Meteor de Coty is another forgotten perfume from the 1950s. It was composed by Vincent Roubert who's famous for creating Knize Ten, Coty's L'Aimant and Iris Gris for Jacques Fath. Yes, that Vincent Roubert. Various sources state its launch date as 1949 but also mention that Coty didn't bring Meteor to the US until 1951. Crossing the ocean didn't help Meteor all that much: by the late 1950s it was already gone from the shelves. Some say it was available until 1964, but the latest advertisement I could find was from 1957, so I suspect Meteor didn't live to see the 60s. I guess there were enough classic floral perfumes around at the time, so Meteor didn't feel special enough to have a strong customer base.
Meteor might have been a boring little thing back then, but for the modern perfume lover who's frustrated with the lack of quality and creativity in too many department store fragrances, this lost Coty is a little treasure. Meteor is described in various places as a floral perfume, and it is-- an abstract white floral that leans towards jasmine. There's a green streak somewhere in its core, perhaps a jasmine-tuberose party. But the fun is in the animalic dry-down that lasts for hours and celebrates civet.My bottle is the splash eau de toilette, not the spectacular parfum with the glass stopper. Still, the quality of the juice and its longevity even when dabbing carefully are breathtaking. My next step is to decant some of it into a sprayer. I have a feeling spritzing this one with reckless abandon is going to be lots of fun.
"More beauty than any cosmetic"? Makes me wonder how the people in Coty's cosmetic department might have felt about that line. :-)
ReplyDeleteYou're so right about Meteor's heavenly dry-down. There's something about the wonderfully complex richness of the dry-down of a lot of vintage perfumes that I simply can't resist - even out in public I find myself constantly sniffing my wrists when I have them on. Only had one bottle of the edt (still patiently searching for the parfum), but just last week I bought a bottle of another vintage perfume and the seller sent me as extras two small bottles without labels. Both were unmistakable to me - one was Weil's Zibeline (parfum) and the other was Coty Meteor. Offered to send them back to her, but she didn't want them (an antiques seller, but not familiar at all with perfumes). Love her! Wish ebay gave more space for written feedback.
Anna