A tender affirmation, this quaint, melodious perfume was apparently created for women in the First World War to give to their wartime sweethearts as a symbol of fidelity and the reciprocal yearning for the same: roses (full, candied, almost chocolate); lilac, and sweet, soft, violets over the classic chypric, darker, mousse de saxe Caron base; an ardent love letter, heartfelt and true, yet with darker, perhaps foreboding, elements beneath its upbeat, sanguine exterior.
N’Aimez Que Moi (‘love no-one but me…..’) feels very old fashioned now to the contemporary nose, thick, almost musty and cloying – especially in extrait – but its romantic heart, its trembling directness, also make it somehow beautifully heartfelt and unprofane. The thought of some poor soldier clutching a bottle of this Caron, or a shared keepsake drenched in its lilac-rosed earnestness, as he swallowed the horrors of the trenches and the stench of death all around, is moving: a ray of hope; the charm of his girl somewhere; life, and love, lying out there in the beyond.
The Black Narcissus 
Love the description, is this still available?
Jane x
I think so. It is strangely beautiful, though VERY old: and that is its charm. SEEK!!
I will 🙂 I love your blog, it makes me want to rush out and buy these perfumes. Well, most of them 🙂
Jane x
Dearest Ginza
Coconut snow, vintage Caron and memories of The Great War.
A tremblingly antique, chaste but passionate romantic St Valentine’s day to you dear sir.
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
You were very much in my thoughts dear sir when I posted it. xx
Dearest Ginza
*The Dandy reddens*
I am much wrapped up, professionally speaking, in The Great War, at the moment and will be for a good chunk of this year.
The perfumes of Caron and Guerlain will, therefore be ever more at the ready than usual.
Thank you dearheart,
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
(you know, in the entire world, only seven people read this post, but eighty nine read my crap about the japanese work place: perhaps i should just give up writing about perfume and do an agony aunt column instead)
Dearest Ginza
But what if those seven people have an appreciation of its beauty and the eighty nine know the price of everything but the value of nothing?
Surely that counts for more than nought…
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
Thanks, D (but you know what I mean)
Dearest Ginza
That said I think you’d make a very fine agony uncle, but perhaps best not to attempt it in a country with such an habitual propensity towards suicide without your assistance.
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
It IS a strange place, good lordy
Bonne fete de Saint Valentin mon cher! I adore the scent of N’Aimez que moi, it is such the quintessential time capsule of what fragrance was. In reality I am a diehard lover of all things Caron, well until the reformulations and all the other dreck they started releasing.
But, thinking of this scent, truly in this context, is so terribly melancholy. The juxtaposition between the two extremes of humans, great beauty and great horror. To think of some poor soldier holding such a sublime scent close to his heart (creation of great beauty) contrasts so sadly with this realization of the grand scale of devestation and deprivation around him ( the horror of war and destruction). It really shows what complex creatures we humans are.
If only we could all focus the energies within us to create beauty as opposed to creating such horror. Well, I guess that is what a glorious scent can do; it reminds us, in the worst of times, that there is still beauty and pleasure to be found.
Tonight will be a special night for wearing this glorious scent, but for the day ( to stay in spirit) I will wear Amour Amour by Patou
Have a glorious, love filled of course, weekend.
Beautifully expressed, Brielle87. I go for old and musty. It’s probably just the thing I’d love. I’m trying Caron Rose today and loving it. Too bad it’s discontinued. 😦 Please don’t stop writing about fragrance, Mr. Ginza. You do it so well — much better than any book of perfume reviews (really). Happy St. Valentine’s Day! ♥ ♥ ♥
I like the idea of the chaste affirmation of love and admiration for one’s sweetheart. Yes, I’m being unrealistic, but I don’t care. Mainly it is because of the in-your-face kink and sexuality with which we are bombarded on T.V., the internet, etc. every day. I don’t know this perfume, but Caron has produced perfumes for the ages so I’ll bet N’ Aimez Que Moi is another lovely. By the way, those embellished cuffs are beautiful. A belated Happy Valentine’s Day to you and yours!
To you and yours too and I am with you on the cherished simplicity of such an ideal. Today it’s all tits and ass, and just way too much in ya face.