Calandre

Calandre is part of the classics of the brand. By the way, when you access the company's official website, that's where you'll find it. It was created in 1969, which means it is almost 50 years old and has much history to tell. Incidentally, speaking of history, some say that its bottle was inspired by the United Nations Headquarters, with its wide windows on straight columns, reinforcing the urban and architectural concept of pure lines, using glass and metal. But there are controversies: some say that Paco met with Pierre Dinand (creator of the bottle) and told him that he wanted to evoke a couple having sex in a car. At the time, Dinand protested, saying it was quite uncomfortable and they would need a big car, a Rolls Royce, for example. Then, after studying the design of the car and the concept of sex on the hood, they took as inspiration the front grille of the radiator, which in French is called Calandre. The perfumer was Michel Hy, creator of classics of an era, such as Rive Gauche (1971), Mademoiselle Ricci (1967), Ivoire de Balmain (1980), among others. Obviously, after almost five decades, it has undergone reformulations and the raw materials are no longer the same. In addition, Calandre was sold in Eau de Parfum concentration and is currently manufactured as Eau de Toilette. It has aldehydes, bergamot and green accord, in the output. In the body, it has notes of jasmine, iris root, lily of the valley, rose, geranium and hyacinth. To finish, the base features notes of sandalwood, amber, musk, vetiver and oak moss. Calandre was born to break rules: its bottle was very innovative for a feminine fragrance of that time. And the perfume could not be different: a metalized rose with a powdery nuance (typical in the perfumes of the 70's) and avant-garde style, of absurd projection and also durability. I remember this fragrance in the late 80's and I can see much resemblance to what is sold in the market today. But of course, we can not compare the absurd potency of before with the moderate of nowadays. On the skin, it opens floral and dated, very old school, with powdery nuances very present. Over time, a metallic content fuses with the rose and opens space for a balsamic and mossy base, which permeates throughout the evolution. The barrier between feminine and masculine ends in the blink of an eye and, for this reason, Calandre has always been highly praised by men over the years. As the competition always existed, in 1971 Michel Hy was involved in the creation of Rive Gauche, for the house of YSL. They are really similar, but the latter is much more floral and feminine, in my opinion. Calandre resisted the time, the changes in the fashion and the market and remained faithful - as possible - to which it always represented in the perfumery universe. And remains beautiful, elegant, gender-bender and with reasonable projection and high durability. On my skin, at least, it lasts about ten hours. If there is a double-edged sword in the perfumery, which is pointed and sharp, it is called Calandre.

Paco Rabanne Calandre: (GREEN/MOSSY CHYPRE FAMILY) I have really wanted to try this perfume for a very long time,after reading that Joanna Lumley absolutely adore's both YSL Rive Gauche & Paco Rabanne Calandre,& YSL Rive Gauche is actually my ALL time favourite signature perfume!! So when I saw Calandre being sold in my favourite online perfume outlet at a really good price I had to buy it!! Have now been wearing Calandre for three day's in a row & have received SOooooooooooooo many compliments already it's unreal & I can honestly say that I also absolutely adore it!! This indeed is very very similar to YSL Rive Gauche,from the very first spray that touches your skin all the way through to the dry down!! (MY MOTHER ACTUALLY THOUGHT I WAS WEARING MY SIGNATURE YSL RIVE GAUCHE) & like myself she has a really good perfume nose!! They actually could very much be twin sisters in this (GREEN/MOSSY CHYPRE FAMILY) The only slight difference I can tell between them is that Calandre seems to be slightly lighter or more transparant where as Rive Gauche is more richer deeper & darker etc!! I now can fully understand why Joanna Lumley absolutely loves them both,& indeed why she use's them!! for both their aroma's is just outta this world,& the way they both linger around the wearer is amazing,leaving the most gorgeous aroma behind you when you leave a room!! The staying power of Paco Rabanne Calandre is absolutely fantastic too & deffo on power with YSL Rive Gauche,actually can both smell them still on my skin the next day after wearing them!! Im really so pleased that I now have Calandre firmly in my perfume collection,& yes I deffo will be buying this absolute beauty from now on along with my YSL Rive Gauche!! So if like me, you absolutely adore YSL Rive Gauche then you deffo must add Paco Rabanne Calandre to your perfume collection & see what you think about it also.

After hearing about the death of the great Paco Rabanne, I was inspired to go through my collection of vintage miniatures to hunt out some classics from the brand. I don't think much of modern PR offerings, but this and La Nuit - the perfumes I found - are both underrated gems. La Nuit is an excellent floral chypre, while Calandre is a rich green aldehydic floral. Predating classics of the genre, namely YSL Rive Gauche and Chanel No. 19, Calandre is just as good, if less celebrated. It closely resembles my vintage parfum version of Rive Gauche - a rich, dense-but-dewy green aldehydic floral. I adore the relaxed 1970s vibe of such scents. My Calandre dates from the 1990s, and despite the dark colour of the liquid, it remains bright, with most top notes intact. Calandre opens with dewy green notes, sap-like and damply fresh. There is a slight herbal quality here. Aldehydes add soapiness, giving a clean masculine feel to the opening. Powdery florals follow, enhanced by the green undertone. Lily-of-the-valley leads the way, with soft, powdery iris as a melancholic counterpoint. Sap-like hyacinth adds a vintage-style edge to the bouquet while geranium enhances the herbal component. The drydown is earthy and mossy, tending towards chypre territory with woody notes adding depth. A soft muskiness emerges as it fades, with powdery florals remaining as it becomes a skin scent. Sillage and longevity are moderate. Green from initial spray until final fade, Calandre is beautifully balanced - airy yet dense, powdery yet dewy, punctuated by its greenery and relatively subtle use of aldehydes. Feminine-leaning, but perhaps unisex by today's standards, it is an ideal springtime scent, expertly composed. Objectively excellent, Calandre also happens to be tailored to my personal taste. Green genius. 5/5.

I have the new formulation of Calandre EDT. I bought it after reading reviews on how it resembles on vintage Rive Gauche (new Rg is my signature). Well, I don't know original Calandre but I assume this new perfume must be different from the vintage. At the initial spray it really reminds me of RG, it has that slightly sharp, metallic feeling to it that I love so much. But on my skin, Calandre becomes very quickly a beautiful, very easy-to-wear green fragrance that is musky and powdery a bit, I even dare to say sweet (but by no means the way recent mainstreem fragrances smell sweet). There's not too much cool or metallic or old-school feeling here anymore, it's rather juicy and also reminds me faintly on the sadly discountinued Envy by Gucci (maybe because of the lily of the valley). For about an hour later the drydown reminds me on vintage RG's drydown but agan, new Calandre is much easier to wear it's definetely a modern scent. It is very nice, even pretty, different from most of the fragrances nowadays out there, but not entirely special in my humble opinion and I have a feeling that I will be easily tired of it. However, I like it and would recommend it to try. Update: now I'm testing this and vintage RG edt side by side. And surprisingly enough there is much more resemblance than I first remembered. from the first spray to the drydown they're developing in parallel, maybe Calandre is more bold and RG is warmer. but they are much closer to eachother than vintage RG and current RG are! Actually, one may think, albeit they are definetely not the same, that the differences are due to the age of the old vintage RG edt and not that they are entirely different perfumes. I highly recommend Calandre for those who are longing for vintage Rive gauche and can't accept the new formula

Let me tell you about Calandre..and Metal and Eau de Metal..They all have an ethereal metallic note in them. I first used Paco Rabanne's Metal which I loved wearing when I was 20. At that time I had never smelled Calandre-only Metal. Forward 30 years,I walk into a shop where they had only retro fragrances and asked if they had Metal. They told me they had only Calandre and that it smells dated and fits more older women. She was so wrong! What is dated anyway?? When Calandre came out, it was mostly younger women who bought it-it certainly did not attract only older women. The perfume itself has a certain formula which attracts only a certain group of people, be it in the past or present. After spraying it on my forearm, I left the store and by the time I had walked down one block, I realised how much this perfume expressed me.. At first spray, you get a blend of adelhydes with bergamont, geranium, rose, jasmine and hyacinth. After the aldehydes wear off, WOW! Calandre tranforms into a soothing, very pleasant breeze of a slightly powdery chypre with a long staying power. It almost smells like an expensive shampoo, or a high priced body lotion that you feel so comfortable with and love smelling on you. I would describe this as a flowery first,green second, and powdery chypre last. Hard to describe it really, but that's its beauty! I actually dislike rose smell in general(much more so in perfumes!) but Calandre is one perfume that my nose accepts its rosy note.