Full "J'adora" and fire: The best aromas of the 90s
Text: Ksenia Golovanova, author of the telegram channel Nose Republic
The 90s are a special era for parfmaniacs, and not only against the background of the general fashion for a culturally rich decade. Aromas that were invented at that time have already become iconic, but at the same time they feel great on the shelves next to the latest novelties. Our perfume critic Ksenia Golovanova talks about the best smells of the 90s - surely among them there is your favorite.
J'adore came out at the end of the decade, in 1999, and it was this sunset that turned out to be: the perfume Calis Becker showed dazzling jasmine, rose and ylang-ylang through a dark amber filter, as adults show a solar eclipse through a smoked glass to children. Previously, J'adore was, if not great, then just a very beautiful fragrance, but having survived a second birth in the hands of the main perfumer Dior François Demachy, lost his luster and heat. However, old versions can still be found on eBay.
It appeared in the mid-1990s, but still remains one of the main best-sellers in the perfume line Lush. They love "Karma" and perfume critics - because its whole is more than the sum of the parts: perfumers took orange, lavender and patchouli, and received - London 1960s (or Rishikesh 2018, where to shop for kefir for wrights - still walk with flowers in hair). Recently, Lush changed the design of the bottles, and the old "Karma" can be bought at a discount.
The Demeter brand, which appointed itself responsible for the perfumery inventory of the world, made its best fragrance back in 1996. They became Dirt, a reliable smell of a loose, freshly dug-up earth, for which in nature there is a substance called geosmin, a product of vital activity of some organisms living in the soil.
The English-language Internet is full of "Earth" reviews, professional and amateur; The Gloss correspondent even compares Dirt with amortensia, a powerful love potion from "Harry Potter" - its aroma, as we remember, causes universal affection. However, the fact that “Earth” is liked by most people is nothing magical: we gained susceptibility and love for geosmins as a result of evolution - once we all, like camels in the desert, had to look for water by smell.
In 1992, L'Eau d'Issey, a floral flower with the smell of an expensive dishwashing liquid, was published, in 1993, Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert, a Bvlgari reference essay on the subject of tea. A year later, ck One appeared, which borrowed the idea of creaky purity from the first one, and took the transparent tea-citrus green from the second — a hologram of a Sunday laundry came out.
Déclaration - a turning point in the career of air acrobat from the perfumery of Jean-Claude Ellen. Then, in 1998, Ellen finally took off from the ground and took off: in "Confessions" his new mature style, transparent, almost water-color, appeared. The aroma opens with light citrus and cardamom - a kind of deep breath in front of important words, followed by cumin and cedar.
Let's go back to the line: cumin. There are people who are especially sensitive to this spice - it evokes thoughts about Indian food, and those who have not tried curries remind you of the smell of sweat. In the development of Déclaration, there really is a moment when he becomes corporeal and smells like a lively, warm person - a man who ran at breakneck speed through the forest, crushing grass and trampling moss towards obscurity. In this, however, there is a logic: love makes sweat.
About the two most undervalued flavors of the 1990s, Dune and Jungle L'Elephant, we have already told in the corresponding review, but “Dunes” want more and more. Especially today, when the aquatic and gourmet are experiencing a new birth, and the chocolate-sea "Dune", which breathed new life in the Dior portfolio, can be attributed to both families - their bohemian relatives, passionate about art-house. And if in order for the not-too-popular “Dune” to remain in the collection, the brand needs to sell a million bottles of bad Eau Sauvage, then so be it - not the greatest sacrifice.
Not to be confused with The Girl of the same Tommy Hilfiger, released in 2016: her face was the model Gigi Hadid, while the face of Tommy Girl in the mid-1990s was all of America - fresh, pink-cheeked, just jumped out of the shower after training at the school stadium . American beauty smells like this: cold tea, mowed lawn and white flowers behind a neighbor's fence.
Champs elysées
GUERLAIN
6285 rub.
FOR 50 ML
"Champs Elysees" - the most underrated fans of the "old" Guerlain work at home. In his strict book "Perfumes: The Guide", perfume critic Luca Turin called it "the worst brand fragrance, except Mahora". His reaction is clear: “Fields”, completely different from their famous forefathers, became the first issue of Guerlain after being taken over by LVMH, an event that the perfumery community perceived as a great loss.
If you distract from emotions and try to evaluate the "Fields" as they are, outside the historical context, they will show a lot of beautiful things: halogen brightness of mimosa, clouds of almond powder, champagne with a drop of cassis. All this, like the boulevard itself, which gave the name to the fragrance, is slightly plastic, as if too well lit - but this is what Paris is for most tourists.
Last year, Angel, and with it the whole perfumery genre, celebrated an important anniversary - a quarter of a century: it was with the release of “Angel” in 1992 that the so-called gourmet compositions were separated into a separate family. The fragrance, built on the sharp contrast of cotton candy and patchouli, “shot” not immediately - the company wisely let it rest on the shelves, and he eventually not only provoked the gourmet boom, but also became the only flavor in history that was ahead of Chanel No. 5 .
None of the perfume composition has generated such a number of imitations and perfume hints. And in the next column of achievements you need to record a whole angelic host of flankers, different in their “order”, but equally charming.
What are (simple) joys - this is how the name of the fragrance translates from English - according to Estée Lauder? Pleasures advertising campaign responds: lilacs and peonies, labrador puppies, hammock in the garden, short white shorts that fit well. Alberto Moriyas, a perfumer who masterfully mastered the art of turning formulas into gold, was invited to broadcast these eternal values into scents. It turned out at that time: Pleasures - crystal, sonorous garden flowers, seized by aldehydes, like unexpected frosts in May - and more than twenty years later remain the bestseller in the USA.
For the first time the fragrance was released in limited edition - as part of a seasonal cosmetic collection. But Jean-Claude Ellen’s frivolous limit of authorship immediately formed an army of fans, which, barely ended the sale, began to buy up the remaining bottles with a Harlequin lid on eBay for serious money. The company correctly considered the situation and the universal "Love", rightly hoping to repeat the success of the premiere, re-released. Ellen repeated: six years later, the same freshness of grapefruit, unripe berries and garden roses were found in Rose Ikebana, Hermès - but for much more money.
Photo:Rive Gauche, Ile de Bote (1, 2), Lush, Demeter, LiveLife Pharmacy, Amazon, Parfstore (1, 2), Central Department Store, YSL Beauty