Perfume Pen Pals: Roger & Gallet Blue Carnation



Dan,

Old perfumes are the new niche, I've decided. My newest favorite perfume blog is Yesterday's Perfume, where Barbara Herman explores our collective cultural history as embodied in fragrance.

She writes in her profile: “We know what the past looks and sounds like, but do we know what it smells like?”

Well, thanks to Barbara's on-going documentation of releases from the early 20th century to the 1980s, we now have a much better idea.

Katie



Katie,

This is exactly why I shouldn't read these kinds of blogs: I'm already eyeing old bottles of Roger & Gallet Blue Carnation on eBay.



I remember reading some snarky remarks from Turin/Sanchez about carnation perfumes, that they're passé or unsophisticated or boring, but I love that peppery, clove-y, anise-y floral scent.

Comme des Garçons Carnation is such an audacious version of this, entirely over-the-top, almost cruelly unsubtle, and yet I like it (in the smallest dose possible). So one of these days, I expect to buy a vintage bottle of Blue Carnation (it's been out of production since the sixties).

Dan



Dan,

"One of these days" has come and gone. I'm standing by for your Blue Carnation report.

Katie



Katie,

I received my bottle of vintage Blue Carnation yesterday, though I couldn't put it on until this morning because I attended a baseball game last night. With two other men. And if you attend a sporting event with men and wear something like Blue Carnation, you will be ostracized. But this morning, now that I'm alone, I smell great!

The first thing that struck me is how absolutely fresh and vital this stuff smells, considering the bottle is perhaps 60 years old. And it holds together beautifully on the skin.

As I'd read, it's a spicy, clove-y floral, and either all carnation soliflores smell similarly or CdG Carnation used Blue Carnation as inspiration, because the two aren't very far apart. Though Blue Carnation is more elegant and refined. It's still very present and spicy and alive, even with only two small dabs on the wrist. What a lovely fragrance.

Blue, spicy and alive. Not a carnation.


I would've been ostracized for simply saying "what a lovely fragrance." I'm leading a dual life. Though one that's much less interesting than the phrase "dual life" would suggest.

Dan



Dan,

I'm fascinated that a 60-year-old bottle of perfume still...works. Is Blue Carnation a pure parfum?

Katie



Katie,

There's no concentration on the bottle, but based on the set-up (no sprayer, just a teeny tiny hole from which to dab a drop), I'd say it's perfume. I know at some point there was an EdC version and a men's version, but this is neither of those.

Plus, I saw print ads for Blue Carnation from the early 60s, not long before it was discontinued, and my bottle looks different than it did at that time. So I think it goes back to the 50s at least. And it definitely works. It's been two hours and it still smells fresh.

It's a full bottle and it's strong stuff, so I'll drip out some for you to sample. Just remember not to spray it or you'll hurt someone. Or they'll hurt you.

Dan

31 comments:

  1. Yay! KP is finally acknowledging old 'fumes!

    I *think* I can come out of the cold now...

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  2. "Old perfumes are the new niche" -- I like that!

    And why not, now that niche has completely and thoroughly out-niched itself to such an extent that it's now teetering dangerously on the ledge of mainstream, clutching a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels to its heart and cursing the pedestrians below who are urging it to jump . . .

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  3. Katie and Dan - Yesterday's Perfumes is one of my all-time favorite fumeblogs on the net. The only thing that's as cool as sampling scent is understanding its significance culturally age to age.

    Perfume is a total gateway drug to understanding the human condition in one of the funnest and sexiest ways possible.

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  4. speaking of new old fragrances. Has anyone gotten to try the new Lubin Black Jade based on Marie Antoinette's perfume? I love the history behind the fragrance and read the wonderful book A Scented Place.

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  5. "And why not, now that niche has completely and thoroughly out-niched itself to such an extent that it's now teetering dangerously on the ledge of mainstream, clutching a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels to its heart and cursing the pedestrians below who are urging it to jump . . ."

    You can out-niche yourself? What? I'm confused.

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  6. "Katie and Dan - Yesterday's Perfumes is one of my all-time favorite fumeblogs on the net. The only thing that's as cool as sampling scent is understanding its significance culturally age to age."

    This sounds fascinating and at the same time like some kind of craziness that I simply do not want to get myself caught up in.

    "Perfume is a total gateway drug to understanding the human condition in one of the funnest and sexiest ways possible."

    Hear, hear.

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  7. I admit that I'm not such a fan of carnations themselves, but Dan's review of this fragrance makes me want to check out other fragrances that have a carnation note. Any suggestions?

    I was checking out an old pen-pal post about Parfums de Nicolai in which Dan said, "I gotta put on a shirt and go outside like normal people."

    Glad to see that he's being abnormal again. We prefer it.

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  8. Nora B. - for me, it's not craziness but something intrinsic to who I am. I can't enjoy my passions to the fullest unless I know how they can lead me into the wider world and teach me something about people and myself.

    I'm a huge fan of history also, and knowing how perfume has its place in how we all understand one another as people is enormously satisfying to me. Comforting also.

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  9. Ooooh, I do love carnations, which only proves that a) I'm the last of the Living Ostrogoths and b) my utter lack of sophistication...

    Yet, there is something...askew about carnation perfumes. Either it's in the flowers themselves that no longer have any scent that I've been able to notice, or else it's those old-lady connotations...and yet, there were the glories that were...Tabac Blond, Bellodgia, Blue Carnation, Malmaison, Dianthus, Villoresi's Garofano...not to mention L'Air du Temps or even Fidji, which also featured a hefty dose of them.

    The CdG Red smells...red all right, like a cinnamon RedHot carrying an Indiana Jones bullwhip in case you misbehave! I liked Bellodgia better. Something about laid-back summer afternoons on Lake Como, ca. 1928...

    Incidentally, I loved that the scintillating blue flower was a rose...That made my day! :)

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  10. You made my day, Katie. Thanks so much for mentioning my blog. I haven't been as active lately, but I have a bazillion more perfumes to write about...Dan beat me to it, but I wanted to offer to send you some Blue Carnation as well. It packs a punch!

    And I can't wait to hear your report on vintage Magie Noire. Tell me when you get some!

    I also love the idea that old perfumes are the new niche. Having dipped into so many vintage fragrances, I do appreciate how many niche perfume houses are at least attempting to continue the tradition of perfume as art...

    Thanks again!

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  11. Blue Carnation was my mother's signature scent and she is always looking for a replacement. Maybe I should just buy an old bottle of ebay...

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  12. DomPerrier, my previous lack of acknowledgement of vintage perfumes was simply self-preservation: that really is a perfume rabbit hole waiting for me to tumble right down and never return. So far, the most "vintage" buying I've done is to track down older-but-new bottles of various extant mainstream fragrances. I know there's a wide world of Guerlains smelling the way they're supposed to awaiting me...

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  13. Nora, tarleisio has a fine list of carnation fumes, above. It usually seems to be bundled into a grouping of perfume materials to provide a kick of peppery clove. You can smell it in YSL Opium.


    Stefush, I'm with you on the fascination with how perfume relates to its time. I love reading about how perfume ingredients were a currency of the ancients. Just look at the 3 wise men with their gifts of frankincense and myrrh.

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  14. Nathan, I'm not against niche gaining wider distribution, as long as the brands don't water down the goods, cheapening the formulas to cut costs.


    Barbara, you've got a good thing goin' on over there at YP, happy to big up your fine work. Perfume as art is so much more inspiring than perfume as commodity.


    Maggie, going on Dan's successful Internet purchase of BC, you might as well give it a shot.

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  15. Haha, tarleisio - it was 2am when I chose that blue not-a-carnation, and dimly wondered why it looked like a rose when Google insisted it was a carnation. Oh the power of suggestion, especially as sleep clouds the facilities.

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  16. Katie: Whoops! How did I miss Tarleisio's suggestions? Der!

    Stefush: By "craziness," I mean I would feel very sad about getting to know something knowing that it is no longer in production, knowing that the day will come when there is simply none left, whatsoever. But yes, I would like to know more about the historical significance of fumes.

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  17. How nice to see a post about Blue Carnation. It's probably my favorite of the carnation soliflores, which are generally not a favorite category of mine. I like carnation blended with other notes. But if done right, the soliflores can be a delicious spice-fest. Some of them go a little metallic smelling on me, or just plain aggressive. (As Dan put it so well, "cruelly unsubtle"). But either Blue Carnation is just perfect, or after 60 years of sitting on a shelf, my edt has lost its testosterone punch!

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  18. KP, I wanna send some samples of vintage 'oldies but goldies' your way & pull you into the rabbit hole with me!

    What say you?

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  19. Dom: You offer Katie a batch of beautiful, classic, rare fragrances. I offer her a newly purchased bottle of Lady Stetson. Just call me classy.

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  20. Maggie: I hope your mom is delighted with her bottle of Blue Carnation, if you manage to find one.

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  21. Nora: I've never smelt Lady Stetson. With the way new fragrances are exploding exponentially all over the scene, I doubt I've smelt more than 0.1% of all perfumes ever made till now,despite acquiring(& perhaps hoarding) quite a number of tried-and-true vintage classics

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  22. Blogger just ate my comment, so here goes again with an approximation...

    I have never been a fan of carnation as a note, and haven't smelled this R & G, but I do own a bottle of Blue Grass from the mid-70s which I like - I reckon it has carnation in. The overally smoothness of the composition tones down the tingly sharpness of the note though.

    And I also look forward to your review of vintage Magie Noire: I have a small sample of this from the 80s, which I used to wear around then, even though I have only been a proper fumehead for the past three years. It was my "go-to va-va-voom" scent at the time (to quote you loosely : - ) ), a slot currently occupied by AP L'Agent!

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  23. "Overally smoothness"? I should perhaps make that "tingle sharpness", while I am about it!

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  24. Vanessa! You're on board the Agent Provocateur L'Agent love train, too? Isn't it ah-mah-zinggggg? I've got a review of it coming up. And "va-va-voom" is just how I describe it.

    I was at a vintage perfume store yesterday trying some Magie Noire, and the fellow said that it's the Russian ladies who particularly track down the reformulated stuff.

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  25. Nora and Dom, I do appreciate your kind offers to share your hoard. I may take you up on them, but right now I'm overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I need to sniff and review. I'm also writing a perfume web app, so that's also sucking up my "smelling for pleasure" time.

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  26. Katie,
    For a true blue carnation scent, identical to the white carnation I wore on my blue polyester suit jacket ( with a large blue velvet bow tie ), to my high school prom, try Lush's Potion Lotion. And yes, I wore checkered blue polyester pants with platform heels.

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  27. Thanks for this tip, berndog. And for an invigorating mental picture of you.

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  28. Katie, Vanessa--I will totally check out AP's L'Agent. Woo-hoo!

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  29. Nora, I popped back into the comments here to offer some more carnation perfume possibilities via Elena Vosnaki's incisive blog, Perfume Shrine:
    http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.com/2011/07/serge-lutens-vitriol-doeillet-fragrance.html

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  30. Yay! My two favorite 'fume bloggers have found one another. This frag hag happy!

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  31. julie, you're happy, I'm happy. And Barbara's probably happy, too. Happy!

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