L'Air du Temps 1948 Eau de Toilette

L'Air du Temps (Eau de Toilette) by Nina Ricci
Bottle Design Marc Lalique
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7.5 / 10 371 Ratings
L'Air du Temps (Eau de Toilette) is a perfume by Nina Ricci for women and was released in 1948. The scent is floral-powdery. It is still in production.
Pronunciation
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Main accords

Floral
Powdery
Spicy
Fresh
Woody

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes Top Notes
NeroliNeroli RosewoodRosewood SpicesSpices BergamotBergamot PeachPeach
Heart Notes Heart Notes
CarnationCarnation LilyLily Ylang-ylangYlang-ylang IrisIris May roseMay rose OrchidOrchid
Base Notes Base Notes
SandalwoodSandalwood AmbergrisAmbergris BenzoinBenzoin MossMoss MuskMusk CedarCedar VetiverVetiver

Perfumer

Videos
Ratings
Scent
7.5371 Ratings
Longevity
7.6264 Ratings
Sillage
6.7262 Ratings
Bottle
8.6285 Ratings
Value for money
7.849 Ratings
Submitted by MartinGE, last update on 22.04.2024.

Reviews

19 in-depth fragrance descriptions
8
Bottle
8
Sillage
9
Longevity
8
Scent
GirlofNow

111 Reviews
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GirlofNow
GirlofNow
Top Review 39  
Grandma, you smell good
I am extremely surprised how good the fragrance actually smells! I have the scent of smelling my grandmother for the first time we went for a walk together. Again and again such a great and interesting spicy scent rose in my nose...D Until I understood then that, the pleasant and yet so feminine scent of my grandmother came.
I looked at my grandmother and told her that she would smell very good and then she said that she had been given perfume by my uncle for her birthday. After the nice walk together we went back to her home, she went to the bathroom and opened her little perfume cupboard and gave me a sooo sweet and at the same time such a beautiful bottle in the hand:) The bottle seemed very familiar to me because I saw it more often in the perfumery. I asked my grandmother if I could spray it on my wrist and she said that I could wear it whenever I wanted if it would please me on my skin: D. So I sprayed myself then nicely generously on the wrist....

Already while spraying on this fragrance enchanted my senses*-* I LOVE, LOVE good spices + floral fragrances....*-* And L'air du temps is wonderful! He's not too penetrating, he doesn't sting his nose and above all he doesn't annoy anyone! I can almost say that once you've smelt it, you don't forget it that fast anymore:D Alone when I think of the scent itself, I can almost smell it;))))

I smell the spicy notes very intensively with the fragrance. The spicy notes do not sting.... It's just all so harmonious! Also the spicy notes give a light warmth which provides a pleasant aura, especially on cold days. Iris also there again very nice pleasant and nice powdery :) With many powdery scents I get headaches very fast but with this one it is completely different... You only smell the powder for a short time and then it gets softer and fluffier:D The floral notes are again not like today's floral scents, scratchy and penetrating but warm and feminine*-* One can almost say that they are slightly sweet and aromatic:D Sandalwood and musk are creamy and beautifully sweet in the base note and that's exactly what I like so much about the fragrance!:)))

I know that the scent would be too much for a minor, but I still like to smell:D Unfortunately, today you only smell so rarely that it's almost sad! I usually only smell of older ladies.... Most of the floral scents I know so well, especially those of today, are personally too boring for me or simply penetrating! ( NOT ALL!) I think the fragrance is very suitable for everyday life or also for the church:D No idea how I come up with it.... But no matter:D H+S is also great! Find you can't complain about that either:)
11 Comments
9
Bottle
7
Sillage
8
Longevity
9
Scent
Rosaviola

75 Reviews
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Rosaviola
Rosaviola
Top Review 26  
The timeless elegance of the peace doves
I've known LÀir du Temps for ages, since I was a teenager in the nineties. But only as a bottle. From advertisements in fashion magazines and from Schlecker (the only drugstore in town at that time). I don't even know if I ever tested him back then. And if it was, it was too tender for me. At that time I was only into real firecrackers like Opium, Lou Lou, Poison and the like.
It stayed that way for a long time, until I was in my mid-thirties, slowly becoming interested in classics and chypre and slowly discovering all the classics for myself. And I'm far from done with it!
Too many beauties of the past are still waiting to be discovered.ch just say for example the scents of the house Caron, there I have only one...

Back to LÀir du Temps before I digress too much. LÀir du Temps shows the elegance of the forties, was at that time probably very "En Vogue", whereby the meaning of the name "Zeitgeist" fits very well.
In the 1940s, slightly militant costumes with broad shoulders and knee-length skirts were modern. The Second World War had also affected fashion. After the end of the WWII the fashion slowly became more playful, softer and more girlish again. This also reflects LÀir du Temps well, I think. It radiates a certain lightness, like a relief after the turmoil of the hard times and the finally looking forward.

LÀir du Temps has a slightly powdery-floral character. But everything remains discreet. The flowers are never too flowery, the powder remains delicate and not too dusty. Something creamy could be imputed to him.
It begins with bergamot of a gentle spiciness. Carnation is easy to recognise. I like carnations very much as a fragrance and also as flowers. All the flowers look rather delicate and I can't really recognize them individually except for the carnation and a hint of lily (but only very delicate, not at all acetic). In the base I can see a subtle oak moss note, soft sanded wood and a hint of warming ambergris. The fragrance is dreamlike and gentle and yet has depth.
However, I can only report on an older version, I describe here the cylindrical, transversely ribbed EdT bottle with golden cap. I don't know exactly when the bottle was made, but I guess it's at least twenty years old. Then I have two flacons of Extrait. Once also in a grooved cylinder with intact contents and once in an old Lalique bottle with only one dove from the fifties or sixties ( the same bottle as on Florblanca's perfume photo ) The contents are over, smells alkaholic and causes skin redness on me. I keep this bottle for viewing only. He's a piece of jewelry already.

If it was reformulated in the meantime, I can't say for sure, but I guess so. Once I briefly tested the current EdT at DM, didn't find it so bad, but this depth, which he had despite all the ease, he didn't seem to have anymore.

LÀir du Temps is a wonderful fragrance that is always easy to wear and that I don't want to miss in my collection anymore.
8 Comments
8
Bottle
4
Sillage
4
Longevity
9
Scent
Sonjoschka

15 Reviews
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Sonjoschka
Sonjoschka
Top Review 22  
Countless times
i've seen this scent standing in strange bathrooms, with mothers of friends and grandmothers. Often it was the glass flacon with the pigeons on the lid, but I also remember faceted flacons.
My girlfriends and I didn't like using it. Too old-fashioned and too old-fashioned, he seemed to us. Back in those days, ages ago, Impulse deodorant was our best seller. We dieselled ourselves in from top to bottom with it. Several times a day and paved the way for LVeB. The changing rooms of the schools are still contaminated with deodorant residues.
L'Air du Temps, on the other hand, always seemed uninteresting to us. Too green, too much chypre, bitter, buzzing through my head.
Yesterday was a very hot day. A latecomer in the summer of the century and I was on my way to buy a little something and my husband the beloved Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. In the shelf of the shop stood then also this white flacon, a tester.
Even though the price of the bottle has certainly deteriorated, i.e. for the buyer, I really liked it. This plain white can, almost like the Impulse Deos... no, I didn't think of that. Really, I do.
I sprayed it on and found it very beautiful, flowery, fresh, really a white fragrance, only slightly bitter and not too bitter or strict. Not penetrating by white bloomers alone, but also nice and soft and spicy-sweet. Ylang Ylang I smell out and the carnation, whereby here not only the carnation, but also the clove smells. The fragrance is delicate powdery and quite neutral, almost cool. I sprayed 6 times, because it seemed so refreshing at the high temperature.
And I wasn't looked at stupidly at the cash register and the baker afterwards. The fragrance changed as it became softer and softer. A light powdery touch. I thought if it was so refreshing for me, then it would be something for the summer holiday and even the white, small, robust bottle could not get out of my head. No, I didn't have anything in mind for this summer So I went out at night and bought the scent. He's barely in town anymore. A mistake, I mean.
He's an excellent match for the spirit of the times. For some time now I have been observing a return to old values, an awareness of old values. Apparently some people are afraid of losing their culture because many different cultures mix, but one culture is in your heart and only you can pass it on to others and live it. If she's good, she'll win through. What is good is always accepted by others.
And that explains the long success of L'Air du Temps. What's good, prevails. Delicate, calm, light, floating, like two white pigeons whispering in the air.
The white dove is not only a sign of peace but also a symbol of wisdom. And that's going to prevail too.
So I'm looking forward to the summer holiday 2018 with the white can in my luggage. that's how it can go.
4 Comments
3
Sillage
6
Longevity
7.5
Scent
Gelis

161 Reviews
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Gelis
Gelis
Top Review 12  
First scents 2
For "L'Air du Temps" applies, as for other first fragrances, that I no longer know what I liked about the fragrance. That has simply disappeared from my memory. What I do remember, however, is that I was enthralled by the bottle. That ornate lid had me intrigued. I remember having a small bottle and that it was more bulbous than the one pictured above.

About the fragrance:

LAdT is a decidedly understated scent on me today. That surprised me, the EdTs from the past have in my past experience always quite neat Wumms. Here, the beautiful fragrance notes of the start just fly by me and gone they are. That's downright unfortunate, because it smells very nice floral, powdery. Then at first there is nothing, it seems to be over already. But then, after about 15 minutes, I notice a whiff of fragrance on me: the garden carnation, and only it, wafts up my nose - quite contrary to its habit - in an extremely cautious manner when I move a little faster. I sniff briefly above, then directly on my skin, and really struggle to detect a scent. And so it remains. Sometimes, when I move faster, or get sweaty, it wafts extremely subtly up my nose. Again, it does this for several hours. LAdT is barely noticeable, but this for 6 - 7 hours. My conclusion: I can hardly believe that there should be other fragrance notes in the fragrance; and "L'Air du Temps" is for me a decidedly subtle Zeitgeist.

I thank Legenda for the opportunity to sniff an old fragrance once again.
7 Comments
7.5
Bottle
7.5
Sillage
10
Longevity
9
Scent
Wetterhex

12 Reviews
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Wetterhex
Wetterhex
Top Review 19  
Great classic
Somewhere I once read that this scent would have been one of the first to be launched after the 2nd World War and that the two doves would symbolize doves of peace,

A nice thought, if only a legend. At least this fragrance fits quite well into the late 40s. A little melancholic, melancholy and yet clear and pure, transporting a certain hope.

I like to go to oldtimer meetings and then dress mostly in the style of the 50s. But I am not the typical Rockabella with Victory Rolls, I rather orientate myself by original old photos, where the women with carefully undulated hairstyles and pretty dresses were on the way.
I was looking for a fragrance to go with it. Since I am a bit of a perfectionist, it should also be a fragrance that was on the market at that time.
I didn't want the well-known No.5 by Chanel, you can smell it on every corner at such meetings. I wanted something that would make me stand out a bit more
That's how I came to be in LAir du Temps. I found it in a drugstore at Christmastime. There was no tester. I bought it blind. It was a gift box with a soap that came with it
At home I tested the fragrance for the first time. I was overwhelmed at first, felt reminded of ancient women, who often have such a soapy, cultivated scent. It also keeps quite well for a few hours
When I get ready for the meetings, first of all hours of curlers in my hair, a careful make-up, pearl necklace and matching earrings, hat and gloves are of course obligatory, as well as matching handbags. And then there is LAir du Temps.

I have been asked several times at the meetings about my fragrance, whether it is still an original from that time. Most people are surprised that the fragrance is still available today. Of course I don't know if the fragrance is still original like it was back then or if it has been reformulated a few times already.

I find it a very nice, ladylike scent, not sweet at all, very flowery and powdery and really reminds me of the soap bars that were always in Grandma's closet. (with me too, by the way)

A very beautiful, classic fragrance and nothing for very young girls
5 Comments
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Statements

3 short views on the fragrance
Jazzy76Jazzy76 2 years ago
10
Bottle
7
Sillage
8
Longevity
9.5
Scent
A timeless, romantic and very chic fragrance with a discrete sillage.
Delightful the bottle signed Lalique
0 Comments
ScentwitchScentwitch 2 years ago
6
Bottle
10
Sillage
10
Longevity
5
Scent
Nostalgia in a bottle.
0 Comments
DorothyGraceDorothyGrace 9 years ago
The bottle I had of this in the '70s was so distinctive; what a watery shocker the latest version.
0 Comments

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