Rapture

At first when reading the sparse information on Fragrantica as well as the reviews I thought I was going crazy, or at least my nose was! First off before starting I must mention that I own the Rapture Perfume Rollette, which is a roll-on version that has a silky texture similar to a perfume oil. It is very long lasting, and I recommend it. I’ve never tried the cologne or the perfume oil in the bottle, but when I do I will update my review if anything changes. At first when I smelled this fragrance on me it was ‘patchouli with a weak animalic note’. But then it bloomed on my skin, and bloom it did! This is a wonderful scent. It does NOT behave like a floral Chypre on my skin, which is why I thought my nose was broken :) the initial ‘patchouli and animalic’ impression dissipated and gave way a wonderful sweet jammy powdery scent with balsamic and woody undertones that lasts for hours and hours. Exactly the kind of scent I fall in love with! For those who are sensitive to natural animalic notes, I am also very sensitive and can wear Rapture no problem. This means the animalic is sufficient enough to structurally boost the rest of the composition without smelling like a sweaty armpit. After working hard on identifying what has gone into this composition, here is what I picked out from my Rapture Perfume Rollette’s experience: * clove ✔️ * natural sandalwood ✔️ * myrrh ✔️ * sweet balsamic resins ✔️ * powdery florals ✔️ * smidgen of civet ✔️ * And an unknown source for the honeyed syrupiness 🤔 I cannot smell any oakmoss; oddly enough I am quite sensitive to oakmoss and will identity it in a fragrance immediately, same as for animalics. But try as I might I can’t single it out like others here seem to have no problem doing. I just can’t explain why this is happening, but I’m definitely happy with it since oakmoss is NOT in my list of favorites. It coats the inside of my nose and makes me feel like all the air is sucked out of the room. Even when I stick my nose right up to my wrist and breathe in deeply I just cannot smell the inky dampness of oakmoss in Rapture. And I don’t have my typical slight allergic reaction to it. Which makes me side-eye claims that oakmoss would be in the perfume, it may be in the cologne so I will come back and modify my review if this turns out to be the case. But for now I will live happily with the perfume version. Today I dusted myself post-shower with the 1969 Avon Bird of Paradise Beauty Dust and applied the 1965 Rapture perfume rollette to pulse points. The combination really made me feel like a young 70’s housewife lol. I guess I have olfactory memories of this type of scent being what the 70’s smelled like as a small child. I need to ask my mother if she wore any Avon fragrances, as most of the personal hygiene products in our home came from Avon. My first memories of her fragrances were YSL Opium and Estée Lauder Cinnabar; and I’d have to say that Rapture falls into that same category of scent to me!

Rapture is proving to be one of my favorites of the vintage Avons. This juice is soooooo good! Rapture is very powdery. It has the clean-powdery scent similar to Avon's Moonwind but Rapture is not cold & metallic like Moonwind. Rapture is the scent of lovely spring flowers blanketing a little field, surrounded with beautiful trees & deep woods draped with moss, an afternoon stolen in the woods. Upon opening, seems like delicious orange blossom & bergamot make the entrance with notes of jasmine, carnation, sandalwood, rosewood & a touch of musk, maybe civet. The powdery quality really comes out in the heart & continues through the most amazing woods. These are soft feminine woods---nothing masculine about this one. It is ultra fresh, just showered powdery soft florals that have been dancing around softly yet brightly. There is a creamy quality that peeps in & out. I have the cologne & the perfume. The cologne lasts about 4-5 hours on me & the perfume lasts 12 hours. Moderate sillage. Gorgeous drydown. This one is a true Avon classic & one of the softest chypres without any bitterness or bite. I would say it has a "brightness" to the florals. Very, very nice!!!

Love this one. It's a spicy, warm, Woody and slightly sweet lovable perfume. I have the vintage eau de parfum and its strong. Projection and longtivity above moderate. I have 15 ml left but i definitely am going to find me another bottle of this beauty.

UPDATE/addendum to the post below- So I have been wearing the 1964 Rapture cologne and it is luscious! Very oakmossy and Mitsouko-like with something besides peach maybe it is myrhh. Wow! ..... earlier part My Rapture cologne is a Mitsouko (Guerlain) wannabe. I smell lots and lots of oak moss. Think there may be some myrrh in there, too. That said, Avon's attempt to copy Guerlain may have created a more durable vintage fragrance since oak moss makes colognes and perfumes more stable over the long haul. I have a .5 ounce "snowflake" bottle of Rapture cologne (circa 1964). The pattern on the lucite "snowflake" topper is actually interlocking "A"s. This bottle design also appears to be a copy of Guerlain's Shalimar bottle. The Avon bottle has a short round little base, wide "belly" of cologne, and the screw top cap with the lucite topper instead of Guerlain's bat-shaped bottle with the fan/shell-shaped glass Shalimar stopper. The Avon bottle also has a little gold triangular label with the name of the fragrance which also is similar to the label on Shalimar flacons or Guerlain amphora flacons. The quality of the cologne is a little iffy. I bought several fragrances in this same style bottle (circa 1964). Smell-wise, Rapture appears to have held up better than the others. My bottle was also in its original box. To test it, I sprinkled a few drops on a slip of acid-free resume paper rather than my skin because I wanted to get a better idea of the actual fragrance. I may attempt to wear it on a day when I am staying home. I don't feel as confident about wearing it out as vintage Guerlain.

My grandmother never wore fragrances, but she was gifted a 4oz. bottle of Rapture cologne in the 1980s. It was probably a Christmas gift from a student. She was a 2nd Grade teacher, and the bottle was in the shape of a desk. The cap was an apple resting on top of the desk. Even though she never wore Rapture, the bottle was interesting enough that she always had it on display. Now having opened the nearly-full bottle decades after it was made, I find it offers some lovely hidden treasures. In the bottle Rapture screeches. But on the skin, as others have said, it bears a striking resemblance to Mitsouko with the oak moss, woods and spices. At first it comes across as a spicier, more cinnamon-y version of the classic chypre. I adored this stage. The Guerlinade-esque powder note wears off after a while, and it becomes more linear and less unique, but the spiciness remains. I think this will be a good fragrance for Autumn into Winter. This lasts as a skin scent all day on me. Seeing the bottle reminds me of staying at my Grandmother's house. After helping with yard work, we could help ourselves to her jar of quarters, which was next to her Russian nesting dolls and this tiny desk filled with perfume. I never put Rapture on as a little girl; I only unscrewed the tiny apple cap to smell what was inside. Wearing this feels like wearing a memory.