Paris 1983 Eau de Toilette

Paris (Eau de Toilette) by Yves Saint Laurent
Bottle Design Pierre Dinand
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7.7 / 10 406 Ratings
A popular perfume by Yves Saint Laurent for women, released in 1983. The scent is floral-powdery. It was last marketed by L'Oréal.
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Main accords

Floral
Powdery
Fresh
Sweet
Green

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes Top Notes
Green notesGreen notes BergamotBergamot CassiaCassia GeraniumGeranium HawthornHawthorn HyacinthHyacinth MimosaMimosa Orange blossomOrange blossom Indian cress
Heart Notes Heart Notes
RoseRose VioletViolet JasmineJasmine LilyLily Lily of the valleyLily of the valley Orris rootOrris root Ylang-ylangYlang-ylang Lime blossomLime blossom
Base Notes Base Notes
MuskMusk CedarwoodCedarwood HeliotropeHeliotrope IrisIris SandalwoodSandalwood AmberAmber OakmossOakmoss

Perfumer

Ratings
Scent
7.7406 Ratings
Longevity
7.9284 Ratings
Sillage
7.5286 Ratings
Bottle
7.3303 Ratings
Value for money
7.149 Ratings
Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 22.03.2024.

Reviews

17 in-depth fragrance descriptions
9
Bottle
8
Sillage
8
Longevity
5
Scent
Pinkdawn

67 Reviews
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Pinkdawn
Pinkdawn
Helpful Review 20  
The musty sweetness of withered roses on mourning wreaths
Paris from YSL is a fragrance that always asks me a question: What does the French capital - and of course the French women in particular - have to do with this perfume by Yves Saint Laurent?
I know Paris. Not very good. The way you get to know the city as a guest. I visited Paris in August, the month in which the locals, if they can afford it, flee the metropolis and leave it to the tourists.
After all. In the parks and gardens it bloomed - in the most beautiful colours of summer. There were roses, too. The Jardin du Luxembourg, the Tuileries, the Jardin Anne-Frank and above all the Roseraie du Parc de Bagatelle.
I imagine that Yves Saint Laurent went for a walk there in the early 1980s and was inspired to create his perfume by the lush Damascene roses, tea roses or pale pink bourbon roses that once bloomed in Josephine's Malmaison That's a naive notion, of course. The perfumer of the fragrance is the Russian Sophia Grojsman, who created fragrances like Eternity, Beautiful and Trésor. But maybe she sat in the rose gardens of Paris and enjoyed her scents.
Paris is known as "the scent of roses". That was also the reason why I was interested in this eau de toilette. I love the smell of roses.
The characteristic bottle made of cut glass with its black and pink cap immediately appealed to me The fragrance starts very sweet immediately after spraying on, almost too sweet for me. I don't notice much of the citric bergamot. Green notes, on the other hand, are clearly present at the beginning. Flowers also mix in very soon. The rose is present from the beginning and remains so. In the heart note, the fragrance begins to become slightly powdery. The cheerful sounds of green and bergamot have now completely disappeared. The EdT doesn't offer any freshness anymore, only a heavy, almost honey-like sweetness, which is reinforced by sandalwood. In addition, heavyweights such as amber and musk are also driven up to the point of waving.
Paris - I mean perfume - convinced me at the time, which I can no longer understand today. I bought the Eau de Toilette Spray and liked to use it during summer time.
YSL calls the fragrance seductive. It should stand for elegant, cheerful ladies with exquisite taste. The perfume is described as romantic, very feminine and delicate.
There are of course reasons why I still have a half-filled bottle of it. Somehow I liked the scent a lot more in the old days. Today I find it too sweet, too heavy - even as an eau de toilette - and also, yes, somehow old-fashioned.
It's the scent experience you might have when you find an old chest in the attic, open it and find the yellowed bridal veil of your great-great-grandmother in it, in which a perfume from the old days has settled.
I would like the roses to smell fresher and the whole fragrance to be lighter, more sparkling and not so dark and austere. But in fact he has a velvety heaviness that is almost melancholic for me. I don't notice the promised cheerfulness. At best, I can imagine that an attractive, well-groomed lady in black with red lacquered fingernails would wear him to her husband's funeral.
I like powdery scents. But here I encounter dusty pathos rather than a cheerful rose powder scent.
Today I can no longer see what I once liked about this fragrance. At the moment I can't identify with him and apart from funerals I would hardly know an occasion where I would wear him.
Romantic? No. Seductive? Especially not. Feminine? At best, if they're older ladies. You need a certain personality to be able to wear this dominant fragrance at least in the evening without being crushed by it. Sillage and durability are here for an eau de toilette almost incredibly intense!
In my opinion, however, this heavy-blooded scent has nothing to do with the lively cosmopolitan city on the Seine, the city of love and artists. She would have deserved a better or more fitting creation. Something light, floral, with charm and esprit, refined, but graceful and sweet.
But Paris, the scent, has none of this at all.
In Vienna, we have a White Woman who's been bypassing the Hofburg. Supposedly it is about Kunigunde, the unhappy widow Premysil Ottokar II, king of Bohemia, who was defeated and fell in 1278 in the battle on the Marchfeld by Rudolf I of Habsburg. Rudolf then exhibited the corpse of the unlucky king in Vienna for 30 weeks.
The queen's restless spirit is not welcome. Why don't you announce her appearance as a certain calamity? Fortunately, I've never met her before. Should I ever, however, I am sure to recognize her perfume immediately: this morbid scent of withered roses on mourning wreaths, this mouldy, heavy sweetness ..
8 Comments
Poesiefanny

19 Reviews
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Poesiefanny
Poesiefanny
Helpful Review 17  
Pas de problème
Heavy florality envelops the wearer - if she wants to, quite wonderfully. One flirts in it with pleasure with his joie de vivre & himself - but also pulls a fragrance veil of complex seduction will behind him, which is noticed and goutiert by the flâneurs on the boulevard. Spontaneous eye contacts - pas de probleme :-) Thanks to the good humour and opulent coherence of the green-flowered jardin - on velvety moss beds with the little truncated lemon trees around the edges - une femme can definitely experience French savoir vivre with this perfume.... I felt this way especially since I had previously been to the Picasso collection exhibition at the three major state museums - a day allotted for each museum plus an additional two to explore the city stroll-by-stroll. Filled with Parisian esprit, I bought the eponymous YSL jar at home tout suit, in order to master my grief over the postponable return.
It was winter, the city of love eight hours away by train ... but thanks to Yves' creation, the attitude I had in me, on me & around me was extended by the life of a bottle: Merci, Maitre - your effort was worth it!
7 Comments
6
Bottle
8
Sillage
10
Longevity
9.5
Scent
Lilue

4 Reviews
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Lilue
Lilue
Helpful Review 18  
Basic Note Love
This fragrance is love, warmth, home, comfort. The fragrance is roots and wings.
This fragrance is to buy it and put it in the closet when you are away from home and mom is missing.
The fragrance not only smells of rose, it also smells of its leaves and the soil from which it grows. It even smells a little bit like her thorns.
I can't smell any nuances from this perfume at all, my perception is far too much affected by memories, emotions, an entire childhood. No matter how good it may smell to me, I will never be able to wear it myself and I know and fear that the day will come when the sight of this bottle and a passing breeze from a lady in her prime, chicly dressed, round face, friendly smile, but not mum will cause me an unbelievable pain, the fear of which I already feel every now and then on days close to the water when mum wears it
9 Comments
6
Pricing
8
Bottle
8
Sillage
8
Longevity
8
Scent
Tradescantia

53 Reviews
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Tradescantia
Tradescantia
Very helpful Review 13  
Fresh sweet flower veil
This lovely floral and fresh in the attack eau de toilette is romantic, but does not fall into the girly, as is the case with some fragrances from Chloé.
Chloé fragrances are really not wrong, but they do not suit me.

To begin with, I particularly like Paris. The green notes I can not specify, but they add the necessary freshness. So the fragrance is wearable at any time. Although lilac and blue rain are not listed, these plants came directly to my mind. Somehow, they also fit the mood of the fragrance. Overall, I find it difficult to identify individual notes here. For me, it just creates a strong, dense yet delicate floral haze. The scent is a true bouquet of flowers, with a subtle soapy note. Without it, it would probably become too sweet. For a short time, it has something of freshly washed laundry fluttering through the wind in the middle of a flower garden. This note is not directly comparable to White Linen. It lacks the earthiness that contrasts in White Linen, yet there is a parallel. Both fragrances come from Sophia Grojsman.

I can recognize mainly rose, hyacinth, ylang-ylang and jasmine. Rose scents so often grab me in a weird way, sometimes I chase them for whatever reason. This one is not at all a typical representative of this category because of its diversity.

Yves Saint Laurent has always launched unusual fragrances and was considered a rebel within the fashion world; among other things, because of the invention of "Le Smoking": the tuxedo for ladies. Rive Gauche fits much better to this garment, which embodied the emancipation of women in the 60s. Paris is more gently rebellious. To my mind, it works best in the summer. The fresh green notes keep it from being too heavy. It is not at all stuffy in my opinion. A pleasant companion for almost all situations. One is never really badly dressed with it. At high temperatures it has the best projection. This leaves the environment with restrained dosage but still enough air to breathe.

The base is not very spectacular. I personally could have done without the clear sweetness in the base, but it also does not hurt the fragrance.

The 30 ml bottle is what I consider good design. It is triangular and has a nice cut that forms a geometric and symmetrical pattern. The glass feels valuable and the bottle is functional, it can even be stored well in a rather small sized handbag because of the shape and the lid fits tightly. You'd think that would be a given. But it isn't. The stopper is cylindrical, unlike the bottle. It comes in black and coral colors. Really aesthetic and practical.
Have fun testing and wearing.

3 Comments
Krmarich

24 Reviews
Krmarich
Krmarich
Very helpful Review 7  
I Love Paris!!!
I discovered an original black 1.6oz EDT box circa 1983 on e-bay. It is quite different from the familiar formula on todays market. This was truely the biggest and best rose perfume ever made. In its time, I only detected it from afar. Indeed by 1985, it was everywhere. The traffic jam of perfume from that era shall never be forgotten or matched.

Paris however was different. Its pays tribute to Apres l'Ondee and was like Nahema containing a profusion of rose damascenones so boldly. This is YSL running along side Guerlain equally. It is Sophia Grojsman's magnum opus. It is the definitive French rose perfume. Its production cost had to be astronomical at the time and it gradually weakend to the current formula.

This original bottle relys little on the supporting cast of violet and mimosa. The rose dominates the composition for hours and then the natural, rich sandalwood and oakmoss hold it up even further. They are no longer in the pink box.

This isnt sexy like Opium, bold like Rive Gauche or mysterious like Y. As great as they are, Paris explores love. This is the gentle, blushing, innocent love that happens once in a lifetime. One drop on your pulse is profound. It gets under your skin and into your heart. Its mood enhancing and hypnotic. I can almost taste the rose.

Paris is a timeless 20th century giant that was really only around for about 5 year in its pure strength. No wonder it was on display in the Louvre! It was a work of art. Often imitated, even by YSL itself, but never as great as those original bottles. Time is passing-get a bottle today before its too late!
0 Comments
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Statements

3 short views on the fragrance
Jazzy76Jazzy76 4 years ago
8
Bottle
8
Sillage
8
Longevity
8
Scent
If the famous "Hymne à l'amour " by Edith Piaf was a scent, it could be Paris! Refined, romantic and classy like a bunch of roses.A classic.
0 Comments
GorgiaGorgia 5 years ago
10
Bottle
10
Sillage
10
Longevity
9.5
Scent
This is a classic, timeless,elegant scent.
The fragrant cloud that surrounds me is heavenly.
0 Comments
TruckladyTrucklady 5 years ago
7
Bottle
7
Sillage
7
Longevity
7
Scent
Old school staple rose. Colonial longing for a homeland cottage garden. Idealised stereotype. Fanon and YSL at odds with each other.
0 Comments

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