Cote d'Azur

Cote d'Azur by Louis Feraud. My all-time favorite scent now discontinued. Was released in a collaboration with Avon. A fragrance that is at once deep, original, heady & compelling. I haven't found this particular spicy sweet strong but smooth & aromatic formula anywhere: Late Autumn, wearing a 198Os solid color clingy dress with an asymmetrical statement belt loose around the waist and barely hugging the hips. Tastefully studded black heels, a subtly curled toulssed French bob. Attending a formal event with a celebratory flair. While leaving through the revolving door onto the wide city sidewalk the dried leaves make a scratching sound as the wind carries them over the concrete. Walking wrapped in a Norton McNaughton fashion-savvy bold chunky Houndstooth patterned black & white wool jacket, a coordinating Liz Claiborne beret covered with tinier Houndstooth, black leather driving gloves, a black classic Pierre Cardone scarf tucked neatly under the jacket collar, and the gold chain of a quilted Chanel flap bag draped over your shoulder. When arriving home to your studio apartment, fill a wine glass with chilled white Zinfandel, sit composedly on a rattan sofa and switch on CNN. The news footage shows a frenzied and emotional tumult of people pushing and running through mangled iron gates held by solid concrete. The Berlin Wall had fallen, right in front of your eyes. The world was born anew, and a once only dreamt-of freedom filled the air carried by the winds of change. That's the warm and reassuring aroma of Cote d'Azur to me.

Because of "Tudo Azul" by Anima Vinci, i am here to sniff this blend. Slight animalic musk with dozes of diluted 80s powerhouse stamp. Beautiful mix of musk, coconut, vanilla, lavender, & sea breeze. The musk, & coconut are balanced quite well with the help of vanilla, & light lavender. Alluring 80s power house blend. Beautiful.

Cote d'Azur by Louis Féraud, was manufactured by Avon in 1989. It is a complex, strong, mix of Chamomile, Sea Salt notes and Lavender and a lot of musk. The fragrance is named after the French Riviera, so it represents the tropical landscapes of the ocean, along with a chique floralness along the way. There is also a very faint Coconut note which appears after five minutes of application mixing in with the sea breeze accord. The drydown smells a little like Malibu sun tan lotion. It isn't the best offering in terms of Avon's vintage perfumes as changes a lot during it's application to skin, but it is nice to smell an perfume which introduces aquatic notes from an early time. It could be worn by anyone in my opinion, but it does lean towards feminine; it also lasts around 5-6 hours. Good perfume in my honest opinion.

The box and bottle are enticing, and the juice lives up to them both. A salty-fresh high summer day. The chamomile is nice and dry — not a hint of mold. The salty note is remarkably clear and non synthetic. The lavender and coconut are there, but gently, in the distance. I get honey, as well. Honey more than musk, which is a plus for my personal taste. Gives you the relaxed feeling of being at the beach all day and walking home through the dunes, sun and salt still on your skin. Delightful and very easy to wear without being insipid. Mine is from 1988.

It’s unseasonably hot where I live today and I’m wearing this again and loving it. I’m sad this gem doesn’t get more recognition.

This fragrance pioneers the combination of materials that presaged the salty-fruity aquatics of the mid-late nineties and naughts, with congeners of Calone, Melonal, and Ambroxan lending it a salty, semi-aquatic air. Cote d'Azur is an Avon fragrance, and as such the material costs are fairly budget-conscious without succumbing to overt cheapness, but here they were commissioned by a French fashion designer, Louis Féraud, and thus the quality smells a notch or two above what you might expect from Avon. The saltiness, the creaminess (vanilla, milky lactones), the fruits (peach, melon), and the sea (salinity, tea-like chamomile) all coalesce into something wearable but weird, and perhaps the inspiration for Roudnitska's 1990 creation for Mario Valentino, Ocean Rain. I also get a strong resemblance to Creed's Fleurissimo (2005 vintage) in the combo of sweet florals and salty base. A good fragrance, and if you can get a bottle for $8 like I did, well worth owning. Cote d'Azur is a collector's piece, the sort of thing you really don't appreciate until you've been in this game for ten years or longer.