Jontue Revlon 1975 Cologne

When Jontue came out it was quite a revelation for our high-school crowd. Basically, Revlon hit on the idea that America's great swell of boomer babies needed an inexpensive floral day-to-evening perfume that could sub for more aspirational fumes such as Chanel No. 5 and Arpege until girls grew up. So Jontue, feminine, cheap and cheerful, was born. It immediately knocked out Chantilly, which in those days you could buy in an enormous-size cologne. I still wear Jontue on weekends and any day I want to feel young. An amped up white flower confection, it definitely influenced such later screechers as Giorgio Beverly Hills.

Jontue came from a time when the income gap wasn't so cavernous, and the affordable and sensible spray and go fragrance purchased from the local drugstore could co-exist with the more luxuriant perfumes and the miasma of cigarette smoke and car exhaust. It could be placed in one's pocketbook along with a roll of Certs and applied as a pick-me-up from the drudgery of the day.

Revlon's Jontue was the budget escape to an enchanted garden, fields of chamomile, gardenia bushes, and mimosa trees in bloom, somehow all at once, defying their natural inclinations. Not to mention a warm sandalwood mingling with oakmoss and vetiver in its base. It is a simple, sensual pleasure, a welcome diversion from heavy complexity and the tired arguments of what is quality perfume. Quality to whom? To someone in Soho in 2023? To a country club in the Hamptons? To the zombies of late-stage Capitalism?

A quality experience is a personal principle. Trash and treasures are all on a level playing field to the expansive universe, so why not let go of pretense and see if something simple and delightful is liberating? Jontue's hazy floral glow, earthy, mossy embrace is liberating.

Also, I recall being drawn to that jaunty script that spells out "Jontue'' on the boxes and bottles as a child and thinking, "fancy". That in itself is a warm, fuzzy memory.

I discovered a vintage bottle of Jontue Perfume Spray. I do not ever remember smelling this on anyone. This is love at first sniff. I am simply stunned by the quality Revlon poured into its 1970s beauties. This ranks right up there with Chanel and Guerlain.

This is a warm weather classic that is based on white florals that I generally avoid (tuberose!). Here it is blended with mimosa, chamomile and gardenia so well that it behaves perfectly with a soft rose and I get a little neroli. A nice dry sandalwood arrives early on, foggy oakmoss and vetiver waltz happily here. The juicy peach is done so well you can almost taste it. Throw in a splash of orange and this becomes a vacation in a bottle.

It has the same DNA as Charlie (it gets such a bad rap after the bad reformulation, but hey what doesn't anymore?). Revlon had its own Guerlainade apparently.

Its ironic that so many writers mention its High School Girl appeal. This is a very mature and wealthy offering from a house that knew what it was doing. The price was affordable and it was marketed to all with the best ingredients. Jontue was from another time, indeed.

I don't recall anyone wearing this when I was a kid back then. I just remember the gauzy commercials with the horses....and the tag line.....sensual, but not too far from innocence.

Anyway, back to the cologne. I'm not sure why I got it. I think it was because there's chamomile in it, and I don't have anything else in my collection with that note. I figured for about $12, why not give it a chance?

This does NOT smell like a $12 fragrance. When I applied it with a dab of jojoba to help hold it on my pulse points while hanging around the house, this inexpensive cologne lasted a good five hours. I got to enjoy the chamomile, oak moss substitute (I doubt it has the real stuff), the herbs and the yellow flowers as it gently dried down. It supposedly has hyacinth in it too, but I wasn't able to pick that note up. The herbal notes keep it from being just another floral.

I'm going to reach for this again. I was very pleasantly surprised by its longevity, especially for a cologne. The herbal floral blend is great for spring and summer, and I hope they never stop making this budget beauty.

I am delightfully pleased to refresh an old acquaintance once again. Jontue was launched in the same year, 1975, as the old Chloé by Lagerfeld and targeted the same user group. Those who liked unsweetened, light floral scents were well served by this Revlon fragrance. Two years earlier, Revlon had taken the fragrance market by storm with its blue bestseller Charlie. At that time, Charlie held a similar status among young women as Light Blue by D&G does today, and there were likely many girls who celebrated their entry into the world of perfumes with this scent. Now, the girls have become young women, and Revlon tapped into the celebrated preferences for floral scents of that time and launched Jontue - less cheeky, more elegantly feminine, yet not from a completely different world. Anais Anais continued the theme shortly thereafter.

As innocent as the pyramid reads here, Jontue is by no means that. The H&R Atlas reveals much more opulence and aligns much closer to my perception:

Top notes: Hyacinth, Peach, Bergamot, Green notes, Gardenia
Heart notes: Tuberose, Jasmine, Rose, Ylang-Ylang, Iris
Base notes: Musk, Oakmoss, Vetiver, Sandalwood, Benzoin, Amber.

Jontue first reveals itself to me as fresh-floral - no, cool-floral is more accurate. Fresh sounds too spritzy. The initial scent is smooth, clean, and silky. Only after a while does the floral heart begin to beat, and now the Gardenia is clearly overshadowed by the Tuberose for me. Nevertheless, the fragrance surprisingly remains light and does not become warmer. These are not little flowers; this is not a floral orgy; this is a wonderfully romantic fluid that enchants without being kitschy. The base ensures this, where the term "herb" would be too harsh, but it does not drift into warmth with vanilla or tonka, as is often the case to my dismay with floral fragrances.

Anyone who can be enthusiastic about Anais Anais, loves L'Air du Temps, or occasionally enjoys Alliage would surely also find pleasure in Jontue. The fragrance has not entered my collection for the sake of collecting, but I will wear it with joy in the coming spring.