Top Notes 
Heart Notes 
Base Notes 
02/27/2021
Rossiniopera
37 Reviews
Rossiniopera
2
Childhood revisited
I got a parfum mini of this when I was 7, probably from my grandmother. I used to pour it on my prettiest Barbie doll, a platinum blonde with Carole Lombard eyes and a shimmering white, ruffled evening gown. I loved to sniff her hair, thinking that the beautiful, warm, ambery-spicy smell suited her perfectly. I never used it on myself - I guess that I somehow, in my childish brain, realised that this perfume needed an elegant and glamorous woman!
More than 35 years later, I bought a full vintage extrait. It looks very old and sort of classic Hollywood star-like, the bottle perching on top of a small staircase as if to say Hey, I have arrived, please watch me make a grand entrance... The bottle was sealed, the liquid dark. I cut the black and white cord, opened and smelled... and learned something funny. Because when I tried the perfume on, it smelled so unlike the Tabu that I knew, that I wondered if it could really be the same scent. It was so fresh, citrusy, bright and floral, none of that heavy, animalic amber that I knew so well. I was actually a little disappointed.
But then. More than two hours after I applied it, the perfume began to change. The brightness faded away, the scent became warmer, spicier, heavier - and slowly, it became Tabu.
The next day I tried it again, and this time it smelled like Tabu almost from the start. Now, a few months later, the bottle wafts wonderfully of the familiar smell even before I open it. But I have learned not to underestimate the top notes of an unopened bottle, even if they have been resting in there for maybe seventy or eighty years. They may change or even disappear quickly after the bottle is opened, but on that first wearing, they were so strong and so long-lasting that I almost didn't recognize this great classic.
My Tabu extrait is amazingly strong, and I do not think I will be wearing it often. But every now and then, I will apply just a small fraction of a drop, or simply pick up the bottle and smell, closing my eyes... and in an instant, I am surrounded by Barbie dolls and old friends, we're playing, we're happy, in a world that no longer exists... except inside a bottle.
Ah, memories.
More than 35 years later, I bought a full vintage extrait. It looks very old and sort of classic Hollywood star-like, the bottle perching on top of a small staircase as if to say Hey, I have arrived, please watch me make a grand entrance... The bottle was sealed, the liquid dark. I cut the black and white cord, opened and smelled... and learned something funny. Because when I tried the perfume on, it smelled so unlike the Tabu that I knew, that I wondered if it could really be the same scent. It was so fresh, citrusy, bright and floral, none of that heavy, animalic amber that I knew so well. I was actually a little disappointed.
But then. More than two hours after I applied it, the perfume began to change. The brightness faded away, the scent became warmer, spicier, heavier - and slowly, it became Tabu.
The next day I tried it again, and this time it smelled like Tabu almost from the start. Now, a few months later, the bottle wafts wonderfully of the familiar smell even before I open it. But I have learned not to underestimate the top notes of an unopened bottle, even if they have been resting in there for maybe seventy or eighty years. They may change or even disappear quickly after the bottle is opened, but on that first wearing, they were so strong and so long-lasting that I almost didn't recognize this great classic.
My Tabu extrait is amazingly strong, and I do not think I will be wearing it often. But every now and then, I will apply just a small fraction of a drop, or simply pick up the bottle and smell, closing my eyes... and in an instant, I am surrounded by Barbie dolls and old friends, we're playing, we're happy, in a world that no longer exists... except inside a bottle.
Ah, memories.
1 Comment
