Madame de Carven

There is a small old store in the city full of soaps, shaving creams, shower gels, bulk perfumes and original brand name fragrances. The only customers are men who buy shaving creams and razors and some old women who fill one or two bottles with jasmin or lemon cologne. I had never noticed the window because there was so much stuff there that I would need about half an hour to take notes of what I could see. And suddenly yesterday I did it! And it was worth every minute I spent there. Everything from '70's and '80's, rare, discontinued, limited editions,legendary perfumes that I can't find in big stores anymore, everything was there. Today I bought Gucci 3 and the last Madame Carven (100ml, Edt, boxed and sealed). Price? Oh, come on, it's only a small shop with soaps... There was no tester for them but I'm a huge fun of chypres so I knew that I would like both. Tonight I tried Madame Carven. God, what a smell! Everyone says it's a floral scent but if there was the term "tropical chypre" I would use it. First I smelled the galbanum and the jasmine, the coconut is distinctive and well blended while oakmoss is always there combined nicely with amber. My mind goes straight back to my childhood when I flipped the glossy pages of my mother's magazines and I stared in ecstatic wonder at all these glamorous models of the late '70's with the hope that when I would grow up I would be like these classy women. It's a pity that this fragrance is not in production anymore. It was a great work!

Wow, do I ever like this perfume! It is a crisp, elegant floral with some of the sophisticated "edge" of Ma Griffe, but softened with the subtle coconut and spice notes. The florals are fresh in the sense of being very realistic and even a touch romantic, not the so-called "fresh" scents of today that smell like fake marine or clean laundry. I only managed to get hold of some EDT, not sure what else is out there since it is discontinued now, but it's crying out for an Eau de Parfum at least. This one really deserved better than to disappear. (Those discount outlets that do carry it sometimes inflate the price when not out of stock, which they would not do with a lesser scent.) If you can locate it, it is a perfect scent for office professionals or any environment where a refined perfume is required. It is truly lovely and quite unusual.

A beautiful, sophisicated scent with all the crisp and juicy whiteness of fresh coconut and, thankfully, minus the pink candy & bubble gum flavour which usually accompanies such coconutty concoctions. Has the feel of a true classic which, of course, it is, complete with oakmoss! Am truly amazed at how the sweetness is totally kept at bay whilst the rest of the ingredients go on developing into an evermore grown-up and savvy kind of smell. It seems to be aimed at hot climates but I'm finding it deliciously warm and comforting for winter. I like all the perfumes from the House of Carven and am delighted they're still making most of them. So far so good...

Madame de Carven is a MAGNIFICENT perfume. A wonderful, truly great treasure, from the good old perfume days. Deep, rich and beautiful. Strong and ever-lasting. Glorious. And I must say, she is one of the most complimented perfumes I own, especially by men, but almost as much by women, and even children love it!! It is such a beloved perfume. The children of a friend of mine, a boy and a girl, who are 6 and 7, always throw their arms around me and breathe me in, because I always wear Madame de Carven whenever I visit them. They insist on it!!! Oh I love her!!! And also I adore the gorgeous bottle!!!

Madame de Carven is beautiful, nostalgic, original, with character... rich ... "Bold and the Beautiful";-) I bought some miniatures for allegro and immediately fell in love with this scent. 70/80 perfume of years is my favorite ... I'm dreaming of perfumes 100 ml. I love it! <3

Action, dear, thank you for your very kind comment. The store is in Athens and it would be nice if you had the chance to visit it. There are still enough vintage bottles to see and try. By the way, I 'm really jealous of your vintage perfume wardrobe.

I got hold of a bottle of this EDT for a very reasonable price, the bottle design isn't the same as above so it's possibly a reformulation. That aside, this is a very interesting scent which I have immediately fallen in love with!! It brings back memories of the 1970's, it's the summer in East London, Blondie plays on the radio, some steel drums echo from a garage, the scents of cigarettes, suntan oil, and fruit on the market stalls travel across dusty hot pavements to my little nose! This embodies all those things. It reminds me of wood veneer on cars, daisy duke, saloon lounges in pubs, and sipping a cold coke when it was a real treat. Great!! Glamorous, spicy - fresh, dated and fun.

Oui Madame! Madame De Carven Eau de Toilette Spray Purchased on eBay I have the EDT along with a dusting powder which I purchased where else but the world's biggest rummage sale eBay the prime online site for vintage fragrance. Madame de Carven is an absolutely beautiful 1979 perfume. She is lady-like and floral, fruity, green, aromatic, smoky, musky, old fashioned but elegant, refined, soothing and calm. She is a British Victorian lady in white gloves dress and hat taking 4 o clock al fresco afternoon tea. She's surrounded by floral arrangements. It's a perfume for formal classy day wear and a fragrance of spring and summer. Madame de Carven is a floral with exquisite scented colors of green, white and purple. The whites are the tuberose, the jasmine and orchid. The purples are the iris and hyacinth and the greens are the green notes of galbanum oak moss and vetiver. The result is a charming fascinating floral scent. Initially the coconut comes through with a matching white milky tuberose. I found it quite innovative for a fragrance opening top note but it does get sweet and fruity with additional citrusy notes of bergamot orange and a peach. This fruitiness is almost like sipping fruity cocktails. The sweetness of the fruit blends with the subsequent florals namely the tuberose but also the carnation the jasmine the hyacinth and the orchid. As far as florals go this one is very floral but it never turns excessive or extravagant. The flowers are the main attraction but they are not overpowering nor are they dull. They are quite romantic. In the dry down stages the green notes besides galbanum take over. I detect lovely vetiver and oak moss. The moss is the dominant accord. It's soapy and green, fresh and aromatic. The benzoin and ambers emerge after a while and finalize the fragrance with some smoky aspects and musk. It's a very clean and soapy scent, with just the right amount of powder and incense. With the dusting powder the scent is quite lovely and makes me feel quite soft and despite it being such an older or mature scent for me it speaks of youth. For me trying on fragrances from before the 1990s or 1980s is the reminder of my younger days and consequently make me feel young again. Madame de Carven is an easy to wear and easy to love vintage and is a good intro to vintages especially vintage florals. This is in the same league as Miss Dior, Fracas, Miss Balmain, Jolie Madame and Y by Yves Saint Laurent. If you have worn those fragrances you would like this one as well. Again I emphasize that this is a floral and that it's suited to day wear can be casual but seems more of a formal wear fragrance and it exudes class and sophistication so it would best be worn by an older over 30 over 40 50 and up lady. It's sweet and powdery soapy delicate and feminine, soothing and inviting. Just my type.

Fragrance Review For Madame De Carven By Carven Top Notes Coconut Green Leaves Galbanum Peach Bergamot Middle Notes Carnation Tuberose Iris Orchid Jasmine Hyacinth Base Notes Amber Musk Benzoin Coconut Oak Moss Vetiver Call me old fashioned to my face but I love these kind of perfumes. This is a green galbanum based white floral chypre of sublime beauty. Released in '79, it's before my time but my mother was already an adult with a lot going on. She never wore this perfume but she recently discovered it and shared it with me. The vintage original is to die for. It reminds me of a couple of fragrances: Ma Griffe also by Carven, Jungle Gardenia by Tuvache and Fidji by Guy Laroche. This has more in common with Jungle Gardenia. Like JG, this has a tropical island air. I also see Fidji as being an island floral perfume, but here the coconut is listed twice as notes so you do get that sweet milky coconut scent. It's like coconut juice if that was made into a perfume. Mingling with that coconut water are jasmines, tuberoses and carnations. The white florals are easy to detect and are quite strong. I would say that the white flowers are about the same in their projection and boldness as Giorgio Beverly Hills. A peach and bergamot scent at the top keeps it fruity and delicious. This leaves a trail and has excellent silage and longevity. It can be powerful so spritz with a light hand or only enough to have it as a cloud on you and it follows you wherever you go. It's not always a good thing to be the woman whose perfume arrives before you do. The oak moss and vetiver dry down is woodsy and also warm with amber. It's intoxicating and exotic. Smells like a Brazilian rainforest. Beautiful.

Madame de Carven is a complex fugue of intersecting fragrance families. If I was ever deigned to christen this, ...back in 1979, ...I would have called it The Four Winds, or more likely, Quatre-Vents. I won't go so far as to assign directions to these metaphorical 'winds'. The first wind is green, Madame de Carven opens quite greenly, with its galbanum, ...but that doesn't last, there are many chypre far greener than this. Soon two more, flowers (especially a corn-like tuberose), and ambery resins, cut through the greenness. This quick counteraction actually makes the profile a bit murky, ...and the tuberose is overdone here. Of course, the fourth wind is the always anchoring presence of chypre's master note: the rich and deeply solemn oakmoss itself. However, I'm not getting any coconut here, ...and not very much fruit at all, except for a little unripe peach in the opening. Could the coconut be lost into those murky, rubbery sub-notes? Even those that do detect the coconut here, seem to mostly describe it as light, hazy, and unsweetened. Overall, this is not a superlatively fine perfume, ...yet all the same, like most chypre, it does bear its own set of distinctions and poetic grace. Madame de Carven, it has been a pleasure.

Oh Madame Carven... I remember i was hunting for a sample of this blend before around a year and half when i first saw it in a local vintage shop, as the owner said "this blend is quite rare, and almost vanished from the market". Since then i was very curious about this blend in away that i was seeking reviews and samples of it but i wasn't that serious till few weeks back, so i purchased the sample for 2 main reasons: 1+ The notes was almost similar to "Iquitos" by Alain Delon which became one of my favorite vintage. 2+ It has coconut, and oakmoss mix beside the galbanum, and tuberose which are almost my ecstasy mix. Now, i believe "Madame De Carven" is a mash of "Iquitos" & "Teatro alla Scala" by Krizia. More of "Iquitos" and less "Teatro alla Scala" with a touch of soap and musk as you can sense the coconut in a hazy way while the heliotrope is adding that soft soapy touch, the tuberose is almost fading, and the oakmoss is dominant hand by hand with musky geranium. some touch of vetiver, and green notes. It's indeed a beauty blend that i believe i should get a full bottle of it to backup my "Iquitos".

Madame de Carven EDT reminds me of Guy Laroche's Fidji with the addition of some coconut. Must be the galbanum and some of the floral notes they have in common. If you're a fan of Fidji, I encourage you to give this one a try. Madame de Carven is a good grown-up scent that smells warm and tropical but doesn't smell beach-y or like suntan lotion. It's a fruity floral, but there is no need to fear the fruits and coconut in this one. The fragrance is much more floral than fruity, and the coconut here is freshly-cracked, with no sugar added--present, but not really sweet. The fragrance takes a turn for the green as it dries down. Madame de Carven is a very unusual fragrance, and smells a bit dated to my nose, but it is still very appealing. This would be a great warm-weather scent for classic perfume lovers who shy away from the modern beach-y gourmands.

Vintage spicy coconut with green touches? Yes. I get that. Definitely getting a touch of hyacinth too, not a favourite note but we'll blended enough. I can actually feel a bit of the tropical feel it was getting at but it's so alien to what I know these days! There's no suncream here! Or pina coladas! The real issue for me is that somewhere back in the late 70s or early 80s when my bottle is from, they put that terrible platic coating on my poor bottle itself and whilst sealed away for several decades has now decayed and stinks!! I've had to isolate this poor perfume, wrap it in a bag and put it safely away! It's a shame as I have a strange soft spot for Craven as I grew to love Ma Griffin but this was a challenge with the plastic overtones!

I am all the way with Nebraska on this one! To my nose it is like a strong Fidji. The fragrance family this perfume belongs to is: Fidji - Madame Carven - Balenciaga Michelle. All a bit 'obligatory' for collectors like ourselves.

This thing probably deserves the prize as the Most Awful Bottle of the entire universe.

You should be a writer Bajar! I so wanted to see that store you were describing!

Pleaaaaaaaase restock this 😫😫😫😫😫😫😭😭😭😭😭😭😭