I normally don't do a giveaway before I publish my review, but I'm making an exception here: Palimpsest from Aftelier is perfumer Mandy Aftel's latest creation, and I can also let you in on a spoiler: it's one of the best perfumes released in 2014, if not the very best of them. This is why it takes me such a long time to finish my review. What exactly do you say when a perfumes engulfs your soul and gives you the ultimate pleasure?
While I'm trying to find my words we will have a fabulous giveaway of a Palimpsest mini (that's the bottle on the right in the photo above, retails for $50). The giveaway is open to everyone WORLDWIDE, as long as they're over 18 and agree to have their mailing address forwarded to Mandy Aftel (if they win, that is). To participate you simply need to leave a comment and tell us what was the first perfume that felt magical to you (yes, Love's Baby Soft totally counts). Only one comment per person, only here on the blog, and they must include an actual answer to the question above, otherwise they do not qualify as an entry.
The giveaway will be open until Friday 12PM eastern time. Winner will be announced by the end of the weekend.
Many thanks to Mandy Aftel for her generosity.
I know it's the last thing you want to hear, but Thierry Mugler's Angel is the first fragrance that was magical to me, and I still love it (although I save it for special occasions).
ReplyDeleteThank you Gaia and Mandy!
ReplyDeleteThe first fragrance that ever felt magical to me was YSL Paris. Tiny toddler Joey was very taken with it and even now, I'm a sucker for a good rose-violet. =) Of course, I lacked a vocabulary for why I found Paris so magical; it wasn't really until I was a teenager and familiar with the concept of attraction that another fragrance felt magical for me: Curve Crush for Men. It's what the first guy I ever loved wore and, although I can smell it now and laugh at how common it is, at the time it was just the sexiest thing I had ever smelled. That musky drydown! Sigh.
L'Air du Temps=Absolutely magical. It was my grandmother's signature fragrance and I will forever associate it with time spent with her.
ReplyDeleteThe first perfume that made me realize what a fantastic thing perfume is, was Prada Candy. Although at first sniff (bottle only) I HATED it, and thought to myself: "Who would ever want to smell like this? Burnt caramel and sugar no thank you". However, the next time I was around it I accidentally got some on my skin, I honestly don't know how, and there and then our love story began: it has been my signature scent ever since! It also taught me the valued lesson we all know: to never disregard a scent before you've tried it on your skin.
ReplyDeleteChanel No. 5 on my mother...beautiful, sophisticated, and oh so grown up!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great giveaway, thanks! Chanel 19 felt magical to me. It came out when I was in high school and I wanted a bottle so badly after smelling it at Fields in Chicago; my mom bought it on the sly and gave it to me for Christmas. It transformed me from a shy teenager with terrible acne and my nose in a book to a sleek, sophisticated, confident woman who suffered no fools and said what she thought. It's still one of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was about twelve and just beginning to appreciate fashion, I was poking around under the bathroom sink and found a big tester bottle of Chanel No. 19 EDT. My mother was more of a Lagerfeld allegiant (she wore Chloe and Sun Moon Stars until she became terribly sensitive to smell,) so it was especially surprising to find this treasure. Of course, this was no scent for a young lady on the cusp of puberty, but that just made it all the more fascinating to me, and it began to represent the woman I hoped to one day become. Now, I'm thirty, and although I'm not entirely sure what happened to the bottle I found under the sink, the EDP is part of my regular rotation, and it still intimidates me just a little. I'd like to think that I've earned the privilege of wearing it, that I've lived up to my childhood expectations.
ReplyDeleteAmusingly enough, mine was Mandy Aftel's Amber. It was one on my first natural perfumes, and the magic she worked with the materials is outstanding.
ReplyDeleteWeekend by PDN! Inhaling the Weekend, from the first time and till now, transforms my world into a virtual reality of clear blue skies, lighthearted laughter and spring breeze full of scents of blooming flowers! I feel happy and loved! I feel 16 again full of high emotions and high expectations!
ReplyDeleteDana-Toujour Moi
ReplyDeleteHelena Rubinstein-Heaven Sent
Faberge Babe
Max Factor Green Apple
These rocked my world in the 70's/80's. I can still smell them like it was yesterday.
Honestly, when I was a kid I was obsessed with Hypnotic Poison. It was magical to me, like a warm embrace of spicy sweetness, an instant smile. I wore it all the time, I wore too much, looking back. We would carpool to school at 6AM, and I was surrounded by a cloud of spicy sweetness. I may have gotten some complaints.
ReplyDeleteI tried it again a little while ago, sadly I feel like it's a scent I've outgrown, but I do fondly remember enjoying it. One smell sends me back down nostalgia lane. It's a scent that stays with you.
I think the first perfume that felt magical to me was my grandmother's Chanel No 5. And it must have been pretty special to her as well, because only after growing older did I realise how much it cost in relation to everything else she had. It was her one special splurge item.
ReplyDeleteThe first truly magical perfume for me was Donna Karan Black Cashmere. I guess I had to wait a pretty long time! It's still one of my favorites, and I've been wearing perfume for almost 50 years.
ReplyDeleteJe Rivien by Worth. My mom had that little blue bottle and it was a wonderful, mysterious smell that I associated with party dresses and special occasions. My mother was a very no frills, Katherine Hepburn sort of beauty who wore no makeup save for a little lipstick, so perfume was an especially feminine touch.
ReplyDeleteMy first magical moment with perfumes came from a bottle of vintage Eau Sauvage I had acquired about five years ago. It was a blind buy based on the review in Perfume: The Guide. Upon first application I immediately recognized it as my grandfathers signature scent and I was overwhelmed with nostalgia. I never expected anything of the sort from perfumes but the flood of memories and the warmth in my heart was undeniably magical and unforgettable. From that moment on, I explored vintage perfumes not for their ingredients (that would come later) but for the scent memories they contained.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
ReplyDeleteMy first magical fragrance memory was Arielle, I think by Fragonard. A tuberose fragrance, it was tenacious. I was using it the first summer I fell in love, and when the boy and I remet years later, he said he sniffed his jean jacket for a long time before my scent finally faded.
Thanks! My first scent was something cheap and girly from the Healing Garden. I was still living in Asia, and it was given to me by a relative from the USA, and it was magical.
ReplyDeleteArpege, by a long shot! I t was a magical moment that made me feel special. I was 10 :)
ReplyDeleteCarole MacLeod
Don't want to be entered into the drawing as I already have purchased two 1/4 ounce bottles of Palimpsest and am thinking I now need to get a bottle of the edp (am planning on using the excellent article about health and olfactory receptors in the NYT today to justify all sorts of fragrant purchases in the future). Just wanted to write and say how happy I am to see that you love this one - I fell for it instantly and fell very, very hard. Oh, and, as I said,I don't want to be in the drawing, but the very, very first scent I remember wearing and loving was one I got for the holidays when I was three or four years old and it was a honeysuckle scent that went with a Little Kiddle doll.
ReplyDeleteAnna
oooh, this one has caught my eye, so i hope i win! thanks for doing the draw! my first magical perfume would have to be femme de rochas. it first felt magical to me when i realized that each time i smelled it i was instantly transported to toulouse, france in 1978 - to a cloister in the rain. a male friend of mine from the paris area had come south and we were exploring the city. we found the cloister (of les jacobins) just as a piano concert was being played and broadcast. i've considered femme a time machine ever since!
ReplyDeletecheers,
minette
My grandmother's bottle of Wind Song was, to my 3-8 year old self, the most dreamy, beautiful perfume imagineable. It smelled deeply delicious, and elegant, like satin dresses and pearls. It hinted at the life she lived before a car accident changed everything for her. Mary cs.
ReplyDeleteBack when I went through a black bottle crazy (skincare, makeup and fragrances were equally affected with my affliction), I thought I found my signature in By Kilian Liaisons Dangereuses. "A rose by any other name" came to my mind until I chanced on a review of Serge Lutens' Rose de Nuit. A total blind buy, I just had to have my friend from the UK bring me back a bell jar. Reviews of the polarizing scent seduced me, haunting and forever stalking. It's one of those scents that fits my Goldilocks 'Just Right" life and mercurial moods. Aftelier's Cuir de Gardenia comes close to giving an enchanting first time impression.
ReplyDeleteOh it would have to be Lolita Lempicka. I remember at 15 buying it with a hard earned paycheck. It was magical and mysterious, and I fell for the apple bottle and lavender hue, like it was some precious talisman. I felt so sophisticated and mysterious wearing something that wasn't an apple or raspberry scent, or whatever bath & body works was churning out at the time that all my peers were doused in. Now as an adult with a firm preference for natural fragrances, I can't smell it without getting a headache. But I do remember just how magical it made me feel!
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother's rose perfume! I actually have no idea what it was; it might have been an essential oil from the health food store? Rose perfumes still remind me of her.
ReplyDeleteI'm new to the perfume game so I have to say Guerlain Mitsouko, I was never exposed to cosmetics or fragrances at a younger age (other than the occasional bit of Jasmin flowers my grandfather would pick for my grandmother) so learning everything is still amazing and discovering Mitsouko felt so right and timeless for myself!
ReplyDeleteSometime during my late teens, a friend of my mother's from France came to visit, bearing gifts of Dior fragrance for both of us. Don't recall what my mom got, but I sure remember the houndstooth bottle of Diorama (this would have been early to mid '80s). I loved it immediately, and it forever spoiled me for chypres. Thanks for the draw--still kicking myself for not having purchased Haute Claire...
ReplyDeleteCaroline
:O
ReplyDeleteIt IS Love's Baby Soft! It was my older sister but the powdery soft scent was so appealing to me. Another one was Diorissimo, only that I associate it with my mom who reserved it for special occasions.
It was my mum's Noa by Cacharel years ago (15?) and I still love (and wear it sometimes) to this day! Simple, feminine and elegant.
ReplyDeleteAne
Magical...
ReplyDeletefinding some vintage minis in a salvation army store, and one of them was Scherrer...it's just not what I had ever expected perfume to be. Most recently it was Theo Fennell Scent in an ancient sample, though the bottle I subsequently bought is only sometimes magical. I do love Aftelier Ancient Resins but it's not exactly a perfume.
thank you.
It was Aromatics Elixir when it was first released. Gorgeous and complicated. The bottle was the same shape it is now, but I swear it was brown apothecary glass and really did help make the scent seem magical. But even if not the scent was just so wonderful and since I used the recommended spray and walk through method the bedroom carpet smelled extraordinary. It's been 40 years, but I still use it (and a lot of others now!).
ReplyDeleteThanks to you and Mandy for this generous draw opportunity.
-- Lindaloo
Mine was Bvlgari Red Tea Au The Rouge. It's nice and spicy but floral and fresh and sweet and a bit savory. So far everyone that has smelled it on me likes it but not as much as i do. The mini dabber bottle is also really simple but cute! (i'm a glassware/mini bottle hoarder)
ReplyDeleteRealm. I was a young teen in 1993/1994. I believed the pheromones that they advertised would work sort of like magic and make everyone fascinated with me. Not so much. Still, I always felt confident wearing it - like a grown up. I imagined it was what Cindy Crawford smelled like. Again, it was the 90s. I'd always wear it when I was nervous about something like a test or a school audition.
ReplyDeleteEager to try this one!!! I can't remember if my first was Jean Nate or Chantilly, both of which were liberally used at my best friend's house by her Mom and older sisters ...... Her Mom met her pharmacist father when she was a Rockette, how is that for Romance? These scents seemed very womanly to me as an 11 year old ...... Just got a decant of Chantilly and it catapults me back in time! Thanks for sharing Gaia and Mandy! Xxx
ReplyDeleteRumba. My aunt would let me dab a little when we went to see a play, to a nice restaurant, or on New Year's Eve. Magical is the word. I miss her, btw. (But the question is, why did JCE start producing whimpy things later on? Rumba is so great, I still have a mini, and love it!)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Gaia, and Mandy Aftel for this generous and amazing giveaway. I love the name Palimpsest, can't wait to try the fume!
Ah, it's a toss-up between Magie Noire by Lancome or Maja by Myrurgia, swiped and dabbed on pulse points from the neglected little bottles on my mum's dressing table before I went to school.
ReplyDeleteSimply unforgettable fragrances. Not clean, neutral, 'I'm not here, ignore me' scents - Proper Perfume.
(I still can't believe that I wore them at the age of 13 when even my mum, who wore White Linen and Youth Dew and Oscar de la Renta, shied away from them!)
Blushing at my own audacity, but they were fabulous, honest!
Anna in Edinburgh
When I find something magical for me, I usually feel like an and explosive smile that just opens my lips so fast that I can't contain it, it feels a little like when you cough, but in a good way, the first time a perfume made me smile like that was Ormonde Jayne's Ormonde woman, after that, all changed, my eyes were opened, Aftelier's Sepia, Serge Lutens De Profundis, Tauer's Carillon pour un Ange...an endless list of magical perfume.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the draw!
Annick Goutal's Mandragore. I hated the sticky-dessert trend in perfumes in the early aughts so I never wore perfume. One day I found a little perfume store (now sadly closed) down by my Dad's place that carried niche (rare for here). I fell in love at first sniff, but it was all sold out. So the proprietress sold me the barely used tester for half price.
ReplyDeleteSerge Lutens Fille en Aiguilles. Pine woods, smoke, solitude, a fine thread of melancholy. For me, a true comfort scent.
ReplyDeleteI believe it was Moschino Couture, which was also the first fragrance I re-purchased. It's not often worn but still very much revered in my collection.
ReplyDeleteWoodhue by Faberge. It was the late 70's and I was in my teens, aching to be Adult. All the perfumes I'd ever been given up til then were little girly sweet, and I never really liked them. Thought I didn't like perfume! And then my grandmother's dear friend Blanche (a true southern lady) gave me a bottle of Woodhue for Christmas one year. Oh so lovely. So me! How did she know?? And it made me feel so grown up :^)
ReplyDelete/Pixel
This is SUCH a difficult question and I've been going back and forth for a while now on it, but I think I'm going with Onda by Vero Profumo. Up until I smelled that magical scent on me, I'd been pretty convinced I was a white floral kind of girl. It opened up a whole new world of perfumes.
ReplyDeleteJe Revien by Worth......I just felt elegant.....would love to find some vintage and induldge again.......
ReplyDeleteCandace Turner
My first magical perfume belonged to my grandmother who lived in New Orleans. The perfume she wore was Youth Dew by Estee Lauder. She wore the perfume, powder, oil and lotion. It was the only scent she wore for going out or having company over. She scented her waist length long silvering hair with it and piled her hair into a bun on top of her head.She also taught piano in her home and I could smell it all around her house during lesson day. The combination of warm humid days and rich perfume along with beautiful music is still with me today. When I play my piano, I think of her and that heady magical scent.
ReplyDeleteTauer's Une Rose Chyprée.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.
quimerula at hotmail dot com
My mother introduced perfume as a magical thing to be used for special moments. Her signature scent was Yendi by Capucci. It came in a classic bottle and was a beautiful, serious green color, very much like Chanel #19. Once in a while, she would dab a little behind my ears and immediately I felt transformed.
ReplyDeleteMy Extrait D'annick by Annick Goutal which is now long gone, will always remind me of a magic potion. It has a scent that reminds me of writing ink and the color purple. The writing ink is not a Bic pen scent, but something more like the ink from ink wells, or the cartridges. Now that I think of it, I think I will spray some on and see if I can conjure some Magic! Thanks for the draw.
ReplyDeleteTabu. I was fourteen or fifteen, and it just fit me: warm, spicy, sweet but not too sweet.
ReplyDeleteI don't wear Tabu anymore, but I almost never go without perfume. Thanks!
Nothing brings back memories like scent! I come from large family of women - and each had a signature scent. Most impactful - the blue Avon soap in my Southern grandmother's guest bathroom (it screams "special") and the perfume my Russian grandmother wore, My Sin (perfume + dusting powder=elegant). I always found the Shalimar my mother wore too heavy.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that you should mention Love's Baby Soft, that was my very first fragrance, and I loved it, still do! My second was Charlie...remember Charlie? if you haven't tried it, it smells good too! Thanks for this lovely giveaway, have a great evening. Paula C. [email protected]
ReplyDeleteI would have to say Tabu. My mother and my grandmother both wore it for special occasions and I still love it to this day.
ReplyDeleteCristalle made me feel like a grownup! --AnnieA
ReplyDeleteI can't resist, and though Love's Baby Soft indeed was my first perfume and as an 11 year old I was completely obsessed with it, as a grown woman, I found my first magic in Chanel No. 19. I loved the "image" to start and as it turned out, it smells enchanting too. I have been increasingly interested in this line so thank you for a chance at the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteI fell in love with Cabochard 45 Years ago and still love it to this day - but only the vintage version. There is no comparison to this perfect chypre.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great question! For me it was Shalimar. My mom wore it on special occasions and it reminds me of her getting dressed to go out. Normally she lives in gardening clothes but she cleans up well! I can just close my eyes and imagine her in a cloud of Shalimar and a beautiful silk scarf and cashmere sweater sitting at her vanity table. Definitely magical to me as a child.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the draw! Unfortunately I did not know my grandmothers, and my mother never wore perfume so it took a while before I got interested in scent. I think my very first scent that actually inspired me to buy a bottle was Elizabeth Arden - Green Tea, and at the time I didn't realize that scent could be so refreshing and uplifting. After that nothing really seemed very magical until I found Givenchy's Ange ou Demon Le Secret - which was like a sweet and soft veil of love wrapped around me. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a child I had an attraction-repulsion to my mom's Shalimar extrait -- I would sniff it even though (or perhaps because) the animalics in it smelled disturbingly like ass to the young me. So I'm not sure that counts as magical -- maybe black magical! The first perfume I smelled as an adult that made me swoon with its transcendent beauty was the K de Krizia extrait I encountered on the Paris dressing table of a French friend in the early 1980s. Happily, she let me wear some. That was the first and last time I smelled the extrait, which I've never seen on this side of the pond, alas. So it was magical for one night only. A lot of life is like that, actually.
ReplyDeleteThe first perfume that felt magical to me was Chanel's Cristalle EDT. Green, sparkling and not a bit sweet, it was the scent of the woman I wanted to be. I discovered it when I was seventeen, one month before I left for college. For four years I wore it daily: three spritzes in the morning sent me out into the world like a bullet.
ReplyDeleteThe bottles on my paternal grandmother's crystal and sterling perfume tray were both magical and accessible. While my mother, aunts, their friends and my older girl cousin wore fragrances that made them smell nice and ladylike, my grandmother smelled...well...sexy, grown-up and unique. She was a paradox: a little elderly Jewish grandmother renowned for her great kosher cooking and devout observance of Shabbat ritual, but who also always had perfect long Revlon Cherries in the Snow lips and nails (and matching pedicure), spent hours playing ragtime and blues piano while singing along, always with a cigarette dangling off her lip, drenched daily in perfume. She was exotic and her heavy, intoxicating fragrances were essential to her charm. Her main go-tos were Youth Dew, Norell, Ma Griffe, Chanel No. 5, Schiaparelli and Cabochard, mainly bought on her travels to France. As her only granddaughter and constant playmate (she took me for perms when I was in kindergarten!), not only was I always encouraged to sample as much as I wanted, whenever I wanted from her perfume tray but since these bottles usually came with mini gifts-with-purchase, I had my own grown-up collection. Which made me the only eight-year-old with knee socks pooled around my ankles and goofy growing-in teeth while reeking of Norell or similar. In a world of ladies mainly unwilling to stand out or make waves, my grandmother and her scents were special. I feel her influence now in my adult choices of equally intense scents, bold makeup and nail polish and so much more in my nature. I still have a few of her bottles from the perfume tray - including her last beloved bottle of Norell - in a secret place of honor on my own makeup table. Every now and then, I'll spray or dab a tiny bit and be taken back to those days of self-exploration. It's 30 years now since she passed away and I miss her every day. .
ReplyDeleteLovely remembrance of your Nana. Don't you love how a whiff of fragrance can take you immediately back to a past time. I find it very comforting.
Deletehe bottles on my paternal grandmother's crystal and sterling perfume tray were both magical and accessible. While my mother, aunts, their friends and my older girl cousin wore fragrances that made them smell nice and ladylike, my grandmother smelled...well...sexy, grown-up and unique. She was a paradox: a little elderly Jewish grandmother renowned for her great kosher cooking and devout observance of Shabbat ritual, but who also always had perfect long Revlon Cherries in the Snow lips and nails (and matching pedicure), spent hours playing ragtime and blues piano while singing along, always with a cigarette dangling off her lip, drenched daily in perfume. She was exotic and her heavy, intoxicating fragrances were essential to her charm. Her main go-tos were Youth Dew, Norell, Ma Griffe, Chanel No. 5, Schiaparelli and Cabochard, mainly bought on her travels to France. As her only granddaughter and constant playmate (she took me for perms when I was in kindergarten!), not only was I always encouraged to sample as much as I wanted, whenever I wanted from her perfume tray but since these bottles usually came with mini gifts-with-purchase, I had my own grown-up collection. Which made me the only eight-year-old with knee socks pooled around my ankles and goofy growing-in teeth while reeking of Norell or similar. In a world of ladies mainly unwilling to stand out or make waves, my grandmother and her scents were special. I feel her influence now in my adult choices of equally intense scents, bold makeup and nail polish and so much more in my nature. I still have a few of her bottles from the perfume tray - including her last beloved bottle of Norell - in a secret place of honor on my own makeup table. Every now and then, I'll spray or dab a tiny bit and be taken back to those days of self-exploration. It's 30 years now since she passed away and I miss her every day. .
ReplyDeleteIt would have to be Tabu. Both my mother and my grandmother wore it and it is my first real fragrance memory. Definitely magical!
ReplyDeleteI think dear old Ma Griffe was the first one I can remember...about 55 years ago. I haven't thought about it for decades and probably it is no longer produced. But how wonderful it seemed at the time!
ReplyDeleteIt can be found! I bought a bottle solely to remind myself of my grandmother, who had a box on her dresser. I don't know if she actually wore it, but green was her favorite color and I think that's why she had the green and white box!
DeleteMy first magical perfume was Lolita Lempicka because it took me on a trip to fairyland the moment I inhaled it. Thanks for the wonderful draw!
ReplyDeleteHmm. I think the first perfume that felt magical to me was 10 Corso Como (which, incidentally, I finally bought a full bottle of). It was unlike any perfume I had ever imagined, let alone smelled. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteOk. So. Tough to decide. Was given a bottle of YSL Paris when I was 16. Then at 17 I bought LouLou for myself. However, the first perfume to really be magical for me was and is Chanel Coco, not just for the juice itself, but because my Nana wore it, so my scent memory of her is of silk scarves that held onto the scent forever. I still pick up her last, unfinished bottle and sniff it. I am transported. Magic! Thanks for the draw and the fun in reading through other comments. Interesting to read!
ReplyDeleteA few decades ago, two important adults in my life wore L'Air du Temps as their signature fragrance. And at that time, I think that perfume had a lot going on. It was magical to my very young nose. When I think of it today, I am reminded of those much loved ladies who wore it. I wish I could find something today that is like L'Air du Temps was way back then. It was lovely!
ReplyDeleteI remember my mom standing in her slip & hose spraying Charlie before work in the morning. I thought she was so grown up and beautiful. She doesn't wear Charlie anymore, now its Must de Cartier, but now I'm grown up she's still beautiful.
ReplyDeleteAnais Anais was the first fragrance that actually turned my head around - although perfumes in general always did...
ReplyDeleteI was a very young girl. I smelled Tweed at a family friend's house and never forgot it!
ReplyDeleteWhite shoulders. My mother did not allow any perfume in the house. My best friend wore White Shoulders and it was wonderful on so many levels. ;-)
ReplyDeleteDebbie Gibson, Electric Youth 😀 no judgement!
ReplyDeleteThe first magical experience with a perfume, that I can remember, was wearing L"Heure Bleue at one time.
ReplyDeleteThe first perfume I really loved was tihota. Unable to afford afford a full bottle, I nursed a little sample from lucky scent for years. Then kicked myself for years after it was discontinued. I am over the moon it has been released! Thanks for the draw!
ReplyDeleteHi and thank you for doing this. Estee Lauder's Knowing made me feel so grown up and magical. Still love it.
ReplyDeleteThe first perfume that felt magical to me was my Grandma's Anaïs Anaïs perfume. She always had a bottle on her beautiful perfume tray on her dresser and I used to steal spritzes of it when she wasn't looking. I still have a deep affection for it and keep some on hand. Thanks for the giveaway, I would love to win Palimpsest!
ReplyDeleteThe first perfume that was magical to me was Chanel's Sycomore
ReplyDeleteThe first perfume that felt magical to me was Nina Ricci Premier Jour Lucky Day. It was limited edition and came to me as a result of my first swap on MUA! To this day I keep it as a momento =) Thanks for the draw!
ReplyDeleteOk, don't wanna leave anyone guessing, born in 1964; as a young teenager I got obsessed with 3 quite different perfumes.
ReplyDeleteThere was Tosca perfume by 4711, Versace the original Woman- white box with red and gold stripes- and by 16 it was Magie Noire (will never forget the first magical bewitching formulation).
I also remember wearing Cachet by Matchabelli and Le Jardin d'Amour + the ads with lovely actrice Jane Seymore.
A favorite aunt of mine used to wear l'Air du Temps for years ond end so also there ; a lot of fond memories.
Illdone
The magical perfume will be Kenzo Parfum D'ete Kenzo
ReplyDeleteIt was my mother and my aunt favorite perfume. We were really sad when it was discontinued.
I was only 8 when I realized fragrance is a wonderful, mysterious thing- it was my french teacher's "Femme"- I was given the empty bottle ( that I kept for years)
ReplyDeletethanks a lot for the draw
YSL Paris!
ReplyDeleteThe original Septieme Sens (7e Sens) by Sonia Rykiel. I bought it from her boutique in Paris when I was 17 and thought it was magically mysterious because of the way it became more and more beautiful on my skin. It was changed a few years after it was first introduced and never smelled as great again. A good friend who shared my love and longing of this perfume recently sampled PALIMPSEST and thought it remind her of 7e Sens! I can only hope...
ReplyDeleteThank you!
The first perfume that was really magical for me was my mom's Rive Gauche.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Gaia and Aftelier, for such a generous giveaway!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds amazing - the Australian firetree is something else and I'm very curious to find out how Mandy composed a fragrance around it.
The first perfume that felt magical to me was Abishag, which I got at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem when they had an exhibit about cosmetics in the ancient world. I was a teenager and not yet initiated into the world of perfume... It was so strange and powerful to wear it, I could not at first decide if I like it or not but it quickly grew on me. It has accompanied me through those significant years of coming of age... Like many good things in this world, it's discontinued, and I only recently was fortunate enough to find a little bottle of it.
T girl by Tommy Hilfiger! Haha so 2000s, but I LOVED it! Clean, sophisticated and just right for the high school me!
ReplyDeleteThe original Omnia by Bvlgari. While my first perfume was Green Tea by Elizabeth Arden, Omnia was truly mesmerising for me. For a long time it was my one and only perfume. I have no idea why they keep churning out so many lesser flankers... the original in the brown bottle is by far the best.
ReplyDeleteThat would have to be Kenzo's Jungle Elephant.and I'm still in love with it 17 years later.
ReplyDeleteMy first favorite was the original Opium by YSL.
ReplyDeleteEmeraude, the vintage, the primo, the original, is the perfume I always think of first. Maybe because I associate it with my mother. I have some vintage Emeraude and wear it when I want a little comfort after a long day.
ReplyDeleteMmmmh...my magical scent was Loulou by Cacharel! It was love at first sight back there and I felt like a princess walking on clouds while wearing it.
ReplyDeleteMagie Noire by Lancome did it for me. That was a true magical feeling.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chance, Gaia! It's been a long time since I tried something from Ms. Aftel. I only know a few of her creations, and they are all unique, and mind-blowing - Sepia, Tango and Cepes&Tuberose. I was hoping to win a sample of the renowned Cuir Gardenia on other sites and blogs, but mu luck was having a rest from me...
ReplyDeleteWell, I really hope I could win this time! As far as I am aware, Palimpsest is just up my alley! I am in the EU.
By magical you mean something that puts a spell on you in a way nothing else dose, don't you? I suppose that the magic wand was swung over my head by Cabochard edp. It was years ago, when I considered myself only as a clean-smelling person, who had never tried anything stronger than Chanel No 19. Even No19 was a high bar. A thin veil of CK One, Aqua di Gio, Happy, Eternity or L'Eau d'Issey would surround me, and bring me utmost pleasure. Unitil Cabochard came in and rocked my world. It was dirty, but posh. It could make me two-faced, almost schizophrenic, turning me into a cheeky lady who I never dreamed I could be!
I grew up in Germany in the seventies and remember me and my teenage friends buying those tiny perfume oil bottles smelling of jasmine or patchouli....at age 14 we felt very grown up and sophisticated wearing them.
ReplyDeleteThen the AnaïsAnaïs campaign came along and captured my imagination with the beautiful, dreamy images and off I went to have a sniff......and this is when the magic happened. Because I suddenly understood the difference between a well crafted scent and " a good smell" ......So I saved my meagre pennies and bought my first bottle....saved even more to buy shower gel and body lotion and eventually the enormous body powder....I still have it ( seems I'm not a talcum kind of person) and it still smells lovely. I wore it for years, smelling it now brings back memories of first love and long summers....the next magical one was Safari, but that's another story.....
Thanks for the very generous giveaway! My first magical perfume would have to be L'heure Bleu. Not sure what on earth made me buy a bottle as a teenager, but I would spray it on a light bulb in my room - apparently once using way too much as the bulb burst in to flames! Perhaps it's time to try it again, this time without any shooting flames!
ReplyDeleteVintage Shalimar, in the rosebud bottle.
ReplyDeleteThe first perfume that felt magical to me was vintage Jicky extrait. Thank you so much, Gaia, for having this draw!
ReplyDeleteFaubourg 24. I tried it in a store and for the rest of the afternoon I couldn't stop sniffing my wrist. The first of many such afternoons with scent.
ReplyDeleteShalimar was my first magical perfume experience. I swear it was like it happened in slow motion. I was astounded by the plume of smoke running through it.
ReplyDeleteMagic..............I guess it was Angel at the time, completely new gourmand trend. I was really astonished but now I hate it ad infinitum.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the draw, I have been dying to try some Aftelier perfumes for a long long time!
ReplyDeleteAnd to answer your question...the very first perfume that felt magical to me was Poison. I was about 17 when I started wearing it, ditching the Anaïs Anaïs that my mum had been buying for me since what it seemed forever. Ok, it was the 80s, so nobody was really shocked by perfume monsters, but still many wrinkled their nose; my mum of course thought it was totally inappropriate for me.
I remember how confident and grown-up Poison made me feel. And the shape, colour, weight of the bottle, it was just perfect. Funny enough, though I'm still very keen on humongous white florals, I could never wear it again. I should probably try and find some vintage stuff, as the current version is deeply unsatisfying...
I think my first was Shalimar. As a pre-teen I was entranced by the romantic ads in magazines & very into watching old movies! That beautiful bottle. Not long after I moved on to my mother's old Miss Dior...still here years later!
ReplyDeleteLove your blog as well as the perfumes from Atelier Aftel. My first perfume....Diorissimo.
ReplyDeleteWow great giveaway! Mine was Loulou...my mom got the beautiful soap box and I was immediately smitten..but it was too expensive for me at that age to buy a full bottle...so when a (boy) friend accidentally made a cut with his scissors in my knitted sweater, he had to refund me the sweater and with that money I got myself first the deodorant of Loulou and then when I got a summer job I bought a full bottle. Smelling this fragrance always brings back good memories.
ReplyDeleteThe first perfume that felt magical to me was Hermes Eau Des Merveilles. It was the first perfume I found that played nicely with my skin chemistry.
ReplyDeleteAll the good word around this perfume is so exciting and enticing. Would love to be entered for the competition please.
ReplyDeleteI know that most people have been into perfume for a long time and have young, formative experiences with the stuff to draw on in their answers but aside from my mother's Tendre Poison, which is more of a magic that I associate with her than with myself, I didn't get into perfume until very recently. I loved scents from nature, however, and one of my favourites was the gardenia growing in the first house I lived in after I immigrated to a new country. Maybe it was because it had the luck to be the first Gardenia scent I came across that gave me the impression of those old flowers from my past, but the first perfume which truly enchanted me was Un Matin d'Orage by Annick Goutal.
My first "grownup" perfume that I loved was Possession by Corday. It was given to me by an aunt for high school graduation. I still like it and have recently found a bottle of the vintage perfume. I have not been fortunate enough to experience Aftelier fragrance before but will be searching it out when I am next in the city.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the draw.
Cyndee
I have *always* loved perfume and have worn so many beautiful ones over the years. I always considered fragrance to be special and I considered perfume to be an art, but I don't think any felt magical until I discovered niche several years ago. And since then, I have had many magical experiences. ;-) One that came to mind immediately is Frapin 1270. I just couldn't believe what I was smelling and I felt transported.
ReplyDeleteI have never experienced an Atelier fragrance and would sure love to! :-)
The first perfume that made me realize how amazing perfume could be (and shoved me headfirst down the rabbit hole) was Serge Lutens Un Bois Vanille. Beautiful, complex and so much more than a gourmand - it is still one of my very favorites!
ReplyDeleteMy first magical perfume was the original Chloe. My parents bought it for me when I was only 12 - not really an appropriate age, but I loved it.
ReplyDeleteA boutique near my work carried the L'Artisan line, and I fell head over heels in love with L'Eau d'Ambre. I went in at least three times for a spritz until I had enough money to buy it. I love it to this day!
ReplyDeleteAmy Bella
For my nose at the time, it was Perscriptives Calyx. Nothing else smelled like it and it was unbelievably amazing in my teenaged opinion. I couldn't afford a bottle then so I just pined for it and smelled it every time I was at the department store.
ReplyDeleteAngelfire by Mary Kay was my mom's signature scent back when I was a kid. I loved the name, and loved the scent. I was just "her."
ReplyDeleteThis one's easy - VC&A's First. I was given a carded sample of the pure perfume as a young teenager, one year following the initial release. I still treasure that vial with a few drops remaining and open it up occasionally to sniff. It was (and still is) glorious, bloomed so beautifully and long lasting. A mere touch (fraction of a drop) was enough to last all night. Mmmmm....
ReplyDeleteL'Artisan Mechant Loup. I didn't even know perfume like that existed and it opened up a new world. I still don't smell the "hazelnut" note, just it as a whole. Can't wait for your review of Palimpsest - possibly best of 2014 is high praise.
ReplyDeleteQuelques Fleurs - I discovered this perfume at Nordstroms in my early 20s and wore it for many years and still do on occasion. It brings make memories of my youth and going out at night on the town.
ReplyDeleteFirst one that captured my soul, engulfed me, and now makes me cry because it will never be the same is Feminite du Bois in all its glory back in 1992, living inside that gorgeous purple bottle and along with so many things that come with it. 1992 was a horrendous year for me, FdB was the most beautiful thing of that year. It protected me. Gorgeous. Gorgeous thing. I mourn it. I own the current version and all her 4 daughters and I still mourn it.
ReplyDeleteThe first perfume that felt real magic was Shalimar by Guerlain because it was the perfume that my mother wore and I can say that it still is magical and dear to me !
ReplyDeleteOpium. Ir was unlike anything I had smelled before, and I immediately fell in love, so I think that qualifies as magical. Also, it worked beautifully with my skin, and made me smell gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteMy first perfume love was Samsara!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the draw! Mine was Dior's hypnotic poison.
ReplyDeleteMy first big perfume love was Poison. All my other scents were things I borrowed from mom, but this was the first one I bought for myself.
ReplyDeleteI'd say YSL's Opium (the old version, ofc). Even if I don't wear it frequently (and haven't worn it that much in the past, as I was too young for such a heavy juice)m I still keep a small bottle of pure perfume and dab my wrists now and then, just to smell myself
ReplyDeleteAnais Anais was my very first perfume as a teenager, made me feel beautiful and grown-up. Thanks! Sylvia
ReplyDeleteChanel 5 Eau Premiere was the first perfume that really 'took' me, by took me I mean falling into my pillow with closing eyes and inhaling my wrist- took me. I felt pleasure and comfort and overwhelm. Before then I never would have believed fragrance could have such an effect, but it did. There have been other loves since then (Knowing, Aromatics Elixir, Mon Parfum Cheri, Heure Exquise, many others) but Eau Premiere was first.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the giveaway. I am over 18 and would love to be entered.
toujours moi as a child, Shalimar as a teen.
ReplyDeleteMy magical perfume moment as a teen was courtesy of Samsara. When I got into perfumes as an adult, Soivohle Blood Oranges & Vetiver smelled to me like windswept moors and campfires (no idea why that should be, but there you go.
ReplyDeleteAramis .... a foreign boy I fancied wore this and I thought he smelled wonderful!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the opportunity
Sharon
Yes, thank you Ms. Aftel and Non-Blonde for this fun contest! Although I liked others, the first perfume that felt magical was the 1970's version of Diorissimo. My aunt and my sister wore it and it seemed so elegant and sophisticated. For some reason, I thought I had to be different, so I didn't wear it. Who knows what my teenage brain was thinking??
ReplyDeleteKathy
Bloomington, IN
Elizabeth Arden's Green Tea - I was obsessed!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThank you for the giveaway, especially for the "worldwide" part of it :)
my first magic moment was when i was 10 or 11 and my mom bought Courreges in Blue. It made her an enchanted princess for me when she was wearing this...
thanks for the giveaways, especially as it's open to the whole world!.
ReplyDeletemy magic scent is Eau Neuve de Lubin. I was turning 14 and my mom decided that I needed my own perfume. In Spain, it's typical to have a "family cologne", a very fresh, citrusy scent to be shared for everybody in the family, in particular children. So I got that as my own scent. I loved it, and it sparked an interest for scent that has not diminished since then
My first magical perfume was Tabu, because I think there was a mysterious ad on TV about it when I was little. I used my mom's splash bottle and got into trouble for it!
ReplyDeletePenhaligons Bluebell, reminds me of the garden after a thunderstorm.
ReplyDeleteMy first magical perfume was Miss Dior. I couldn't believe that anything could be so beautiful and interesting at the same time. Thank you for this generous giveaway!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter gave me a bottle of Serge Lutens' Un Bois Vanille one year for my birthday. I was smitten. I'd had a couple of perfumes before, but this was the first that opened my eyes (nostrils?) to the magic of scent, to the way it would change the way you feel.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this opportunity!
My daughter bought me a bottle of Serge Lutens’ Un Bois Vanille one year for my birthday. I’d had a couple of perfumes before, but this was the first one that opened my eyes (nostrils?) to the magic of scent, to the way it could change the way you feel. I was smitten.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this opportunity!
Magical scent...My mother's signature scent, Guerlain Samsara. Still now I feel goosebumps if I smell this on someone, since my mother passed away. And I will never forget the magic and how proud I felt when I purchased Shiseido Feminite du Bois with my first money.
ReplyDeleteau The Vert Bulgari. I was browsing through Saks on Fifth Avenue many years ago when it was first introduced. It was all I wore. I still enjoy it, even though my scent world has blossomed!
ReplyDeleteOh wow, my magical perfume was from many moons ago. I loved it so much that I named my daughter after it...... it was Ciara
ReplyDeleteThank you Gaia for this wonderful opportunity. I have enjoyed reading everyone's comments.
ReplyDeleteI always associate scent with memories so picture this - September 1984, My college roomates and I are getting ready to go to a fraternity mixer. I am wearing Chloe, one roomate has on Opium and the other is gorgeously drenched in Giorgio Beverly Hills. Add many applications of Aussie sprunch spray and we were magical, beautiful. Such good memories!
Magical, for real, was probably L'Air du Desert Marrocain. In second place, perhaps Eau Sauvage, which was my first. But the initial impact of L'Air du Desert was something else.
ReplyDeleteAmong my wife's perfumes, perhaps Bois des Iles was the first one to really hit hard. Nowadays, it's the white flowers... Nuits de Tubereuse, Tubereuse Crimiinale, Amaranthine, and anything jasmine!
Magical fragrance........My Mother's magical (to her) fragrance was Coty's 1905 hit, L'Origan. A favorite elementary teacher of hers wore it. I like L'Origan, even now, but to me, it was pleasant, Ma, not magical. Arpege, which she would wear on date nights with Dad was more along the line of magic.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the most recent magical scent would be Kurkjagian's (spelling) Absolue Por Le Soir, although vintage Guerlain's Vol de Nuit comes close. During my college years, it was either Devin, or Aramis.....I was, and still am, a big fan of Lauder masculines. There was a print ad, then, for Devin, and because of the print ad, a man in a jeep-type vehicle, Devin was a very happy and successful blind buy.
Lawrence in Ohio
Mine would be Timeless by Avon in high school. I can hardly believe I liked such a strong fragrance!
ReplyDeleteWait 10 minutes and it's pretty great.
Joy by Jean Patou, still is magical on me:) So many memories!
ReplyDeleteHalston Z-14 (!!!) I'm not sure how it smells today (hmm... I must try it), but it was magical for me during my teenage years. Thanks for this draw Gaia.
ReplyDelete- kal (a man who loves your bolg)
Magical would be appropriate since my first fragrance love was the original Lancome Magie Noir. I was smitten with it's sensuality and the way it melded with my skin. I've not found anything like it since.
ReplyDeleteMy first magical perfume was Mitsuko, which I wore from HS through college almost exclusively. It was so deep and mysterious. My husband, however, did not care for it, and I moved on to other scents. I recently smelled some a few years ago, and was shocked that it had been changed. My sister bought me a vintage bottle for my birthday one year, and now I wear it when my husband is out of town!!
ReplyDeleteSeve Exquise (and Nuit au Desert and Jardins Ottomans and Sous le Buis). They are what made me fall down the rabbit hole. London
ReplyDeleteHmmm....this is difficult but I think I would say Inoui by Shiseido. I thought it was so exotic.
ReplyDeleteFirst perfume to make this think of magic... Caron's Tabac Blond. It was just... everything, some kind of memory door into a black and white movie. It made me imagine my hair was perfectly bobbed like Louise Brooks' and I was wearing a silvery dress and smoking a cigarette with a long holder liek Marlene Dietrich, and basically everything I'm not.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the draw - I've not sampled any of Mandy Aftel's fragrances and this one sounds fantastic! The first fragrance that really felt magical to me was probably Magie Noire. My auntie gave me a bottle and it was such a grown up scent...much different from Luv's, Babe, or Chantilly - my starter fragrances. I'd spritz and immediately transform into a sophisticated version of mysefl... magicical!
ReplyDelete-CMH
My first "magical perfume" was Sung by Alfred Sung. My mother wore it for board meetings when I was little and to me it still smells like invincibility (because when your 6, mom is superwoman).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the draw!
The first scent that made me realize I'm an aroma person was the smell of tuberose. The perfume was in a black bottle with purple label… so amazing!
ReplyDeleteHypnotic Poison by Dior. It was the first "nice" full bottle of perfume I bought myself. It was right after I started my first job after college. I smelled nearly everything in the Filene's frag dept. but it was no contest. I was totally bewitched by this stuff; and I loved the Mila Jovovich ads!
ReplyDeleteThe first perfume that felt magical to me was Climat by Lancome...wore it as a signature scent for many years. Thank you for the draw. :-)
ReplyDeleteThe first perfume that was magical for me was either Versace Bright Crystal or Elizabeth Arden Red Door. Both were amazing and I can't seem to recall which I smelled first.
ReplyDeleteI cannot name the first perfume that transported me, as I was too shy to enquire of its wearer. As a teenager I had little experience of perfume other than the Chanel No.5 my father would buy for my mother on his return from trips overseas, and that she would salt away in her drawer. I suspect if I were to go prospecting today I'd still find some unopened bottles (mental note, go dig next time I am over at Mom's). One of my classmates appeared at school smelling divine: flowery, fresh, a world away from the aggressively scented Impulse sprays the rest of us were overusing in our attempts to combat polyester blouses and teen perspiration. While she doesn't know it, she and her unknown fragrance opened up a world of scent to me. Ruth M
ReplyDeleteThe draw is now closed. I can't take you enough for participating and sharing your magical moments. It's been a pleasure to read.
ReplyDelete