Detchema, along with Carnet de Bal (darker, more androgynous), is perhaps the Parisian fourrier Revillon’s most well known perfume. A clean, aldehydic floral along the lines of No 5, it is less orris and musk-bound – a little lighter, very floral (hyacinth, jasmine, ylang, rose); soapy; refined. No matter what you think about wearing fur, there is no denying that this perfume would certainly have smelled beautiful on a slender swan’s neck nuzzling beneath new mink: in Roman Polanski’s ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, Detchema is the scent that Mia Farrow graciously tells an onlooker she is wearing when asked about her perfume at the pharmacy, highlighting the prominence that this faded feminine classic must have had in the public’s eye even up to the late sixties. Though perhaps a little dated now, if still pretty, it does seem perfectly suited to the actress’s (and character’s), wide-eyed, gamine air of vulnerability.
The Black Narcissus 