Ah, that fateful evening when I walked into the quiet little independent perfumery in Italy, and it was all I could do to stop myself from gasping in surprise, and I glanced at my watch and cursed the fact that the place would be closing in less than twenty minutes, and Madame Persolaise rolled her eyes and said, “You need to be alone now, don’t you?” and I didn’t know where to start, because everywhere I looked, there seemed to be an ancient-looking Guerlain or Chanel or YSL, teasing me with an old logo, and in the end I decided that no, re-mortgaging the house for the sake of a few bottles really wouldn’t be the most sensible thing to do, so I kept to a reasonable budget and walked away with a handful of what I thought were some of the most intriguing goodies. Not the kind of evening that comes along very often. I talked about it in a recent episode of Love At First Scent, during which I also unsealed and sniffed some of my newly-acquired treasures, including a very special bottle of Chanel No. 5 extrait and a YSL composition I’d never heard of, called Maison De Couture. Here’s a link to the video: vintage perfume finds summer 2022, including Chanel No. 5, YSL Rive Gauche Fraicheur, YSL Paris, YSL Maison De Couture, YSL Opium Pour Homme.
Here’s the complete list of fragrances I covered, with time stamps:
YSL Opium Pour Homme 5:00
YSL Rive Gauche Fraicheur 9:53
YSL Maison De Couture 15:03
YSL Paris 21:26
Chanel No. 5 extrait 26:20
Unsurprisingly, the one that made the strongest impression was the Chanel. I was astonished not just by the superb condition of the juice (it literally left me speechless for several moments) but also by the lush character of the florals in the heart. ‘Sensuous’ isn’t a word I normally use in relation to No. 5, but the stuff in this bottle is just that: velvety, creamy, voluptuous, and absolutely the sort of scent you could imagine being worn by an iconic, blonde superstar.
Persolaise
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[…] year, a family-owned shop in northern Italy yielded a few vintage treasures (click here for my video on the goodies I bought there). And this summer, the town of Monreale in Sicily (if you ever find yourself there, do not leave […]