Cabaret

Gres Cabaret is the product of an international swap that I waited over 6 weeks for. Today is the day I finally get to try this coveted beauty, and I’m a little anxious! The bottle is lovely, standing tall and elegant like some crystal version of the Eifel Tower, with a wide base and narrow neck. I reviewed the notes, and had forgotten how highly rated the notes of patchouli and incense were—2 notes which I now know do not work for my skin! I feel a little foolish, wondering why I wanted this fragrance sooo badly, but then I read the reviews and am reminded and hopeful....maybe.... First spritz is patchouli and incense. It’s actually quite similar to Nanette by Nanette Lepore; although this is a brighter, “happier” incense (and I think where Nanette has cedar, this is the patchouli). If Nanette was a melancholy beauty lounging despondently after the show, this is the fragrance before the show starts—excited and maybe a little giddy before the curtain rises. Rather than darkening (as Nanette did), Gres Cabaret seems to lighten as I wear it. After about 40 minutes, the rose and lily are making their appearance...the curtain rises, the spot light comes on.... The rose is fairly prominent, and it is a nice citrusy-woody-green-crisp rose. I can sense the musk and sandalwood, always such wonderful supporting players the smooth notes over so well, at least to my nose. By an hour and half, the patch and incense are nearly gone, leaving just a lingering depth behind a lovely sophisticated floral fragrance. After about 2 hours, I can smell more lily. The incense and patchouli have made a bit of a reappearance, like our dancer has taken herself out to the back garden for a smoke...or a tryst.... It’s not a garden in daytime, but a garden at night, cool and heady with the smell of damp earth mingling with roses, lilies and smoke. With the dry down (3 hours), it reminds me of Lovely by SJP. While I Lovely did not work for me (disintegrated in minutes on my skin), somehow this combination of floral-patchouli-musk is reminiscent of that fragrance—with slightly more lily. For those who love Nanette by Nanette Lepore, or Lovely—you may give this a try. I feel elegant and sophisticated in this fragrance. It is not girly, nor too dark. It is a well balanced evening floral. At the moment, my skin is dry and the weather is cold. I am not sure that this would work well in warmer months, as it could become overpowering. I’m wearing it during the day, but think it’s better suited for the evening. Sillage is moderate, longevity so far is >3 hours.

I have copied and pasted this from a place where I simply put down my thoughts about a perfume as I come across them, I will try to organize it a little better and delete a few things that were merely first impressions, but please keep that in mind. This is a little bit rosey, and not as dark as I had hoped. There is something very familiar about this, maybe someone I knew wore it? Not very long lasting but definitely cheap enough that I don't mind reapplying often. (I've since changed my mind, while this is no 12hr perfume it has decent longevity.) Thankfully the sillage is fairly light, so I don't feel embarrassed wearing this. It is a little "old fashioned," or, as I (age 25) prefer to think of it, mature. But in a good way, not in a "your grandma wore this badly" kind of way. I get the cabaret association, but to me it's a more intellectual perfume than that. I think it will perform better in colder weather; though admittedly I have not tried it in warm weather I bet it would be cloying. I have the bottle without the red, I wonder is there a difference? The bottle IS rather tacky, but seems to be good quality - mainly because the lid is very heavy. I think it's solid metal. The sprayer is fine, even, and generous. I definitely get peony, patch, LotV, and...lavender? Incense in the background, of the nag champa variety. Sandalwood seems to be a top note on my skin... Actually, I just realized it's familiarity. Rose incense sticks. They used to burn them in the Indian restaurant in Budapest where my family used to go when I was a little girl...It was too strong for me then and I hated it and always made the waiter put it out. I was little and cute and had him wrapped around my finger. Once this dries down, it smells just like Govinda, minus the food smell. That's not a bad thing, to me. It's very beautiful and nostalgic. A bit of a jammy rose, just at first. I wear this now to the theatre - not to see a show, but when I am in one. It fits perfectly - even when one is told not to wear perfume, it mimics the natural smell of the theatre so well that it's perfect. It's almost even better when I'm working "on the dark side," sitting in the dark booth staring at a computer screen as sound or light operator, or pointing hot spotlights at the actors. This is the dust, sweat, skin, hairspray, the stage makeup, the deodorant, the wood and the paint of the newly built set, the hot metal of the lights, and the almost maple syrup smell of the fog juice. I love it. 6/10

The year is 2503, and you have walked into a spartan, white, hermetic room with seemingly nothing in it - nothing on the walls, the ceiling, or the floor, and yet it is a library. You say to the space “present a picture and the smell of a peony flower,” and some as-yet unfathomable technology begins to whirr. An almost perfect image of a peony hovers in the center of the space, which is suddenly filled with the slightly rosy, slightly honeyed, citrusy and zesty, and heady odor of peony. Even though you have never smelled it before, you can immediately detect that it has been manipulated by technology; it has an iridescent and hollow character to it, whereby it is extremely convincing yet completely untouchable. This doesn’t bother you because the smell is still gorgeous, as if the iridescence and vacant spaces allow for more contrast to the details, and you say to yourself “ahh, that’s why it was so beloved those many ages ago.” The opening of Cabaret is one of the most beautiful peony presentations I have ever smelled, and yet it intentionally conveys to you that it’s not the real thing - there are no tricks to conceal its trickery. The adornments of rose and lily of the valley push its fruity zesty, unctuous, and heady bath powder characteristics more to the forefront. How it manages to hang so lightly in the air and providing a lot of space inside the aroma whilst being rich and “solid” keeps me going back for one sniff after another, second by second. As time passes a floral and silky smooth orris and musk combination convincingly carries the message of the peony and its costars. In the early days of Cabaret this dry down leaned more heavily on amberic woods and patchouli, but it was always quiet and clean - never a thick or typically-dirty woody amber. In the newer formulation those notes are even quieter; you really have to go searching for them beneath the also quiet orris and musk. While I miss the old Cabaret’s dry down a lot, I can’t honestly say the perfume has been done a massive disservice with this newest reformulation. It’s the floral top of Cabaret I love most, and we get that for longer - and mostly convincingly - in the newer formulation’s dry down. However, it does feel a lot less like a cabaret and more like a baby shower. That said, if baby showers actually smelled like this I’d make considerably more effort to attend them.

I'm nearly out of my Agent Provocateur. So I felt like I needed something rosey and naughty til I can afford a huge bottle again. So I found this one. Read reviews and kind of decided I like it. So today I got a whole 3.4 bottle of it and couldn't wait to try it out. First impressions. Well, the bottle is pretty vintage and not that bad actually. Mine doesn't have the red top, instead, it's all transparent glass with plastic red top thingy. [Still, it's edp] It's a little bonkers because red glass coloring would hide that fact that thin neck of the bottle is not filled with juice. Juice is of champagne color and if you turn the bottle upside down... it really looks like a glass full of champagne ._. Its cap is heavy, made of metal. Second impression. 2 sprays in the air to make sure I don't get the icky few sprays of a new frag that's been sitting somewhere for some time and I'm all set. I sprayed twice to my wrist. It sprays richly and leaves stains under the sprayer. Skin looks pretty oily. I get a blast of patchouli. I'd admit that I'm kinda got bored with patchouli lately, but this one is kinda velvety and nice actually. Next is rose addition. It's pretty dry and smoky. Incense here creates smookiness, it's not too churchy on me. It smells of dry red, dead rose mummy and gorgeous old wood and smoke. The kind of furniture found in a bar, soaked with booze. It's so effing original and bizarre and quite on my way. If you smoke, it totally compliments this fragrance. I mean, its suitable for a smoker. My only complaint is lasting power. With such notes I expected great lasting power and sillage ...!!! Gone from my wrist in 6 hours. I don't sense it even on my sleeve! But there's a bit left in hair. Argh... Summary. Transparent yet dry and solid at the same time. Very original and seems to sit close to skin. Such a liar, I bet it has some sillage still, only I'm not aware of it while wearing it. Fantastic price, but lasting power very average. Maybe it will unlock some aspects of it [incl. lasting power plx] with some time, because the very first test can be very different from the experience of wearing a frag for a while. It sometimes happens. P.S. Not similar to Agent Provocateur at all.

When my stepdaughter was a very little girl she was eating a very spicy curry and crying between each mouthful. When she was asked what was wrong she said that it was too spicy for her, we offered to remove the dish but she then cried some more and said that she still wanted it!! This is how I feel about Cabaret. I find that something in the composition makes me uncomfortable and yet, I feel compelled to wear it and to smell it continuously. There is something very comforting and addictive about this perfume. It reminds me of my Mum and yet she never wore it. The notes are everything I love in a perfume and yet somehow it doesnt work well together and I get a continuous 'hairspray' kind of vibe going on, which isn't unpleasant and actually it's grown on me to the point where I like it.. This is a very fresh perfume which I feel would be better suited to summertime. I would almost go as far as to say that it's very 'green' to my nose. I do get the woods and most certainly the peony but I get a faint and rather cold rose scent. This is a very unusual and seductive perfume. It doesn't try too hard but it remains unforgettable, unique and utterly aloof. The price of this perfume does not reflect its quality which is excellent. Longevity is amazing, I wore it last night, slept in it and I could still smell it loud and clear this morning. Silage is good too, about 2 feet. I like it enough to get a FB because I feel that I will crave this perfume from time to time. Highly recommended as this is as good as any niche or high end of the market scent, but shhh, it'll be our little secret!

Ok, so i tried "NR for Her EDP" today and am astounded how similar these two smell on my skin...i.e. virtually the same. but i prefer Cabaret! The rose is fresher and more like a real rose. both scents are very similar once the top notes have moved away. Cabaret is everything Angela Agiannidou (below) describes (thank you!) i so couldn't have described it this well. for me it's the very clever notes that keep on coming through as it dries down that i find so incredible. this is an unsung hero of the perfume world. i snipped this from eBay last week and it is the bottle with the circus-like red design on the glass and the holographic box. band new unopened and i feel rather glad i discovered this before i tried the NR. I also wear Agent Provocateur (a scent which i found repulsive on first try and now i adore). This also shares similarities with cabaret, but it is a totally different perfume and the dry down of AP is much sweeter on me. like any good record...good perfumes grow on us...it's the clever nuances that we notice each time we listen (smell) that make a masterpiece that stays with us and changes alongside us. it's not always an instant attraction. in fact i find the instant love scents...i quickly fall out of love with them and find them rather boring. honestly, all rose and musk lovers, please grab yourself a bottle and enjoy. don't be put off by the bottle design (i think it's positively clown like)..it really doesn't reflect what's inside! oh sillage and longevity are long-lasting...this smells like a quality vintage fume.

It is a rose chypre, somewhat melancholy in feeling but still alive. Like a ghost. One thing I love about it is how long it lasts on my skin and how it gets stronger and more beautiful at the same time as it is dying away. I see that this has the poisonous nerium oleander listed as a note. Is that the elusive quality that makes me keep sniffing? I also see iris, violet, and lily of the valley are included. These flowers always conjure up the garden of my childhood home, another reason this fragrance is bittersweet to me. When at last it fades to the end, what remains is a smudge of burnt out rosewood incense, the way my parent's brass Buddha incense holder smelled when I lifted the tiny top off. What makes me crave Cabaret is the way it seems so personal to me. It's as if someone read my diary and then crafted this perfume. Cabaret is a great name...it also reminds me of my theatre background. Fresh soft florals, mostly rose at the top, and the base is a very dry clay smell. It is cool and elegant with a transparent, almost dusty smell. I think of the atmosphere backstage at every show I have been involved in. Antique wood counters in the dressing room, waxy makeup and powder strewn across them. Vases and vases of roses and lilies. That musky smell of fresh sweat from dancers just coming off stage. When I put on Cabaret, I do get a tiny bit of that opening night excitement. It's so compelling it is almost too good to be worn.

Gres fragrances have this habit of coming on too strong. The often bad topnotes come screaming into the room like extra-concentrated air freshner. The fruit in famous Cabotine is a case in point; the drydown is all pretty green springtime freshness but getting there can be an ordeal. In this case, the knockout opener is an evil, acid and spicy peony I’ve come to call “eau de sneeze,” since this is what I do every time I spay. (EDIT: the sneezing stopped after about a month.) Fortunately the smell changes within five minutes and Cabaret becomes a soft, but dry, rose potpourri that becomes more woody and dark as the perfume matures and the florals fade. The base is a lovely, creamy floral musk with cedar and patchouli that has an air of familiarity about it. Cabaret is close-wearing and persistent, lasting for several hours after application. It is also affordable. A three-ounce bottle can often be purchased for under twenty dollars. EDIT: In the months since writing this review, Cabaret has become my absolute favorite fragrance. Floral without being sweet, smoky without being heavy, I am hard pressed to think of an occasion it is not appropriate for. I no longer sneeze during the "pink pepper" opening and this juice radiates like nobody's business. This stuff just loves me and I love it. To think, I almost didn't buy this. I can't recommend it enough.

My bottle is at least twelve years old with a precariously skinny neck - probably the old formula, since comments reflect an unfortunate reformulation. This is sooo good! Musky old dried up patchouli and dark rose. I don't mind smelling like this! It's skanky in the best possible way. "Cabaret" fits this fragrance as a name. No, there's no booze or sweat or cigarettes or whatever smells would be in a seedy bar. (I don't go to bars, so that's just how I imagine one would smell.) But this is mature and adventurous... More like the smell of a nightclub with an open mic, with beatniks reading poetry or something. It's what an existentialist girl in a black turtleneck would smell like. Despite being fundamentally opposed to existentialism and all modern philosophy, I love this smell. It's an unusual aesthetic, not a pleaser of modern crowds, THANK GOODNESS because modern crowds are not an element I care to attract or please. It's the lack of saffron and tinge of iris that elevates this above Agent Provocateur. The iris has a carrot note to it. Personal observation: I was chopping carrots to make soup for someone today and noticed that carrots and orris root smell similar. Never noticed that before.

The opening is a splash of glitters and strong alcohol. You leave the crowd and find your way in an old theatre dimly lit backstage. Antechamber of the profane arts purified with holy incense. You reach a half-open door. There sits a dark-haired bohemian who finishes making-up for late-night performance. A bouquet of roses delicately placed on the desk. If you love Encre Noire (as I do) you'll probably appreciate Cabaret wich I find similar in many aspects except for the coniferous notes wich are replaced with spicy roses and a small touch of quality lipstick. Overspraying is welcome with the present diluted formulation wich is luckily dirt cheap. Update : True Love... After a few weeks it is now perfect. I never experienced the old formulation but the new one is awesome in every way. Opening is a super quick flash of apiacea/celery , then peony, rose with well balanced incense and patchouli. I love the peaceful state of mind that it puts me in : Grounded, focused and confident... I don't know how, but it is now more potent and the longevity is better than ever.

Cabaret came in the mail today, a blind buy that proves to be a winner. Oh, I do like this. It's not a sweet girly-scent, like candy or fruit, but sophisticated, warm, sensual, very much a woman's scent. There's patchouli, and a lot of it, but it's not abrasive or in your face; there, but smooth-edged. I get no peony but do get the rose, soft and subtle. Incense, amber, sandalwood--a recipe sure to please me. It sounds like it would be heavy and depressing, but it's not, at all. The rose is always there, but more a spicy rose, not a really sweet one. This is far different from the popular florals, fruity or candy scents so popular now, and that's precisely why I like it so much. Those kind of scents have never really appealed to me; I like spicy, woody scents and they work for me. I don't want to smell like a marshmallow. :) I would never have found this perfume (or actually, most of those I do have) if not for this site. It's fascinating reading the responses people have to scents, the stories they tell.

If Frederic Malle used this as his inspiration for Portrait of a Lady in 2010, then so did Agent Provocateur use this model for their signature scent in 2002, because that smells like Cabaret to me too. They all seem to use the same rose, and they all smell almost the same to my unsophisticated nose. Other people here are also likening it to the original Stella, but I'm not getting Bulgarian rose here at all. I smelled Portrait, fell in love, but was put off by the price. I have Agent and find it a good replacement for Portrait. Now I have Cabaret which I got at a bargain basement price and love it just as much as the other two. Either it's serendipitous that Malle and Agent happened upon the same formula as Gres, or they used Cabaret as the inspiration for their fragrances. At least, that's what I initially thought, until I checked the introduction dates of all these perfumes and find that Agent Provocateur came out first in 2000. So, could it be that Malle and Gres really used that as their inspiration?

I blind bought it thinking it was going to be a kind of unisex rose-incense-patchouli combo based on the reviews and voted notes on this site. I was very surprised with what i received. Not at all what i expected but i happened to really like this one! It is very powdery. The iris and violet are prominent to my nose. I sadly get very little incense. I totally get the "Transparency/Ghostly" quality it has been mentioned. It does smell like a barely presence and perhaps a fragile one too. I truly can not understand how people can smell something masculine in it. I find it so feminine. I find this fragrance related to Omnia Amethyste (that feminine!) but the overall feeling is sadder and less pure and innocent. It is a very soft perfume with moderate sillage but on clothes last days. I have to use over 8 sprays to get to feel it. Nice rainy days perfume... It smells quite antique, perhaps what i would expect Mary Shelley would have used (Based on the vintage version)

Once I got over the silly bottle with it's ridiculously slender neck (I feared it would snap like a twig if I didn't handle it carefully) this was a completly unexpected delight. This was recommended by a fellow fume head and I can honestly say before the recommendation I didn't even know it existed. It's delicious, spicy, floral notes are utterly compelling and somewhat addictive. I spent the afternoon sniffing myself - in the politest possible way of course. This is really beautifully balanced, easy to wear, day or evening and all year round. It's also a perfume that is interesting and rather unique, and because it's a well kept secret it feels special to wear. The boon is, it's affordable too. Stock up before it's discovered or reformulated! And it is misleading to think this shares any characteristics of NR.... it's nothing like it in my opinion and I have both. Cab is way way better and much more interesting.

Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome... A startling, tangy and peppery peony opens Cabaret which soon transforms to a lucid, dry rose, somewhere between evaporated rose water and rose pressed in a book. It's fascinating that it seems to smell just out of reach, almost holographic, as the outline is a translucent woodiness. This in time evolves to a dusty, powdery smolder layered on a muted patchouli. It feels like a faded memory of what was once vivid, in olfactory form. It is by no means a heavy hitter, its intimacy may leave much to be desired, but it has its allure, its charm—down to its hilariously garish bottle. It begins with effervescence and eases into a gentle caress. The cynic in me must point out that this is just as lovely—if not more—than so many lightweight woody-patchouli rose scents recently released by so-called niche or luxury houses these days that sport a 200 plus dollar price tag.

Cabaret is a full-bodied rose, not a watery little simpering rosebud. It's earthy from the super green patchouli and langorous from the incense or smoke. The musk is my kind of musk: slightly animalic, slight clean dog smell. Now that may not sound like praise, but it is. Too many rose fragrances veer towards being powdery or whispy little girlish. Cabaret is strong and unique. Best of all it's INTERESTING, meaning you don't experience the ennui of a linear scent that fades like a Cheshire cat leaving nothing but a smile. Instead, the notes take turns becoming dominant so that you can smell it at five minute intervals and not get the same experience every time. Super excellent if you like originality, patchouli, and roses. Actually this is rather balsamic although balsam and resin are missing from the listed notes.

My little decant is almost gone and I know I will be purchasing a full bottle of this gorgeous scent. I liked this one so much that I purchased Gres's Cabotine unsniffed. (And I wasn't disappointed in that one, either.) Cabaret is a special and sophisticated scent. The peony notes dominate the opening on me, but I love and live for the dry-down on this one: pronounced incense notes with a hint of the dry iris. Ijubica gives a gorgeous description. :-) Good job there! I get a similar impression when I first sniffed this one. It reminded me of those satin sachets women used to line their lingerie drawers with. The sachets always left a subtle powdery floral scent on the undergarments as they wore them. Cabaret has that kind of earthy, powdery, floral scent. Very feminine and full of secrets.

I am surprised by how much I like this fragrance...I'm sampling it today and it just keeps getting better and better! Opening notes on me were more in line with Mitsouko's description, a "rose-lemon drizzle." The lemony notes were strong at first, with a touch of leather, and then a subtle dry rose note became more prominent. For a few minutes I was reminded of wooden furniture polish, but not in a bad way! Three hours into it, the leather notes have disappeared, and only a trace of lemon remains. Old, withered roses and peonies gently curl around me now in a bed of sandalwood. I'm really enjoying it... I am buying a full bottle of this...today! :) Added note: The longer I wear this, the more it reminds me of Narciso Rodriguez's dry-down. Hmm, interesting.

Cabaret, for my taste, is a pretty much perfect perfume. On my skin Cabaret mostly smells like patchouli, incense and tobacco. I find the patchouli more peppery/woody than dark and dirty. I also get nuances of makeup (powder and lipstick) but not in a super obvious way. I wouldn't call Cabaret a perfume that "smells like makeup". Cabaret manages to be distinctly feminine without being particularly sweet or flowery. The rose isn't a major player on my skin, more like a wash of rosewater. The iris is more powdery than floral. More earthy than sweet. This is fragrance that manages to be sexy and even a bit edgy without loudly screaming "LOOK AT ME!". For those of us who like darker scents but don't need/want sillage bombs Cabaret is an excellent choice.

The bottle and the smell of Cabaret reminds me of the roaring 20's....lots flapper hats, Marcel waves and night clubs where ladies smoked their clove cigarettes and went home smelling.....like a mix of sweat, maleness (his sweat, cologne, after shave and hair pomade all in one) and cigars...it isn't bad but you do want to wash it off you as soon as possible. It starts out very strong and does develop into a faint soft smell but I just don't know if I have the patience to wait. Happy Perfuming! ♥ Footnote: I wore this for a day and I think it IS worth the wait. I took a nap with this on and my bedding smelled gorgeous. I went from like to love. ♥