MadameVizard

This review is based on the current formulation.

Aliage is one of those greenish, wild, dry, slightly dirty perfumes that were in vogue during the 70's (think about Aromatics Elixir, Eau de Lancaster, Eau de Courrèges, Eau de Rochas...) and are inconceivable today. It is a real shame that girls and women no longer want to smell like woman, but like industrial pastries. If Aliage would have been released today, it could have easily been a male perfume...

Aliage does not cry, does not yield, but muses dark secrets. This is a perfume about the food chain, the dark forests and the lonely mountains. It is about decaying vegetation, mould, moss, rocks and pines. There is no swetnees in it, but the sharp, fresh, bitter smell of the untamed nature. The jasmine is very rustic, and the rose is in it in its less floral shape. The kind of freshness of the Badedas Bath Gelée. I smell it, and I can picture the Frankenstein Monster taking a bath in some sort of hidden mountain spring, never stepped on by human feet. Like the witch Erichtho in Lucan's poem, the serene sky never has seen it. Only the wild animals and the spirits of death...

It is a shame the limited distribution of most classic Lauders out of the USA. If you are a lover of green fragances, you shouldn't miss the rural and less urban sister of Private Collection.

In previous reviews, other people stated that this perfume smelled like vanilla and bitter almond... and that is true. I can not notice the aldehydes, the flowers...only a very strong, ambery scent with hints of tonka, patchouli and precious wood. This perfume can not deny its belonging to the 80's. It is strong, bold, confident and unashamed. Like a sister of fragances like Jean-Paul Gaultier Classique (minus the spices), Estée Lauder's Beautiful and YSL Yvresse.

The name is misleading and not wisely chosen. This should have been called La Pâtisserie instead of Le Bain. That does not smell like a bath, or an expensive spa. This smells like some sort of expensive dessert, but miles ahead of modern gourmand fragances. No candyfloss, no praliné. The sweetness of Le Bain is dense, adult and even boozy, like some sort of pancakes flambed with Cointreau. Only for uninhibited lovers of oriental fragances.

I think this is a perfume better for winter time and nights out.

Youth-Dew is just one of the best perfumes ever.

For me, its most valuable quality is that it is a chamaleon. I can easily imagine both a bohemian, hippy-like person, both a glamorous, somewhat conservative housewive, wearing it. It recalls me Christmas desserts and homemade Coke. It recalls me some sort of incense that could be burnt in the altar of some satanic cult. It makes me to think about old Dracula movies and gorgeous film stars, Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren type. But perhaps the most compelling image that it conjures in my mind is a super expensive spa. Estée Lauder herself said it: "Women still like to feel beautiful, pampered and loved, And that is what Youth-Dew is all about.". There is a classic Spanish bath gel, Magno Classic, which evokes exactly the same feeling. A huge, black marble bathtube with golden taps, lots of steam, lavender essence and almond oil, frankincense being burnt, orange juice and cinnamon tea (by the way, if you have the chance of choosing between the Bath Oil and the Eau de Parfum, take the Bath Oil without hesitation).

Youth-Dew was revolutionary. Estée Lauder wanted to change the perfume habits of the very conservative American women of her time, who, due their puritanical education, perceived perfume as surrounded by a sinful aura. They never bought their own perfume, expecting it to be gifted by their husbands or boyfriends. Therefore, Estée conceived a very intense, long-lasting bath oil that women could choose,buy and use freely by themselves without any kind of remorse. The smell was strong and glamorous, very old-school, European-style, but according with the American sense of practicality, the bath oil could be used too as a perfume extract. And she seemed to have sensed that it is through such little gestures that the society and perceptions can be changed.

Youth-Dew is one of the strongest and long-lasting perfumes sold today. Masterpiece.

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.

I had a bottle from the late 90's (not 2002, as say the file of the perfume), and this is sadly discontinued today. It was a reedition of a perfume extract from the early XX th Century. Therefore, my bottle has more or less 15-20 years, but the smell is unchanged.

This is a perfume extract, which means that the smell is strong and concentrated, and the bottle is very small, but a little amount goes far. And what a gorgeous bottle! A tiny, tall, thin, curvacious flask with a label in which there is an illustration depicting a nymph, in Mucha style.

Now, the smell. I said it was strong and concentrated, but it never was cloying or suffocating. It was the freshest, the greenest of all the green perfumes ever. The grandmother of fragances like Chanel nº 19, Estée Lauder's Alliage or Private Collection. If you know the classic Spanish cologne Heno de Pravia, this was like a super-intense, concentrated, strong version of it. Heno de Pravia on steroids. The exact smell of the freshly cut grass and the clovers (I live in the midst of a meadow full of clovers, and I can say it is exactly the same fragance). It could have been the official perfume of the Emerald City in the film The Wizard of Oz.

It is a pity, for me, to see how the vast majority of all this classic Spanish brands of perfumes, which produced excelent items, are today dissapeared, most when you see the masses of mediocre products released for what used to be prestigious houses and sold at outrageous prices. Clover (Trébol), like other perfumes of the same line (Violet -Violeta-, Rose -Rosa-, Muguet -Lily of the Valley-...) were simple, original, totally umpretentious, beautiful and were a great value for the price.