Infini (1912)
by Caron

I have recently gotten to know the Carons, and Infini is my favorite one.

I suspect the bottle I picked up is from the eighties, so it isn't the current formulation.

It starts out in true Caron form, with a lot of delicious, melt-in-your-mouth, heaviness, and dries down very quickly to an incredible and perfectly-balanced, faintly metallic, tangy wonder. With outstanding sillage.

It's one of the more "familiar" vintage fragrances I have recently added to my repertoire, and the associations from my past are of very chic French women with that air of immaculate taste.

It delivers.

I managed to get a vintage bottle of the parfum. I'm slowly trying to experience more of the Caron's since, so far, I've only experienced Parfum Sacre. Infini is a scent that I just can't figure out. First out of the bottle it is definitely an aldehydic floral, but as it settles down, I really can't distinguish any notes with the exception of what I think is vetiver that starts to emerge. The scent goes away very fast on me (within an hour) almost without a trace. It's not bad, but it doesn't move me enough to make me think I'll want to reach for it again other than to sniff it from time to time. Some scents grow on me (see Parfum Sacre update below), but Infini doesn't have enough of what I like in the first place for that to be a possibility. Oh, well, I still have this odd, infinity-shaped bottle to add to my bottle collection and I didn't pay much for it.

Parfum Sacre Update: A friend gave me a full bottle of the EDP as a present and I've learned to ignore the pepper note that turned me off at first, since that note seems to wear away very fast on me. What's left after that is a scent that developes into something absolutely heavenly and lasts for many hours. I'm now glad that I didn't let the pepper note make me give up on it.

This is an old fashioned perfume that lacks any modern touch that would make it wearable for me. It´s nicely done and the oakmoss is lovely but too present and too green to make it wearable for me. It is uncompromising. It also reminds me a lot of my grandmother.

Though the one i hold in my hand is an boxed sample of caron i had deep suspects that bottle is filled with something else. I have nothing green or floral from it. Opens with a leathery smoky aura which turns out to be a rich and nice oakmoss. Then rises carnations and jasmin in an old (i mean not with their actual smells but their old way representations) but nice way. It is a bit spicy and sweet probably due to carnations but carnations are not over powered cloying clovers as in many of coevals. For me it has the best parts of mitsouko and le heure bleu (oakmoss jasmin carnations) and lacks the cloying disturbing part of them (neroli and begamot representative old heavy oils). It is one of the still wearable oldies for me.

A shape shifter. Sometimes I get a light, rather old-fashioned green floral fragrance with a couple of off notes – not really impressive. At other times it gets heavily sensual and seductive with its potent musks and jasmine indoles. The different reactions seem to have to do mainly with the ambient temperature: cold brings the off notes, heat brings on the sensuality. In both cases I get strong aldehydic effects and I never smell the roses. Infini is strongly floral but it doesn’t smell at all flowery to me. The particular flowers I smell, act as discreet white florals, which, except for the jasmine, do not seem to be the heady types, rather they are fresh and clean smelling. The jasmine is quite quiet and demure except for the strong indole effect that it regularly distributes. Infini has very good longevity and I really like it when it reacts sensually and indolicly, but I am not impressed when it goes off in the cold. When it’s reacting right, it is quite elegant. Infini is an excellent and interesting fragrance.

It's not often that a fragrance stumps me, but this one does. I would have guessed that the formula was much older than 1972; it smells Old World. I think I smell the vetiver, plus a strange peach note, and lots of carnation. Also, there is a hint of the "green twigs" note similar to Dzonka, but indistinct. Is it too sophisicated for my nose? I can't say that I would choose this one for myself, but I do think it is interesting.