Calandre by Paco Rabanne (1969)

Calandre by Paco Rabanne is a fresh floral with a spicy leafiness that recalls the coriander note in Jean Couturier's much bolder and heavier chypre Coriandre. Its sheer florals — rose, lily of the valley, geranium and jasmine — are so transparent they're like watercolors painted with flower petals.  Top notes: Leafy green, aldehydes, bergamot Heart notes: Rose, lily of the valley, geranium, jasmine, orris Base notes: Sandalwood, vetiver, musk, amber, oakmoss

There's character in Calandre's notes, but they're in their lightest, still adolescent dilution. The perfume is, nevertheless, sensual. Rose and jasmine have their indolic training wheels on, not yet making bedroom eyes or inviting you closer but telegraphing sexuality from a distance. Musk, amber and sandalwood give Calandre's innocent character an inchoate and unknowing sensuality, the kind that is tossed off by beautiful teenage girls between adolescence and womanhood when they're not yet fully aware of their effect on others.

At the risk of sounding lecherous, I'll say that Calandre smells like the lovely sweat of a teenage girl. There may be musky notes in her perspiration, but they smell like their own kind of spicy perfume. I think of Lolita smelling like Calandre, or the scent of virgins Patrick Suskind's sad predator in Perfume wanted to bottle.

Like a Debussy piano piece that fully absorbs you when you're listening to it, but floats away just as quickly, Calandre is ever-so-slightly melancholy and heartbreaking in its fragile beauty.

Comments

[Qwendy]

Gosh, I"m really following in your tracks these days, searched around for notes about this 70's classic (in my memory at least) and there you were! We'll talk this week about our Project! Happy happy new year (in a new place!)

[Perfumaniac]

I'm glad you're coming back! Make sure to double-check the notes for this — I've just modified them. I finally got my Haarman Reimer Perfume Guide which lists notes as accurately as you'll find them. The additions? Orris and oakmoss. 

[Qwendy]

Hmmmmmmm, I think I can snag a bit of this, it's embarrassingly intriguing to want to smell like Lolita or one of her sisters over 50, eh what? It's you writing, or perhaps your nose, that compels me so! We'll compare "notes!"

[K.]

You're spot on about the young smell.. it reminds me of wearing cotton concert t-shirts in or eyelet sundresses in summer ~ 9th grade-ish...

..the skin-sweat-cotton-warmth. yes. it's an underrated perfume.

[Perfumaniac]

K, Skin-sweat-cotton-warmth is a great shorthand description of Calandre. Thanks for the comment! It's such a delicate little scent to me. When I hear people say it smells like metal, etc., well, perhaps there's something slightly metallic about it. But there's something slightly metallic about sweat, too...

[K.]

So true about the metal... in warm weather, my children sometimes smell like a handful of coins(mostly pennies...copper-y.)

I agree Calandre captures that borderline young adult scent amazingly. I've been a scent nut all of my life so I clearly remember that stage. Thanks for bringing it all to the conscious level for me. I'm going to take a break from my Chanel no. 19 and Bandit to revisit Calandre. lol!

Did you review the EDT or the perfume? I've only tried the Edt so far.