will someone start making this fabulous scent again?