Occur!

When I was a teenage boy-early to mid 80s, our neighbor across the street was an Avon rep and divorced mother of two, and she used to give me samples (foil wrapped single use wipes) of colognes and sometimes perfumes (supposedly for Mom, but I would keep some and excitedly sniff them...dreaming of the day when I could buy my own and wear them ). This scent reminds me of those days. I found this overwhelming and old lady like at the time. Now: WOW!!... (Old ladies know what's up!) :-) The bitter bright and expansive opening (complete with aldehydes aplenty) may turn some people off and make them say Eww!, but to me they say "BOY, come here!". The corriander and cardamom are dry and sharp, and the gardenia is creamy and full. As it calms, the heart blends strong flowers and exotic aromatic woods in a way that is at once sweet, warm and earthy. The myrrh and styrax give it a true vintage aura and the patchouli and vetiver give it strength and presence. There really is a lot "Occuring" here! A very animalic musky base, rounded by the gourmand components sweetness (honey, vanilla and coconuts), gives it something that many perfumes, today, don't really have any more: oomph! The smoky leather note and the warm amber make it feel even more exotic and a tad oriental, though it is most definitelty a chypre! After it dries completely it is nowhere near as loud or raucous as it's opening was. In fact, this is something the right guy could pull off with no problem: smoky, earthy and musky, as long as the power flowers were not a problem. This went from an "Eewww" to a "Hmmm?" to a "Yes, oh YES!" for me. My one friend calls this Avon's "No.5"!! Think you did not like it back then? Give this exquisite lady another sniff today (if you can find her, that is!) and maybe you'll find something grand and gorgeous, like I did... Sillage: massive Longevity: great Overall: 3.75/5 Smelling Occur! again today is making me miss my favorite Avon vintage: Moonwind, even more. :-( If there is anyone in the member community who could provide a sample or small decant of Moonwind, you would have my undying appreciation and utmost respect as a collector! Other Avon scents this made me remember: Topaze Cotillion Zany! Pearls and Lace Pink Suede Rare Sapphires Rare Emeralds Bird of Paradise and the mens: Cordovan Weekend Iron Interact ProSport Windswept *Aah, the power of scent on memories...*

If I had to venture a guess as to how many bottles of "Occur!" I have gone through in my lifetime it would probably be at least a dozen---seriously! At least a dozen! This one was my long-time chypre olfactory love affair's favorite from Avon. In looking back on it now that I am much older & reflect on my fragrance preferences throughout my life, this "on the cheap" Avon creation probably spawned my preference for the chypre group over any other. The Avon campaign marketed Occur! as a very modern fragrance for the very modern woman. But in my estimation, it is probably Avon's best homage to the early days of the chypre genre & so eloquently done by the French. May I venture to dare say it is Avon's version of a fine French perfume for a pittance? For that is what it is in reality. And it brings to mind now a segment of classic film footage recently by the great Dame Maggie Smith playing her role of the Dowager Countess Grantham with her granddaughter, Edith, character of "Downton Abbey". They had previously negotiated Edith was to pick up a bottle of civet for her grandmother & upon presenting it to "Granny" in all her splendor, when Edith reports what the bottle cost the Granny exclaims incredulously, "What?! For a bottle of civet?!?" Since those bottles are now gone & not available, this is about the next-best thing for civet & chypre lovers like myself. I never tire of this fragrance & wish I could smell this wonderful all the time. This one reminds me to return to the truly good things & this is one of them. GypsyParfumista brilliantly describes the unfolding of this complex gem for Avon & I could not expound any further as to the magic it unveils. I might add that it is somewhat of an almost "tuff-ladylike" in it's character in impression once the aldehydes have settled after opening brilliantly. Now it seems like ebay is about the best place to find a bottle of this. It is not expensive & sells at practically a give-away. But if you relish the days of yester-years & strong, tuff, ladylike women that hid that toughness housed under the best of the kid leather gloves, then please try this one if you have yet to do so! Probably the best to come out of the house of Avon!

I managed to stumble upon a perfume oil bottle and later a cologne concentration bottle of Occur! What a great classic this is. I decided to wear each on a different hand and report my findings. The oil opened with immediate Avon "O.L." essence...if you follow. The cologne went to bright citrus and aldehydes. It's sort of as if they danced around each other for a bit before settling into more or less the same scent. To my nose, the oil is definitely the skankier of the two (so naturally my favorite), while the cologne is lighter and almost a floral aldehyde of more modern style. Because of the intensity of the oil (I applied essentially the same amount of each), I had to clear my nose with a half dozen deep breaths and put the hand with the oil behind my back before being able to really distinguish the notes in the cologne. Once I did get that whiff, it was heavenly! Powdery, floral, sweet but not sugary, and leathery (yep, I'm sold!) This is elegant class in a bottle. But of course the oil remains. She is much stronger and more "perfumy" with a strong oakmoss note and the gorgeous civet. The oil is not what I would Call elegant class. The oil is confident, sexy, and just a little bit bitchy, but she has enough class to hold her tongue... If she wants. It's the silage that really separates the two. From the tiny half dime size daub I made of each, the cologne gently wafts to my nose while I'm typing this on my phone. But the oil? Same amount and to keep her from overpowering her more reserved sister, I have to keep her behind my back. So what do I prefer? MORE! haha I only regret that I have two small bottles, and hope I might find a larger bottle... Maybe a spray, but only of the cologne. The absolute truth is, this fragrance is every bit as classy and well made as Shalimar or My Sin. Did I really just write that? Durn tootin I did! Please find this perfume. It is heaven scent (see what I did there?) and you will barely need any of the oil to keep you wafting deliciousness all day. The honey is the star of the show, but it only serves as a carrier for the other notes. It's not a honey scent in my opinion. It's a masterpiece. And I'm off to eBay...

Vintage 70's from a rep sampler. This went from "Oh dear god in heaven!" to "Oh my god this is heaven!" in 3 minutes flat! The aldahydes were so sharp that they nearly cut my nose clean off. I was thinking dang and it smelled so nice in the bottle! I was just about to go screaming in to the night when it quite suddenly morphed into the strong animolic chypre I've been trying to find for a long time! You know without going that expensive niche route! Yay! Oh that castoreum is so strong at first it even puts the civet on the back shelf for a while but not forever! ;-) However one can not live off of stank alone and all the spices, resins and creamy white notes give this a certain oriental feel to me. Yes, no? The leather comes later to the party unlike... Shalimar but again this is so not Shalimar! Shalimar is a high class all put together trist with an older man and Occur! is an orgy! Avon should have called this Happening! or Love-In! Speaking of love I love this! So this is comming straght out of the bin and in to my favs! Update: I tried a bottle from the 80's and the animolics are gone! That was REAL castoreum in the 60's and 70's! I should know I have a wonderful tincture of castoreum complements of a friend. Update again: I've obtained another vintage bottle of Occur! from the early 70's and it's shaped like a Butter Churn. Weird! This one is apparently the freshest (vintage) bottle I've found yet. The aldehydes are way gentler and the animolics are still huge but better balanced. Everything else is the same. Occur! is still one of my new (old) favorites! However it would seem Occur! has a hard time aging but I don't care! I love it!

It is my humble opinion that Occur! should be regarded as one of the great classics of perfumery. Let me tell you why: it PREVAILS. It really does OCCUR, and in an expansive, hold-your-horse-because-I'm-gonna-get-ya kind of way. It is this baffling mosaic of a perfume, not merely dawdling in a coquettish manner but giving every concentrated, punchy, delirium-inducing theme that was offered in the mid-century. Bright and sharp aldehydes, bitter and sweet colliding, spicy carnations and a heap of other flowers skipping the light fandango, all in an amber chamber, pouring out into a musky, leathery chypre base. In marches the moss, the powder, the rustling ruffles of foreplay. I would be remiss not to mention the lustful slick of castoreum and the purr of civet—cue that iconic riff from Mickey and Sylvia's "Love is Strange." This is Avon, that of which is often mocked and jested as "cheap" and "every day Middle American"—what folks may perhaps call "normie" these days. There were many a lower-middle class and working class American who smelled divine thanks to Avon, though. Rich and dynamic, Occur! is perfume with a capital P, among the ranks of My Sin, Shocking, Habanita, Bandit—yet it remains in the shadows of these classics as it bears that unwarranted stigma. And to the gents, especially those who enjoy wet shaving, might I suggest Occur! as a smashing finish for your routine before you head out to face the day. As with so many delights of the early-to-mid-20th century that are in no way perceived as inherently gendered. Go forth and occur!