Sheherazade

Sheherazade. I found and wore one bottle in the 80s. It was beautiful. It haunted me for years. Sheherazade was reformulated in 1983 off of the original 1939 version. It was short lived --discontinued late 80s. Notes: Top notes: aldehydes, orange, chamomile, blackcurrant, bergamot, geranium, pepper berries, nutmeg, cloves and rosewood Middle notes: mimosa, coriander, tarragon, daisy, lily of the valley, hyacinth, gardenia, rose, orange blossom, carnation, ylang-ylang, jasmine, orris and cassis Base notes: patchouli, wormwood, labdanum, tonka, incense, leather, civet, ambergris, pine nuts, vanilla, sandalwood, musk, vetiver, oakmoss, opoponax and benzoin Its softer and has less of an edge than the family member Bal a Versailles. Its very feminine where Bal can lean unisex. I recently obtained a rare PDT 3.3 tall splash bottle fairly intact. Top notes of the strong herbal pepper berries and rosewood grab your attention then the damascone rose and the spicy carnation...until the warm spicy deep base begins to warm the scent with the powdery vanillic opopponax enveloping the heart notes. It is a full, complex kitchen sink fragrance like Bal a Versailles. Opulent, plush and gorgeous. Im glad to meet her again. This one does the dance of the seven veils Give her TIME. After about 20 min she is off and dancing. Think of a more herbal Opium 1977 is inline with this fragrance. She is just as assertive as Opium or perhaps even more of a force to be reckoned with. Spray lightly, judge it from a distance. The trail is beautiful, foreign in 2017. Vintage enthusiasts should be able to handle her well, younger or unfamiliar with full symphonic pre-reform scents (I'm saying post 2007 players to the fragrance game) could need a few wearings to get a handle on this one..its about as full symphonic as you can get. Makes a current Arabian fragrance...easily submit. She is a Chypre that can straddle the Oriental genre. But the Chypre DNA is there Bergamot, Oakmoss and Labdanum. Sheherazade also layers well with Bal Cologne. If you are looking for sisters within this genre, try vintage Gem edt by Van Cleef and Arpels, or Roja Dove Diaghilev

Beautiful! Very unexpected and clever of the makers to use Persian spices in this. They're not listed in the notes, but the sour, tangy Sumac is unmistakable throughout. There is also genuine saffron, giving a slight metallic note that beautifully accentuates the Sumac, rose, and orris root. There seems to be a faint amount of either jasmine or bouvardia. The ylang ylang is a watery, delicate distillate, not the full-bodied languid, narcotic version. The base also has trace amounts of either civet or castoreum, possibly a small amount of deer musk, but it's truly negligible. It reminds me of a less synthetic Pavlova by Payot. Less powdery, and a bit sweeter. Overall, it's a fuzzy, soft, warm scent, with powdery facets from the orris and carnation. The beginning is quite sour from the Sumac and what I think is Quince fruit. The middle is a full-bodied, spiced floral; VERY 1980s! The long dry down is a cozy, fuzzy sweater in winter type of sweet powder. Best in cold weather. Extraordinarily high quality. More femme, but quite unisex. Great longevity and sillage. It's strong, so apply sparingly. You go nose blind to it quickly, so be sure to rotate frequently with other scents.

Sheherazade is a lovely, sultry, slightly sweet chypre with an oriental feel. The list of notes given here is surely incomplete. It opens with aldehydes, orange, bergamot, rosewood and then settles into a mossy, rich, spiced floral heart. There are definitely notes of carnation, ylang-ylang, and jasmine but it's very well blended and no one flower stands out as a star. Orris root gives it a gorgeous powderiness. The base is a bed of oppoponax, benzoin, sandalwood, civet, labdanum, incense, amber, oakmoss. I have the parfum de toilette and parfum and longevity with both is impressive. Sillage is moderate to large - heavier when sprayed than dabbed - and not as extreme as many 80s perfumes in either case. I think this could be worn by a man as well as a woman.

A ROMANTIC ORIENTAL FRAGRANCE BY THE GUY WHO BROUGHT YOU BAL A VERSAILLES Sheherazade is the heroine in the old Arabian Nights stories. She was the bride of an emir Muslim king who had beheaded all his previous wives whenever he grew tired of them. Sheherazade came up with a plan to save her life. Every night she entertained the king by telling him a diffrent story. These were the Thousand And One Arabian Nights legends we're all familiar with: Aladdin, Ali Baba, sand dunes of the Sahara, minarets, palaces, moonlight, magic carpets, jewel thieves, genies, evil sorcerers, beautiful princess in distress, peasant heroes, magic, mystery and adventure. Wearing this fragrance for me feels like I'm wearing the stories. It's a romantic Oriental floral chypre. Notes include: Carnation, rose, bergamot, ylang-ylang, vanilla, benzoin, opoponax, cassia, orris root and sandalwood. The rose is at the heart of the fragrance. The vanilla is there to sweeten it up but the bigger players are opoponax and sandalwood. I love the sandalwood in this. As a vintage fragrance collector this was a guilty pleasure. Not too many people even know about this fragrance as they prefer Desprez' popular Bal a Versailles. Well I can testify that this is much better. It smells better, it's softer, more romantic, and so very beautiful. I wish they had had more flowers like night blooming jasmine, iris and some patchouli and incense, but this fragrance never becomes too dark or unisex. This is a feminine floral fragrance of soft flowers. There is probably some warm amber as well because I could detect amber even though it's not listed on the notes on Fragrantica. This is a forgotten jewel of a fragrance that needs to return to the fragrance market. Absolutely gorgeous.

Originally released in 1939 and relaunched in 1983 using the original composition, Sheherazade was only in this production for a few years before fading into obscurity once more. This is one of the most beautiful opoponax-heavy fragrances I've encountered. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a high quantity of opoponax absolute here: it's telltale complex odor profile, woody, almost oak-like, balsamic, bitter top notes and toffee-like nuances. There's also a facet that reminds me of crushing the leaves and berries of boston ivy, which I was known to do as a kid as it grew alongside a wall near where I grew up. This opoponax, the star of Sheherazade, is accompanied by a magnificent old-world carnation accord, so peppery, clovey, honeyed and herbaceous. The interplay between the two is nothing less than intoxicating to my nose. A contrasting, flocculent fluff of mimosa, powdery yellow, becomes evident as Sheherazade enters its heart. Then there is the rose that unfurls its petals. A breathtaking opulence emerges over time, one that rivals that of Magie Noire, Opium or Cinnabar, but with a certain atmosphere that is shared with its sibling Bal a Versailles, courtesy of a civet and an IBQ/birch tar leather that heats up over time. Lest I get too technical, the truth is that this fragrance is a seductive force, one that I can get lost in, like a good book, an arresting film, a moving work of art or music.

EDT VINTAGE - Very carnation/myrrh/benzoin dominant. Orris/Ylang/Vanilla/Rose give a touch of floral complexity and natural low vegetal sweetness. Cassis gives a touch of acidic, urinous dirtiness that I do not like and it is magnified on my skin unfortunately. Also the leather in this one goes a bit sour on me. Overall very heavy, rich, thick, vintage sultry seductress type fragrance. Very like Bal A Versailles. Not one I will reach for due to the way the cassis/leather plays on my skin, but a good historical marker.