11 years ago
The most loved perfume in my "vintage" collection is Rive Gauche. When I was given a new formula version of RG, I knew immediately it wasn't the same. Did a bunch of googling and first discovered the online world of perfumistas.
The original RG, of which I still have 1/3 of a bottle, has memories of Paris for me -- the modern parts of Paris, Montparnasse and the metro underneath, and being 14 and touring all around Paris by myself or with my sister, my Guide Michelin under my arm.
Amazing how smell can allow us to time travel.
I always got compliments with the vintage version and interestingly I get compliments on the new formulation and never for any other of my vintage perfumes. So the new formulation is for wearing, and the vintage is just for sniffing the bottle, rarely opening it.
Then my second most treasured vintage is FiFi by de Nivel. My daddy brought that home from Europe when I must have been 6 years old. And I loved it. He was able to get me one more bottle before it disappeared completely from the face of the earth. I nursed those two bottles and today I still have a few drops in one. That bottle was only for sniffing since I was a teen. It transports me back to the time when I was little and playing with beautiful dolls and miniatures from Germany, and I had small, pretty ceramic tiles from Holland. (they came in a box of chocolates).