I have written about the original Armani perfume before. An emotive green rose chypre, this is a deeply romantic scent with an unusual top accord of galbanum, pineapple and mint wreathed delicately above a very white, gorgeous Elizabethan ruff of cyclamen, muguet and roses. Underlain with orchid, soft balsams and cedar, it is intimately caught up in my memory with a girl I once knew in Rome who wore this perfume to truly superb effect – it encircled her, you could never get away from the slightly implored but dignified, obsessive aura it left in the air when you were standing next to her………. a strangely sweet and softly oakmossed and ambered scent, that I have always found curiously beautiful.
Z has just come to finally collect her perfumes. They drove down from Tokyo, but didn’t come in to the house : this was a mutual decision. Things are complicated for foreigners here – we don’t know when, or if, we will see each other again. It is against my nature not to hug my friends, but we were sensible. She left, as a parting gift, a bottle of the Armani extrait in my letter box : the bottle you see here, which I had never laid hands on, nor smelled before. It is by far the best concentration I have smelled of Armani Pour Femme: greener; softer: more tender and ensnaring.
Thanks Z
xx
The Black Narcissus 
Photo in white beach towel turban: me at a beach near Rome (probably Ostia) in 1992, age 21, the time when I first smelled Armani Pour Femme. xx
A long time ago, fairy tale beginning.
Once I had a secret love: four years ago
And it is no secret anymore!
Hey hey Doris Day.
I had a small bottle of Armani pour femme and in vain I have tried to find, buy and wear it again; it was love at first inhale. Suited me from A to T. Now vapourized and only living in my memory. So glad there is a memory of the senses!
As there is of the finer aspects of being human: love and friendship.
x
I have a bottle I will one day give you. I love it but can’t pull it off (this time, the pour homme REALLY does smell better on me!) Still, just smelling the final mls of this parfum make me VERY happy. What is it about this perfume? Somehow very melancholy and happy/liberated at the same time. And really quite sexy on the woman who suits her.
Thank you for the offer.
And for the moments of being in another sphere.
Especially in these times of love and cholera
Other spheres are what I am desperate to enter and create: right now I have to make these online lessons and I find it really hard. It is precisely what you say – a sphere, like passing through a glass membrane to a different realm – that we need; to be CLARIFIED
Love all the photos, especially the beautiful one of you.
I have a bottle of Armani perfume, but there is nothing tender and soft about it. If ever the word powerhouse applied, it’s there! A drop fills a living room. I wonder if temperature and oxygen have tamed Z’s bottle to another kind of perfection, where the oakmoss heart still beats, barely audible, and more captivatingly for it?
What a generous friend she is.
Actually you are right: I was thinking about it last night, and it has a definite potency : I could imagine a woman in a black or white dress of the time just applying the base of that stopper to her neck and being PERFECTLY perfumed for the evening. A dab on each side would be enough. But for me, there is none of the usual
patchouli/leather witchcraft dark endless mossiness you often get in the full on chypres – ultimately this is sweet with not pinchy mean edges if you know what I mean. Clinging.
So perfectly described. YES! That is Armani. (That other description makes me think of Magie Noire right away, actually. Witchy. As in good witch.)
That was precisely the perfume I was thinking of. Obviously they are utterly different, but there is still something linking them. That corrupted rose, maybe…
Corrupted rose. That is good, Neil. And I’d agree, too.
Can you believe I have never smelt this.
Such a sad thing, since the way you describe it makes it sound utterly intoxicating.
I think I exaggerate slightly. When I smell this extrait next to me from the bottle, it is exactly as divine as I am saying (a strangely altered herbal rose. I don’t know if it might be too sweet for you though) – the vintage edts have something almost Faberge Brut fougere about them underneath – quite mossy and mellow).
For me, this is the kind of scent that is perfect for coutured white lace….I would love you to experience the vintage parfum if you can get your hands on one).
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ARMANI-Classic-FEMME-Pure-Perfume-15ml-0-5fl-oz-1982-Parfum-1-2oz-Rare-Vintage-/123985383435
This bottle has more than the one that was given to me by Zubeyde. I think it is enough though (provided it is in good condition). Mine has no box but smells lovely so perhaps, like some perfumes, it is one of those that lasts well.
Let me know if you do get it and get all rosey cheeked with pleasure.
Oh, thank you for the link! I will definitely get it, well next months budget I will, and let you know what I think.
I do love sweet fragrances also. I love all types of fragrances, I’m a scent harlot.
You just enticed me so much with your description, you naughty boy you.
a ‘scent harlot’ i love it. xx