Carnation

I wore Mary Chess Carnation and Mary Chess Tuberose perfumes in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I haven't sniffed either in years, so this review is based solely upon my memories. I mail-ordered both from one of those discount cosmetic catalogs that came in the mail back in the day (“Beauty Buy Book” was the name of one of them). TUBEROSE was a bit disappointing for me, as it didn’t smell like its namesake at all on my skin. Of course, I was looking for something like Fracas, which has been my favorite fragrance since I started wearing it in the 1970s. Instead of the creamy (yet sharp) and sweet (yet earthy) scent that I associate with tuberose, The Mary Chess fragrance was was heaver and warmer – this sounds odd, but something in it reminded me of Faberge's Tigress or Frances Denny's Hope. I recall that it was sweet, and what I would have called "old-fashioned," which makes perfect sense since it came out in the 1930s. A nice fragrance, but not at all what I was expecting. I see that the Vermont Country Store sells something called "Mary Chess Tuberose Gardenia." I have no idea what it smells like, but I've heard bad things about other vintage fragrances that VCS stocks remakes of. CARNATION, though was exactly what I was hoping for - it really did smell like carnations, or other flowers in the dianthus family, with a little clove and vanilla thrown in for good measure. In fact, it's the closest to the real flower that I've ever experienced in a perfume. Some of my friends thought that it smelled like a man's cologne - perhaps the carnation scent is more prevalent in masculine fragrances rather than feminine ones. I hope that someone out there in perfume land can sample some of the actual products and let me know if I'm remembering them correctly.

This is a light, lively carnation, perfect if you enjoy the scent of actual carnations but find other vintage carnation scents stifling or heavy. There’s something joyful and sweet about this carnation, evoking bubble gum to my nose. Supporting the star is just a touch of green notes along with a hint of tuberose and gardenia. While most of my carnation scents get the most use in winter, this is a perfect warm weather, feminine carnation. Today I am home sick from work with a slight fever, and wearing this watching Bogey and Bacall movies. Somehow I can imagine Ms. Bacall wearing this simple, slightly gender-bending delight.

This has the single-mindedness and clarity of a soliflore, but the depth and richness of something much more complicated and intriguing. The opening green notes in my bottle have long since departed. What remains is a luscious, borderline medicinal, tincture. It's almost hypnotic intensity is offset by wafts, by turn, of dusty pollen and the sweet floral mastic of those scented childhood sweets called floral gums.