Paris by Yves Saint Laurent (1983)

How does a perfumer compose a fragrance that smells like joy, hope, and innocence? Ask Sophia Grojsman, the nose behind beauties such as Calyx, White Linen, and Eternity. "Joy" was the first word that came to mind when I revisited her perfume Paris, the rose-based scent that doesn't so much scream rose as it does interpret, with the help of other notes, what rose stands for in the popular imagination.

Green, fresh, and bursting with sweet — but not oppressive — florals (hyacinth, violet, heliotrope, ylang-ylang), Paris knocks you over with its good mood.If you've ever been to Paris in the spring, you know the kind of blinding beauty it can offer. At times it can seem like everything about Paris was made to give you sensory pleasure — the food, the architecture, the smells — and Grojsman's Paris translates that flash of joy into perfume notes.

Violet and hyacinth bloom most prominently around Paris's intense rosiness, while cedar and sandalwood give it an almost cinammony spice. The drydown is a powdery whisper of musk and orris, which soften the perfume's floral brightness. (This stuff is powerful, though; a little goes a long way. I couldn't wear it — I'm not a fan of florals — but I appreciate this beauty.)

Top notes: Green notes, bergamot, hyacinth, blossom-calyx notes

Heart notes: Violet, damascenia rose, orris, jasmine, linden, lily, lily of the valley, ylang-ylang

Base notes: Musk, cedarwood, moss, sandalwood, heliotrope

What's interesting to me about Paris is how recognizable the floral notes are, and yet together their composition signifies an idea, a mood, a place. It's also a painterly fragrance. You can almost "see" the artist painting her canvas with flowers — a giant rose with a dab of lily here, a splash of violet there, creating (to mix metaphors) a kind of musical tension in its notes that evokes a happy, almost bittersweet mood, like a bubble that just might burst or happiness that surely couldn't sustain itself. 

A work of art — Grojsman's Paris proves that rose is a rose is a rose not all roses are created equally .

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You can snag a cute little bottle of Paris at The Miniature Perfume Shoppe site. I think the bottle with the all-black cap is the vintage/un-reformulated version.

Comments

[Museinwoodenshoes.wordpress.com]

Somehow I never smelled Paris when it was new, despite having been a teenager in the 80's. I didn't shop a lot in those days, not having enough money to and being unwilling to go stare at things I couldn't afford... if I had birthday money, I was at The Limited hoping for a sale. Then, too, for some reason Paris did not catch on with the popular girls at my high school, who were all wearing Giorgio.

The rest of us were wearing Chloe, or Sand & Sable, or Exclamation, so when I did finally smell Paris (reformulated) last year, it smelled familiar. Of course, Exclamation was also composed by Ms. Grojsman, and they share some DNA. Paris is beautiful, of course, if a little loud for my taste. I prefer the springtime flankers, actually, as being less deafening, but I wear my LE Paris Pont des Amours with great pleasure. It does feel like an innocent romance in a bottle, or an enormous bouquet in your arms.

[Perfumaniac]

Hi Museinwoodenshoes — Paris wasn't really on my radar at that time either, and I feel as if it should have been. I'm intrigued by Grojsman right now, and need to get a hold of vintage Exclamation!

Unlike you, I loved going and staring at things I couldn't afford! And forget the perfume counters. It's really a wonder anyone around me survived my coming back from the mall with 20 different scents on me.

[Holly Gibbin]

Does anyone know how to tell if they have original pre- reformulated version of Paris on eBay up for auction?