Krmarich

This was the first celebrity fragrance. It has fallen into obscurity over the years and has long disappeared off retail shelves. I found a stash in my mother's vanity! Coty was once the greatest marketer for inexpensive quality fragrance. This proved to be one of the best. For chypre lovers, that is...

It opens with bergamot, lemon and oakmoss. It has a genious heart of neroli, jasmine, rose, lily of the valley and oakmoss, perhaps more. It closes with more oakmoss, patcholi and vetiver. Toss in some civet and vanilla and you get a stunning complex refined and yes, mature bold chypre. It was a bit over the top for todays noses.

It last for several hours and makes one think, no, they dont make um like this anymore. The cost was about $4.99 a bottle in the day. Hey, the glamour of Sophia Lauren was just a spray away. I wonder if she still keeps bottle around? Frankly, it was the best celebrity launch, IMO...

Calandre was post modern, ultra chic and now too good to be true. Its was very stylish in 1969. Indeed, its aldyde-floral mastery could easily fit onto the 2001 Pan Clipper. It was futuristic glamour ready for the perfume world. Frosty roses mingled with other flowers that commanded attention. The oakmoss has a unique "changed" quality to it. It had become sharp and metallic! What a better way to enter the Space Age? This rose can survive in the void!

It was never really popular in the USA-usurped by its follow-up Rive Gauche in a few years. Micheal Hy was the most progressive nose of his day. However it had an audience that held on until its removal from the market in 2000. 2001 came and went. We never made it to the moon. Calandre is now forgeotten, cold, dry and dusty. Its hermetically sealed in my collection. We shall lament this never to be forgotten glimpse into tomorrow...

I had to track down a pre 2000 bottle of this huge mens powerhouse. Its worth the effort and still cheap, yet tricky to find. I never experienced it until 2011, fearing its "ladykiller" reputation. Marketing nonsense as far as my nose is concerned. Yes, this was the big French competitor to Paco Rabanne through the 1980s and beyond. I was always on the Paco Rabanne fence. Other than the openings-lavender and citrus-they are unrelated in all aspects.

Azarro is all about spices, oakmoss, vetiver and patcholi with tonka, coumarin, ambergris and iris in the base. The cardamon/sandalwood seems to put the come hither on those within sniffing distance, it has a unisex appeal and I believe a woman can wear this comfortably. 24 hours later without a shower, I am experiencing the final phase of this wonder-sandalwood, amber and musk wrapped in oakmoss are unforgettable. This is pure art. Perhaps the best drydown ever created.

Yes, its now officewear for men over 40-really?. Whatever happened to the Village People party boy? I get a 5AM disco vibe. My big bottle sits next to my big bottle of Paco Rabanne. Stately as they are, the have both been sadly reformulated. Both are relics from a bygone era when men could be men-hairy chests, sweat, tobacco and all. I feel I am developing an allegy to the 21st century and its restrictions. What a tragedy!

It was 26 years ago this summer-2012, that I first seen an ad in Interview magazine for Bowling Green. I immediately rushed out to my local mall and picked up a bottle for about $15. USDs. Grey Flannel was great in colder weather, yet this wore perfectly well in the hot summer sun.

Looking at all of those spices, this seems impossible in the heat, right? Its just the opposite. These are all fresh spices with fresh pine notes, like the aroma they give in May. Yes, there is a little honeysuckle here thats not listed. The effect is like sitting under tall pines, sipping lemonade near a fragrant herb garden on a hot summer afternoon. Its a very relaxed, casual daydreamers signature. Its somewhat dark. Hey, it was 1986 and everything had so many notes, even the warm weather marvels.

I was able to find a vintage bottle made in Miami from Geoffrey Beene Parfums. The packaging is original and fun to hold in your hand. Ah, what an age of innocence for the USA...

Then enter EA Fragrance with is mangled reformlation that sold like burn, moldy hotcakes. Its currently OOP. They were successful with Gray Flannel and Giorgio Beverly Hills. Why couldnt they get this one right? For a company that large, they should be able to try it again. This is a piece of Americana that deserves to be on the market again.

I have an unusual history of Byzance. I found it on closeout in 1992 and gave the bottle to my mother. She couldnt wear it and passed it to a friend. I never had the chance to sample it.

I found a mini today online. The bottle is like those "evil eye" charms so popular in modern Istanbul. Cobalt blue is used all over the Mediterranean basin. It was common to see it on Roman warships. The origin comes from ancient Egypt and the Eye of Horus. Its strange how time changes the meaning of things. Indeed, Byzance is now legendary as its bottle. Its exotic, yet oddly familiar and ever endearing.

I generally find classic tuberose my least favorite note in fragrance. Jardins des Bagatelle is the only way I enjoy it until now. Byzance bursts open with a very vocal aldehyde and tuberose that for the first few minutes, can overwhelm.

Then a voluptuous rose and jasmine note take hold and pulls you in and wont let go. After a few hours, it meanders into a warm, sacred place that your heart will hold dear.

Its really a floriental, yet the catagorization is irrelevant today. Its a little bit of everything, hence its Byzantine character. The complexity ix beyond words.

Rochas was one of the most respected perfume only houses of the 20th century. Indeed Macassar, Mystere, Lumiere, Byzance, Alchemie and Tocade commanded major attention before it all disappeared in 1999. I miss this house the most...