BronxBeauty

It's hard to believe Lanvin discontinued Arpege, one of the oldest and best loved perfumes on the market. It's as if France had discontinued Paris. I have three bottle of Eau Arpege: one from the early 1960s and two that probably date from the 1980s; each has its discrete charms. Here you have the classic formula of a modern French perfume: aldehydes, jasmine, mai rose, ylang, ambergris, civet musk...Chanel No. 5 is crisper and more elegant and modern, but Arpege is warmer and more romantic. Guess it fell out of favor now that young girls all smell like Hawaiian Punch.

This entry says the release year of Spiritual Sky Sandalwood is unknown; a better way to express that might be "lost to the ages." I bought it in oil form in 1975, when I wore it to mask the scent of the marijuana I was smoking at the time; it was great for that. The SS Sandalwood oil I remember from back in the day smelled green, dry and slightly bitter; it had a pungent, medicinal edge like patchouli oil, which was also popular then, and none of the creaminess that I've since come to associate with sandalwood. In short? A cheap version of Tam Dao.

Houbigant Lutece, launched with a splash in 1984 (I remember the advertising featured a ritzy-looking blond), is what you might call a gothic floral: a deathly dark peony-iris concoction that becomes drier and more powdery the longer it hangs on. (Many have noted that it is reminiscent of Ombre Rose Original -- see the darkness motif?) Like a number of fumes from Houbigant's catalogue, Lutece got sold to Dana, which promptly ruined it. Ah well.

No Regrets is a strange bird for the ever-younger-skewing perfume world. A dense and liquor-like fruity chypre (that is, not a young smell), it seems aimed at a past-prime demographic: women who have been around the block a few times and "regret nothing," as the Piaf song goes. (The bottle is covered with messages of female empowerment.) I have no idea who buys it; I've only seen it once at a perfume counter -- at NYC's past-prime Lord & Taylor. For all its fustiness, however, I actually like No Regrets and drained a bottle a while back. But then, I've been around the block a few times and regret nothing.

In the 1980s, Laura Ashley cornered the market on floral prints: floral printed garden-party dresses, floral printed wallpaper, floral printed fabrics for housewares, floral printed everything! For a while, this Victorian tea-cosy aesthetic conquered the world, like the British Empire on which the sun never set. it even extended into... perfumes. Like the other LA products, the LA perfumes were well-made and fussy. And floral, naturally. LA No. 1 in its floral-printed bottle is a high-80s Victorian nosegay -- roses, Iris and jasmine of an amped-up variety. Very well done if you like that sort of thing, over the top and precious if you don't.