Perfume

Collectible Perfume Bottles

Today, I am going to review a few fragrances of one of my favorite houses, Jean Patou. The reviews are going to be pretty random, since they are reviews of beensy bottles I got on eBay for about six bucks apiece.

I'm not going to write a real review here of Joy, since I don't have it and don't feel the need to actually go out and smell it to refresh my memory (My friend Johanna wears it beautifully and often). It's of course a perfect frisson of jasmine and roses, its opening with a bright shock of green, its drydown with a darker shock of civet. It's perfect, it's classic, it's criminally overlooked. Sad that so many women today eschew these fragrances in the pursuit of ever-more frilly and sparkly little-girl fragrances: ladies, little girls do not have power, or magic, or allure (if the man you're dating disagrees, RUN), WOMEN do. Joy, and scents like them are scents for women: utterly feminine, but with the strength and allure that adulthood and experience brings.

Ma Liberte

Created (according to Basenotes) in 1987, and since killed off, Ma Liberte opens with a soft lavender cut with the slightest whiff of tobacco: the kind in Tabac Blond. There's helitrope and citrus in there as well, and as it dries, there's a very powdery patchouli (don't be scared, it is faint) as well as cedar and sandalwood. Reading what I have written, this reads like a mens cologne, but that's totally not the case. It's very feminine, but I can see where it may have been lost in the sea of new releases: this whispers when most other fragrances of that decade shouted themselves hoarse.

Cocktail

Launched in 1930, this chypre apertif opens with a sparkle of citrus and lavender, every bit as crisp and refreshing as a martini made with one of those trendy bespoke vodkas. Honeysuckle, hyacinth and clove come in as the scent becomes more of a chypre and less of a cocktail. The drydown is very dry indeed; the flowers are never overpowering. This smells to me what Myrna Loy would have worn for drinks on the terrace at the Hotel Bel-Air. It's, well, classy: the female equivalent of Royal Bain du Caron, which is what William Powell would be wearing as he refreshed Myrna's vermouth-cassis and lit them cigarettes. Needless to say, this one I'd buy a full bottle of. (in a small voice) I could get away with it!

Pan Ame

Fruity floral? Arrgh! Right?

I should hate this, but somehow I can't: the fruit note really is true to the slightly sweet woodiness of the way the pear smells, and the floral is more like a leafy greeness (it's supposed to be "violet leaves). Sandalwood and musk (surprisingly musky) ground the scent. It's not me at all (and I actually am not sure that it's going to be the bulk of the commenters either) but I do like it's spunky, happy fizz.

Joy, is of course available at fine deparment stores. Personally, I say damn the torpedoes and go for the full-on perfume versions. The older Patous (which I would love to sample) were available at the now sadly defunct Bullocks Wilshire, which had a truly spectacular first floor fragrance department (an atop which the climax of "Ghostbusters" was filmed). That they are not all more widely available to appreciate is very sad indeed.

Hugo Boss Fragrance

Unlike many perfumes, the first Hugo Boss fragrance was decidedly masculine. Boss N° 1 is an aromatic fragrance that spoke distinctively to the man of the 1980s with a unique fougére base that has never been duplicated even by its parent company, Hugo Boss.

Britney Spears Perfume

The first scent to come from the Britney Spears perfume collection was Curious. It was released to the public in 2004. Curious by Britney Spears had the biggest first week sales of any previous Elizabeth Arden perfumes. Curious also won the Fragrance Foundations Best Women’s Fragrance of the year.

Jennifer Lopez Still Perfume

The Jennifer Lopez Still perfume was introduced to the public in 2003, and while it is not the only perfume by her, it is one of the best known. Born in July of 1969, Jennifer Lopez rose to fame as a dancer on the television show In Living Color. She had dreamt her entire life of being famous, and although she reached the goal with her position as a "fly girl" she was not content with the minor fame the position granted her. Her dreams were bigger and she expanded herself and her business which now includes the Still perfume.