Calyx 1986 Exhilarating Fragrance

Calyx (Exhilarating Fragrance) by Prescriptives
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7.5 / 10 94 Ratings
A popular perfume by Prescriptives for women, released in 1986. The scent is fruity-green. The production was apparently discontinued.
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Main accords

Fruity
Green
Floral
Fresh
Citrus

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes Top Notes
TagetesTagetes BergamotBergamot PeachPeach SpearmintSpearmint ApricotApricot
Heart Notes Heart Notes
JasmineJasmine LilyLily Lily of the valleyLily of the valley MelonMelon RoseRose CyclamenCyclamen
Base Notes Base Notes
MossMoss CedarCedar MuskMusk RaspberryRaspberry

Perfumer

Ratings
Scent
7.594 Ratings
Longevity
6.762 Ratings
Sillage
5.957 Ratings
Bottle
6.259 Ratings
Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 24.03.2024.

Reviews

7 in-depth fragrance descriptions
9
Bottle
7
Sillage
7
Longevity
9
Scent
Inger

2 Reviews
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Inger
Inger
Top Review 27  
"Your scent is really awful!"
Yesterday I was in the mood for my Vintage Youth Dew. The right fragrance for a cold, stormy and rainy November day.
So I rummaged around a bit in the Estee Lauder and Clinique corner of my little perfumery. I found Calyx in the furthest corner, slightly dusty I must confess. I didn't even remember ...

I wore Calyx when I was still very young, unmarried and childless.
I got rid of my student white linen. A new era had dawned.
The first job, the first money I earned myself, a small apartment in the city center, the world was open to me.

Even back then, I loved hanging out in perfumeries and Calyx was a perfect fit for me. I liked to give the Samsara samples that I got back then to my colleagues at work. I couldn't do anything with them back then.

One morning, a young colleague who was on a tour of duty with us - a real "ungustl" - came into my office. "Miss Inger, your perfume is terrible. That scent is simply awful!"

That was the first and only negative comment I've ever made about a fragrance. I won't mention the back-and-forth sniffing or eye-rolling from my family during various fragrance samples.

However, I have not let Calyx spoil it for me!
The fragrance starts off slightly fruity on me, but it's mainly green - a bright, fresh, invigorating green. I can sense the melon, and I can clearly smell the bergamot and mint. In my mind's eye, a garden appears in early summer, dewy, the grass short but lush green.
Fragrances with cyclamen always seem bright, fresh and clear to me, with a delicate bitter note. I can also recognize that well here.

Calyx is quite idiosyncratic, a bit different. Calyx is not sweet or cuddly. Perhaps it even seems a little distant.
In my opinion, the bottle suits the fragrance very well - clear, simple, unconventional.

The durability is average, the sillage rather close to the body.

Calyx was also a good fit for today's sunny, stormy and cold November day.
20 Comments
7.5
Bottle
5
Sillage
7.5
Longevity
9
Scent
GothicHeart

86 Reviews
GothicHeart
GothicHeart
7  
Where the fruits and flowers thrive...
I can't help but bow before Calyx, and this is already a contradiction. Because Calyx is not an austere or exacting scent that makes you wanna pay your dues to its cachet or eminence. "Then why?" one could ask. Well, those of you who have not lived the magnitude of the '80s try to imagine this. In an era of dominating femme-fatale heavy-hitters, like Poison in 1985 and Loulou in 1987, which were huge successes and still are, Calyx came flying under the radar in 1986, dropping a mega bomb loaded with bliss and joy of life. Oh, and inventing a whole new genre too. I'm not sure if it's the fruity-floral, the floral-green or the fruity-floral-green one, but Calyx is made in Heaven! So my bow pays respect to a pioneer that happens to be an unbelievably good perfume too. What now seems to be the rule, was the exception back then. The rule was that fruits were shot on sight without further explanation. How many grande dames of the '80s could claim they had any prominent fruity notes, other than the occasional apricot or plum, included in their prima-donna vocal ranges? But while most of them were the distant divas frequenting the opera houses, Calyx was the dish from next door playing merry songs on her guitar in a subway station. And while the vamps, bedecked with diamonds and pearls, are sipping champagne and picking at salmon in the foyer, the imp is happy with a slice of pizza and a beer, whose pull tab wears as a ring after opening it. To cut a long story short, there are only two scents which put a big silly smile on my face every single time I sniff them. And maybe because of my preference for subway stations over opera houses, Calyx is one of them. It's the happy girl hopping around and giving you a flirty kiss on your cheek, among a bunch of aloof ladies, who demand a contract signed with your blood to just deign having their eyes laid upon you. It's a silvery sexy giggle among a clamor of elaborate erotic sighs. The lovely brat that every august matron looks daggers at and shoos. But only to move just a couple of steps aside, before she returns with her dulcet laughter filling the room. Don't get me wrong, I find all these '80s perfumes simply stunning and Bastet knows how much I love them, but it's like Calyx outshines them all because of being so different and daring. And just because these two traits are not always considered merits, maybe this was the reason that Calyx never got the fame it deserved; not back in the days, and to an even lesser degree now. But you know what? Who cares? This cunning tart surely doesn't, since I think I can see her winking at our direction, while singing tunefully "Who needs fame when she's happy?..."
2 Comments
jtd

484 Reviews
jtd
jtd
Helpful Review 5  
takes an honored place in the evolution of the fruity chypre
Calyx (1986) presaged the fruity floral era, and if considered as a fruity floral is among the most beautiful of the genre. But to my mind Calyx occupies a specific place in the evolution of the fruity-floral chypre. If Diorella is a certain distance further down the road from its predecessor Eau Sauvage (similar in distance to Cristalle from its predecessor Chanel pour Monsieur) then Calyx is further still on the same trajectory. It shares the gorgeous dissonance that makes both Diorella and Cristalle so beguiling. It gets there differently, though. Cristalle and especially Diorella find a fruit that’s just a bit too ripe. Fruit that’s at the point of jumping from sweet in taste to boozily aromatic in scent. Just a half step from turned

Diorella smells of both lemon and melon. Calyx, true to its Big 80s origin creates a franken-fruit of bergamot-guava-mango. Grapefruit? It doesn’t need to be over-ripe. It is simply effusive in the way ripe tropical fruit often is. Take the metafruit and add just the right rose, powdery but not too sweet. Then ground it in a bittersweet moss-labdanum chypre base and you have one of the most expansive fruity chypres you’ll ever smell.

The fruit remains present at drydown and is dominant in both the top and heart notes. In this respect, Calyx is the fruitiest chypre you’re likely to meet. Others have referred to the fruit note as synthetic. I’m sure it is, but no more or less so than Diorella’s melon or Femme’s plum. Calyx’s drydown is similar to Diorella’s in that it is classically mossy and austere with the phantom-lushnesss of the fruit remaining. A little smart decadence to get you through the day.
0 Comments
5
Sillage
5
Longevity
10
Scent
Fhaldara

60 Reviews
Fhaldara
Fhaldara
Helpful Review 2  
A joyous scent
I loved this perfume when it was released in 1986, and I still love it. It was so refreshingly different from everything else back then - citrusy, fruity and green. It was my signature scent for years, and my husband, who is maddeningly indifferent to almost everything in my large collection, loves it. My taste in fragrance has broadened over the years, and I don't wear Calyx exclusively, but I do wear it often, and it never fails to make me happy.
0 Comments
10
Scent
Flavorite

240 Reviews
Flavorite
Flavorite
3  
An Iconic Zesty Creamy Fruity Citrus Chiffon Swirl
Everybody knows that if you try to blend fresh zesty citrus fruits with foamy rich cream- you run the risk of a curdled mess. Well, Calyx is an unforgettable fragrance crafted by a Michelin Master Chef at work in the Perfumarie world. So bright, fresh, feminine and green fruity without the slightest hint of cloyness. Followed by and effortless and persistent creaminess that just melts into the skin, lingering at decent volume for about 6 hours and softening into a slightly woody note with a mossy very 1980s white musky base- this is easily one of my top 3 scent memory triggers from the mid-80s to 90s. This is a steadfast signature scent, that predates Issey Miyake in concept and wears well in Spring and Summer, although I've met several women who wear this year round and exclusively...it's that good.
0 Comments
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Statements

1 short view on the fragrance
Jazzy76Jazzy76 6 years ago
A very particular scent; a mix which smells of "nature", a well balanced bouquet for a pleasant fragrance to wear mainly by day
0 Comments

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