Anaïs Anaïs (1978)
by Cacharel

I have discovered that for me, a scent must have spice to be worth wearing. This one is very light but oh, so nice.

Carnations and incense with lots of powder. Very feminine, youthful and soft.
Lovely.

5th January, 2012.

You know I had to wear this about 5 times before I could get it...to me this is a very white incense fragrance. If you are an incense fanatic this is one for your collection because it is such a different use of incense. This scent is very sweet and somewhat fascinating, aside from being iconic.

19th August, 2011.

A white, spicy carnation that is perhaps a tad too spare, sour and powdery to pass with today's girls, despite it's pleasant, soapy realism. I have a scent memory connecting Anais Anais to my pediatricians office when I was barely four years old. It bears the same scrubbed and sterile aesthetic, without being unpleasant.

30th May, 2011.

I thought this was a little too overpowering and powdery for my liking. Not something that I can imagine appealing to me at any age. I wouldn't describe Anais Anais as being powdery and heavy like Chanel No.5, but rather a sourish floral scent. This however has great lasting power. I'm also not a fan of the bottle. They should have made a new bottle design since the original has been around for nearly 40 years.

Update:
I decided to give this another try to see whether my opinions might have changed. At first spray I realised why I didn't like it, it smelt rather like the weeds that are so common in Australian fields. It was greenish and sour. However, the drydown of this fragrance which I'd previously missed was rather likable. It wasn't unique in any way, but was rather soapy, powdery and fresh. Still not my cup of tea but not as bad as I previously thought.

26th April, 2011.

This is a 50's scent frozen in a capsule and unearthed decades later. It's like an even more polite Coup de Fouet in that it's prim and powdery and the Carnation in Anais Anais is so prevalently spicy it seems to imitate clove. The incense is interesting in a good way but at the same time manages to make this concoction smell old and a little musty. It's a polite, spicy and smoky powdered green. I like it, though it wouldn't wear well on anybody I know.

28th March, 2011.

The breeze is light, the early afternoon is heavenly and indolent, the air is delicate and smells of rose, the white lacy dressed and soapy smelling young women take their brunch under the trees near the flowery clearing of the college's garden.

4th March, 2011.