Volupté

Review for vintage EDT: This bottle is truly striking in person, very art nouveau, with clean lines and a nice heft. The cap on the 1.7 oz splash bottle is a touch strange, as the angled form needs to be twisted until it sits perfectly flush. However, the seal seems to be quite good once it is fit properly, and I'm not seeing any leaks, despite there being no threads on the stopper. My skin tends to eat florals, and my initial application left me wondering where the famed Volupte power was. A second application, trailing from wrist to elbow brought enlightenment. To my nose, Volupte opens with bitter narcissus very much forward, supported by osmanthus. Where osmanthus frequently has a suede like scent to me, and occasionally smells of plums, this osmanthus reminds me strongly of apricot fruit leather- dense, more tart than sweet, distinctly tangy. The sillage, for some reason, reminds me of buttered toast...served first thing in the morning, with tea, and apricot preserves (osmanthus) eaten sitting in the sunshine. I'm not sure where this accord is coming from, but it is quite distinct, and surprisingly joyous. The heart opens slowly, after more than an hour. Soft, sweet mimosa, faint LoV, the slightest touch of carnation appear. Then jasmine and cyclamen move forward, supported by the fantasy peony note. Throughout this phase the fantasy freesia note is present, but not plasticky, adding a sense of "gloss" to the scent. Eventually a touch of tuberose shows up, demure, almost shy, very unusual for this note. In the dry down heliotrope and melon step forward, supported by sandalwood and a touch of incense. Start to finish, I would classify Volupte as cheerful, surprisingly fresh, and thoroughly unexpected. The very sweet notes are carried by the almost herbal, very green, bitter narcissus base. The fruits are not the sugared versions that have been prevalent for the past decade, but rather tart. The floral elements are blended with a beautifully light touch, and the sweetness they bring is glorious, and never overwhelming. I had expected Volupte to be heavy, a cool weather scent. Instead this is one of the most light filled scents that I have encountered, serenely joyous, energizing, the sort of scent that reminds you to stop and experience the world around you. Volupte, to my mind, is not so much about voluptuousness in the sense of sex appeal, but rather the voluptuousness of fully experiencing the world around us, dwelling in the present, and mindfully engaging with the multitude of stimulation all around. For me, Volupte is a meditation retreat in a bottle, perfect for those times when you can't disappear for a week, but you really need a break. This is a go to scent! On my skin it needs warm weather to really be apparent in all it's glory, but it is wearable year round, and I think it will be a wonderful anodyne to winter blahs. Elegantly casual, effortlessly chic. I feel like this is the perfect scent to wear when one isn't sure what note to hit, but needs to impress. Tremendously versatile, and a joy to experience.

I adore this scent so much it brings a tear to my eye when I am feeling particularly nostalgic and a tad melancholic. I am grateful for it, for, in many ways, this divinely rapturous scent brought me back to life. (Hang with me friends, I will get to it. This one has taken some time to even express.) A dear friend love-gifted a perfume mini to me in the early '90s, several months after suddenly losing my beloved young sister. My friend worked a well-respected perfume counter and Volupte arrived along with a mini of Tresor and several samples of luxe cosmetics. I was in my late 20's at the time and The Bad News of my lifetime made the chilly grey winds of fall and winter unbearably bitter. I think I actually died. Somewhere in my haze of unbeing and being, the daze/days grew a bit longer and the sun began to shine but I could not awaken... though I do recall a short, meaningless sleepwalk to the mailbox. The parcel inside was a curious thing though I was numb and frozen. My emotions were flat as I recall The first choice of sample being the Oscar mini. I chose it because the little bottle seemed smooth and soothing to touch, and it was. It happened with the first dab to my wrist. I cannot recall the time-lapse. It seemed like seconds and years of the strange sensation that suddenly overwhelmed me. Something was happening in my chest, no, my heart; the deepest place in it, the dead part with the big hole bearing my beloved only sister's name. Putting my nose to my wrist with eyes closed, I suddenly began weeping, pouring tears that would not stop as I saw and smelled the golden sun, the purple-blue of violet and heliotrope, velvety pink carnations like that of new birth and skin, the fresh burst of lush green and life itself. Being dead, I thought Heaven had surely come to save me. I still cannot say why I had never felt so loved at that moment but I did. Not only did I love Volupte, Volupte seemed to love me even more. It was a bouquet of pure love, life, laughter, and every wonderful memory of my life. After existing so long as a ghost moving through a black and white void, this liquid gold was a divine arrival. It was everything celestially beautiful, elegant, precious, and soft with the power of a loving hug mixed with laughter on The Best Spring Day one could possibly ever dream of or imagine... and I cried for gratitude... that I was alive. I had somehow survived... as Volupte whispered "Awaken sweet Girl, and live. You are alive... and life is beautiful." :) Volupte is intensely precious and glorious; a gorgeous blend not credited only for breathing life back into my soul, though it absolutely did. I still believe only this scent could have gifted me in the miraculous way it did. Supremely thick with love, life, and color, I prefer it in the cooler months to offset the sometimes too many grey days. Thank you so much Miss Grosjman! If you only knew.)

Wow! The two reviews below this couldn't be more different. That sounds like the mark of an interesting fragrance - and so it proves to be. I'm currently trying to get my head round the "Yellow flower / white flower" thing. White flowers are - jasmine, lily, tuberose, lily of the valley and so forth ... yellow flowers are - mimosa. linden, narcissus, ylang-ylang, etc. As I understand it. So this is a blend of white and yellow, actually. Yellow flower fragrances seem on the whole to attract fewer fans than white flowered ones. Perhaps the flowers themselves are more distinct from one another, or blend less well together? Incidentally I like the colour scheme here - the juice is very yellow and the cap (though plastic and ill-fitting, which isn't ideal) is very green. Kind of sets you up for what is to come. Anyway I digress. Volupte is an absolute powerhouse in what seems increasingly to be called "the 80s style". The opening is a big blast of various things - I see other people have detected melon, violet, lily of the valley, carnation and all sorts. Once this passes the mimosa comes to the fore and works its usual softening effects. This counterbalances an ongoing slight bitterness (the narcissus perhaps?) in what I find to be a most interesting and exciting way. Wafts of fragrance hit my nose as I move and I feel myself to be sophisticated, intriguing and a little exotic. Sillage and longevity are great, and the drydown continues in a similar way but more muted. Nothing stands out particularly for me but perhaps the incense contributes a mysterious effect. The thing is, they REALLY don't make then like this any more outside niche houses. This was what sophisticated women used to smell like as a matter of course. They used fragrances that were bitter, smokey, leathery, powdery, green and so forth, because they were interesting and beautiful and there wasn't a one-size-fits-all approach to perfume. Now your choices, even as a mature woman, are - do you want to smell sweet and fruity, or sweet and floral? Unless you are very avant-garde of course, in which case you may put on something by Tauer or Lutens and smell - well, like this perhaps. Anyway, thank goodness for the internet, which allows anyone to find lost gems like this for a song on ebay and then read all about them here on Fragrantica. Three cheers! I love Volupte. It couldn't be my signature because there's just too much going on and I can't see myself in it while shopping at the supermarket. Nevertheless if you want your fragrance to be interesting, exciting and different, give it a try.

Bittersweet & Voluptuous Elixir with a Vintage Vibe... Floral Green scent by Nicholas Calderone & Sophia Grojsman was released the same year as the film, Death Becomes Her (1992), a dark comedy film-noir starring Meryl Streep, Isabella Rossellini, Bruce Willis & Goldie Hawn. This film is something of a reinterpretation of Sunset Boulevard (1950) featuring an aging starlet searching for the promise of eternal youth. Like the small vial of dangerous & magical elixir, wielded by Lisle (played by Isabella Rossellini), this scent has a bittersweet & dangerous quality. In addition to the bittersweet quality, there's a voluptuous quality to this scent, and I could imagine Isabella Rossellini wearing this on set, or the eternal youth elixir smelling like this. In the same way the film searches for eternal youth, Volupté searches for the glimmer of peachy promise, and the comparisons to Trésor Lancôme are justified with a major caveat: over the Trésor-like base is a layer of sharp & bitter florals combined with incense with a vintage flair. Again, like the film, there's a dark side to what we wish for, but the resulting scent here is complex, darkly nuanced & maturely beautiful. Alternatively, my one complaint with the film is that in the end it should have been a women who learned from the mistakes of others to age gracefully. This isn't for the faint of heart. Opens with a burst of fruity-florals including mimosa & melon, and already narcissus & incense are swelling through with bittersweet tones. The effect here in the opening is bittersweet & vintage florals, and I get vague reminders of Jardins de Bagatelle Guerlain. As it transitions to the heart, softer & sweeter florals come through with powdery heliotrope & ylang leading the way. The base has a faintly creamy sweetness from sandalwood & tuberose. This has excellent performance for year-round wear, but spray with caution as it could quickly become too much in warmer weather. Vintage scent lovers, enjoy! Update 07/29/24: Sprayed this on this morning in search of melon. It's aged really nicely and the everything is seeming more well blended and less sharp than I remember, with the sandalwood & vanilla more forward now. Although the vanilla has aged, it's still somewhat sharp if I put my nose up close to where I sprayed on my wrist, but in the air it's a beautiful, soft blend of white & yellow florals with a peachy melon tilt, backed up by sandalwood & vanilla. After aging, it smells more like Trésor Lancôme to me. More beautiful than I remember.

I finally found the perfume DNA in the 90s that i was looking for a long time. I purchased 20+ 90s perfume looking for this DNA and i tried Lancome Tresor but it's too peachy. When I was young in the Philippines growing up i smelt this at my foster parent's house. She own loads of perfume from Brunei and I remember I used to smell her perfume bottles. It was soo luxurious all of her perfume. Out of all this is the DNA that captured my heart. When I was 13 they sent us back in the orphanage because we're about to get adopted. I remember i was in High School in the Philippines and in the orphanage I gotten my very first allowance and it was 100 Philippines Pesos. I have to make that last for a whole month. I save up 3 months worth of this perfume from Sarah Lee catalog (Philippines version of Avon) and i bought this perfume. It smells hust like Oscar Dela Renta Volupté. A week after I gotten it one of the next neighbor orphans stole it and when I report it she broke it. She actually figure if she can't use it she'll just broke the bottle and mix it with the mop water. I have 400+ perfume now and nothing really compared to this perfume. The memory, my first hard earn money, the very first allowance, and my very first perfume. Although I didn't get the chance to enjoy it back then I can finally enjoy it now. The coincidence is that 2004 our orphanage was hosting a program where they'll send orphans kids like my siblings and I to USA to visit a family for summer. The summer we visit USA the host family took us to garage sale and I found a lotion that smells like it called Moonlight Path by Bath & Body Works and it was use. They gave us $10 and I literally spent it on that halfway use lotion. While we were here in Louisiana it has so many memory because we got adopted by the same host family. This DNA scent reminds me of so many memories of 2003-2007.