1969 Histoires de Parfums 2006

I am always surprised at how much my opinion differs from the average reviews. No, actually, it’s not that which surprises me. It’s how much the average opinion influences me subconsciously and unintentionally.

I have thought back and forth about whether to add a decant or even the wonderfully witty little bottle of 1969 to my collection.
The pros in short:
- I like the scent,
- it lasts long,
- has a pleasant sillage
- and has fit perfectly in both cold and warm weather.
- Bonus point: Compliments from friends (which, by the way, is rare).

I would describe it as "pink." Actually not my color, seriously, I don’t like pink. Never have. It’s sweet, starts with a slightly dry cocoa note, but actually transitions immediately into the peach nectar sweet heart note, which lasts and lasts and lasts. Pink, pink, pink.
But there’s something else. It’s not purely gourmand, nothing that can only be worn at Christmas. It’s not Angel, so sugary sweet that it makes you grimace and reminds you of overly smiling saleswomen with mega scent clouds.
It’s more like Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde. Pink, but not as silly as the first impression might suggest. A bit quirky, not the terribly boring square, and basically completely fine as long as the observer can move away from stereotypical thinking.

Does Elle Woods fit into the year 1969? That’s debatable. I wasn’t born then, and at first glance, she might remind one more of the type of girl that the hippies didn’t want to embody: Elle Woods doesn’t smoke weed and is otherwise only seen well-groomed. But she wouldn’t be the classic yuppie of the 60s either.
I dare to make the completely irrelevant claim that Elle Woods would have followed her own path back then and wouldn’t have been particularly bothered by hippie trends or conventional, stuffy customs.

Well, not everyone likes "Legally Blonde" and not everyone can free revolutionary thinking from the Woodstock peace sign. That’s okay. For the remaining slightly unconventional free thinkers, the rule is: What pleases is allowed, and Elle Woods and I wear 1969.

But back to the beginning: The bad reviews. They have actually made me wonder for the past 1 1/2 years whether I am misinterpreting something essential in the scent or smelling it differently. Worse still, whether I smell foolish when I wear the fragrance. So today I read through all the Parfumo reviews again and decided once and for all to ignore the general opinion. I may not wear pink, but 1969 and I get along wonderfully. For me, it is definitely a perfume of revolt.