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07/03/2019
Ttfortwo
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Lucky Pain: My Grandma's Scent
Either way, that bottle must've had a lot to go through. Maybe that's why it didn't have a label anymore, maybe at some point the sticker was unsightly and worn out and my grandmother, who was always thrifty, tidy and very clean, had taken it off. Perhaps Grandma, very sparingly as I said, had also filled another fragrance into the emptied bottle at some point and therefore removed the original label.
In any case, my grandmother owned a bottle with dark gold, almost viscous contents, a perfume bottle that has not been produced for many decades, with a glass top and a ground glass stopper. And from this bottle it smelled opulent and pompous and dark gold and narcotic - and every now and then I found this scent on my grandmother again, when she had prepared herself for something very special.
Did she bring the bottle herself from Russia? No, I don't think so, the family - like so many others - had to flee during the war and my grandmother was more practical and resolute than romantic. Together with her husband, she made sure that everyone came to the West healthy and in one piece, my four-year-old mother as well as grandma's old mother, my great-grandmother. I just can't imagine that she would have packed a perfume bottle with her.
I think the vial came to her in the late 60's when some of her siblings could come to Germany as Aussiedler and probably brought her the perfume as a present.
After her death I wished for the bottle and got it too - but washed it out, which is not surprising, because at that time I collected old and older perfume bottles, but no perfumes.
Here at Parfumo I came across Krasnaya Moskva a few years ago and recognized the old bottle and was surprised to discover that the fragrance still exists. It costs almost nothing, I could have bought it, I even constantly flirted with it, but I never did.
Now I'm glad I never ordered the new version, because thanks to Minigolf I have a small vintage original bottle (with a ground glass stopper) in my hands. As soon as I open the package a huge cloud of scent rises towards me and - yes!!!!! - that's the scent of my memory. That's how my grandmother, who died many years ago, smelled, I recognized this dark, clearly old-fashioned, narcotic opulence on the spot.
At the very beginning, in the very first seconds only, my Vintage-EdP shows an almost surprising youthful light-heartedness in view of the age, an exuberant citrus note blends with the immediately present coriander to a rather modern looking airy-spicy Accord - and unfortunately collapses again to make room for the actual top note, which is completely different.
The diva awakens, lascivious, sluggish. She is clearly aged, uninhibitedly self-confident and VERY audible. An overdose of liqueur aldehydes, with sweet coriander and a dark honeyed, narcotic orange blossom. I also smell tuberose, but it could be an interference between orange and coriander. The fragrance is not tilted, but there is a distinct hint of overripening, such as the oxidation tone of a complex and stored vintage port immediately after opening.
In the first half hour, the fragrance hardly changes, I enjoy it, but rather as an intimate memory of my grandmother, less than a fragrance - this dark honey-coloured viscous mat and stunning opening, somewhat stuffy, opulence of bygone times, is almost no longer wearable today.
But she moves me very much.
But then, after almost an hour, the Krasnaya Moskva gradually becomes wonderfully beautiful, old-fashioned complex and incredibly dense still, but finally wearable. Opulently spicy-floral and with an animalism that cannot be denied, it reminds me less of No 5 than of many facets of old Guerlains. I have a densely packed flower arrangement in the nose, rounded on all sides. I smell spicy and dark earthy notes, an ambered warmth and fluffy powder. The licky dark sweetness of the top note disappears almost completely, Krasnaya Moskva becomes drier and more adult, the diva sleeps again. Now it's not only the scent of my grandma, now it's also my scent.
The Sillage is surprisingly tame - except for the bombastic top note. After about four hours I have to get my nose quite close to my wrists to experience the last transformation of the scent: Powder, a melancholic-soft vanilla and some cat, a hint only left, but the base note has stamina and is still after more than eight hours at least suspectable.
These genuine - unreformulated - vintage fragrances have a very special buttery-oily and opaque appearance. They're thick, creamy, heavy, the notes stick together. Certainly, shortly after bottling, they were somewhat more exuberant, more light-footed, but: no modern aroma chemical far and wide that would be capable of creating airiness and transparency and silvery sparkle. That - less the combination of flavours - is for me the main reason why these old genuine vintages are often considered difficult to carry. Krasnaya Moskva is at least in the first hour exactly that: Hard to carry - and shows me that moderate modifications do not automatically have to be something bad. Carefully executed, they don't destroy a fragrance artwork, no, they restore it and give it a future.
Because I only know the vintage version in the really classic, beautiful glass bottle, I don't rate the fragrance, especially since it's surprisingly difficult for me to commit myself to a grade that's even halfway factually worked out in view of my sentimental memory pain.
In any case, my grandmother owned a bottle with dark gold, almost viscous contents, a perfume bottle that has not been produced for many decades, with a glass top and a ground glass stopper. And from this bottle it smelled opulent and pompous and dark gold and narcotic - and every now and then I found this scent on my grandmother again, when she had prepared herself for something very special.
Did she bring the bottle herself from Russia? No, I don't think so, the family - like so many others - had to flee during the war and my grandmother was more practical and resolute than romantic. Together with her husband, she made sure that everyone came to the West healthy and in one piece, my four-year-old mother as well as grandma's old mother, my great-grandmother. I just can't imagine that she would have packed a perfume bottle with her.
I think the vial came to her in the late 60's when some of her siblings could come to Germany as Aussiedler and probably brought her the perfume as a present.
After her death I wished for the bottle and got it too - but washed it out, which is not surprising, because at that time I collected old and older perfume bottles, but no perfumes.
Here at Parfumo I came across Krasnaya Moskva a few years ago and recognized the old bottle and was surprised to discover that the fragrance still exists. It costs almost nothing, I could have bought it, I even constantly flirted with it, but I never did.
Now I'm glad I never ordered the new version, because thanks to Minigolf I have a small vintage original bottle (with a ground glass stopper) in my hands. As soon as I open the package a huge cloud of scent rises towards me and - yes!!!!! - that's the scent of my memory. That's how my grandmother, who died many years ago, smelled, I recognized this dark, clearly old-fashioned, narcotic opulence on the spot.
At the very beginning, in the very first seconds only, my Vintage-EdP shows an almost surprising youthful light-heartedness in view of the age, an exuberant citrus note blends with the immediately present coriander to a rather modern looking airy-spicy Accord - and unfortunately collapses again to make room for the actual top note, which is completely different.
The diva awakens, lascivious, sluggish. She is clearly aged, uninhibitedly self-confident and VERY audible. An overdose of liqueur aldehydes, with sweet coriander and a dark honeyed, narcotic orange blossom. I also smell tuberose, but it could be an interference between orange and coriander. The fragrance is not tilted, but there is a distinct hint of overripening, such as the oxidation tone of a complex and stored vintage port immediately after opening.
In the first half hour, the fragrance hardly changes, I enjoy it, but rather as an intimate memory of my grandmother, less than a fragrance - this dark honey-coloured viscous mat and stunning opening, somewhat stuffy, opulence of bygone times, is almost no longer wearable today.
But she moves me very much.
But then, after almost an hour, the Krasnaya Moskva gradually becomes wonderfully beautiful, old-fashioned complex and incredibly dense still, but finally wearable. Opulently spicy-floral and with an animalism that cannot be denied, it reminds me less of No 5 than of many facets of old Guerlains. I have a densely packed flower arrangement in the nose, rounded on all sides. I smell spicy and dark earthy notes, an ambered warmth and fluffy powder. The licky dark sweetness of the top note disappears almost completely, Krasnaya Moskva becomes drier and more adult, the diva sleeps again. Now it's not only the scent of my grandma, now it's also my scent.
The Sillage is surprisingly tame - except for the bombastic top note. After about four hours I have to get my nose quite close to my wrists to experience the last transformation of the scent: Powder, a melancholic-soft vanilla and some cat, a hint only left, but the base note has stamina and is still after more than eight hours at least suspectable.
These genuine - unreformulated - vintage fragrances have a very special buttery-oily and opaque appearance. They're thick, creamy, heavy, the notes stick together. Certainly, shortly after bottling, they were somewhat more exuberant, more light-footed, but: no modern aroma chemical far and wide that would be capable of creating airiness and transparency and silvery sparkle. That - less the combination of flavours - is for me the main reason why these old genuine vintages are often considered difficult to carry. Krasnaya Moskva is at least in the first hour exactly that: Hard to carry - and shows me that moderate modifications do not automatically have to be something bad. Carefully executed, they don't destroy a fragrance artwork, no, they restore it and give it a future.
Because I only know the vintage version in the really classic, beautiful glass bottle, I don't rate the fragrance, especially since it's surprisingly difficult for me to commit myself to a grade that's even halfway factually worked out in view of my sentimental memory pain.
16 Comments
IrinaSpalko
