Histoire D'Amour

Histoire d'Amour... Oui, mais quel sorte d'amour est-il? It's strange, but this is one of the most ambiguous perfumes I have ever smelled. At first it looks and smells like it comes right out of the pages of a Victorian horror novel. This is how a theatre dressing room would smell back then. But whoever would be waiting for the young thespian outside, could be nothing less than Jack the Ripper. So the poor beatiful thing would meet her doom-laden fate, but smelling divinely nevertheless. On the other hand it smells of something a firebrand would wear. Tough and hard-boiled, but straight and honest to the extreme. I don't know, how can be something romantic and cynical at the same time? Oakmoss battling narcissus and osmanthus quarrelling with basil? I love to watch such fights taking place! Their outcome is usually a mess, except some messes are unique and stunning. And concerning its "gender", this one's feminine and (I'm Francisco "Paco" Rabaneda Cuervo and I've made) 1 Million (in a month) is masculine? Right... O tempora o mores! Now, I can already hear the Old Lady Alert screaming, and see youngsters pointing at its "outmoded" bottle in sheer horror. So, do we have an old lady here? Of course we do! The youngsters are right, but also so wrong. She is an old lady indeed. Only this one packs a pair of knucledusters inside her old lady bag. And after flooring any arrogant and pompous brat, she'll kickstart her old lady motorcycle and vanish into the sunset. The very kind of an old lady who can use this gorgeous bottle to spray a mesmerising shroud around her, but can also bludgeon every hater to submission, before (s)he'll be able to say: "Hey, it smells like old la..." Bang! You're down! Now, be smart enough to stay down and kowtow before her prodigious awesomeness! It's so much fun being an old lady sometimes! Especially when embarassing clueless newbies is the name of your game. I can't stress enough how much I miss smelling perfumes of this magnitude and quality in public nowadays. So, ladies, please, wear this and go somewhere. In a club, to a ball, it doesn't matter; somewhere. If there's any gallant and fine gentleman there, rest asured he'll come directly to you, like drawn by a magnet, tossing every fruity-candy-sweety girl aside in his wake. And pehaps your Histoire D'Amour will be born...

Honeyed floral summer chypre which is a cross between a kinder gentler Aromatics Elixir and a softer Cabochard. Found it for about $14 on one of the grey market sites. The notes intrigued me — basil, osmanthus, citrus, narcissus, honey, and oakmoss? And many reviews compared it to Aromatics Elixir, which I absolutely love. Frankly, for $14, I probably added it to my online basket merely to reach some free shipping threshold. It’s... surprisingly good. The bottle is pretty enough but the lid is cheap and ill-fitting. Still: the scent is lovely. The apricot-like osmanthus and green basil give it a sweet herbal-citrus opening that is not overwhelming and the florals smell aromatic and natural, which you absolutely don’t expect at this price point. And then there’s honey. Honey notes make me super nervous. I’ve tried to blend them as an amateur perfumer in the past and have found most honey aromachemicals so horrifyingly potent I had to double-bag them and relocate them to another room lest they crawl out and try to smother me in my sleep. I’ve never found a honey note I liked at all. Until this one. This one is lightly sweet and addictive, just the tiniest wisp amplified by osmanthus and tempered by oakmoss and patchouli. I can do this honey. This is a light scent in both strength and feeling which is perfect for summer. That’s what $14 gets you: the freedom to spray, enjoy, and have it fade away quickly, though it lasts a lot longer than you think. It’s a well-balanced perfume: the sweet osmanthus blends into the honeyed florals while still retaining an aromatic freshness and warmth. The oakmoss grounds it and keeps the whole thing intriguing. It’s woody but fresh, sweet but aromatic. It’s possible that this is a dupe for some other more famous chypre but it’s really easy to enjoy. Batch code 10081.

This has killer strength! If you spray too heavily, then you will never know how lovely this is. It's clean, it's soap, it's snowy whiteness in a bottle. If you want skanky, it ain't here. This is from the 80's eh? Smells more like 1800's to me. It's got personality. It's like a Victorian home that has been through many families. There is birth, love, dreams, death, a flurry of memories...happy, sad, painful. This perfume is the breath you draw in. Old lady? I am sure that is what everyone will say when I wear this. I see/smell life in the past. It's a black and white movie in my head, with color accents. I'm closed minded. I don't give much of a chance to anything I don't love immediately, including people. There's an inner-sense one has, some stronger than others. Mine is strong. I thought when I first sprayed it, GRAMMA! And she wasn't a lovely, kind, gentle grandmother. She was bitter, cold, and joyless, from a hard life. I now can appreciate her, and this scent. You can't know miserable unless you've experienced a very bad flu with activity north and south at the same time. You can't know the feeling or even be empathetic. This perfume is the feeling, empathy, memory of all a person can hold dear...or not. It's joy and fear, it's just so special to me. The bottle is lovely. If there is a way you can give this a chance, please do try. Close your eyes and let your mind experience and imagine another world. You might be glad you did! This is a library of hand cranked music in a scary world of heavy metal. Go back...enjoy!

This is utterly beautiful! It was a blind buy for pennies (£7.99 for 100ml edp from a UK online chemist) so I couldn't resist, and I'm so glad I didn't. It's of its time-pre 1980s powerhouse perfumes, pre-sweety fruit gourmands, so it is almost retro, but absolutely not dated. Cons first-the bottle isn't the prettiest, the cap is a fairly flamboyant and tacky large plastic flower thing. The opening is fairly full-on, but it soon calms down. Pros-everything else! It reminds me of Jersey (Exclusifs de Chanel) in its softness and warmth, and beautifully smooth powderiness, although the notes are very different. On me, I don't really get any citrus, I get a gentle smokiness, herbal wood. Oakmoss I recognise, and there is definitely patchouli in the dry down but its muted and well behaved (which is good because I generally don't like too much patch). Staying power is magnificent-about 10 hours on me but it becomes a skin scent within 2 hours. Every time I've worn it I've been asked what it was and complimented on it, which hardly ever happens with me. If you like Chanel no 5, Bal a Versaille or L'Heure Bleue you will like this one-its in that same category of feminine classics. I think it tends towards the feminine, but given the robust wood I think it could be unisex. Well worth looking out for.

Perfect for Autumn, Winter and Early Cool Springtime -Vintage Style This perfume is shockingly super strong, filling a room for about one and a half hours before settling into the dry down. The dry down lasts well over 10 hours on my skin, projecting consistently 12 inches. One or two sprays is all you need. This beauty begins with an extremely sweet bouquet of very thick heavy flowers, ylang, rose, and orange blossom, with sharp jasmine, sandalwood, basil and narcissus adding a hint of crispiness to the powdery feeling of dense osmanthus. A touch of sharp patchouli blends with oakmoss to give this scent a definite vintage flair. Rich deep honey and amber in the base combine to add lasting power and a bit of smoothness to the blend. Citrus here is mild and uplifting, adding an airy feel. Historie D'Amour belongs in the same genre as Ysatis , Cacharel Anais , Arpege, Madame Rochas, and Amarige. All of them have heady thick old fashioned flower bouquets blended with sharp, airy woods, citrus and spices. All have a very retro, vintage feel. For me, these kinds of perfumes work best on rainy days when the air is moist and breezes are cool. That's when these heady bouquets smell the most rich and beautiful.

I can't get enough of this scent! For the price, it's amazing to me. I picked it up at TJMaxx for under $10, a blind buy based on reviews, and this has to be one of my happiest purchases I've made that way. I've been wearing it for awhile and I absolutely love this. The ylang-ylang and bergamot, soft and dancing around the patchouli and oakmoss make a heavy incense that lasts for hours. This is a scent for a wearer that enjoys mature, full-bodied fragrances that are earthy and full-scented. Wearing it, I am transported to a haven of trees, where Spanish Moss hangs, perhaps, where it is cool and damp and the air is heavy with the scents of the woods around me. I am inhaling all the scents the forest has to offer and feeling the Earth's spiritualness from within. If this is what a Chypre is all about, then I want to bask in its scents of the woods. Absolutely fulfilling as fragrance, this will not leave you wanting for more. For the price point, you will be pleasantly pleased and able to taste the woods for yourself. The bottle is surprisingly huge. It's also very pretty. Simple, timeless and Victorian in style. An excellent Fall and Winter fragrance to wear on those chillier days and nights.

First: I'm glad to see that some folks can appreciate the new version. I CAN NOT. This has to be one of the most heinous reformulations ever inflicted on a perfume. (yes! I know there are a lot of those) Maybe I'm touchy about it because its one of my most beloved fragrances. Anyway, my review for the latest version is "Its HORRIBLE!" Ok, now that that's out of the way..... the older version Edt is simply enchanting. Wonderfully composed. The basil note at the opening has just the right amount of bite to it. The florals have a vintage vibe that is beyond charming. Then the ylang ylang and galbanum melt together creating a resinous incense that seeps into the pores of every other note! One of the best woody chypres out there. The Edp is, of course, richer and a tad more smoky. The Parfum is magnificent! Starts out with a smooth yet intense note that reminds me of a chunk of aged firewood. Blackened by flames. The charred wood still retaining the scent of the tree itself. That note mingles with the oakmoss and creates a perfect chypre base for the rich florals. If you find the parfum.... treat yourself!

I first bought this perfume as a mini, strictly for the bottle, back in the 1980's---it was not at ALL my style back then, but I collected minis. A year or so ago I found a large spray of it, going for nothing at TJ Maxx--now being produced somewhere in Palm Beach FLA. I figured I'd check it out--and lo and behold--I really like it! Of course, it's a reformulation, but it somehow works better on me now and it's warm, woodsy. mossy-ness makes it a perfect scent for fall. Boy--does it LAST!! I recently did a play at a local college and I chose this scent for my character. The play was "School For Lies" by David Ives, a re-work of Moliere's "The Misenthrope" --still written in rhyming couplets, but in modern vernacular, full of sex talk and F bombs--My character, Arsinoe, is a nasty, jealous hypocrite, who back stabs the heroine, Celemene---Celemene describes her as " A spider dipped in talcum!"---and this was the perfect scent for her!

Usually I steer away from EDT's but this was a blind buy for me and I come home with it to read all the great reviews and discovered it was in fact an EDT. I was hesitate about opening it, or should I just return it? I read on and then seen all the fragrances that it said I would like if I liked this one. I noticed several scents that I have and love the most. So, I opened it. I am loving it! It does not strike me as an old lady scent, nor would I classify it to any era in time. I find it lovely and very well blended. I am wearing it right now and I cannot stop smelling myself. It is too soon to see how long it last and I have not worn it long enough to discover the delightful dry down all have talked about. I will edit my review if anything changes but for now, WOW! I got a great deal and it came with the shower gel and lotion. The bottle is exquisite all in itself and I love the etched glass. What a wonderful find!

I imagine Histoire D'Amour is what the forest's randy little elves and gnomes wear to spark their intendeds' desire to make whoopee in dark, moist bowers lined with oakmoss and rose petal bedding. The herbal tang of the basil and bergamot opening is sweetened by the juicy syrup of mandarin oranges that leads straight to the incense of galbanum and ylang ylang. On me the patchouli, musk and oak moss start vibrating up from the basenotes almost immediately, lifted by galbanum's resinous liquor. But yes, one must love ylang-ylang to fully appreciate this beauty. There's a Grimm's fairytale wildness to this woody chypre that does truly enchant me. Among the strongest edt I've ever encountered, Hd'A lasts 12 hours on my skin and days on clothing (spray only on dark colors though). Underappreciated and underpriced.

Delicate honeyed chypre with a loud oakmoss existence. Smells classic. I love the bottle, thankfully mine is eau perfume deodorante version with more acceptable looking cap than the one on edt/edp version. Eventhough it says deodorante, surprisingly the alcohol percentage is the lowest compare to edt/edp version. - - - - - - - - Just found a similar perfume with this one: Kantara by Albin du Roy. It’s not in the fragrantica database yet and also hard to track. It has been under radar, forgotten, or even unheard. It was launched in 1990 by Laboratories Kisby. I would say Kantara is slightly a better version of Histoire d’Amour. Beautiful floral notes, not too loud oakmoss, and still owns her dark side with animalic (civet) notes in the drydown phase. Everything there are just perfectly blended.

I'm finding all these reviews very interesting--long ago, back in the 80's I picked up a mini of the Original of this scent and liked it a lot--and loved the bottle! So, when I saw this 3.4 oz spray at T.J.Maxx, for about $7, I said, what the hey! I strongly suspect this has been reformulated--(the packaging says Palm Beach FLA)--but I rather like it! There were a lot of good Chypre scents that were big in the 80's--Knowing, Bill Blass Black, etc and this takes me back to that decade, where wearing a strong dressy fragrance wasn't considered obnoxious at all! I found the comparison to the Original Norell interesting--I always got a lot more azalea from Norell, so it seemed a lot sweeter to me than this does, but the mossy greenness is right on! And--I still love the bottle!

I own a version of Histoire d'Amour from long before it became a Palm Beach Beauté zombie, and this darker, golden liquid is an ultra-chypre of the dry and dowdy variety, a surprise for 1984 release, and the kind for which I have such a soft spot. It is destined to elicit disapproving wails of "old lady" or "old man" or "Old Gold cigarettes stuffed in one of those cig carton snap-purses with a compartment for a lighter." Yet, it also feels very earth god/earth goddess, which could be attributed to this basil-wrapped ylang ylang and its heaps of honey patchouli and oakmoss. The best part of Histoire d'Amour is when the heady bouquet settles into a green-woody dry down. It is persistent, giving me the same sensation as Dioressence or Aromatics Elixir—autumnal and enchanting.

What the??? I just bought this for $16. Read the reviews, thought why not?? Wow...that was a wonderful call!! This stuff is ...remarkable. Warm green, sweet, but tempered by the green. Creamy, beautifully balanced.. not an expert, but I can't call the notes because it is all so well blended. What I can say is it has that singing, joyous chypre thing going on, and it's divine. And what's the deal with the way these oldies actually smell...modern perfume strength sillage and longevity in an eau de toilette??? Remarkable composition. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves, Miss Balmain, Ma Griffe, and so on. Honestly, this is behaving like a class act such as Chanel Number 5....without the price tag! I'm ordering three more bottles today.... Enough said!!

It isn't old lady. It's a beautiful, classic chypre with a powdery edge. As someone who find today's gourmands nauseating, having youngsters decry chypres rankles. You're always going to elevate your elegance at least one notch by wearing one, and you'll stand out amongst the cloying cloud of vanilla/coffee/fruits. Yes this is bold, but that's part of the beauty of these fragrances; they're for les grandes dames, those who turn heads with their walk and bearing, who strut in heels and see no reason to ever wear something that isn't beautiful. Looking at the 'People who like this also like' list, I own 12 of the 20, which amuses me. Sometimes you know you've found your home from home.

After testing so many fragrances, I must admit, I have become very discerning about cheap perfumes....but wow, this fragrance still managed to captivate my senses! This is a real classic beauty, and I don't mean it is just good for its price....this is really beautiful regardless of how much it costs. Histoire D`Amour is one of those timeless golden classic chypres....glamorous and alluring. It is very similar to vintage Galanos and Ombre D' in style. The composition is EXTREMELY smooth, not a hint of chemical whiff to my nose.This under-priced little gem is definitely worth having in my collection.

There are far worse things than old drug store chypres. Especially ones that have been sold for decade after decade, because they...smell so good! I agree this has some Tabu quality, some Royal Secret-ness. I wore a older bottle of edt today and it made me seriously happy. (A contradiction? Who cares!) The sillage is now gone, but I can still smell it on my skin 12+ hours later. Wowee. But I so love an older scent and now that I know I want a great big bottle, I wonder if a newer one will smell as fabulous? I guess at these prices, it is worth the risk. Anyone know if this has been reformulated?

Big, pre-WW2 type yellow florals, creamy, powdery warm turned cold by the glacial sobriety of bitter oakmoss and its silvery tap, of old wooden drawers that keep dusty bridal veils and the sterling silverware from weddings blocked by tragedy and their memory saved through time. Something that you can classify as retro, even by the time it came out it had its head already turned backward to times, and that makes it more precious perhaps, its deliberate willingness to revel in nostalgia so different from the other fragrances that became vintage instead of being created that way.

Scent-wise, this is a winner for anyone who enjoys a vintage chypre. Green, herbal, floral, mossy. She's got it all, folks. She's a beauty, but she's too powerful for conventional application methods. This is a hard reputation to reach for me as I find most perfumes to be too watery to be worth the price-tag. I apply a maximum of 2-3 sprays on the back of my clothes and I'm surrounded in a lovely cloud of floral and herbal notes all day. I doubt I'll ever get around to finishing my bottle, but if I ever do, I'll happily pay the $30 price tag to keep experiencing this.

Very pretty. I saw a vintage on Ebay and was attracted to the bottle which reminds me of the Safari one. While the Safari is a masterclass in design, the plastic cap in this one is incongruous to the aesthetic. Anyway, thanks to the high praise and great descriptions from you ladies, I knew I would love it. I couldn't ask for more. It's a very wearable Rochas Femme-alike. Powdery, delicate and feminine. Rochas Femme is a one spray, once in a blue moon one for me, so I'm glad I have the spirit of Femme in something so beautifully done.