02/10/2021
Rossiniopera
37 Reviews
Rossiniopera
The treasures that we do not know
I sometimes wonder about the relatively unknown, long forgotten perfume brands. Why did they go out of business, while other brands have remained until this day? Were their perfumes of lesser quality than those of the larger houses? Did they suffer from not being able to spend as much money on advertising? Were they just unable to recover financially after the war?
Difficult to say sometimes, especially since their perfumes are so hard to find, and we can't compare them to their more known contemporaries.
Recently, I came across a set of three perfumes from Paul Boyer at an affordable price, and I decided to buy them purely out of curiosity. According to Cleopatra's Boudoir, Paul Boyer started their business around 1940 and closed down about a decade later. There doesn't seem to be much information about their perfumes. Their ads say that PB is a perfumer from Provence, "heir of a century's family tradition of cultivating and destilling flowers." Would the perfumes be mostly floral then? Visually, the bottles in my set reminded me of another set I have, from Bienaimé, and I had those in mind too when I went to test my new findings.
One of the bottles, "Pour et contre" (not listed here at Parfumo) was empty. There were cracks in the glass, and what little residue was left had been exposed to air for a long time, and sadly it was not at all possible to determine what it once had smelled like.
The second bottle, "Haute Mode," appeared to have been a fresh floral, but was unfortunately not all that fresh anymore. I could get the overall idea, but it had a sour sting that probably makes it unsuited for wearing.
However, the third bottle, "Coreoba," was fairly well preserved. This too had a sour, sort of mouldy basement-smell at first whiff. When I tried it on my skin, this unplesant opening lasted for 5-10 minutes, then it faded off, and the good notes started wafting around me. Very softly at first, I smelled some sort of resinuous, slightly spicy floral bouquet. Mostly rose, I guess, on a rich, warm, creamy base. At this point I was slightly reminded of Weil's Cassandra. Then after 30 more minutes, the spices were getting stronger. Cinnamon, vanilla, maybe some clove? I am guessing amber, sandalwood and musk in the base. There is also something smoky, probably myrrh. I thought it was quite faint, but then my husband, who is neither an expert nor a great fan of perfume, entered the room and said: "Hey, new perfume? It's got incense? I get Christmas vibes!"
So, sillage probably isn't too bad. It's a lovely scent. Maybe not all that unique, but really very nice, if you enjoy these old, spicy-smoky orientals. I will have to test it against Bienaimé's "Caravane" – I do not remember that one by heart, but I believe they are similar in style.
And now, the treasure hunt goes on...
Difficult to say sometimes, especially since their perfumes are so hard to find, and we can't compare them to their more known contemporaries.
Recently, I came across a set of three perfumes from Paul Boyer at an affordable price, and I decided to buy them purely out of curiosity. According to Cleopatra's Boudoir, Paul Boyer started their business around 1940 and closed down about a decade later. There doesn't seem to be much information about their perfumes. Their ads say that PB is a perfumer from Provence, "heir of a century's family tradition of cultivating and destilling flowers." Would the perfumes be mostly floral then? Visually, the bottles in my set reminded me of another set I have, from Bienaimé, and I had those in mind too when I went to test my new findings.
One of the bottles, "Pour et contre" (not listed here at Parfumo) was empty. There were cracks in the glass, and what little residue was left had been exposed to air for a long time, and sadly it was not at all possible to determine what it once had smelled like.
The second bottle, "Haute Mode," appeared to have been a fresh floral, but was unfortunately not all that fresh anymore. I could get the overall idea, but it had a sour sting that probably makes it unsuited for wearing.
However, the third bottle, "Coreoba," was fairly well preserved. This too had a sour, sort of mouldy basement-smell at first whiff. When I tried it on my skin, this unplesant opening lasted for 5-10 minutes, then it faded off, and the good notes started wafting around me. Very softly at first, I smelled some sort of resinuous, slightly spicy floral bouquet. Mostly rose, I guess, on a rich, warm, creamy base. At this point I was slightly reminded of Weil's Cassandra. Then after 30 more minutes, the spices were getting stronger. Cinnamon, vanilla, maybe some clove? I am guessing amber, sandalwood and musk in the base. There is also something smoky, probably myrrh. I thought it was quite faint, but then my husband, who is neither an expert nor a great fan of perfume, entered the room and said: "Hey, new perfume? It's got incense? I get Christmas vibes!"
So, sillage probably isn't too bad. It's a lovely scent. Maybe not all that unique, but really very nice, if you enjoy these old, spicy-smoky orientals. I will have to test it against Bienaimé's "Caravane" – I do not remember that one by heart, but I believe they are similar in style.
And now, the treasure hunt goes on...
