Lauren

This is THE perfume that got me started on my mad perfume obsession. It was my first grown up perfume and I got it for Christmas when I was sixteen. I think it's always been a sleeper of a fragrance, it seemed that it had more of a cult following. There is nothing out there like this scent. Nothing. I defy anyone to find anything that can stand in as a substitute for Lauren. I learned it cannot be done after years of searching for a replacement. And please if anyone can suggest a fragrance that you think can serve as a similar replacement, please pm me. Lauren (vintage) is the scent that started the fruity floral genre and yet its nothing like the fruity florals of today. The pineapple is a stand out in the top notes and blends amazingly with the sage and other florals. Pineapple sounds like it would be an odd note for a perfume and yet if it were removed something would be missing. Each note belongs together in Lauren. This is why everyone feels as though the new formulation has been butchered. It has. The new formulation smells like a soapy oakmoss bomb. I recently bought a vintage bottle from Ebay. God bless ebay. I only bought it, because I just could not find a perfume oil dupe that gets it right. For a long while I swore off wearing mainstream department store perfumes because I wanted to avoid the additives and chemicals in those perfumes. But for Lauren I had to break my own rule. I just couldn't deal with the sad copys of Lauren I was getting and I longed to smell this perfume again the way I remembered it to be. When I received my red narrow bottle with the gold cap, and opened her up to smell it, I was immediately thrown back to the moment when I first smelled Lauren and feeling that intrigue. Lauren is like the smell of potpourri in the home of a rich genteel man. It's this rich floral, pineappley, green, herbal, mossy, dream of a scent. Please oh please, Ralph Lauren relaunch this perfume to it's former glory. Bring it back so that everyone can see the beauty she really is.

"Little Ditty 'bout Jack and Diane..." Lauren is THE fragrance of GenX high schoolers in the late 80s. At least it was for me, coming from a mostly white affluent suburb in the northeast. I wasn't rich, barely lower middle class, but most of my friends were (think Molly Ringwald as the poor girl who had to make her own prom dress in Pretty in Pink). Several of my rich friends wore this and I absolutely loved it. It took me a year to get a bottle by saving up babysitting money, and once I did, I loved it and wore it nonstop (but I always felt like an imposter wearing it). Putting my issues aside, I absolutely love this fragrance and wish I could still get it today (pre-reformulation). This is one of those 80's scents which doesn't smell like a realistic thing in nature, but instead it's an abstract floral that simply smells like "Lauren." I suppose it's probably the specific blend of florals which are just so perfect, but in particular the carnation-lily mix with a sweet fruity quality over woods really makes this so nice. Like I already mentioned, it's been reformulated (drastically) and it's not the same scent. The two that I really swooned over in the late 80's were LouLou and Lauren. We really *wore* our fragrances back then and I imagine our classes in high school were a heady fragrant mix of so many big scents (the jocks wore Polo and that sh*t would choke you out). Perfumes, cologne and cigarettes must have always been in the air because we used to sneak smoking in the bathroom and outside and don't even get me started on my love of clove cigarettes.... :-) "Oh yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone" "Oh yeah" He's saying "Life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone" A little ditty 'bout Jack and Diane Two American kids doin' the best they can

So fresh and so green, green is Lauren, like the sun touching down on mown grass and boxwood hedges, warming even the shady perimeters lines with lily of the valley, and bursting open lilac blooms in early May. Now there is also...pineapple. A supporting note, right where I think it should belong (much like in Jean Patou Colony). It's there to make the greenery more juicy, tart, and bright, and I love this facet to Lauren, reminiscent of spurge or dandelion even. This genius move was courtesy of Bernard Chant, the maestro of "sculpting" perfumes, of "contouring," allowing elements to enter the space with perfect timing throughout development. Here, the elegance of Lauren is in its oxygen rather than in moody density. It moves into the dry down almost surreptitiously, no abrupt turns here, its just apparent after some time after some violets move into the picture and obscure the muguet and the titillating sharpness slowly reads more as "spice" than "bite", suggesting the silhouette of carnation and a musky cedarwood coda. This is all based on the vintage Warner 'Cologne Spray' version in my possession, as it has been expressed subsequent versions would be stripped of its character and it was believed by Luca Turin to be hollowed out, a "muguet pretender" as he put it. It was eventually discontinued altogether, with even newer formulations prior to ceased production going for a pretty penny. I was lucky to find this in an antique mall for ten bucks. My Chant collection is pretty much complete!

Lauren is one of my mom's favorites. She still has 7 bottles of the vintage from 1979-1983 as stocks set aside since she has more bottles of Diorissimo which she often wears as her number one perfume. I researched about Lauren and read reviews on its masculine qualities. Yes, it is floral but green and spicy which l love. I got a new bottle so my mom can test to compare it from her vintage bottle. She asked "what happened to this?" Then she got one from her well stored and well preserved stocks and opened it at last. After spraying l noticed what a beautiful and divine smell it emitted. The new bottle l got is inferior in quality and in strength. After reading her the recent reviews about it as a unisex fragrance in today's standards, she gave me her vintage bottle that she just opened. I was so happy to have the original. I sold the new bottle l bought. For more than two years now l started to wear scents for females that have masculine vibes aside from my men's and unisex colognes from 1900's-present. Lauren is absolutely one of the best classics created by the great Bernard Chant. In these days perhaps only 5% of the world's perfume wearers love or wear this. I am one of them. This is class and sophistication for a unique man to wear. Not at all old and dated. I got lots of good compliments from young and old, men and women. Only my mom knows what l am wearing. Thanks a lot mom.

I met my wife in 1980 when we were both 19 years old. We worked together for one year and became friends. Then we dated for one year, were engaged for nine months and got married. She wore Lauren when we were dating and that scent always made me smile. We were very happy together and raised two sons. Sadly, she passed away last year just before our 40th wedding anniversary. Cancer sucks! After the funeral when I was going through her dresser I found her half-filled bottle of Lauren. The smell of that bottle brought back a flood of happy memories and I started crying again. On what would have been our 40th anniversary I sprayed some Lauren on the felt back of our wedding picture that I kept on a table in our living room. Every time I went near that table I would smell the perfume and think of her. The scent was still strong on her birthday a month later and I could detect it two or three months later. Since the perfume is no longer available I will conserve that bottle and apply it to our wedding picture every year on our anniversary. I am now 64 years old. I hope that bottle will last as long as I do.

My mom just got a brand new bottle of lauren and of course I had to smell it. This is yet another winner. You know, it's weird most 70s scents don't match the gold, orange, and avocado, bell bottoms ugliness of the time. This one is fresh, earthy, woodsy and almost spicy. VERY VERY clean. I would describe this as Sung's slightly dirty sister. It also kind of reminds me of coast soap (which i'm obsessed with). The bottle is really, really nice. That burgundy color is my favorite. Also the gold, knobby cap compliments the bottle well. It's not overpowering so you can use thats as an everyday signature. Contrary to popular belief, this is still readily available from the Ralph Lauren website as well as the websites of Macy's, Dillards, Nordstrom's ect.... People tend to assume that since that don't see it on a counter that it must be discontinued. So if you've been depressed thinking that you can't any more of this precious juice, get happy and grab yourself a bottle. You'll be glad you did!

An update to my review below: I had the newer EDT before and I just bought a bottle of the Cologne Vintage version. My oh my, I didn't know it was possible for me to LOVE Lauren more than I already do. The Vintage one is fuller, warmer, and softer around the edges. It's a little spicier and the green notes are less sharp (so it smells more like a forest and less like fresh cut grass on someone's yard). I like the initial green overload rush in the EDT version better (maybe the cologne had it too at one point? It's possible that the top notes became weaker over the decades). The vintage is definitely more mature and has an animalic overtone (civet?), but not in your face like Tabu. I can't stop smelling myself. It lasts longer and projects further than the EDT. I love both versions though. I can picture a woman like Jennifer Connelly wearing this....sexy in that mysterious and brainy sort of way.

Very nostalgic and one of my first scent memories. My mom wore this in the late 80s/early 90s so smelling this puts me right back in my childhood home as a 4 year old. I'm in a nightgown watching mom get ready for date night with dad (who gifted it to her), putting on her makeup, jewelry and Lauren. Always saw the bottle sitting on her dresser and thought the burgundy cube was so elegant. At some point it ran out and she moved on to other things, like Pleasures and J'adore. As an adult I became obsessed with tracking down a bottle and breathing in the scent of my mom from early childhood. I don't know if the version I have is the same as what she wore or if it's reformulated, but it smells basically the same. It's pleasant and definitely unique, but I'm not sure I'd love it if it weren't for the association. I think it's what started my obsession with perfume and olfactory memories.

I feel compelled to explain my location in time and place with regard to this fragrance. I'm from the American south, born in 1974. This perfume manages to be so much at once for me: horseback riding lessons, lessons in how to sit and walk gracefully, and so much more. This is easily the best fragrance ever in the "green" group. It is so fresh, like clover leaves that just sprouted, or like the inside of a stem of a limb of an apple tree, before it gets very woody in the middle. Lauren can be worn by people of any age, in any season. I'm so grateful to get to re-experience this (vintage version), courtesy of a nice sample from Conifer lover. Finally, I know this is blasphemy, but I have sprayed some Lauren on myself from a tester bottle at ULTA recently, and I will add that while the vintage is gorgeous, I very much like the new version too, and I smell a lot of similarity.

When I was a kid, out of all my chores the one I hated the most was lawn mowing. Not because of the process of guillotining grass itself but for what followed, the nerve-tearing cleaning of the bag: removing it, emptying the grass clips, brushing them, washing it with a hose, scrapping away the barbs and waiting for it to dry in the sun accompanied by a soundtrack of countless “ughs”. The first time I smelled Lauren I was promptly plunged into this memory, however expecting PTSD I found Lauren taking the mowing bag , emptying it into a bottle and with the same sorcery that animates brooms, needles and teacups in Disney movies, magically wanded it into a coumarin Elysian field of perfect East Coast manicured gardens ready for Sunday champagne brunches by the poolside. I was healed. This was the original fragrance. The reformulation makes my left eye twitch a little.

This is the first perfume I ever owned. I received it in 1983 as a Bat Mitzvah present. In 2014 I became obsessed with it again and was wearing it as a signature scent. I have 3 partially used bottles of the original Warner/Lauren release.i just broke it out today for the first time in years once again. And it is gorgeous. In the past year, I’ve gotten very into fragrance, and though I have smelled over a hundred, there is nothing similar to this sweet, spicy, floral. I don’t find it to be dated, but I just don’t think this scent can be created due to regulation of many of the notes due to sustainability or health reasons. It is exquisite. While people voted that it is a spring fragrance, by today’s standards, I’d put it in fall and winter due to the strength and spiciness.

I've had this fragrance I'm my possession, in one form or another, for 25 years. I love it. It's green but still warm somehow. It's floral but not boring and different from all the other florals out there. It's luxurious smelling but hardly costs anything at discounters now. I definitely get lilac, jasmine, and carnation, but it has a pretty strong oak moss base with some woods mixed in. The herbal scent it has while drying goes away quickly and what is left on me is beautiful, green/floral/woody complexity. I'm not sure it is really a blind buy because of the oak moss, which people either love or hate situationally, it seems. However, I highly recommend getting a decant and giving it a try if you want something that smells waaaay more expensive than it is.

This was my signature fragrance when it first came out. I wore this almost every day, without exception. It is a classic. I have a lot of great memories from high school while wearing this. I wasn't into trying or wearing a lot of different perfumes at that point, this was a safe place to start - this wears incredibly well for school, school events, dates, and can even be worn well for formals. I like the Ralph Lauren classic style, which resonates with the image of the advertising at the time for this fragrance. You can never go wrong with a classic such as this. It is truly Ageless and Timeless! Very Pretty -- It reminds me a little of Liz Claiborne for women. They have different packaging, but the overall impression of the fragrance is similar.

Such a glorious fresh green floral, with the loveliest lily-of-the-valley, lilac, violet, rose and other delicate flowers. The smell of greenery, like freshly mown grass is gorgeous, with the earthy smells of moss, vetiver and herbs added to it. It's so fresh and charming, feminine and elegant, and joyous. Lilting and beautiful. Sweet too, but more fresh sweet than sickly, and not harsh at all. I think it's really a classic, excellent quality, springtime fragrance, with also a lovely wood presence from beginning to end. It's lovely. It perfectly evokes a day in the country, with flowers everywhere. Beautiful lush smells to give pleasure to your senses. It's delightful. And the bottle is really stunning! What a fabulous colour!

Spicy carnations! Yum. I just added the new reformulated fragrance to my collection. I like this. A lot. I purchased it out of nostalgia, because this was one of my other’s signature scents in the early 80s. I was only about 4 but I would sneak into her room and steal it off her vanity. The best part is that I would reek of it and my mom would say... “have you been sneaking my perfume again?” And silly me, I would wonder how she knew! Anyway I remember the original of this being more similar to truly gracious and this recent release seems more spicy and less similar. But I might be remembering wrong. I do recommend this if you are a fan of spicy woody scents. It’s also louder than I remember so a little bit will do you fine.

Besides the original Tocca Touch being reformulated this is my other great loss -- the Lauren scent from my childhood is creamy violetty woods which I would wear the day school started and throughout the winter. The scent was divine and lingered the moment of I walked into my bedroom. I wanted to revisit this but put off buying for decades due to the lousy reviews of the reformulation. I bought a 'vintage scent' bottle off ebay and it surely was horrible, unsure if it was spoiled or indeed the reformulation is tacky and screaming. I am thinking about going down the extremely expensive signature fragrance route to create something similar but until then I will check out the scents other reviewers say are similar.

I purchased a bottle at Khols in February. According to this thread it seems it was discontinued for awhile, guess RL heard everyone who lamented its demise and brought it back. I'm not sure if its current formulation could live up to the standard of anyone who owned a bottle in 1978, but since I don't recall smelling it before than I have nothing to compare it to and am not at all disappointed. Its very green and floral, like a garden or walking into a flower shop. When I sprayed it on myself the first time I felt sophisticated, yet natural. Kind of like what I imagine Stephanie Powers smelled like in Hart to Hart LOL! Or the Rich Bitch Hall and Oats was singing about. My Husband loves it, its easy to wear.

*This review is for the original formulation, not the current formulation* Bonne Bell Skin Musk may have been my first fragrance but Lauren by Ralph Lauren was my first higher end fragrance, purchased in 1989. I'm not a fan of florals and my choices were: Lauren, Anais Anais and JM Mcclintock. It's no wonder which choice I made. Opening fresh (and slightly fruity to me), unlike any fragrance I've ever encountered, florals mix with fruit and woods in perfect harmony on me. I only wish that a perfect dupe of this would come into existence. Lauren was my signature for years and I do miss that unique scent. Rating: 🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒

I have yet to try the vintage version, but I love this scent. I tried it at the mall because my male friend told me it was one of his favorite scents on women back in the day. He smelled it at the counter and said "yeah that's the same one" ...so it can't be THAT much different from the vintage. I love the initiall rush of green florals. Unfortunately, longevity and sillage are poor after that. But it's such a beautiful green, woody, spicy floral scent. I hate having to spend so much on something I need like 10 sprays of, so I'll look into the vintage afterall. In the meantime I have a decant version of the EDT.

I just purchased a vintage .5 oz edt off ebay. Dear Gods please have it be in good condition and not soured from poor storage!! I've already lost money on a vintage Lauren that was purchased from an estate sale. It's getting harder and harder to find this in the vintage formulation as it is.. I'm probably going to need to change signatures or get used to the reformulation :/ update: i got my bottle today and I'm happy to report that the juice is still in great condition! the vintage formulation starts off greener and has an animalic note that gives it an intimate warmth the reformulation lacks. just beautiful.