According to Les Senteurs in London (the only place you used to be able to buy this now obscure treat except for the original Belle Epoque lingerie store on the Rue Cambon, Paris), this effortlessly dreamy blend was created, back in the day, as a ‘riposte’ to N° 5, the founder, Hermione Cadolle, apparently a less uptight Gabrielle Chanel (her main rival on her street), dreaming up brassières – she invented the bra – and courting clients such as Mata Hari and Marilyn Monroe for her dusky, wares such as the fabled soutien gorge. She naturally had to have a perfume for the store, and as N° 5 was all the rage, this was her retort: the woodier, more lissom seductress.
Of all the perfumes I have smelled in my life, this is possibly the most seamless: unlike N° 5, with its very obvious ylang ylang/ rose/ iris/ musk gradations, Le N°9 is so smooth, creamy, soft and melting it is almost impossible to distinguish any of its components. With its lilting, balsamic conclusions of cedarwood, Siamese benzoin and Penang patchouli; its breathy, equable memory of flowers, the resulting bedroom aldehyde lorelei is luminous, powdery – and impossibly soft and erotic.
the resulting bedroom aldehyde lorelei … I’m in raptures
(blushing)
Am laughing at the title of your post as sadly that is what I am not in possession of in a large amount….the perfume sounds divine, though!
If you like the older perfumes as I often do, it really is. Literally no seams in sight, and so SOFT!
( I think this perfume gives us ALL boobs, me included )
Perfect! Then I really should try it! And you know I adore the old perfumes..they are the olfactory memory of my youth!
Although I doubt you have too many memories of 1925…….
I am two years shy of the half century mark (gasp!!!) and my children think I am just “ancient” so 1925 may not be such a stretch for me!
Nonsense!
But this perfume didn’t strike me as overly old anyway. Really rather sensual if you ask moi.
hahaha you look great with boobs Neil. I adore the bottle design for this, also the box. So art deco and sunny. I must smell this. Developing a bit of a thing for French perfumes. On a Lentheric trip at the mo. Ta for the review x
I am glad you admire my ample cleavage and the description of the perfume. It is a lovely thing I would like more of ( a bit hard to find now….) luxuriantly mellow….