Camelia Iris

OK. Two things. This is a limited edition of the original juice? Purlease! This is reminiscent of Dioressence? Not a bit of it. After a decade of yearning for this little bit of Coudray history, I finally cracked and bought what would appear to have been the last bottle on Ebay. I hope it was a fake. I really, really hope so because this smelled nothing like a vintage formulation but appeared, to my nose, to be fairly pedestrian concoction of modern aromachemicals. A triumph of cynical marketing? If it was, I fell for it hook, line and sinker. I bought into the fairytale and ended up scammed by the brothers Grimm. I know and love Coudray. I've been known to sob when I reach the last vestiges of their foaming bath cremes. Nohiba makes me glad I was born. Rose Tuberose and Iris Rose may be modern creations but they are delicious, delicate, yet lasting. But Camelia Iris? I would never have believed it to be from the house of Coudray. Additionally, the packaging of the beautiful bottle (and oh, it IS beautiful) is loaded into its box from the bottom which coupled with the pretty gold rope makes it very unsteady in the hand. So much so that it slipped out of mine and shattered on my dressing table. I rushed to get a towel and did so in seconds. I needn't have worried. The same French Polish that gets pitted by a molecule of any other perfume survived intact. Almost as if it was water I'd spilled. I also held my breath and ran to open the windows. Again I need not have panicked. Instead of a heady, lung bursting perfumed atmosphere there was nothing but the faintest sweet alcohol scent. Even when I buried my nose in the towel. Little scent remained after only minutes. None at all the following day. Has time taken away all scent? Was it stored badly? Would it have developed into something special if it had had time to rest? I'll never know. And no, on my wrists, plunged into wet towel, there was little to smell at all and certainly no resemblance to Dioressence. Woe is me.

This was a blind buy and I do not regret it. I could find it for a good price. The scent falls in the same category as chanel no 19 I think and it also reminds me of no 5 because some aldehydes in the opening. The dry down has that clean and powdery smell, I really like it. It is a dry and green powder accord to me, no sweetness. I was a little afraid that sillage and longevity would be poor because of the nature of the scent, but it falls into the moderate category, so I'm not dissapointed. I was catching whiffs of it during the day, whispers of a lovely smell. I find that these type of scents often have a calming feel. Update: it's pretty longlasting, 14 hours later I could still smell it on my arm !