Indiscret

I would love to try the new version, and as I like to see the old houses continue, I might eventually. I have had a package of nips for a while that I finally broke into an hour or so ago. One nip later, I had been through the kitchen earlier, was back in the bedroom and my husband came in to ask if I was burning incense. Now, that's sillage, folks! Yes, it does indeed have a resin, incense, smoky quality that keeps it from being fruity/floral girly as you might think from the description here. A nip that has been completely sealed and protected from light is about the closest to the original scent as you could find today. I don't know what the darkened vintage versions will be like, but you can bet that I am going to find out as soon as I can! OMG, this is glorious and unlike anything I can think of. I don't get the orange or bergamot at all, I do get the geranium and galbanum. Lauren Bacall, huh? I love being in such company. I can definitely see this working for a man or a woman with strength, confidence and purpose.

A wonderful Fragrantican (and a darn excellent writer) kindly sent to me several very vintage parfum "nips" recently. Indiscret had to be the first I used, as I've been curious about this fragrance for a long time. On my skin, quite sophisticated clove and carnation are most apparent. Either done with restraint, or perhaps mellowed by age... no matter, the result is divine! These two powerful notes are tempered by the florals, which have held their own through the years. Lovely. There comes up a most wonderful orange/mandarin, that is rather surprising. It is subtly sweet, a twist of sour, just what the doctor ordered! I am humbled by a good number of vintage fragrances. Indiscret is somewhere near the top of that particular list. I won't even try to find a correct bottle. But I'll always keep the memory of this sultry and interesting wonder in mind (just in case) ;) Try it if you get the opportunity. You'll be glad you did.

This page needs some clarification. The bottle shown at the top, a recent incarnation is in fact a very fruity floral, and has no relationship whatsoever to the original Indiscret by Jean Carles. Fragrantica should really clarify this. I have had both kinds of Indiscret. The original one, smelled obviously so many years after it was made, was a green juice, came across like a spicy floral scent with some refreshing green notes in it. I have no idea what was in the base, but I don't believe it was leathery and it certainly wasn't a cedar chest type of base either. It was simply divine, and a type of perfume that hasn't existed in probably 40 years. The new Indiscret as shown above is basically indistinguishable from the hundreds of fruity florals which have been cranked out since the 1990s. Heavy and sweet and fruity. Not my bag.

This is a lightly-citrusy floral with a fair amount of green up top, with a lovely sweet ylang ylang in the mix, woods and spice. Gorgeous from top to bottom and it wears well on me. I don't think it's strong or overpowering, but rather strong and stable, like a woman who's been through lots of ups and downs in her life and has evolved and been strengthened by it, rather than defeated. It's hard to keep my nose away from my skin when I wear this, I just want to bury my face in it and be surrounded by it. I have the vintage and used to have the reformulation, till I used it up. The new juice is a bit brighter, slightly less spicy, and seems to have more citrus up top than the original, but close enough that I can still tell it's the beautiful Indiscret.

When I was a child a neighbor had an extensive collection of vintage 30s and 40s French perfumes and Indiscret was one of them and one of my favorites, along with Le dix de Balenciaga and Shocking by Schiaparelli. Unusually for a 30s scent it has no aldehydes ( the "modern" perfumes, since aldehydes began to be used by Chanel 5) or civet (the "exotic" ones, like Shalimar) or even both which makes it very distinctive for its era.Perhaps because of that it comes off as more modern than most fragrances of the time.Its aroma was woody floral with an spicy aura (there are no spices here but I remember them on Indiscrete), very feminine (with a femme fatale aura) and very long lasting with heavy to moderate sillage(one daub was good for 10 hours).