Byzance Rochas 1987 Parfum

We were going to a concert. I was due to be picked up at around 7pm. The entire Saturday afternoon was therefore dedicated to body worship. I had bathed for hours especially for this and applied a small sample of body cream from a seductive, oriental perfume - according to the perfume sales clerk: Byzance!

While I was still getting dressed, a deep, sensual fragrance gradually unfolded and by the time I had finished my beauty routine, I felt like pure temptation, sin incarnate, a goddess!
If the fragrance is still relatively fresh at the beginning, it quickly warms up. The aldehydes are clearly, but not obtrusively, perceptible. Instead of the initial citrus, the floral heart increasingly reveals itself. Byzance now becomes deeper and gains in spice and sophistication. Is it the rose? Is it the lily of the valley? The jasmine or the tuberose? I can't name it individually, I can't attribute the main part of the mysterious and sensual effect of Byzance to any of the numerous fragrances listed. The interplay is simply perfectly harmonious. After a short time, sandalwood, musk, amber and vanilla unfold. And here too, no one stands out, no one takes a back seat. What remains is the perfect symbiosis of all the ingredients, which wrap themselves around me like a warm aura, enveloping me and transporting me to another world.

I put on some music, switched off the lights and dreamed myself away from my living room to the concert. I was the idolized center of attention, flirting with my imaginary admirers and enjoying the attention...
7pm came and went without anyone picking me up. When midnight came, I went to bed disappointed.

No one knows how wonderful I smelled that night. And no one would find out later, because there was no repeat. I did buy the fragrance, but only as an eau de toilette. Unfortunately, it didn't smell nearly as intense as the body cream and didn't achieve the same depth and mysterious radiance. Why didn't I just buy the body cream or a bottle with a higher concentration? I don't know. I just didn't. So only once did I have the dreamlike aura of Byzance around me in this incredibly dense concentration, only once did I feel like a queen from 1001 Nights.

It would be 33 years before I was able to smell Byzance again like I did that one evening. I had bought the pure perfume in the souk. Just one spray and I'm back in the living room, the lights are off and I'm dancing...

Many thanks to Catwoman!