Ensar Oud Oud Extraordinaire

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Oud Extraordinaire is an utter delight – and I say that as one who isn’t really an Oud Head. Its gourmand opening evokes Serge Lutens‘ signature of spices, stewed or candied fruits, and ambery, honeyed sweetness (along with Christmas and Persian Sohan sweets) before the thick, rich scent transitions into the conventional oud bouquet of incense, tarry leather, charred woods, and medicinal camphor and then into a velvety, ambered fusion of both. When you add incredible longevity and a reasonable (current sale) price, Oud Extraordinaire is an oud worth considering.

Ensar Oud Oud Extraordinaire. Photo: my own.

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Balmain Vintage Jolie Madame – Part II: Bottles & Packaging By Decade

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Balmain‘s vintage Jolie Madame came in a variety of different bottles and packaging over the course of its lifetime, particularly in the case of the eau de toilette. The best era, in my opinion, was the 1950s to the mid or late 1970s because that’s when the formula was closest to Germaine Cellier’s original and truest to what she intended Jolie Madame to be. Consequently, that is the era which I’d suggest you look for. Today, I’ll try to give you a rough sense of how to assess what you see on eBay or Etsy based on things like box markings, bottle caps, batch codes, and more.

Vintage Jolie Madame parfum. Probably 1970s. Photo: my own.

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Balmain Vintage Jolie Madame – Part I: The EDT & Parfum

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Balmain‘s vintage Jolie Madame — an exquisite chypre that turns into a softly animalic floral leather then into a suede-like floral — was created by the legendary Germaine Cellier but it is not one of her creations that I hear people commonly talk about, unlike Bandit, Fracas or, to a comparatively lesser extent, Vent Vert. That’s a shame because I think that Jolie Madame has a heartbreaking tenderness and delicacy which I find largely missing in those bolder, more operatic masterpieces. In essence, Jolie Madame is like Chopin or Vivaldi, not Wagner or Beethoven.

Vintage Jolie Madame parfum and EDT. Photos, collage, and bottles: my own.

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Les Indémodables Ambre Supreme

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Fragrances with real ambergris are not the norm in the fragrance world, so I was excited to try Les Indémodables‘ Ambre Supreme, created by the famous Antoine Lie.

After trying it, I’ll say this as a hardcore amber lover: I wouldn’t run a marathon or climb Mt. Everest to get my hands on it.

Ambergris. Source: the Mirror newpaper, Mirror.co.uk.

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