Aug 11

Aug 11 Twenty Vintage Miniature Designer Perfumes From The Fleamarket - It's A Givenchy, Balmain, Dolce & Gabanna Tasting Today

I’ve had a collection of vintage miniature perfume bottles sitting in a freezer zip lock bag that I bought over a period of weeks around Christmas time last year from one of my favourite traders at the flea market.

A freezer bag of designer fragrance - classy.

I shoved them all in the Indian cabinet in the jungle room and would occasionally hear them calling from under the stairs when I walked past and caught a whiff of their combined voices.

I’d buy a few every week, just for fun, they were one pound each, until the dregs of the collection ended up in the 3 for £1 basket, then I just bought whatever was left.

I’d had so much fun going on a magic carpet ride when I discovered Safa by Asgharali and rediscovered my emotional sense of smell, that I thought I’d enjoy the daydream-trips and mini-break magical carpet rides wherever each of these scents sent me.

Well, several months and one pandemic later I grabbed the freezer bag of aromatics and took them outside into the yarden to write them all down and do a quick google check on each one. I thought I’d just find out the launch/birth date and current value of each one and pick out three to start my journey.

I had 19 miniatures in total, plus a full size vintage Ralph Lauren aftershave which was £6 and rounded my collection up to 20. It sort of softens the pain of my self inflicted kick for not buying the vintage Tresor when I saw it, but not entirely. It used to be my favourite perfume, until they changed it. Why do they change perfect things?

After a quick search, I picked out the two most expensive and the oldest, just for the sake of it.

HOT COUTURE by Givenchy was the first one I bought, the bottle was so unusual and I was already attached to Givenchy from the thrill of unknowingly buying a vintage 80’s necklace for £1 and later discovering it’s worth is around £100. Not that it’s for sale, I love it too much to sell. So far.

Although it was launched recently, in 2000, as a celebration to the start of the 21st century, it drops me directly into 1983, I think it’s the bergamot. The perfume is currently available for £399.99, but let’s just call it £400 for 100 ml. That’s £4 a millilitre. I’ve got 5, lol. Just the name Givenchy gives me a thrill and the first sniff of “Hot Couture” was everything I hoped it would be. It’s the reassuring smell of the security of having money and comfort in middle age, the essence of a wealthy woman, successful and impeccably groomed with perfect makeup, large shoulder pads, slim calves and court shoes. It’s the unique and specific smell of prosperous department stores in the 80’s, exact yet unidentifiable, the delicious smell of hot setting lotion that clings to the entrance of a hairdressers.

The second most expensive was By by Dolce & Gabanna, launched in 1999 and now discontinued, a full size vintage bottle will set you back £298.99 for 100 ml. I popped the stopper and put some on my right wrist, whoosh 100% pure liquorice juice sticks. I used to sell the Italian liquorice juice to Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck restaurant back in the 00’s and it took me right back to the sound of overhead trains and lingering diesel.

After the first burst, the scent became 98% hamster cage on the long inhale with a following wind at the end of 2% Bertie Basset. I took several deep breathes of hamster cage, just to make sure and it was undeniable. I love that smell when you walk into Pets At Home, I’d have some rescue guinea pigs tomorrow if I didn’t know for a fact my cat Begonia Coconut is a natural born killer.

The sugary, liquorice allsorty hamster aroma evaporated on the skin into the sunshine, leaving what I imagine the inside of a lady leopards ears smells like, then finally settled down to a sleeping ‘soft kitten’ scent.

Thirdly, I selected Vent Vert by Balmain, reissued in 1990, then 1999, but interestingly first launched in 1947. I read briefly that some of the original ingredients were not available, however I was still very excited to smell 1947, I love a bit of time travel and I was not disappointed.

I put some on the inside of my right elbow and the starting whiff whisked me back to the past and had me planning the future. A serious scent full of honesty and possibilities. It was Spring, it was optimism, it sounded like a firm crisp lettuce being sliced by a capable woman with strong stout legs. It was 1947. It was compressed powder in a compact case, in a handbag, it floated into hair perming solution and then stayed, as it is now, pink Oil of Ulay liquid in the old glass bottle.

I’ve got seventeen more fantastic fragrance flights to take, I can’t wait to see where I go, but I’m taking Hot Couture out of lockdown into the real world. I’ll let you know how I get on…