Coty Chypre Vintage EDT

For the longest while, I've had a small spray decant of Coty's Chypre in my unworn pile. And when I was trying to make a decision on what I should wear, I noticed that my decant was almost empty due to evaporation. So I had to finish it and review it.

There are many chypres out there still in production today but I think that Chypre may have been the first modern chypre. Chypre is slightly brutal with a few rough edges in it but it is wonderful. I find that it's more akin to Chanel no 19 or maybe a little like Chamade. The version of no 19 that Chypre is akin to is the EDT and not the EDP. No 19 in EDP form is a little smoother and a lot more rosy but there is no way that Chypre is like no 19 in extrait form.

While I did find Chypre enjoyable, I'm not so sure that I will be seeking out a bottle but maybe a small decant for reference. I am starting to prefer stuff that is in current circulation.

L'Heure de Nuit and Bottles

After yapping, panicking and a little bit of whining, I did manage to get my paws on a full bottle of L'Heure de Nuit. It was somewhat difficult to find a bottle because it has been discontinued and I didn't know about it. There have been a couple of perfumes that were being discontinued and I did manage to become aware of it beforehand to get a couple bottles. Sometimes I find out and can only afford one bottle. So now the hoarding begins.

After my bee bottle had arrived, I don't know what I was exactly expecting but this wasn't it. Let me be frank, I own some huge bottles of perfume and I mean huge. I had bought Cuir de Russie and Sycomore before they came in a manageable 2.5 ounce bottle. I own 8 ounce bottles of Chamade and Jicky and a 9 ounce bottle of vintage Bal. So it was a little bit of a shock to see how little 4.2 ounces is compared to the bottles that I have mentioned. Maybe it's the fact that the bottle is like the Serge Lutens bell jars, they are round. But I was still excited to add a bee bottle to the collection.

It's not often that I actually do buy a brand spanking new bottle of perfume. Just can't afford that often. After the rush of tearing off the cellophane and opening the box, I have to gaze at the bottle.There is something about getting a brand new bottle of perfume, especially if it has been discontinued. A good most of my collection isn't in a cool cabinet but out in the open and mostly protected from light. Yeah, I'm sure that some are clutching their pearls but what's the point in having some good looking bottles and not look at them. I will admit to the fact that I can be a bottle slut once in a while.

Some bottles are pretty utilitarian when you look at them. The classic Chanel bottles are pretty plain and so are Serge Lutens' export line. Serge Lutens must have taken a couple notes from Chanel but still has his exclusive line in bell jars. But Guerlain might have been the first to create bottle swag to help sell perfume.

Chanel Cormandel EDT Review

It's time for me to just review Coromandel due to the fact that I've spent more time than I really needed to with it. I picked Coromandel due to the fact is that I've kind of been wanting to slowly work my way through the Les Exclusifs line by Chanel. My thought about the line is that Chanel is trying to get somewhat of a foothold in the niche department but still be mainstream. And I'm confused by that. Chanel's prices are already in the price range for niche but the Les Exclusifs line has some of the old offerings (Cuir de Russie and no 22 for starters) from way back when. Maybe they are marketing this line for perfume people like be who don't tend to shop mainstream and have smelled much more than the average consumer.

When I had first put on Coromandel, I smelled something akin to Frapin 1270 without the booze. I initially liked that but did need to wear it again because I knew that there was something that I was missing and it had something very familiar about it. On my second and third wearing, I knew what I was missing and what was familiar about it. It smelled an awful lot like Coco Mademoiselle. The patchouli and the fruity parts are tones down in Coromandel but still there. The thread of vanilla that shows itself an hour in tames the fruit and patchouli. I've said before that anything that has patchouli as a dominant player really isn't my friend. There is something about patchouli that I haven't come around to, probably the fact that it always smells kind of dirty to me. Yes, the patchouli is smoothed out and toned down but it's still there and still detectable to me. I will admit that Mademoiselle is a frenemy to me and Coromandel is a little more of a friend but not much. The decant that I have is at least a couple years old and obviously the EDT since the EDP version came out a couple months ago. Lasting power on my skin is about 6 hours and the sillage is about medium. Maybe my luck will change with Coromandel and I do fall in love with it but my track record with CM tells me otherwise.

One of Those Times

I could be blogging about a lot of other things today but just not exactly motivated to do what I had initially wanted to blog about today (reviewing Coromandel). But a couple other things have popped up that makes today a day of being all over the place.

I've always been behind of many things in the perfume world. The latest releases, discontinuations and many other things. But the recent release stuff really doesn't bother me too much. Not like things being discontinued. I had finally decided to just bite the bullet and order that massive bottle of L'Heure de Nuit. It doesn't come in smaller sizes and it never seemed to be popular, even in the perfume circles. It could have been the musk in there that practically laundry musk but I love it in spite of that. I find L'Heure de Nuit easier to wear and a whole lot less powdery. Looking around to find a bottle, knowing that I was going to spend almost $300 for it. It was on a couple websites as being out of stock. After posting this on NST and getting a couple facts and a phone number, L'Heure de Nuit was discontinued and that a Neiman Marcus store in Houston, Texas had two bottles left. So I ordered a bottle and I am having it shipped to Ohio. Do I need a bottle that contains 4.2 ounces of perfume? My answer is hell no but how can I really resist a bee bottle? Did I blow my resolution for no new bottles? Yes but I view it as worth it. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the prospect of scouring E-Bay for a full bottle.

Yes, I have been staying off of E-Bay, so my New Years resolutions haven't entirely been broken. I don't need to procure another bottle of vintage Bal nor do I really need to look for more Deneuve or anymore vintages right now. Keeping up with my full bottles and decants is difficult as it is but I have made a little progress. I dumped out my worn and reviewed decant bag and threw out some empty decants (evaporated), drained a few and since I had a few decants of the same scent, I combined to make a little more room in that bag. Why do I need 5 decants of MKK where most of them are partially full? Combined those and made 2 larger decants. I had mostly threw out a lot of 2ml decants and a couple 3ml decants. It's always the smaller decants that always take up the most space. It isn't a whole lot of progress but it's progress.