Habanita Molinard 2012 Eau de Parfum

Version from 2012

Habanita (2012) (Eau de Parfum) by Molinard

Where to buy

Search on

Where to buy

8.2 / 10253 Ratings

Habanita (2012) (Eau de Parfum) is a popular perfume by Molinard for women and was released in 2012. The scent is spicy-oriental. Projection and longevity are above-average. It is still available to purchase. Pronunciation

Search on

Top Notes	Geranium, Mastic, Petitgrain, Ylang-ylang
Heart Notes	Rosa centifolia, Heliotrope, Jasmine, Mimosa, Nutmeg, Vetiver, Cedar
Base Notes	Amber, Oakmoss, Vanilla, Malayan patchouli, Mysore sandalwood

Ratings

Scent

8.2253 Ratings

Longevity

9.1194 Ratings

Sillage

8.2200 Ratings

Bottle

8.6203 Ratings

Value for money

8.412 Ratings

Submitted by Kankuro, last update on 04.05.2021.

Rate
Collection
Classify
Notes

Reviews

04/14/2021

10
Scent

Velvetmoon

Translated Show original

Velvetmoon

Top Review 11

The Femme Fatal is Aries

The zodiac sign Aries is probably the most hot-tempered of the 12 signs, is always in trouble and is a rebel at heart. Stubborn and temperamental, with the head always through the wall. What few people know, however, is that underneath the hard shell, Aries usually has a soft, vulnerable core that wants to be explored. To us humans there is just more than the naked eye may reveal.

It's a similar story with Molinard's Habanita. The first moment is violent and probably repels weak nerves at first. Habanita doesn't aim to please, doesn't want to be a sweet-flowery pleaser from next door, she's been through and seen too much for that. It's worth giving it a chance, though, because underneath all that smoky resin and dark cherry (not stated, but I smell it anyway, but could just be an association) is pure liquid gold - amber amber wrapped in non-sweet vanilla, bedded on fragile dry florals that never dominate, but are just a supporting hint. Habanita can be quite different, can seduce and turn heads and be almost vulnerable. Not so obvious that everyone notices, but just enough to break hearts by the dozen. She has character and already that is rare these days.

Habanita is a very special perfume and in my opinion absolutely unisex. On men, it underlines facets that like to provide for big eyes - and for compliments. For me, it is quasi self-confidence and sexiness with a touch of scratchiness in a flacon, which, by the way, is also very chic. If you're looking for an oriental with rough edges, you've come to the right place! But beware of a blind purchase: Habanita is really unique.

5 Replies

03/24/2021

10
Scent 9
Longevity 9
Sillage 10
Bottle 8
Pricing

Carlitos01
294 Reviews

Carlitos01

Top Review 45

Look at that beautiful and graceful "habanita"...

I met Marisol several times in Little Havana. She was still a girl allways wearing a colorful dress, although it looked like a grown woman, a true "habanita" who used to go round and round on Calle Ocho. She passed in front of me several times on a sweet swing on the way to Taqueria El Santo where she worked. As a taco lover, I could not help chatting a few times with Marisol in that restaurant, while getting myself ready for a "Taco al Pastor" or a "Taco de Camaron".
Life in Little Havana revolves around Calle Ocho. One of its most charming attractions is the nearby Parque Máximo Gómez - also called Parque Domino - a place where elderly Cubans gather to play dominoes, cards or chess, while trying to fix the world by discussing issues of Cuba's past and future endeavors. I used to stroll and see the old Cuban atmosphere in the eyes of the retired Cubans sitting around the garden tables. The ambiance of steaming coffee mixed with cigar smoke and rum (with bottles hidden in paper bags) was dense and intoxicating. In this neighborhood one could also find artisans making cigars, dozens of highly flavored Cuban restaurants, lively bars and colorful shops with vibrant music. In this same street we can walk on the stars that pave the Walk of Fame with reference to the most well-known Cuban singers and actors. Marisol loved to jump on the starry sidewalk, shouting the names of the recorded artists thus immortalized.
Nostalgie and the strong aroma of very sweet coffee dominated most of the Calle Ocho. You cannot visit Little Havana without tasting an authentic Cuban coffee, a very potent and extremely sweet espresso that is served in tiny cups. But if you want to cool off, there is nothing better than sipping an icy Guarapo - a kind of sugar cane juice on the rocks - sitting in an esplanade. If you're lucky enough, you may even catch a glimpse of Marisol passing by. Twenty years have gone by but i never forgot the charm of my precious "habanita".

My other cherished Habanita is this perfume by Molinard. Its first launch took place exactly one hundred years ago, although currently it is only easy to access the 2012 redesign.
Like Little Havana's habanita, this fragrance is beautiful, simple and complex, elegantly decadent, passionate, dominant and self-confident; but it is also powdery, spicy, floral, ambery, balsamic, woody and earthy.
This landmark of perfumery has had an interesting journey over the past hundred years. It is said that the 1921 original version was not born as a perfume. It seems that it was created as a masker of the strong smell of cigar tobacco. It was used by ladies of French high society who appreciate a tasty and fragrant cigarillo but could not smell like beard men. Its intense aroma quickly conquered the noses of the elegant socialites, and became one of the perfumes of fashion in the crazy post war 1920s. As a regular perfume, the first Habanita appeared in 1924.
Although some other very fine and well-known perfumes were created in this decade, Habanita was very original. It was the first female oriental perfume to use vetiver as an ingredient. Until then, vetiver was an essential oil used exclusively in men's perfumes and beard products.
Jewelers and glass makers like Baccarat and Lalique designed and produced some of the flasks ordered by Molinard to house the early Habanita. The current beautiful black bottle is based on an 1930 original design by René Lalique.

Habanita is quite a complex perfume and some not listed notes and accords may be perceived. Molinard claims that the current version has more than 680 ingredients, the very same number and type of ingredients used in the vintage version, but blended in different proportions.
At the opening we are flooded by a resinous, slightly salty and astringent balm due to a strong mastic note. This balsamic tonic quickly blends with various florals - mainly centifolia rose and heliotrope - and the earthy smell of nutmeg. The base becomes predominant perhaps two hours after application, with vanilla and amber standing out on a woody and leathery background.
On my shelf this Habanita lives with other pseudo-feminine perfumes like Shalimar and Mitsouko by Guerlain. For me they are all naturally unisex.
Longevity is enormous, and 10 to 12 hours are ensured with 3 sprays. The sillage is sufficient to attract the attention of people between 8 to 10 feet away. The projection is reasonable for almost three hours.

Let me propose my passionate assessments for Habanita:
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
- Opening: 10.0 (breathtaking: spicy, floral and balsamic)
- Drydown: 10.0 (fantastic dryness of vanilla and amber; Sandalwood and leather are perceived as well. Outdated? Are you kidding?)
- Longevity: 9.0 (up to 10 ~ 12 hours with 3 sprays)
- Silage: 8.5 (up to 6 ~ 8 feet with 3 sprays; projection close to 3.0 hours)
- Exclusivity: 9.0 (It reminds me of some Guerlain perfumes without being similar really similar to any of them, namely Shalimar, Mitsouko and L'Heure Bleue; I can't help comparing the Habanita drydown to L'Heure Bleue without iris, or to Shalimar without civet; I could also mention the very similar Enslaved by Roja Perfumes that was lauched 5 years prior to the current formulation of Habanita)
- Usability: 7.5 (winter and autumn preferably during the night)
- Versatility: 7.5 (It's a chic perfume. It reveals itself better on formal occasions; Beach and Gym? No way!)
- Praise: 9.0 (Provided you are a man, I can only assure you this is not a manly scent, and no one will mistake you with Brad Pitt or Harrison Ford. But it will grabb you a ton of compliments anyway. If you are a woman you will destroy all your elegant competitors)
- Quality: 10.0 (very high quality ingredients)
- Presentation: 10.0 (just very beautiful)
- Price: 8.0 (75 ml/46 Euros but I purchased mine on sale; The 75 ml bottle sells usualy for 70~80 Euros)
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Overall rating: 8.95 / 10.00
- between 7 and 8 = above average;
- between 8 and 9 = recommended;
- greater than 9 = don't hesitate;

Recommendation: Sometimes it's hard to give a straight and honest opinion on a perfume that I love and consider a masterpiece, but it's really hard to spot any defects in Habanita. Ok... If you are a man, it's not a manlyscent, and, at the most, can only be considered an unisex fragrance leaning to the feminine side. But if you are like me, perfumes have no gender. So go ahead and enjoy it! Your wife will certainly steal it from you.
Blind shopping? No, because of its complexity. Also forget any family ties with any blue or fresh fragrance so in fashion today. But if you happen to smell it, you will surely love it. This perfume is ageless!

Music: from Bizet's Carmen - "Habanera" sung by Angela Gheorghiu.

Note: "Habanita" means literally "young woman from Havana"

9 Replies

03/20/2021

Peeva

Translated Show original

Peeva

Too much...

....Her best years are long gone, the make up applied in several layers, creeping around the eyes and the once full lips in deep wrinkles. Traces of a life with too little sleep, too much alcohol, too much tobacco and disappointments.
Garish colors on lips, eyes and nails. Too tight and too low cut, her top stretches across her bosom and belly.
Her scent overpowers everything. A powerful cloud of spices, resins, flowers and patchouli surrounds her and she asks you, "well sweetie, what'll it be?"
Her bar is her life.

4 Replies

03/18/2021

4
Scent 10
Longevity 5
Sillage

DorothyGrace
78 Reviews

DorothyGrace

Stains Yellow

Apparently I tried this six years ago (just saw the statement I wrote then) . It would seem my opinion hasn't changed and the Wintergreen note is still heavily present. Regretfully (because I don't like it) I bought two samples, one this version and the other the Habanita Edition Exclusive which was billed on the site from which I bought my samples as being extra oriental by pushing up both the sandalwood (which I can't detect) and the amber, and decreasing the rose and oakmoss. The Molinard site itself doesn't say it is a tweaked version and I can't tell the two apart but that could be because of how heavy I find the amber notes in both and how I couldn't in any case detect the florals, patchouli, and oakmoss.

Habanita on me starts hopefully enough with a floral vanillic amber, maybe a touch almond like , thick and heavy. As it wears it becomes more cloying as those initial notes strengthen, turn powdery, and are then joined by a discordant Germaline or Wintergreen.

One hour in and I had to give it three good soapings to wash it off. My skin now smells floral soapy and that is quite nice although still radiating too strongly for me despite the application being tiny from one of those little 2 ml sample sprays, and still with the out of place Wintergreen.

When I went to wash the perfume off I noted that the perfume had coloured my skin bright yellow like a tincture of iodine stain. The three washes with bar soap did not remove all the colour and my skin is very noticeably stained yellow. I would say this needs to be kept away from light coloured clothing.

1 Replies

03/11/2021

8.5
Scent 8
Longevity 8
Sillage 9
Bottle

Schalkerin

Translated Show original

Schalkerin

Top Review 37

A trip to Cuba

At the popular beach Playas de Guardalavaca it had become evening and still very warm. The beach bars were filled. Hot rhythms sounded over. Caribbean drums accompanied by exotic instruments. Bodies swayed erotically to the salsa. They sweat. At that moment, Habanita came sauntering along. With long black hair, head held high and hips swaying. They all stared at her. The skin of her warm body shimmered and the men didn't let her out of their sight. The wonderful scent of her perfume could be perceived by all. Delicate floral scent, almondy with patchouli and musk. Habanita knew that she was desired. Wherever she appeared, men swarmed around her. The glances that followed her saw her moving further and further away. Left behind was a whiff of vanilla.

Cuba is the largest Caribbean island. An island nation, with side islands about 11.5 million inhabitants. Cuba was long under Spanish colonial rule and is governed socialist. Warm all year around 30-34 degrees. Also the sea is warm, 24-28 degrees. A wonderful holiday country. With fantastic beaches, the Playa Pilar, with 15 meter high, solid dunes. The Playa Tortiga, the turtle beach, or the Playas de Guardalavaca, a beach loved by residents and tourists. Also many secluded beaches if you want to have your peace and quiet.
The capital La Habana has about 1.1 million inhabitants. Famous are the approximately 140,000 classic cars left behind by the Americans and lovingly maintained. The Cubans are very poor, but this does not diminish their joie de vivre. There is music everywhere and dancing and partying in the streets. A totally friendly people.
In Santa Clara, the national monument, a statue of the leader of the rebel army during the Cuban Revolution, Ernesto CHE Guevara can be admired.

Also loved are the Cuban cigars, habaneros and Cuban rum. Coffee is also grown. Lots of coffee is drunk and a cup of cafecito is always welcome, no matter what time of day.

The green oasis of Cuba is the valley Valle de Vernales, a nature reserve, about 10 km long and 4 km wide. One side of Cuba points to Mexico, the other side to Haiti.
With about 11 hours flying time from Frankfurt am Main to Havana can be expected.

A wonderful island, to vacation. Everything there, what the heart desires.
Hopefully Corona is soon over. When writing I get really wanderlust.

31 Replies

02/05/2021

9.5
Scent 8
Longevity 8
Sillage 9
Bottle

Can777
6 Reviews

Translated Show original

Can777

Top Review 73

Criminal

What is Habanita? Habanita to me is an olfactory dance. A power struggle of the sexes. A trial of strength between man and woman. Passion, dominance, an attraction and a repulsion. A desire and a contempt. Hunting and killing so close together. Temperament and innocence danced on a sharp blade of seduction and drama. Or a crime of passion perhaps? Habanita is a dance. Habanita is a tango! But unlike usual, here it is not the gentleman who leads. No, here the lady leads. It is the tango with a femme fatale. Erotic, seductive and highly manipulative. Habanita is an embrace. An embrace to the sweet dark sounds of a passionate,rhythmic,accordion of desire and alluring feminine criminality!

Habanita
Habanita is not just a fragrance or perfume. Habanita is rather an aura in which you get caught and sink. A green,bitter-tart rose geranium opens the drama. Bitter and almost brittle and repellent. Threads are spun like a sticky web of tough, resinous mastic. Just as bitter-sweet and yet so warm. Fine, filigree and so perfect that every soul gets caught in it with every twist and turn. With every step, with every turn you are more dazzled by Habanita. Dust fogs your senses and the air becomes muggy-dry and stuffy. Powdery and dry florals of almondy heliotrope draw the light ever softer. Ylang-ylang and animalic-meaty jasmine switch poses and it rains fruity-bitter mimosa on the sensual parquet of doom from earthy-dark and woody-old patchouli. The band plays the final deep-spicy act of abandonment or surrender. The air grows sweeter and more beguiling. To the passionate rhythm of the tango, the chords of dry and dusty-spicy vanilla ring in the ears like tantalizingly intoxicating notes, and the body becomes a soft-creamy sounding body of smooth-milky sandalwood. A final embrace and kiss populates this tango of tart smoky and dark oak moss. The curtain falls and with it any inhibitions and concerns!

Conclusion
Habanita is a paradox and a mystery. It combines the opposites of feelings,desires and emotions. Habanita is soft,tender,innocent and playful like a lolita. On the one hand! On the other hand Habanita is decadent, proud, passionate, dominant and highly self-confident like a femme fatale. A perfume that manages to combine the innocence of a Lolita and the dominating power of a femme fatale. Habanita is soft-powdery, delicately floral. But also spicy-sweet and earthy-smoky. Habanita spreads a suspicious aura of dubious innocence and dark seduction. It is elusive and difficult to grasp. A perfume that can be many things. Multifaceted like a dark iridescent prism of inscrutable femininity. If I should describe Habanita with two words???
Seductive-criminal,...would probably be very appropriate!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWOb1m7Jha8

54 Replies

01/06/2021

9
Scent 8
Longevity 8
Sillage 8
Bottle

Ponticus

Translated Show original

Ponticus

Top Review 53

Mothers, daughters, grandmothers!

"Letter to the Field"
Dearest Paul, you are in good health and well. That is the main thing. .....also, I want to thank you sincerely for the lovely perfume gift as part of your loving package. When I wear this Habanita, I smell the chocolaty-spicy scent of your smoking, heavy and sweet, but in a moment it is floral again, powdery-vanilla and resinous leather smells, like your doublet to which I cling very tightly. I feel protected by your strong hand and at the same time I am full of longing for you. I long for home and child, to please you and our little family, but at the same time I long for passion and wild life. I want to be all woman for you dearest. Just come home soon!.....The world is playing with itself here and I am very afraid that our presumptuous megalomania of war will one day fall back on us in destructive fury. Take good care of yourself my little Paul, the Frenchman does not like you, certainly not there in Paris. .....

"Longing for Life"
Dear big sister .....were you still raving about your new perfume in your last letter? "A wild sensuality of fine smoke, strong florals, sweetness and later dark mystique, while spicy and warmly vanilla. A small, fragrant impression of the restless, erotically charged life here in the big city."
Mom also still has a half-full bottle of this Habanita in her old scent box. Admit it, you didn't know that! Anyway, I tried it too. It smelled lovely of flowers and vanilla, leathery like the scuffed school bag, sweet, warm of spices and resins of the Orient just like in our old stories, and it smelled like the secret, liqueur smoke of the girls' corner at school. I notice in it, too, such a wild, erotic feeling for closeness, as if there were no tomorrow, as if freedom to do anything possible were close at hand. I wish I was with you in the fullness of life......

"Diary entry - life lived"
Today I rewarded myself and put on a good spritz of Habanita. This and looking in the mirror in the morning reminded me of my first encounter with this perfume. It was an explosion of the senses, a whip for the budding housewife, a guide to the emancipation of femininity. Smoky woman, self-determined sex, violent, sinful, dark, wild and always vanilla, this is how the scent stuck to my skin for a long time and fit so well with the times. That was decades ago.
No, dear diary, no whining and regret in retrospect, but as I saw again this morning, life has already left plenty of marks on me. Marks that advancing age just happens to write. They are buried deep in the creases of my face and here between the lines along with some dreams. But I was never unhappy because of that, my life was and is a content one, I look back gratefully. The encounters with Habanita are small islands of happiness for me today, beautiful memories at the end of a fulfilled, intensely lived life.

Habanita by Molinard has accompanied generations for almost 100 years. A women's perfume for a lasting impression in private or in public, for the promise of sinful messages, also for the presentation of noble wardrobe, for the business woman, the housewife, the femme fatale and if he wants, also for a self-confident man. Of course, Habanita is still an immoral offer today, even a wonderfully fragrant as well as a proven, durable and very fair companion.

Thanks to you for following my little look at those times!

43 Replies

10/13/2020

8.5
Scent 9
Longevity 8
Sillage 10
Bottle 7
Pricing

Pepdal
218 Reviews

Pepdal

Hubba Habanita

I got turned onto this one by some of my trusted acquaintances and initially tried this at the beginning of the year. It is definitely one that needs time spent with it as it reveals a bit with each wear. Thank you for watching and I hope you enjoy.

09/02/2019

Hirondelle

Translated Show original

Hirondelle

Top Review 15

Dark powdered glory

Yes, I know, an Oriental, but if I should imagine a dark powder smell: et voilà! For a long time I only knew the Flanker Habanita l'Esprit, which for a long time was one of my closest favourites and daily companions. At that time I only got a taste of Habanita in Grasse and postponed our getting to know her until later.

In Nice I allowed myself a small bottling this year and now, in the first days of September, the already clearly cooler become: It's a dream! If this perfume didn't exist, it would have to be invented.
Why dark powder now? I often find powdery scents heavy and very flattering for the skin, especially when there is a lot of iris. At the same time these fragrances vary for me somewhere on the scale "clean" to "bed sheets that have not been changed for some time".

This one, it has already been tinted, then has something of very sensually rumpled bed sheets (already for a few nights...), a shot of rum or liqueur went there still beside it, the smoke of cigarillos with vanilla aroma still rakes between bed and curtains. It is a scent of well-being with a certain pinch of daring, wickedness and something like that should be done first! A little angel, a little whore, a little mama - WOW! I could imagine that the original might have been a bit more scratchy, more angular in a positive sense, in the course of time this fragrance might well remain a bit more scratchy to my taste.

Besides, despite the fact that it has been reformulated, the fragrance has a strong vintage touch, which is great!
Also I can understand the connection to Habanita l'Esprit, even if in my opinion they are two completely independent fragrances, but nevertheless they belong together, the bright one (someone wrote very aptly to HlE "the moaning virgin") and the black Diva.
I don't know if I would wear the scent at work, but at home as a mom I find it just as wearable as in the evenings/nights in the bar. Currently I spray him very much also to go to bed on.
A beautiful fragrance all around. Very feminine (on men he would be almost too sweet to me..), the fragrance as a statement for itself.

08/06/2017

10
Scent 9
Longevity 8
Sillage 9
Bottle

MadameVizard
12 Reviews

MadameVizard

Top Review 8

The Whip and the Body

Review based on the current formulation (EDP, squared bottle).

Habanita is a perfume for a dominatrix.

Do you know the bizarre 1963 Italian film La frustra e il corpo, starred by Christopher Lee and Daliah Lavi? Lee plays the part of a sadistic nobleman who takes a pleasure in flogging his love interest (Lavi). Sadomasochism and women abuse does not seem to be likeable things, are not they? Surprisingly enough, it is a hauntingly beautiful movie, with a darkly romantic atmosphere and fascinating characters.

Now, turn over the story, and make the Lavi's character the active one in the film. Give her a whip. Drap her in a black leather corset and a cloak. And Habanita could be her perfume.

No jokes with Habanita, a full- grown woman draped in black leather and furs, a cigar in one of her hands, a whip in the other. She likes strong drinks and eats bloody steaks, she uses strong words and calls the things by her name. But, in the inside, she is a tender, sweet woman who takes that pose in order to conceal what she thinks it can be taken for weakness. She is a muscular, dark, Latin woman, very much in the style of the Julio Romero de Torres or Hermen Anglada-Camarasa heroines. But she has a heart. She is very much like a she-panther with her babies.

For me, it is indeed a nice surprise to see how this fragance, that can be easily dispatched as "old lady fragance" is still sold, and in excelent form. No ruined by disastrous reformulations like many other beautiful perfumes of yesterday.

Sillage and lasting power very good.

A must try for all perfume lovers.

3 Replies