Mini-Decants from The Perfumed Court

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I’m pretty sure I have written about fragrance samples I have purchased from The Perfumed Court. Based in Marietta GA, The Perfumed Court sells decants, small samples decanted from a large bottle of authentic scent.

I know I have mentioned that I belong to a couple of fragrance enthusiast groups on Facebook. While I have learned so much about fragrances as a member of those groups, they certainly are enablers. For the past couple of years, they have been talking about Tom Ford’s “Lost Cherry”. Because of the pandemic, testers of all kinds have disappeared (makes sense), and I haven’t been shopping in person in department stores anyway, so I haven’t been able to smell it. Frankly, I love the taste of cherries, but I have never tried a cherry perfume. I decided that I wanted to experience what the fuss was about, so trying a sample, i.e. a decant, is the only way to go right now. I saw that The Perfumed Court sold decants of Lost Cherry, and I had a positive experience with that online retailer so I ordered from them.

While I was at it, I decided to buy a couple of other samples that I had been thinking about for ages: decants of two vintage fragrances:

• Habanita by Molinard
• L’Heure Bleue by Guerlain.

Because perfumes contain alcohol, they are required to travel by ground transportation. It took more than two weeks for my tiny samples to travel from Marietta GA to Massachusetts. But they made it! I had actually forgotten what else I ordered besides Lost Cherry.

The Perfumed Court always sends the decants in tiny glass vials with the name of the fragrance on the vial, well wrapped so they don’t break, and placed in a silky drawstring bag with a coffee-flavored hard candy. A cute presentation! Another good thing about The Perfumed Court is that they keep your Order History. It is really useful to be able to go back and see what you purchased.

Tom Ford Lost Cherry

The largest tiny sample (a half milliliter) was Tom Ford Lost Cherry EDP from the Private Blend Line of Fragrances. It is a clear and a gender-neutral fragrance. It is a fruity, oriental, gourmand scent. I would describe it as bitter cherry. To me, it smells like a prescription medication that’s flavored with cherry.  Here’s how it is described: “candy over luscious flesh – innocence and indulgence.. It has notes of Cherry, cherry liqueur, bitter almond, turkish rose, jasmine sambac, peru balsam, roasted tonka, sandalwood, vetiver and cedar.” I’d say it has a lot going on, nevertheless, it seems rather simple. I can’t say I’m a big fan, but at least now I know what it smells like. Since the decant is only a half ml, I’m sure I will use it up. Maybe I will end up falling for the dry down. 

Vintage Habanita by Molinard

A couple of years ago, I got a 30 day supply of the current version of Habanita through my subscription to Scentbird. Habanita is an amber fragrance for women. It is considered a big, long-lasting oriental scent, and I thought it would suit me. The main accords are (in order): woody, powdery, aromatic, fresh spicy, vanilla, balsamic, earthy, amber, yellow floral, rose. This version of Habanita EDP was launched in 2012. 

The original Habanita was the first Molinard fragrance launched in 1921. It was reformulated in 1988, and then reintroduced yet again in 2012 in a new bottle and a stronger concentration. Although the Scentbird sample was nice, it didn’t knock my socks off. But I was always curious about the vintage scent.

I ordered a 1/4 ml decant from The Perfumed Court. Unfortunately, they don’t tell you the year of the vintage scent, but I have every reason to believe that their decants are authentic. According to Fragrantica, the notes of the reformulated version are the same as the original but in different proportions. So far, I like the vintage Habanita. It is a deeper, even more sensual scent than the modern version. Although 1/4 ml doesn’t go a long way, I will enjoy wearing it.

Vintage L’Heure Bleue by Guerlain

During my first trip to Paris in 1973, I remember trying to buy Je Reviens by Worth at a department store. The saleswoman won’t sell it to me. She told me in French that Je Reviens was for grandmothers. Instead, she sold me a tiny bottle of light, floral Fleurs de Rocaille by Caron. Frankly, I would have been happier with Je Reviens.

On my next trip to Paris, a business trip in 1984 maybe, I bought a bottle of L’Heure Bleue. My friend and colleague Mary Ellen and I went to the Guerlain shop on the Champs Elysée, and my memory is fuzzy, but I think I must have purchased a bottle of L’Heure Bleue then. It might have been parfum extrait since it was very strong and concentrated. I remember a saleswoman explaining to me about “the blue hour”. She said something about the time between sunset and darkness when the sky turns a deep blue, when a woman in her 30s or so looks beautiful and mysterious because her beginning wrinkles don’t show in the dim light. Maybe something was lost in translation, but I’m pretty sure that’s what she said. I had never smelled L’Heure Bleue before, and it was unlike anything I had ever smelled. Little did I know that L’Heure Bleue was considered one of the great classic fragrances. It took me years to use up my small bottle of L’Heure Bleue, and I kept the empty bottle in its original Guerlain box for a couple of decades. Foolishly, when I moved from NYC to Massachusetts, I threw it away. I had no idea that the empty bottle and box were worth money. The bottle was long with big “shoulders” and a tapered bottom. I remember the bottle being ribbed. I have tried to find it online, but I have been unsuccessful. It looked like this, but with vertical ribs:

And this is what the box looked like (though not the bottle):

About 7 years ago, I decided to buy a bottle of L’Heure Bleue EDP for old time’s sake. It was huge, and it came in the Baccarat style bottle (though it’s glass, not crystal). It’s a spray.

The color of the liquid is yellow rather than reddish brown. The scent is reminiscent of the original, but totally lacking in the gravitas of the original. To be honest, I use it as room spray. I know that fragrance manufacturers reformulate their classic scents with modern ingredients that, by and large, make them less expensive to manufacture. Boo.

So I ordered a tiny 1/4 ml of the vintage L’Heure Bleue from The Perfumed Court. Their vintage bottle is from the 1950s. Oh, what a walk down memory lane! And what a divine fragrance! It’s powdery, warm, complex, intensely feminine. Here’s their description: “This is the pure parfum of Vintage L’Heure Bleue. Launched in 1912, it has notes of anise, bulgarian rose, jasmine, tuberose, violet, carnation,  orange blossom, heliotrope, vanilla, tonka, orris, benzion, musk and amber. The parfum is the velvety version of this perfume. Jacques Guerlain created this perfume to evoke the Blue Hour, the time when the sun is out of the sky, but the stars are not yet there.” I couldn’t love this vintage fragrance more. Vintage L’Heure Bleue is expensive, but one of these days I will treat myself.

Do you have a vintage perfume that you love?

Today's Author

Allison Cohen

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