Jil Sander Woman I (Woman Pure)

This was one of the first perfumes I ever became aware of when I was a little girl. I loved this perfume when I was 10 and recently bought a vintage Eau de Toilette splash bottle on Ebay - and as it turns out, I still love it. My perfume tastes, unlike those of so many others, have not changed since I was a kid - nor have they, in fact, become significantly broadened with age and experience. That is one of the great riddles for me: nothing has remained quite as unchanging as my olfactory attractions! Now I am beginning to understand better why: I love oakmoss, green notes, and galbanum - love them, and have very limited tastes for perfumes that don't contain those. My mother used to have Givenchy III, Eau de Givenchy, Gucci III, and Scherrer. I will never know whether I love those scents because they were my mother's or because my mother just happened to have the perfumes that happen to appeal to me. Jil Sander Woman Pure is a soft, perfectly balanced, ever so slightly powdery yet still fresh and clean chypre - a kind of beginner's chypre, not because it is simple, but because it is so mellow. I think it is related to vintage Balmain Ivoire, which is stronger and more citrusy, and to Chanel 19, which is sharper and greener. Love them all, but of the three the Jil Sander is the most easily wearable. Absolutely lovely, and timelessly, prettily, perfectly feminine. While at it, I can also recommend, highly, the equivalent Jil Sander Man I (Pure). It strikes me as of the very same spirit, only in unisex. It is the softest men's fragrance I know.

The burnished luster of Jil Sander Woman (I) is uncommon even among the numerous green floral chypres of its time. My ages old bottle flourishes with that chartreuse stem-snap of galbanum, deliciously bitter and astringent, inflecting a penetrating vibrance to a shiny-oxide rose and fleshy gardenia (a helping of silvery-green styrallyl acetate). However, not one beat feels coarse or sharp. Other florals chime within its heart, undefined blooms that at once remind me of jasmine and then of muguet, but what ends up most forward is the current of vetiver running through it. Then there is the most mesmerizing dry down, a moss vapor filling the spaces between the flowers and grasses and a cozy, powdery leather, with the lingering glints of luminous foliage green as the vetiver starts to feel a bit smokier. The imagery in my mind is that of misty air in a new growth forest, with lots of ferns and lichen in its understory. This is not only compelling but elegant in a way that would accommodate any gender mold, enhancing the femininity or the masculinity in whoever wears it. This ranks up there with No. 19, Silences, and Ivoire de Balmain—a staggering force.

Im sure you will not be dissapointed, it is a true chypre classic!

23. february 2012 This review is for pure perfume/extrait, i also have an EDT spray and i have bit different impression from that than parfum. I recieved my purchase today and was really excited to try it. I have a vintage pure parfum 15ml size in a numbered bottle. Upon applying it opens up with intense oakmoss and vetyver. Very intense and very sharp. Very green indeed. It instantly reminded me of "Y" by YSL. Then couple of minutes later it becomes even more similar to "Y" by turning into powdery scent. I was getting really upset because i was thinking: "well here go another wasted 50euros on something i would not like at all, just for collectible purpose". And then when i almost lost my hope it has changed (aprrox. after 10-15 minutes). It stopped becoming powdery and started to become more soft and i could finally smell leather note. The leather saved it all. Now several hours upon application it became a really nice scent with a bit of everything: bit green, bit powdery, bit leathery, even a dusty rose is present here (yep, i call it a dusty rose, since it is a rose with a hint of powder). It is not heady anymore, not sharp, quite moderate. Like Action said this is chypre indeed and for those who like chypres it might be a bliss but i still have many years to wait since i might start to enjoy it or just have to try it in a different weather. UPDATE: many hours later it becomes very much pleasant leather-rose combination of notes. Lovely, but too sad i had to wait for it for so long. It is strange but the very drydown reminds me somehow of the "Rumba" by Balenciaga with it ́s leather-rose notes. I will buy a EDT as well and try it also.

I highly dislike anything that has to do with oakmoss (one exception exists though) and aldehydes have a very harsh projection on me but this one is really a very nice scent. It is so well blended and so surprisingly well 'balanced'. I'm not able to smell oakmoss or aldehydes that usually dominate the perfumes which contain them. It's an 'old school' perfume, bearing the marks of its era (80s) but it's not old fashioned. Its initial stages remind me of a deluted Chanel 19. It smells somewhat harsh for half an hour but after a while it transformes to an airy, minty composition. The dry down phase lasts long. It's clearly a mature scent and a very good quality perfume, I think.