Cocktail

Cocktail does feel like a libation for the nose: tart citrus and juicy honeysuckle rolled into aromatic, dry lavender, with Pimm's on the rocks. It's a piquant sparkle, a clink of glasses, a party on the veranda, and a simmering balsams and boudoir orris beneath the sheets. I love the approach of fruitiness in the golden age of perfumery, where the limited palette meant some ingenuity from perfumers like Henri Almeras to fill in the gaps. Here, with Jean Kerleo reconstructing from what is presumed to be the original formula, it seems that this impressionistic pre-modern fruitiness is intact, using a sweet, green rose to illuminate it all. Another dazzler. [from 1984 Ma Collection mini]

Totally, refreshingly, wonderful!

Cocktail Dry is a member of the green chypre family. However, it is worth noting that Cocktail Dry was launched in 1930. When Jean Patou revived the fragrance, the Dry attribute was dropped and only the Cocktail name was retained. The greenness of Hyacinth-Petitgrain is bright and cool, though slightly sharp, but it is quickly overpowered by the geranium-rose floral notes, the bitterness of which is diluted and neutralized by the floral notes, and the fougere of the lavender is prominent. The bitter flavors of the cocktail are more adult-friendly than those with added sugar. Cocktail is quite dry and its herbal combination reminds me of gin, and Henri Giboulet's homage to Cocktail is presumably Gin Fizz, the “cocktail” perfume he created for Lubin many years later. Cocktail is the second lavender fragrance in the Patou collection, and it is very different from Moment Suprême in that Cocktail focuses on the other facets of lavender.

Beautiful! I just bought a vintage sealed box and it came with a hand rolled pocket square that is just as fashionable today as when the perfume was first formulated. Perhaps not as great as Kerleo's offerings for Patou but still a brilliant fragrance which is incredibly well rounded.

I smell citrus, rose, oakmoss, lavendar and amber. It's got a little bit of powder too. This is actually a wonderfully refreshing perfume, like drinking a margarita on a hot summer day. Very nice!