Paris

A violet that will captivate rose lovers. The name of Paris complements each other. The famous perfumer Sophia Grojsman, known as the "Queen of Roses", used a lot of green materials such as Cassia, Hiacynth, oakmoss to set off the rose of May, giving Paris a slightly moist and transparent texture. However, she didn't actually concoct a bottle of vibe-making perfume for the city of love. Paris is a powerful diffuser that no fragrance can beat. It's an excellent example of "scented first". The core of ionone is supplemented by rose and iris. With the freshness of rose, the creamy oily texture of iris, Paris is clear, crystalline, radiant and utterly delightful for the first three hours. The sourness of roses can control the sweetness, remove the greasy feeling, and smell good. The feature of Paris fat powder is gradually enlarged in the back section, Violet, Orris Root, Mimosa burst out one by one, Heliotrope covers the surface of the white flower fragrance, forming a mellow and fine white film, and the fragrance becomes more and more intense. Flamboyant and bold. That's the YSL I know. Paris has my impression of YSL. I personally think that Paris belongs only to Ingrid Bergman. Ingrid Bergman is known as the "Rose of God", kind of a rose in the world is named after her. If Paris can't match her, how can Paris be in the top three in rose perfume? This perfume, which only represents the capital of flowers, smells very retro. If you travel back to the last century... I saw huge bouquets carefully packaged by hawkers on the streets of Paris. Some can't get rid of tacky, but beautiful. It is suitable for urban women who have worked in the society for a few years, but it is too mature for girls, which is abrupt. This fragrance is a romantic progression from the 80s. At the same time, it is also a declaration of women - that they should live for themselves. The evolution of fragrances, to a certain extent, documents and reflects changes in the consciousness of both sexes. All Sophia Grojsman wants to convey, to all female consumers, is in this bottle of Paris.

I love how Paris is so loudly and unapologetically feminine. It‘s not girly and not mature-womanly, just generally feminine and romantic in a very glamorous, intense and optimistic way. This is not a soft or tender scent. Even though this is from the 80s, I feel like Paris was ahead of its time as it has some aspects that smell more 90s to me. It‘s definitely retro though, but I think it can come across as modern and cool if it‘s worn with a certain confidence. Like the olfactory equivalent of some skirt suit with a shoulder padded blazer with big golden buttons in a bold color like hot pink or neon apricot. It should be worn as a statement in my opinion. If you look at the advertisements at the top of this page, I feel like all those including women/couples and the Eiffel tower match this scent very well, while those with the naked woman in the black jacket are totally wrong for it. Paris is mainly a rose bouquet scent. These roses would be a lighter, but saturated pink, big and very plush. I get the hyazinth and violet, but they don‘t take over the fragrance, so it‘s not soapy or headachey to me (though to be honest, I wouldn‘t be surprised if others felt that way). The other florals are well-blended support notes. This is a little powdery, but not overly dry. I get some syrupy, nectar-like, custardy sweetness underneath the florals, it feels like a peach note to me. I noticed I often get that from Sophia Grojsman‘s creations, even when peach is not listed. Maybe you know what I mean. In the base the perfume warms up and sandalwood is most noticeable besides the florals to me. This review is for the EDT, I have never seen the EDP in any store. In my opinion, Paris is one of those great classics that even those who are not typically into classics should try - but they should at least like roses, obviously. Sorry for the long rambling, some scents are just inspiring to me :)

(Review of the EdT, bottle from 1986) I love you. Three one-syllable words that have the power to start wars or end them, to make a heart swell until it breaks with joy or in absence of them terrible sorrow, to be used flippantly in a greeting or a departure as a reminder, or to be weighed more carefully than the deepest of spiritual postulations before saying it to someone for the first time. Yves Saint Laurent wanted to say I love you to Paris, and so asked Sophia Grojsman to help him make the gesture. I think he succeeded in getting his message across, and he hands his beloved city the most beautiful bouquet of red roses. The simple red rose was not enough though. Every flower known to man was placed into this bouquet in exacting proportions so that what was abstractly achieved, in the grandest gesture possible, was a red rose accord of enormous proportions. Whites, purples, greens, oranges, golds, beiges, and reds are all here and given a generous shawl of powdery aldehydes as if you’re looking upon the love of your life in hazy sunlight. The musky and creamy woody base nestles you like an embrace. For many this is going to smell unforgivably retro and derivative. The inability for some to not compare and contrast a perfume to others as a means to assess, to simply let it take you somewhere, and to not assign a date or an era to it, is unfortunate for them. I, on the other hand.... This perfume does something to me. It’s irrational and inexplicable, totally emotional. Every time I smell it my pulse quickens, my stomach knots, my eyes get misty, I breathe deeper and slower, and I’m transported somewhere. It is my honest opinion that this is the best perfume Grojsman has ever made, and that says a lot. I think it was quite personal for her as well, I don't know how it could not be.

This was my first perfume, it was a Christmas gift given to me as a teen, probably because I was obsessed with the 80's (Still am). Back then, 20 years ago, it was too mature for me, so I only wore it occasionally, probably to get into character, wearing vintage business lady power suits and gaudy faux fur and whatnot lol There's a review by Tania Sanchez about Paris that goes like this, "The great Sophia Grojsman (Trésor, Eternity, etc.) put this one together, and it marks the absolute end of this particular road, the point beyond which it is not possible to make a louder, bigger, more complicated rose. From here on, it is only possible to innovate by taking away, not adding. A brilliant, beautiful monster." She also goes on to call it a Frankenstein rose the size of a cabbage... To me the rose isn't front and center, it's more like a rose dominant wallpaper for the rest of the scent. Although it's the first part you smell in the sillage. The powderiness is there but not baby powdery, powder that has a lively trill, it isn't inert and heavy as powder can sometimes be. That part is almost anise-like, just in the way that it has this quick-receding sweetness like anise. And then there are all these competing florals around the powder, you cant really pick them out individually. And over time you start getting the musk. To classify this as a powdery fragrance I would say is inaccurate, but if you're not used to vintage perfumes, you might become distracted/fixated on that element. Which is a shame, but we can't help what our nose does. Mine gets stuck on oud, I can't smell anything else if there's oud present. But Paris, old & stuffy? Never that. She'll ever be proud, outgoing, and en vogue. A perfect song for her would be Grace Jones' cover of 'La Vie En Rose' 💋

Review for Fleur de Parfum : I had a sample vial of the EDT in the early 90s, which I treasured and sniffed whenever I felt blue. I almost didn't want to buy this perfume again because of the scent memories attached to the early 90s. But after exactly 30 years since first sniffing the EDT, I finally bought a full bottle, in the vintage Fleur de Parfum formulation. I just couldn't buy the new formulation, and I probably never will. I do not know how the new formulations smell, but the Fleur de Parfum is a stronger version of the EDT I remember (from 1992). I cannot believe how full bodied floral perfumes were back then compared to modern ones. The opening is rose dominant, but the ylang ylang really comes through as the fragrance develops on my skin. You definitely pick up hints of other floral notes, but they are all beautifully blended, supporting the rose. There's a powdery undertone in the dry down, which I love. It's a super feminine fragrance, but it packs a strong floral punch, very typical 80s. This sillage.. you don't get this kind of scent trail these days. It's beautiful. I will probably try to hunt down an older version of the EDT as I do not want to run out of this bottle. EDIT : I've tried the new EDT and EDP at YSL. What have they done to the new EDP?!! Sigh. It's a completely different scent! The EDT still retains its original DNA (perhaps a bit diluted). If buying the current formulation, definitely go for the EDT. EDIT : Scored a vintage EDT, and it is definitely a much stronger scent than the current formulation. I can't imagine wearing the vintage EDT in the summer as it is a true beast.