Cabotine Grès (1990) Eau de Toilette

Bottle Design: Thierry Lecoule

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7.1 / 10 179 Ratings

Cabotine (Eau de Toilette) is a perfume by Grès for women and was released in 1990. The scent is floral-green. It is being marketed by Lalique Group / Art & Fragrance.

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Perfumer

Jean-Claude Delville

Fragrance Notes

Top Notes	Cassia, Green notes, Coriander, Orange blossom, Peach, Plum, Blackcurrant, Tagetes
Heart Notes	Freesia, Carnation, Heliotrope, Hyacinth, Ginger, Iris, Jasmine, Rose, Tuberose, Violet, Ylang-ylang
Base Notes	Amber, Musk, Sandalwood, Blackcurrant, Tonka bean, Vanilla, Vetiver, Cedar, Civet

Ratings

Scent

7.1 (179 Ratings)

Longevity

7.8 (118 Ratings)

Sillage

7.5 (115 Ratings)

Bottle

6.4 (122 Ratings)

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 27.03.2019

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Reviews

12/06/2018

8.0 5.0 8.0 5.0/10

Jazzy76
318 Reviews

Jazzy76

Sweet and sour

Cabotine is to me one of the most controversial and enigmatic fragrances ever.
Do you know that old jazz song saying : " Sometimes I love you, sometimes I hate you"? Well, these are the right words to describe my relation with this scent.
First of all, I must confess that I wore it because it was my mother's perfume but in the late Nineties , when I was about 20, I 've stolend many times this fragrance from my mother's perfumes shelf . Clearly, once I loved it.
But tastes change and in recent times I've tested and re-tested this scent , but I'm not so sure as once that i like its bouquet. Of course, I appreciate its rich bouquet containing many different notes and in particular I love the sweet heart made of Jasmine, vibrant tuberose and sensual and warm ylang. The base too is very pleasant with its amber, tonka bean and civet touches. However, there are two ingredients which hurt my nose because not perfectly measured, pungent and too "green": the ginger at the opening and the vetyver at the base.
I usually don't like so much these two notes when they are too heavy and Cabotine is a "hymn to green", a sweet and sour perfume summarising in it the yin and the yang, the warm and more feminine notes and the more vibrant and quite masculine touches. Anyway, a great classic at a quite affordable price and with a good sillage and a satisfactory longevity.
It could be a 4season scent for its warmer heart and its quite fizzy opening and it's perdfect mainly bay day, at the office too, only if sprayed with parsimony.
Maybe one day I'll decide to buy anyway this scent , expecially if I'll find it on sale at very nice price. It remains a cult of the early Nineties perfumery and a must have in a perfumes wardrobe, first of all for its very pretty bottle with the bouquet-shaped cap.

10/13/2018

9.0 9.0 9.0 8.0/10

Minigolf
0 Reviews

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Minigolf

Very helpful Review 8

"Blumerales" super container with wide radiation

Some people will think that the "minigolf" likes flowery scents after all...?!
Well, on the one hand these may have the right, but only limited....
I like them if they don't exceed a certain "sweetness level", if they have a lot of "green stuff" and a great variety.
And all that goes for "Cabotine".
The "opening" of the fragrance bouquet alone shows how multifaceted this fragrance is.
Fat green meets dark and light fruits, striking spices and a tart fruity citrus note, before a huge container of sweet and unsweet, powdery and "spicy" flowers spreads over the whole area.
As colorful as a flower show, for example.
All colours from cream white, sky blue and rosè to deep violet and dark red.
Like a whirling color wheel at high speed.
But there is no "Tohuwabohu" here, (at least only a little bit), and all the flowers are not visible at all at the first, second or third "Riecher". But the mixing ratio of the fragrances does it.
The sweet ones stay nicely in the background, while the bitter and spicy ones party in front.
They make it really groovy and rock. without any fatigue.
Practically until late hour.
Until the "credits follow"...somewhat calmer, but no less colourful and powerful, long-range and incomparable.
"Blumerales" is supplemented by woody-animal. Some musk, a little pussy, together with some amber playfully scramble with vetyver, woods and patchouli.
What is most striking about "Cabotine" in the base is that the "theme" from the beginning is taken up again or continued with other "partners". The fruity spicy-bitter black currant runs like a deep purple thread through the fragrance.
In the "middle" hardly noticeable.
But towards the "end" it is clearly reviving and striking again.
There are only a few fragrances that "do" this, to which perfumers have assigned a "cycle" with reversed signs, such as "Cabotine" has.
A refined, wide-ranging, exuberant masterpiece....

4 Replies

10/05/2018

5.0 7.0 10.0 7.5/10

Hasiputz80
0 Reviews

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Hasiputz80

Helpful Review 5

90 years of pure feeling

I came to the fragrance through an exchange and didn't really know what to expect. I was just curious how it smells, because everybody calls it the fragrance twin of the Tendre Poison ( but I don't know it either.)
Full of curiosity and what can I say. It catapults me right back into the '90s. My limbic system must have noticed and stored the smell quite often. I have a vague recollection that a former professor must have smelled like this.
For me definitely no modern fragrance that corresponds to the current zeitgeist. Sweet, flowery, heavy, and very mature, he takes me by surprise.
Spicy sweet, but no pralines, cotton candy sweetness but rather like honey mixed with coriander. Tuberose and orange buete are also very dominant, which for me are mostly too heavy, overblown and madamic.
It's nice, but it just doesn't suit me at all.
All those who love retro fragrances will surely enjoy it.

2 Replies

08/11/2018

7.0 8.0 8.0 8.0/10

Rosaviola
0 Reviews

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Rosaviola

Greatly helpful Review 16

Fully ripe flowers

I bought Cabotine de Gres as EdT a few years ago. He's supposed to smell like Tendre Poison from Dior, so I had to take him.

Cabotine de Gres is a very dense green-flowery flower fragrance and a child of its time. A "flower poultice". You gotta like that. Very young girls will have a hard time with the fragrance, because it doesn't correspond to the current fragrance trends at all. But I am very old-fashioned and so he is something for me...

Since the fragrance is very dense and compact, it is not easy to disassemble it.
Cabotine starts with a slightly fruity peach note with a green undertone that is maintained throughout the fragrance and is paired with a floral sweetness. This is followed by many, many ripe, almost overripe flowers such as freesia, heliotrope, hyacinth and jasmine. If I guessed, I'd say there are lilies of the valley and lilies inside. But they're not according to the scent pyramid.
All in all there is already a little bit of a slightly sweet-ashy impression of flowers that bloom in full splendour and once again give away everything in animal attractants to be pollinated shortly before withering. Like a late motherhood at the last moment, it comes to my mind. This scent is a hot flower "Milf"!
The base also has it in itself with its animal notes like civet, amber and musk.
Warm sandalwood is also included.
Sillage and durability are very good with me.
I also have a square vintage EdP bottle at home with 30 ml. Unfortunately I haven't managed to open the bottle (splash) yet, but I'll be able to do that again.

Cabotine is often considered a twin fragrance by Tendre Poison, but I find Tendre Poison lighter and "fresher", while Cabotine is darker. But a little bit it reminds me of another Dior, namely of Diorissimo EdT as vintage from the eighties.

The bottle with its green flower head goes very well with the fragrance, but I like the EdP's square bottle with its three-part cap even better.
For me Cabotine is a fragrance for experienced women who know what they want.

6 Replies

02/08/2018

6.0 6.0 8.0 7.0/10

StellaDiverF
209 Reviews

StellaDiverF

Helpful Review 4

A floral path to a spring garden

Cabotine opens like tuberoses grown from earth. Sweet flowers accompanied by earthiness and greenness. Then it evolves into a scent very similar to Dove soap if my memory recalls well. Soapy at first, then it mellows and becomes less sharp. After about 3 hours, jasmine becomes prominent among all the floral notes but not overpowering. It then continues the ode to flowers for another 7 hours.

Cabotine is like a garden. It doesn't punch into face like a bouquet of various flowers. The flowers shows themsevles one after another along the path of the evolution of the fragrance while still in harmony. I can't pick any green or woody notes distinctively, but I can certainly feel their efforts balancing the whole fragrance. The sillage is quite good, but it doesn't smell heavy, more like flowers brought by the wind, floating in the air. The longevity is between 10 and 12 hours.

A wonderful fragrance for spring!

Originally written in 2013

01/28/2015

10.0 10.0 10.0/10

ScentFan
325 Reviews

ScentFan

Helpful Review 5

Big & Green

If someone had said, "Try a perfume that has green notes in the top, hyacinth in the middle, and vetiver in the base," I would have swiftly replied, "No thanks!"

Unspecified green notes don't automatically sound promising to me and vetiver I don't always love. As for Hyacinth, it often makes me cringe, but not here. Just when I think it's going to become ugly, something else overwhelms with loveliness. Cabotine is a fragrance truly less than the sum of its many parts. They blend to create a seductive greenness--a woman wearing an oriental perfume shopping for fruits & vegetables. Actually, it does contain proper oriental notes, as well as almost everything else at the market. Cabotine dries down to an unusual, but appealing steady state. I like the result. It's also a strong perfume. No need to spray on very much.

Ahem. If they'd added, Guerlain's Nahema has them as well as Paco Rabanne's Metal, a perfume you wore for years, I would have quietly said, "Sure, I'll give it a try." [Advanced search first, cringe second].

12/20/2012

Beachgirl2
19 Reviews

Beachgirl2

Very helpful Review 6

Wanted to like it!

Oh my! All those lovely notes. So sorry, I can't get comfortable with this one. The top notes are like a harsh soapy green smell. Like green beans freshly snapped, or frozen green beans just thawed, not cooked. Or lettuce that got too old and started to wilt and has a sharp green mushy lettuce smell.
So, I waited for the top note to die down. There are some wonderful soft floral notes hiding just beneath this all. But the top notes just won't go away. Yes, they are lighter, and somewhat faded, but it's still there. I'll say this much for it. It's strong, and won't wash off very well. I washed with soap and I can still smell it. I mean it's not horrible or anything, it's just not the type of "green" smell I was hoping for. I was thinking perhaps something a little grassy? Not vegetal. Also, it's a little old fashioned. Not that that is necessarily bad, but I can't get used to it. I wanted to like it, I really did.

1 Replies

07/07/2012

5.0 10.0 10.0 8.0/10

LadyRogue
166 Reviews

LadyRogue

Helpful Review 12

Dior's Tendre Poison: But Better!

The House of Gres gave us Cabochard and the Cabotine range is -supposed- to be a younger, lighter version of this classic, a "daughter". Well, not to me:

The 'Green' Cabotine I own is a very fresh, classy yet playful scent in its own right without any comparisons I could draw to Cabochard.
It's flowery - instead of smokey. Cheery - instead of solemn. Medium light - instead of heavy.
Its florals have a greenish tone, not grass but fresh. The dominant notes to my nose are clearly the tuberose and hyacinth. (I could swear it has Lily of the Valley - although it's not listed. I assume I smell the ginger-lily, wonderful!)
From the base-notes I can only detect the tonka bean. In fact, it doesn't smell as complicated as the ingredients above would suggest. It reminds me a bit of a much more lively "Soir De Paris". The staying-power is wonderful, this one lasts and lasts. I think one can wear this whenever and wherever one likes because it has a very pleasant vintage smell that is uncomplicated.
However, you might want to spray with a light hand, it's easily over applied and might give headaches. If used 'wisely' it's another winner from Gres.
This was my first encounter with a member of the Gres Cabotine range, but I'm looking forward to sniffing more!

::update:: I got a chance to smell Tendre Poison and can confirm: It's VERY similar to Cabotine! Amazingly so.

06/09/2012

5.0 10.0 7.5 5.0/10

PBullFriend
295 Reviews

PBullFriend

Helpful Review 4

too too much

After recently discussing this scent with Sherapop, I decided to give it another try. It's one of those scents about which I am very much on the fence, and I was slightly surprised to dig through my stash and discover that I had bought an entire bottle of it after having used of part of my mini.

I find the ginger and iris and marigold (tagetes) in here just lovely. It speaks to me of suntanned skin and vodka drinks on the beach. At first application, it even reminds me faintly of other sunny skin scents like Bronze Goddess or Azuree Soleil. But as it dries down, the intensity ramps up uncomfortably, especially with a big powdery floral note that may have to do with the hyacinth, tuberose, and ylang. At 15 minutes, it's like an icepick made of powder is attacking my sinuses. I gave up and scrubbed.

After a good scrub, I was back to the pleasant gingery floral. I think the moral of this story may be that this is a lovely perfume if applied as a tiny dab!

1 Replies

02/24/2012

2.0/10

Awesomeness
247 Reviews

Awesomeness

Floral Bomb

Cabotine is pleasant enough to sniff on paper. However, some people can wear this, others can't. I'm in the latter group. To my palate & chemistry, this is a floral stinkbomb ... in a bad way. The bottle is even worse.

Thankfully it was a super-cheap buy from the clearance bin at Marshall's.

NOTES - blackcurrant, pear, plum, coriander, rose, tuberose, ylang-ylang, ginger lily, hyacinth, heliotrop, fresia, violet, iris, cedar, vanilla, tonka bean, cybet, musk and amber.

2 Replies