Chaldee

Chaldée is named after the ancient Babylonian city of Chaldea. It is said that the beauties of Chaldea had amber (golden) skin. Jean Patou envisioned Chaldée as a scent he could smell on the beauties of Chaldea. Chaldée is a benzyl salicylate white-floral perfume. Henri Alméras repeats the main note of Le Balcon, a Rosine parfume he created in 1921. Immediately after introducing the floral scent with the green of hyacinth, I notice two of the notes - neroli absolute is fresh, bright and citrusy, while narcissus absolute brightens up the overall color palette. The large-flowered jasmine is complemented by the refreshing odor of indole and the humidity of the tropical climate. As the jasmine fades, its petals rot and turn brown, the ripe scent is wrapped up in it. Powdered carnations with red myrrh and cloves give the Chaldée an oriental ambience, sweetened by a creamy amber-vanilla-musky woody base. The most obvious of the resin materials is benzoin, which is soft and warm, and Chaldée is suspected to have added Mousse de Saxe, but not in large doses. The 1984 Chaldée is sweeter than the 2014 Heritage Collection version. The Heritage Collection Chaldée is also remade from the original recipe. Due to IFRA restrictions, the new Chaldée is not as delicate as the 1984 version. The structure of the two versions is more or less the same, and there is no huge difference in flavor.

Hyacinth and faint orange flower create a floral mélange opening. Joining aspects of the floral opening are a very dominant lilac and a touch of jasmine and narcissus. Frankincense enters, but it almost starts disappearing at this point. It's not very strong, but it does come back a bit for basenotes of amber and frankincense, and a tiny touch of vanilla. Jasmine still hanging in the background. A touch of vanilla softens the base as it dries down. It's nice in a vintage way. I'm not sure of the date of my sample, but I'm inclined to think it's a vintage version. A bit pissy at the end....

I'd been searching for a smell-a-like cousin to old Bain de Soleil orange gelee and bought a small bottle of this older version of Chaldee, and well, yeah, nope. It smells sorta like BdS, maybe, but BdS isn't the first scent that comes to mind when I smell it. It's possibly dated/rancid?, so maybe the age of the edp is off, but I smell old lady perfume from the 1970s? And cat urine. My search for a beachy fragrance continues!

As others have said, this opens with a bracing green note, then slowly becomes more floral while also becoming warmer. Two drops on my wrist from a mini in the Ma Collection Parfums d'Epoque box, and I'm smelling the whole thing, so this needs to be applied with a light hand. Soft, a bit powdery in the drydown. Very classic and elegant, though if you don't like classic perfumes such as Chanel No. 5 and Joy, you may not like this.