Chantilly

I knew this perfume would be significant. A few reviews below, I stated: "I want this perfume so badly that my stomach has butterflies when I think of it." It came in the mail two days later. All at once I opened the bottle and, in my haste and distraction (my boyfriend was talking to me about something else), I dabbed the bottle right onto my fingertips as if it were a lotion! I've been using spray bottles for twenty years. It hit me hard and fast, and my tummy turned. I kept trying to smell my fingers (I looked ridiculous) for half an hour after that, hoping I wouldn't feel sick again - to no avail. Yes, I was worried, but stay with me here. At the same time, I consider myself of high taste, and since I always give classic works of art a second, third, fourth or hundredth try, I knew I was going to wear it again. I'm a piano teacher, and in my lessons I teach "ear-training" e.g., I play a tune, they must play it back, I clap a rhythm, they clap it back, I play chords and intervals and have my students name them, back turned. In music class, one learns how to listen. Chantilly is teaching me to sniff. There are many pleasing scents out there; I think they're mostly considered pleasant because you don't have to *try* to understand them. I've noticed in many of these reviews people say they more or less wait for the "good part" to come, and justify liking the whole perfume based on that. Imagine coming late to the symphony, just in time for your favourite part, the one with the loud horns and timpani, once the part has past, leaving again before the piece is finished. It's no crime, of course, but if you stick with the piece as a whole, and try to understand the other parts you think you don't care for, you will come to see a depth in your favourite part you didn't see before. I'm learning not to just breathe and expect Chantilly to do all the work. I envy the people who find this "nice" and "easy to wear". My grandmother didn't really wear perfume, just one or two-note powders from Marks and Spencer and Crabtree and Evelyn, so I have no pre-existing associations with the scent. My bottle is vintage Houbigant, dark coloured juice, a straight perfume. What happened tonight when I gave it another try? I was dazzled by lemon (and I generally despise lemon furniture polish and all other lemon scents). Instead of immediately trying to take it all in with a breath, I allowed myself to sniff again just enough to notice that shimmering, shiny lemon, but that was all. I gradually sniffed more out of the scent, little by little; there was the vanilla, and the carnation - oh the carnation! - spices, then my beloved tonka bean. . . The intricacy of the scent was showing, as I continued to sniff my way through. Suddenly I understood the name "Chantilly"; there was something delicate, involved and fancy about the composition as it was revealing itself. . . like lace (?): I took breaks, just to breathe normally, then back to sniffing it out: A subtle whiff of leather, I was looking for it... That continuous aura, was that oakmoss...?... By the time I came to the middle accord it was beginning to happen, I was lost in this scent, enraptured... like a bride on her wedding night, falling back onto the bed and trying to untangle herself from the beautiful mess of lace all around, skin on fire... I believe the heart of this fragrance is jasmine and ylang-ylang. It must be. When I glimpsed this accord, my hands began to shake, my eyes watered, and I whispered, "oh my God." This perfume is intricate, but not like lace. It's skin on fire one glimpses under the lace of a wedding dress, and waking up after that first night of love, it's the glimmer of warm sun glinting through lace curtains, or your undone hair, or lilting leaves outside the window... or all of the above.

I first got this one in my early teens back in the late 70s and wore this off and on through to the early 90s. I loved the body wash most of all and kept a big flat round bottle of the cologne. I tried this one out because the lady at the cosmetics department in Walgreens had heard me tell my friend that I didn't want some of the popular fragrances at the time, she Suggested I try this out,so I did and I fell in love. I didn't make the connection between this fragrance and the old 50s song until I was at my friend's house for a 50s dance lesson from her mother(there was a lot of interest in 50s things where I grew up). It was my turn to dance with her. As she was going over the steps with me (I can't remember which dance it was anymore)she pipes up Oh! you have on Chantilly! I have just the song! - she put on the Big Bopper and sang along while going through the steps with me. I also wore this on my wedding day and on my (very short) honeymoon. We were married in summer and I have always felt this was more of a summer fragrance. After many years of not wearing this(can't remember why),I picked up a 2 pack of tiny bottles at walmart on clearance, one for me and one for my daughter. I had told her about it and wanted to share it with her. I was so excited to get it home and put some on. I got the packaging off and we both sprayed it on generously - and it took our heads off! we had to wash it off due to instant headaches.We both assumed some major formula change. I told her I would get her something else and she could give me her bottle - she said the bottle was pretty so she wanted to keep it and she liked the stories I had told her about it, so it was something of a keepsake to her. I let her keep it, but I still got her some girly vanilla body spray and she was happy. Meanwhile I put mine in a drawer and left it there for 3 years. About a year ago I put it on again and same thing, instant headache! I had to wash it off again and kept the headache all night. I was wary of this one but started reading the reviews, while not all were positive, some still described the fragrance I remembered. Then it hit me look at the bottle - what potency do I have? EDT! not cologne! I had always worn Cologne. Now with a much lighter hand and under my clothes- and I have Chantilly once again! It smells just like it used to, no different on me in anyway. I get the indivdual notes of this pretty much in the same amounts as listed by the other reviewers. This is a complex femenin fragrance. This is strong yet soft, very romantic, sexy in a womanly way, but not overt.The notes change and shift on me throughout the day sometimes lemony, sometimes spicy, always vanilla and sandalwood. For those who are used to gourmond scents- this is not one of those. This is frangrance as it once was- this is classic - "Old Lady" is insulting, everyone is young and sexy at one time, and everyone grows old in due time. Now to pry that other bottle from my daughter!

Because of scents like Chantilly and L'Aimant Coty I believe in reincarnation. I Am sure no one ever among my relatives, friends, their mums, or far-away neighbours didn't use this fragrance. But I am absolutely sure I was wearing it myself. How comes I have deja vu so strong one, that I went in stupor, once I sprayed it for first time in this life. ( thanks to one very kind mother of one very generous OnAndUp) I don't understand why people call THIS - “old-fashioned”, its simply timeless. And I mean it in most metaphysical way possible – the time is not exists and doesn't have power upon you, when you wear Chantilly. You are from all epochs at once. First minutes boozy from neroli , almost like a type of fresh-made lemonade. The picture - you wearing that white long laced dress, walking out from colonial type of house with old big trees from both sides...You laugh and pour that lemonade into crystal glasses to your guests, sun is shining, shadows from the trees make whole atmosphere southern, comfy, romantic, promising. Then you are running in hurry upstairs to the house, to apply some fresh powder on your face and decolettage, because He suppose to arrive soon to your house..Chantilly softens, getting powdery, musky, its exciting – girl waits and worries a bit for something, then dry down appears- as sudden and fresh accord of fruits, leather and spices. Incomprehensible in fact dry down – it leaves lots of questions to be answered – what will happen to that girl in laced dress, who is the one she wants to see so badly, such fragrances I call - “acting ones” - they take you to the places and make you be in the centre of events. Someone mentioned its “simplistic” - all great classics are “simplistic”, the more simplistic the more realistic in surreal way. To me – same level of “simplicity” as Shalimar, Mitsuoko and Habit Rouge. Also there is movie, called The Love Letter where 20th century computer games designer Scott exchanges love letters with 19th century poet Elizabeth Whitcomb through an antique desk that can make letters travel through time. Well, that's Chantilly to me as well

I wore Houbigant Chantilly as a teenager in the mid 70s, and I'm happy to have Ebay so that I can wear it again. A couple of things - the Dana versions are horrible. The "Parquet Perfumes" versions that say Houbigant on the front of the box & bottle are mediocre. And there's another version that says Houbigant on the front of the box but then on the back explains in smaller letters that the original bottle *only* is made by Houbigant and that the actual perfume is manufactured by them (can't recall their name atm but it's one of those long lost type companies) and that they have no connection to Houbigant. And it's not very good either.. Genuine Houbigant does not have any french words on it's boxes. The majority of real Houbigant Chantilly boxes, if not all, do not have a bar code printed on them. They made parfum de toilette (often called Essence de Chantilly - a very good version equal to today's edp), eau de toilette, spray mist, spray mist concentrate, perfume -sometimes called parfum - and purse "concentres". If it's eau de parfum it is *not* original Houbigant,it's either Parquet or Dana. So anyhow if you get the Houbigant, it does indeed open with soft musky lemon, absolutely not reminiscent of toilet cleaner or air freshener like Dana's. I'm not a citrus fan but it works very well here and it pretty much sticks around gently from start to finish. It's a creamy, lightly oriental, feminine mix of vanilla, tonka, benzoin, sandalwood, and musk with notes of spice, moss, leather and a few flowers. It does have powderiness in the drydown- I believe from the orris root, carnation & musk - but it's not super prominent, unlike in the later versions which are basically talcum powder bombs. It is *not* a loud perfume, though it has a fairly typical 60s/70s sillage. It has an innocent, young vibe, and it's completely inoffensive even if you bathe in it. It's not a "look at me" fragrance. Longevity is very good.

This is my favorite fragrance from my childhood as my mother often wore it. She kept her true loves, My Sin and Chanel No5 as her dress up scents, but I always thought that Chantilly smelled the best of all of her fragrances with her particular chemistry. It always smelled so light and airy, flowery, powdery and so feminine on her, I just loved to smell her clothes. I can still smell her as I sat by her feet playing with a doll while she would stand for hours in her flowered cinch waist dresses in high heels, matching beads and earrings as she ironed my father's work clothes, shirts,hankies,shorts and tee shirts! Then she'd start on the sheets and her slips humming happily to herself and smelling simply gorgeous. Chantilly's lovely spices would blend well with the warm aroma of the chicken roasting in the oven. These women who went before us were marvelous creatures and the fragrances of their eras truly celebrated their femininity, allure and strength. Recently I came across two vintage bottles of the parfum, which I didn't realize that Houbigant ever produced that concentration in this fragrance. I was able to identify one as being from the late 70's - early 80's and the other one as being from the late 50's early 60's. This fragrance in vintage parfum concentration is an entirely different animal. It's no longer light and airy,and it's only slightly powdery. It's warm spicy, woody, resinous with exotic spices and a deep cinnamon note. It has an aura of mystery about it and once again reminds me of what a great perfumer Houbigant was through several centuries. There are several bottles of the parfum on Ebay ranging in price from $5 to $30. If you love Chantilly, you owe it to yourself to try this enchanting concentration. On me the sillage is very nice, but not extremely loud after the drydown. The longevity on my moisturized skin is unbelievable,lasting a good 24 hours.