Ispahan Yves Rocher 1977 Eau de Toilette

First time we met, Ispahan and I, was at a friend's house. She was in the middle of moving, and packing down her things was apparently something she had postponed for too long. When I came by she was trying to make all her stuff fit into the moving boxes she had bought for the purpose. I made myself helpful by emptying some of her shelves in the bedroom. When showing her some of the many bottles that were on her vanity she said "hey, you can have them". So, among Byzance, White Linen and other jewels that are all used long ago, was Ispahan. A big bottle.
Having these was a real treat. Being a student with no money, I was so thrilled that a friend gave all these fairly expensive perfumes. So I made a big mistake by not being the least curious about the Yves Rocher bottle. I knew at that time that this was inexpensive perfumes and therefore I jumped to the conclusion that it was also uninteresting perfumes with no qualities. Oh dear, how wrong I was. Luckily, I became wiser :)
When finally I found it i the back of the closet and tried it I was stunned by its personality. It has great longevity, moderate sillage and an absolutely wonderful development. It starts out spicy, really spicy and a hint of vanilla. After half an hour the scent softens into a vanilla-nutmeg-tonkabean mix with tiny whiffs of flowers, and it stays like this for 3-5 hours. The last phase is vanilla. So lovely. The only drawback is that if you spray it too close to your face, your nose and mouth are overwhelmed with it and you start tasting it. So be careful.
I like the bottle. It is pretty simple and the colour is deep. I just wish that they would not use plastic. Glass bottles are so beautiful and classy so why on earth (I know: money!) do they make it out of plastic? But there is nothing wrong with the vessel here. It prepares the user for what is inside, in my opinion.
Since it is discontinued but still sold on ebay for a reasonable amount of money, I would not hesitate to recommend this to everybody. This is really a great perfume. So good luck hunting.

I see a dusty road. Mountains surround me and a sandy, deserted field from them to me. And this road… and then, like a mirage, I see the city. The tall spires and the onion shaped bulbs on the mosques. The walls surrounding the city; the many towers; the sounds from the bazaar as I enter through the huge city gate.
I smell clove, cinnamon, myrrh. I see the many booths offering spices and herbs. Diverse and colourful. I catch a whiff of oranges and bergamot, citric, bitter and sweet in a refreshing mix. I pass a booth selling roses, jasmine and magnolia. Sending their odors to my nose. Lifting my mood by their great colours. I suddenly notice a potter’s shop, gazing upon the many beautifully shaped vases and urns, glazed in blue, green and purple. I touch some of them, feeling the cold but then again warm surface.
The fragrance, Ispahan (1977) is so fantasy triggering. I love the bottle and the smell. And I recommend this to everyone.
Year 2, 170/365

When I got to know the skincare from Yves Rocher and thus its fragrances in the early eighties, "Ispahan" shocked me: it was too full-bodied; for my modest nature, it was even too oriental, not to say: too erotic!
Back then, I preferred lighter scents and soon ended up (and this shows how paradox life is) with Yves Saint Laurent's "Opium": I had to have it!

A few years later, I exchanged something I no longer liked about myself for a not completely full bottle of "Ispahan".
Actually, I was originally only fond of this midnight blue bottle - simple yet so elegant!
I left the contents aside for a long time.
Until one day, curiosity drove me to try what I actually possessed.

I couldn't have interpreted the fruity greeting in detail back then. But I liked it very much.
By now, I have realized that aldehydes intensified the ripe fruits in their scent intensity.
Clove and cinnamon embrace a beautiful floral bouquet: the fine waxy magnolia is accompanied by fully bloomed roses, jasmine, and finally the radiant ylang-ylang!
The base truly offers almost all "fragrances of Arabia" - except for vanilla - right up to the spicy-scratchy incense.
A finely tuned fragrance concept that develops harmoniously step by step into a full feminine beauty.
I especially like that my three special "favorites" ylang-ylang, sandalwood, and patchouli are found together.

"Ispahan" is a beautiful oriental that meets the expectations placed upon it without being extremely expensive.
I remember its longevity as good; "touching up" was actually rarely necessary.

The neighbor, who recently handed me "Gianni Versace" from her mother's estate, asked me if I would like to take a closer look at a bottle she couldn't recognize.
Of course, I wanted to!
This bottle was also very dirty; a name no longer legible.
I first took the really badly damaged bottle with me and removed the coarsest dirt.
This allowed me to determine that it was indeed "Ispahan"; I had recognized the shape after all.
Struggling to open it, it became clear that there was probably nothing left of the contents.
However, the fragrant air that revealed itself still held a special magic: the sensual femininity had survived. Even if only as an airy spirit!

If I had known years ago what treasure I had, I would have certainly treated it more carefully.
Thus, the former bottle has been lost along with many of its "brothers and sisters".
With the current one, it is not worth keeping: it can stay in the bathroom for a little while longer until the scent spirit living in it has completely vanished.

But even through this cellar find, I became aware again of how beautiful the fragrances were back then.
Many of them have been forgotten or overwhelmed by the large number of "big" brands.
Therefore, it is very nice that there is an opportunity here to remember and still share these memories.

Today I felt like indulging in my old passion for "Orientals" and poured some of my old 15 ml treasure Ispahan onto my wrist to finally write the long-overdue comment that has been simmering inside me for some time.

I believe this fragrance deserves a big compliment posthumously, as it still evokes the same positive emotions in me after 20 years, unchanged. I never perceive scents as intellectually as many perfume enthusiasts manage to do. I can't specifically identify and describe most individual fragrance components. For me, the first overall impression of the scent, the total composition, is what matters - the limbic system decides without intellectual analysis whether I like the fragrance or not. I liked Ispahan immediately in the 90s, but at that time it was the substitute for the much-loved "Opium," which I couldn't afford. How happy I was back then when I finally stumbled upon the "Opium for the Poor," which could be worn daily and smelled so wonderfully of the spices of the Orient. For me, the scent is neither heavy nor dark. It is soft, warm, unsweet, sensual, spicy, and no spice is overly prominent, so I can't say what "Ispahan" actually smells like. Once again, the overall composition is successful - it's the blend that counts, and this gives me an aura in which I feel comfortable. And that is the decisive criterion for the quality of a fragrance - at least for me.

The name "Ispahan" - named after the ancient Persian city of Isfahan - is fitting for an oriental-scented perfume and already associates the magic of One Thousand and One Nights, which the perfume still exerts on me. The midnight blue simple bottle with the Arabic-looking letters also fits the content. In my opinion, "Ispahan" is the most successful fragrance creation from YdR, which unfortunately couldn't carry over into the new millennium.

In hindsight, I must say that my previous designation of "Opium for the Poor" does not do the fragrance justice, as it is not a copy of "Opium" (I was later able to afford the original, so a direct comparison was possible). Ispahan is a distinctly good little fragrance in the upper oriental league. I have not found anything comparable among today's oriental fragrances. Since "Opium" is no longer what it used to be, there is currently nothing in this fragrance direction, which I find very, very regrettable for my nose...

When I was ten years old, I had a friend in the neighborhood who had an older sister. She must have been around eighteen or nineteen. This older sister had a really great room: a four-poster bed, an old dollhouse for decoration, posters of 80s pop stars on the walls, a white plush carpet, and a large vanity with a mirror. A true girl’s dream! We regularly raided that vanity and celebrated makeup orgies.
We “made up” with neon pink lipstick, bright eyeshadow, and blush was, of course, a must. Today I feel sorry for the big sister; she must have been furious when she realized that the kids had once again gotten into her makeup. And my mother was also annoyed when I came home looking like a clown... and scrubbing it off with soap was no fun at all.
Among other things, we also discovered a catalog from Yves Rocher from 1987. That “book” was beautiful!
Lipsticks, colorful nail polishes, skincare products, and perfumes!
Alongside my mom’s few fragrances (4711, Nonchalance, Soir de Paris, Montfort Vienna, Tosca....) this was my “entry” into the world of perfume.
And Ispahan was one of my first scents; of course, I didn’t have it at ten, but a few years later, around 14 or 15, I could finally call my first Ispahan mini my own.
Later, when I could afford it, I switched to Opium.
Ispahan is often compared to Opium, but I would never have thought of that back then. The old Opium is definitely deeper and richer than Ispahan. But there is indeed a certain similarity.
Especially it is quite similar to the current Opium EdT/EdP.
In my “Le Livre des Parfums” by Yves Rocher, however, the year of release for Ispahan is given as 1983. And in the described fragrance pyramid, lime is additionally noted in the top notes.
What do I personally perceive from the fragrance pyramid?
Right after applying, because it’s a splash, I immediately perceive the dominant notes of clove and orange, then in the heart notes, I sense a beautiful floral mix of rose and ylang-ylang. I actually find this even nicer than the current Opium. After that, it becomes quite close to the skin, and I don’t perceive much from the base notes.
Maybe I’ll write a follow-up here, as I haven’t worn it in a long time, and I’ve always applied just a little and very gently.
The bottle is in a deep dark blue, an almost black shade, and looks like an oriental spice container.
I’m glad to have it, and when my bottle is empty, it will be placed in a display case.
I would also be incredibly happy to find an old Yves Rocher catalog from the 80s again; unfortunately, my search has been unsuccessful so far.