​How I got scar(r)ed for life...

Coming of age during the '80s may be more ambiguous than it seems at first glance. Although I feel very lucky that I was present at the birth of so many legendary fragrances, I can't help but underline how deeply they have affected me and how they shaped my aromatic preferences for ever. Sometimes to the point of rendering me incapable to smell any new fragrance without inevitably comparing it with what vintage formulations I have within my reach. Even when they belong to completely different genres. And believe me, this subtracts a great deal of the joy that fragrance testing should be.

But first of all let's try to paint a picture of the aromatic charts of the '80s.

At the entry level there were some dirt cheap lemon or lavender colognes, which were found in virtually every house. Despite their one hour logevity, their price allowed everyone to use half a kilo of them a day. There was a Greek-made mega hit under the name of Μυρτώ/Myrtle, and every single kid in elementary school (myself included) used to reek of it. The usual way of applying it was by shaking its bottle violently over your head, until half of its content had soaked your hair and shoulders. Just try to imagine how close to olfactory fatigue a schoolteacher must have been, when (s)he had to deal six (yes, six) days a week with 30 tiny lemon/lavender drenched devils. There were also some widely distributed and much better made fragrances like the iconic 4711, which could be found even in grocery shops, and it was worn by men, women and children alike. Like an early concept of a family fragrance, which still remains the only one I know.

And on the opposite side of the spectrum were fragrances like Drakkar Noir and Poison. And that was all... There was no middle-of-the-road. Nothing fresh, nothing light and nothing sport. No, wait! Actually there were some Eau de Sports, but they were of the kind that would have today's "intenses" for breakfast. The Kouros and the Paco Rabanne kind.

As I've written in one of my reviews:

«This one comes from an era when "sport" in a scent's name didn't mean that it lasted one hour max, or that people wouldn't be able to smell it even if you were trapped in an elevator with them, five minutes after having sprayed ten good spritzes of it on you. No. This one comes from an era when "sport" in a scent's name simply meant that if you were trying to describe it today, you'd put only one or two exclamation marks after the word "Powerhouse" instead of the usual three to five, and perhaps sometimes you'd spell "Powerhouse" with a lower case "p". Other than that, "sports" of this era were handsome beasts, with sillage and longevity that would rout easily most of today's "concentrées".»

The fragrances I was wearing during high school were Macassar, Cacharel pour Homme, Davidoff, Drakkar Noir, English Leather, Krizia Uomo, Yatagan, Trussardi Uomo and Jacomo de Jacomo. From 15 to 18. All of them one step away from being characterised as chemical weapons. You see, we're talking about their then potence here. And everyone who has spent a year or two in the '80s as a conscious human being, must have already understood what I'm talking about. For the rest, I'm talking about fragrances which were acting like thundering premonitions, foreshadowing the wearer a good five minutes before (s)he appeared. And we were all a far cry from light handed, cause the rule was ten sprays minimum. With these fragrances...

Can you imagine a 16 year old wearing Macassar during an afternoon coffee or stroll? Or even worse, going to school drenched in Opium? And although air fresheners were smelling like coming directly from 1001 Nights back then, none of the discos, clubs or cafes was using them. There was absolutely no need for any. Cause the smell of tenths of fragrances generously worn by the people frequenting these places, lingered for weeks. Even if the place was an open summer club, the smells had permeated its chairs and sofas. And they were reapplied every night. In case you don't get the picture.

After high school I ventured even deeper in the hard-core side, making friends with fragrances that would elongate your canines and make you bark at the moon. Like Salvador Dali pour Homme and Iquitos. And I have to admit we had one helluva time together! Sometimes I wonder why a term like "powerhouse" had to be coined. Probably to describe a specific category of older fragrances which fell out of grace I think. In any case it would have absolutely no meaning during the '80s cause everything was a powerhouse back then, but we simply called them fragrances. The rule (by a landslide) was what is known as "designers fragrances" today. Niche were nowhere to be seen. Not for another decade at least. And there were no unisex fragrances either. It was a somehow entrenched situation, with very little room for overlapping territories. And even less room for tresspasing them.

Today there's a huge diversity of fragrances, offering countless options of how one would like to smell like. Gourmands have set a new trend with many followers and unisex fragrances have their fair share of the pie.

But back in the day, men smelled like men, boys smelled like men, women smelled like exotic eidola, and girls smelled like drop-dead divas.

However, there were some funny attempts to lighten things a bit, by launching some fragrances which tried to play innocent and girly. And by "funny" I don't mean that the fragrances were laughable. Attempts like Loulou, with her campaign's dreamy atmosphere and her soft voice and her fragile looks and whatnot. Loulou? Innocent? Ha! Loulou was a sledgehammer wrapped in flimsy lace! Isn't this a push dagger of sorts beneath the thousand-yard stare? With its "blade" in crimson of all colours? No?

But it should have come as no surprise, since Cacharel always fancied double-dealing everyone, with "innocent" perfumes that were actually she-wolves in sheep's clothings, starting early with Anaïs Anaïs.

Back then fragrances had names. Names like La Nuit, Byzance, Acteur and Fahrenheit. Not names like Black XS Be a Legend Debbie Harry, Les Cascades de Rochas - Eclats d'Agrumes, Azzaro pour Homme Elixir Bois Precieux and La Collection Couturier Parfumeur Patchouli Imperial. I have yet to find a way to say "Les Creations de Monsieur Dior Diorissimo Eau de Toilette" to anyone asking what I'm wearing, without having her falling asleep while answering her question. And if she survives this flowery floral mayhem, how on earth will I make her understand about which Diorissimo flanker I'm talking about? Communication in olfactory terms is watching helplessly its breakdowns multiply with each passing day.

I guess it's somehow the same case with music. Although there's no direct analogy, the similarities are more than obvious. Oversupply and undue haste creating, applies to both.

Untill the mid '90s (before internet showed up that is), it was not unusual to pay 100 bucks for a rare vinyl LP from the early '80s. And then came the CD, and suddenly no recording was rare anymore. But it didn't have the same feeling. It felt like a CD was a bad reformulation of a vinyl LP. CDs had the polish and the modernity glamour and all, but they lacked the familiar noise and the inevitable scratches that seemed to be vinyl's very soul. Not to mention the lush covers and their contents, which made many LP records objects of desire. I mean, what has this

got to do with this?

Maybe this is the reason why there's no such thing like a collector's item CD. And to think that CDs are already considered to be a more or less antiquated way for listening to music. Technology in every form is advancing with huge steps, but no matter how much musical equipment has evolved, David Gilmour doesn't give a damn. This guy.

Vintage doesn't even begin to describe either him or his equipment. And his old-fashioned guitar solo in Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" is still the best thing I've ever heard. Terse and eerie, without any uncalled-for garrulous fioriture, and aiming right at my heart. Just like the way I like my fragrances.

I have mentioned that again in a response to a comment on a previous article, but in case you missed it I'll say it one more time. In 2014 alone there were launched 50% more fragrances than they were launched during the entire '70s and '80's decades! Even if I had the good will to test them, how many of them would I be able to test? We're talking about 2898 fragrances here! Almost eight of them launched every day! Isn't it kind of an overkill? I mean how many of them are we able to test daily? Yes, I understand that the advent of the internet, along with a number of new ways of paying an order, gave access to many more fragrances than anyone was able to lay hands on back in the day. But in any case, I think that the most fragrances one can test in a year are 365. Otherwise it's not actually testing them, but rather browsing through them.

I wonder if there's any chance for a fragrance launched in 2015 to be considered as a classic in 2045. I guess time will tell. But to be honest, I don't think it'll happen. Why? For the same reasons that Thierry Wasser, who has created one of the most unique fragrances ever, Salvador Dali pour Homme in 1985, created 70+ fragrances for Guerlain from 2010 to 2014. With most of them being flankers of flankers. And by the way, am I the only one around here who believes that Guerlain has jumped every shark species known to man, by launching 60 fragrances in 140 years and another 210 in only 15? And yes, I know that I might be burned at the stake for this "blasphemy", but I think that something is smelling very wrong in Guerlain for some time now. And does anyone know what Thierry Wasser was doing from 1985 till 1998 when he created his second fragrance?

In 1986, the year I finished high school, there were about 30 masculine fragrances launched. I could spend 12 days testing each of them. So the chances of delving deeper into their secrets and understanding them in the end, were nothing near as negligible as they are nowadays. And these special and long time relationships have established a deep, unconditional love towards all these scents that shaped my youth, and, unfortunately, a cold indifference about 90% of recent launchings. In most cases I forget them overnight. I wish that this wasn't the case, but sadly it is. I'm an '80s child after all...