I am a self-confessed fragrance junkie. Almost everything I eat, drink or touch is judged — at least partly — on the basis of smell. If I don’t like the smell of a wine, I probably won’t like the wine. If some food smells wrong (a very fishy smell for instance), I won’t eat it. And rooms, clothes, bed-covers — nearly everything — have to smell just right.
Naturally, this extends to smells that are meant to be treated as fragrance: perfumes, after-shaves, colognes etc. Such is my love of fragrance that I’ll use anything — a men’s aftershave, a women’s perfume, an aromatic oil etc — if it smells good, never mind the price or whether it is meant for women, or men. I’ll probably draw the line at dog fragrances and I’m not even sure about that!
Perfume is a 15 billion dollar industry. And that doesn’t include products that depend on fragrance: creams, aromatic candles, room fresheners and even shampoo.
As the great Jacques Polge, who heads Chanel’s perfume division told me, some years ago, “There is now so much fragrance around the world, used in so many different things that fragrance has become banal.” Polge says that people who devise perfumes usually can be divided into those who make sexy perfumes and fresh perfumes. He counts himself among those who prefer sexy fragrances. By and large this is true.
One of the best-selling perfumes that Chanel has launched during Polge’s tenure is Allure, which is more fresh than sexy. Certainly the male version of Allure is in direct descent from Cool Water and other fresh fragrances of the ’90s.
I would guess that Chanel was influenced by the craze for fresh fragrances (that is to say, fragrances that made you smell like you’d just had a bath, not those that made you smell dark and mysterious). There were some great fragrances that launched the freshness boom. L’Eau d’Issey and Cool Water are classics. The original CK One was outstanding in its own way. But as I’m tired of fresh fragrances (yes, even Allure Homme), I began to look for variations. You can still buy excellent fragrances from such smaller houses as Annick Goutal, Serge Lutens, L Artisan Parfumeur, Le Labo or the boutique lines of Chanel and Hermes. However, these will cost you. And they are relatively hard to find.
So I thought to myself: is it possible to find fragrances made by the big houses that smell as good as the boutique stuff and are not Cool Water clones? There was one obvious way of finding out. Why didn’t I go back to the fragrances of my youth? Were they as good as I thought then or did I just know nothing about fragrance in those days?
The obvious place to start was Givenchy. Long before anybody had heard of Bernard Arnault or even dreamt that a conglomerate like LVMH could exist, I used to love the Givenchy fragrances.
I gave up on them because Givenchy discontinued the ones I loved and introduced very dodgy new perfumes (Amarige was a big hit but I never liked it; Hot Couture was vulgar, with a silly name; Ange au Demon belonged in a Dan Brown novel; and Very Irresistible was totally resistable) though of course, there were some good ones (Organza).
But now, Givenchy has re-issued all the fragrances I courted my early girl-friends with: the fabulous Givenchy III, the excellent Vetyver, the original L’Interdit (they tried a floral re-issue some years ago but the version in the shops now smells as I remember it) and even Insense (which is an early ’90s fragrance) which has a great character
of its own.
The big test for me, however, was Monsieur de Givenchy. Way back in the ’70s, this was my aftershave of choice but I gave up on it in the early ’90s after newer girl-friends told me it smelled “too old-fashioned.” I found a bottle in Montreal recently and my guess is that it has been slightly reformulated (or may be I don’t really remember the smell) but it is perfect — and I’m wearing it again.
Sadly, the same is not true of Givenchy Gentleman. This was never my favourite scent but I wore it when I could not find Monsieur de Givenchy (even the bottles were similar). I smelt Gentleman recently and I’m sure it has been reformulated. It smells terrible now: all tobacco and leather. I thought I’d try and go back to Eau de Colognes to see if there was something that reminded me of the classic fragrances of the old days — and colognes make the best sense in our climate.
I discovered what I think is the best cologne available. But it was part of Polge’s boutique range for Chanel and not widely available (and expensive). Then I found a cheap cologne that smelt nearly as good as Chanel’s. Fragonard is a mid-market French perfume house that targets the Body Shop/Occitane crowd. I have a soft spot for many of its fragrances (its lavender in particular) but the star in its range must be its Cologne Grand Luxe.
More expensive than Fragonard and not packaged as cologne but very cologne-like is Hermes’s widely available Eau d’ Orange Verte which has the citrus notes of good
cologne and smells sophisticated.
I searched my memory for other fragrances. In the ’70s, I used to buy a girlfriend a fragrance called Cinnabar for which I was roundly criticised by those “in the know”. Fair enough. It was not a great scent. But smell it now and it is a lot better than the rubbish that the market is currently full of.
Same with Calandre and Metal, two Paco Rabanne fragrances from the late ’60s and early ’70s that were considered naff when they came out but which I think have stood the test of time. You can buy them now and you won’t smell like everybody else.
Which brings us to vetiver (khus), my current favourite category for summer fragrances. I like the Hermes Vetiver and Tongka Bean and Chanel’s Sycamore but both are expensive boutique fragrances that are hard to find.
Of the ones that are widely available, steer clear of the expensive ones (Creed, Jo Malone etc) and go for the easily available Guerlain Vetiver, a nice masculine fragrance or the even better Vetiver Pour Elle, also by Guerlain. My own favourite in this category is not described as a vetiver in its labeling but Kenzo Air is wonderfully light and full of a delicious vetiver fragrance. All of the fragrances I have recommended are not hard to find at a duty-free shop. If you are a guy and have difficulty getting your hands on them, then go for Eau Sauvage, still the classic in the men’s genre or Declaration by Cartier — both are staples of every airport outlet.
But remember certain basic rules. 1) Do not confuse fragrance with designer. Just because you like Armani’s clothes, it does not follow that you will like his fragrance. 2) Ignore hype. If a salesman pushes a fragrance, it only means that it is part of a promotion. Avoid at all costs. Salespeople know nothing about fragrances. 3) In fragrances, new is not always a good thing.
Sometimes, the older the provenance of the scent, the better it smells. Don’t think of fragrances as clothes. Think of them as wines. The great names will almost always outperform the parvenus.