Courant

Courant was a fragrance destined for the hoi polloi, prominently featured on glass counters at the druggist for a no-nonsense associate wearing a lavallière blouse and a whole lotta make up to gruffly present to a curious customer whose budget scoffed at Bloomingdale's wares. That's what makes it even more outstanding: this is an ultimate chypre, a swath of oakmoss soaked in benzoin, highlighted with a soapy coriander. This spray mist, pressurized and powerful, coats me with a fury hath few other mists compare. That bergamot may be a dusty brume, but it still makes me shiver. and Courant's interior is that vague floral salmagundi that renders identifying the individual blooms pointless, but it all smells delicious. This is especially so when also finding a Chant-esque leather marrow not too dissimilar to that of Cabochard or Azuree. Yet Courant eschews the usual chypre foundation for all that aforementioned benzoin and various other spicy resins, but make no mistake: there is nothing sweet about this amber, and the oakmoss prevails for hours—I mean HOURS.

I'm sad that I can't remember this smell. All I know is I very much loved it in the early seventies. As hard as I try, though, I cannot recall even one note of it. Every other fragrance I had, I can reconstruct in my mind.

Absolutely amazing chypre! It reminds me of a Versace classic. I Love, love, love it!!!

I just sprayed this for the first time ever and thought immediately "late 1950's chypre." Or what people in the 1950's thought of as chypre. I looked again and am really surprised it came out in 1972. There were other scents like these in the 1950's, or similar to this, including some of the Lanvin ones, like maybe Scandal and Rumeur. (The original ones, not what they're peddling with pink juice and who knows what else.) Not identical smelling, but the same genre. There were others in the 1950-1970 era that were similar, like a couple of the lesser known Dana ones (not that ghastly one in the magenta bottle). I'll add to this list if the apparent fog in my brain clears. I bought mine dirt cheap on eBay, at Christmas yet (when all the sellers boost their prices), and there seems to be a lot of it around. Like I said elsewhere, I don't remember Courant at all from the 1970's or anytime since then. And I still couldn't have known about this fragrance if it hadn't been for Elena's extensive article a week or so ago. If those eBay sellers have had their Courant bottles online for months/years, I bet they must wonder why anyone is buying them now. The "spray mist" I bought was in a very plain box, almost a tester type box, but I don't remember seeing tester boxes from that era so I don't know if it was one. General assessment: It's a worthy fragrance and if it was in a Tom Ford bottle with half of the hype he attaches to it, you'd drop $150 on it easily. They'd call it unisex or even masculine and get Lenny Kravitz to advertise THAT. Courant is dark and deep and woodsy and not much like Estee Lauder's Youth Dew either; not at all sweet. Youth Dew is closer to Opium than Courant. Courant is the type of fragrance women wore who smoked a lot. And remember in the 1950's-1970's maybe 60% of all women smoked. Or maybe 60% of all women under 50 smoked. Women thought wearing scent like this would mask the smell of cigarettes on them. That's debatable but the whole picture sold: "glamorous sophisticated woman" who smokes and wears fine perfume. I stopped smoking in 1967, when you could no longer buy cigarettes for 26 cents a pack; they'd gone up to 29 cents, and 31 cents in machines. So I wasn't a customer for this image. But marketers at Helena Rubinstein (Helena herself died in 1965) knew the customers were out there. Or thought they still were in 1972. However, the market was already focused nearly solely on what women under 25 wanted. Which is why they came out with Blazer, which I only vaguely remember; it was supposed to attract women in their 20's who were not hippies. I wonder now how long Courant was actually on the market, and if the Helena Rubinstein company took the proverbial financial bath on it. I don't think Blazer lasted longer than 5 years either.

If you want to know what classic chypre perfumes smelled like, this is your girl. A bergamot/citrus top, a leather/flower middle, a woody drydown. I am positive that the perfumer for Courant loved Gres Cabochard, because the two are kissing cousins. Courant could be a Cabochard flanker, if the two were produced today. Besides the mysterious short note pyramid listed I also detect a LOT of leather, an edge of white flowers, and some sandalwood along with the load of oakmoss in the drydown. Positively bitter and dark and sassy, not sweet or sugary in any way, with a divine wooded-animalic base, a perfume completely of its own time. My bottle is old but seems to have held up just fine, and was had for less than $10 on Ebay, give it a shot if you want a history lesson in perfume. @Hadas, That is fascinating that you smell vanilla in this perfume! I wouldn't be surprised if it was in there somewhere, but truthfully, beyond the citrus notes I don't smell anything sweet at all, and certainly not vanilla, or an oily vanilla. Maybe if the perfume degrades enough it becomes more obvious, or in different concentrations if is more apparent (I think I actually have a pure perfume, as it is a 1/2 oz bottle that simply states Courant Perfume.)

Review is of a vintage perfume concentration. As a lover of oakmoss, I adore vintage 70's-style chypres and have sampled many. Of all the ones I've tried, Courant may have the most oakmoss, with the dark, earthy, leathery aspects of the note emphasized. There is nothing crisp, sparkly or Cristalle-like about Courant; it's closer to darker chypres like Sinan. Other notes of spice and florals only provide subtle accents to the dominant oakmoss. This is not a criticism! If you love the oakmoss note as much as I do and miss it in our IFRA-dominated era, Courant is an aromatherapeutic tonic that will take you back to happier perfume days. I'm happily huffing away, IFRA be damned.

This is NOT a chypre like a "straight-up" chypre. If people think so, they have not smelled enough chypres. This is a floriental/chypre. The oakmoss is not bitter. It is woody and dominant but balanced by lots of dry spice. This isn't sweet like Opium, Obsession, Cinnabar, Ciara, Rumba. It is a chypre-hater's chypre. The floral notes are blended so none is distinct. There's a bunch of benzoin and some vintage amber to round it out. As it dries down, the oakmoss does take control.

Courant was a soft, warm, straight-up chypre. I remember wearing it in high school in the 1970's, it was quite popular then. We wore strong scents at a young age; it probably would not be attractive to the young women of today! It was very wearable, and I miss this one as chypres are favorites of mine. It has long since disappeared, I look for it on Ebay but I worry about it's quality after so many years. Doubt I'd wear it, but I'd love to smell it again!

EDP Top notes(fresh spicy): BERGAMOT, LEMON, neroli, aldehydes, marjoram, coriander Mid notes (floral) ORRIS, jasmine, rose, lily of the valley, ylang-ylang, lily Base notes (wood, sweet, powdery): CEDAR, MOSS, patchouli, vetiver, vanilla, benzoin, amber Top notes not very apparent in my vintage bottle. I get the floral and a touch of coriander(soapy to some) and the sweetish base. Soft floral Chypre.

Oh wow, I remember this! I bought a bottle when I was in high school (yes in the 70s), and I loved it! It was a lovely green fragrance. Pretty sophisticated for a high school girl. I'm sure I used it up, but I don't know why I didn't buy more. Maybe I'd gone on to another fragrance. Or just no $$$ for things like that. I don't remember how strong it was, but I sure hope I didn't overspray it!

This was the scent I wore at my wedding. At the time, I didn't know the meaning of the word chypre. But some things never change. My love for chypre is still here, while the man is long gone. The main reason I wouldn't say I love this scent is that it carries too much emotional baggage for me.

Fabulous classic chypre. Softer than many. Even better (IMHO) than Rubensteins Herbessence which is touted as a marvelous chypre. I believe nearly anyone could wear (Courant) this without being overpowered. It's a sin that it is no longer made. I'm actually wearing it today!

I am truly sorry about your vanilla overload, Hadas. I do not smell that note at all, so it must be a matter of skin chemistry and note sensitivity. For me, Courant is the ultimate "chypre" (and I have tried vintage Coty Chypre--the original). I get oakmoss from almost the first sniff and I love it! I have also owned Herbessence, however this one is better by far! TillyWave says it much more elegantly than I ever could!

Here is my moniker, chosen for my love of the original Helena Rubenstein perfume of the 70s. The closest I feel to Courant is when I was given a sample of Diptyque's 34 Boulevard Saint Germain, which is just a little more masculine than Courant. The restrictions on oak moss may have already impacted on 34 Boulevard, but I can only comment on the sample I was given when it was first released.

My grandmother always wore Helena Rubinstein perfumes. They were Apple Blossom and Heaven Sent. I would love to smell these perfumes again, purely for nostalgic reasons, and also to read reviews. However, I see they are not listed on this site, they were popular perfumes once upon a time.

Lovely, but a very soft chypre with my chemistry. When I did catch a whiff of my EDP, after six spritz, it reminded me of a 1950's fragrant soap-Camay. Sorry I can't identify individual notes-not even the oakmoss! At least, not yet.