Reviews of En Avion (1929)
by Caron

(I don't know how old my sample is - It is dark and thick.)
I would like anyone, immediately, who wore this scent. Yes, I smell the cloves, but I also smell magic.

This is literally Heaven Scent - I have tried and never bettered this .
The die down is so long and powdery, the scent is difficult to place . Is it a floral oriental or a chypre with hints of leather Who cares !
Not a girly girly fragrance - you have to be all woman to wear this . You have to be brave and unafraid . It frightens other women ; it excites men. If you like modern fragrances made up of chemicals then don't buy this as you won't have the confidence to carry it off .

In the first try i found the neroli and cloves is too heavy that i thought it would be suitable to dress up a dead body. Cloying old floral oils and cloves as simple as the dried ones served in an Jordan restaurant to chew after garlic appetizers to kill your mount smell. After the first hour you can put up with the cloves and then later you can enjoy the remaining powdery florals. But i cannot advice it to anyone as it is hard to endure the first half hour of it.

In the first decades of aviation, when we were all blinded by the glare of heroism and miraculous ascent of human spirit above the clouds, defying gravity and other enemies – aviation has inspired art – including books (Antoine de Saint Exupéry, an aviator, spy and an author, has written several books inspired by the topic). And lastly there are two grand perfumes inspired by aviation – En Avion (Ernest Daltroff, 1932), dedicated to the pioneer female aviators mentioned above – Bolland, Boucher and Bastié; and the infamous Vol de Nuit (Jacques Guerlain, 1933), inspired by the book of the same name by the abovementioned aviator-author, which I have already reviewed on this humble blog.

En Avion opens dark, like all Caron extraits, and with a certain bittersweetness that does remind me somewhat of Vol de Nuit (though I have to admit, the only reason I compare the two is because of their common theme). While Vol de Nuit is green and sharp, herbaceous at first – En Avion is far more spicy and floral. It starts off soapy and spicy at the same time. Carnation is apparent immediately, but so is orange flower, which smells like an echo of l’Heure Bleue with pilot-hat and goggles… Although Vol de Nuit has the signature powderiness from the classic Guerlinade and iris notes engrained within its structure; En Avion takes powderiness nearly into central stage, and in a far softer and lady-like olfactory context: rose, lilac and violet, and underlined with powdery opoponaxs which almost instantly bring to mind the scent of vintage face powder. As for the base of En Avion, it is redolent of Atlas cedarwood with its suave, polished olfactory-texture, a bittersweetness of tonka bean (again, a reminder of of Vol de Nuit; but let’s not forget that En Avion preceded Vol de Nuit’s launch by a year…). There is, however, a subtle presence of burnished leather at the base, however it is not as animalic or leathery as other Caron creations (i.e.: Narcisse Noir, Tabac Blond), it is almost as soft as suede… If Vol de Nuit is a wild, ambitious woman with restrained emotions and top-notch professionalism; En Avion is not any less ambitious woman that secretly displays her femininity even when boarding an airplane for what might be her last flight ever… Underneath the pilot jumper, she is still wearing silk stockings and laced lingerie.

Perhaps En Avion is a bit like Mml. Boucher, who interestingly enough, started her career as a dressmaker, which led to her designing leather gear and accessories for pilots; she than became so fascinated with flying she felt compelled to pursue this dangerous field. I wonder if she was the kind of lady who would take her maquillage with her to the aircraft to get all perked up before performing her aerobatics…

According to Perfume Addicts database,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/perfumeaddicts/database
the notes of En Avion include:

Top notes: Rose, Neroli, Spicy Orange
Heart notes: Jasmine, Carnation, Lilac, Violet
Base notes: Opoponax, Amber, Musk, Wood

To that I would add that in the top notes I can smell orange blossom rather than neroli (there is a different between the two!), I can't say I'm particularly smelling orange (there is a citrusy freshness, but it is well hidden with all the additional dense notes); and there is definitely a dry allspice note weaved in, as well as cloves and perhaps even a hint of nutmeg. While I can't say I smell much of the lilac (I would have to go back to it once I'm fully recovered from my cold though...), violet and rose have a strong presence, and so is the carnation. The base is neither particularly musky nor ambery; but there is certainly the animalic powderiness of opoponax weaved into a dry tobacco-leather base that might include castoerum, and the woods in question are the beautiful Moroccan cedarwood from the Atlas mountains.

Another perfume of the legendary Caron house ruined by reformulation incompetance, if you used to wear En Avion before 2001 you know this has been recently tweaked. Unfortunately vintage En Avion is hard to find but please stay away from new EA, the new one is just a shadow of what it used to be. The new version lacks refinement, grace and elegance, typical of reformulated creations by current Caron in-house perfumer Richard Fraysse.

My first impression after putting this on was a very literal interpretation of the aviatrices; orange peels and carnations floating in aviation fuel. An acrid and heavy scent that is both fascinating and repellant, both ancient and new.

After a couple of hours, the sharpness was gone, replaced by powdery roses on leather; soft and intoxicating.

A few hours more and the powder and leather begin a long dissolve into moss. It has now been 13 hours and the moss is fading away, too.

A complex and multifaceted scent. I admire it greatly; not sure it will have a regular spot in the rotation.

There didn't need to be an note list for this one to identify he predominant clove ...would be hard to miss, even for a novice, especially in the stinging opening notes. Since I don't know what the other notes are, I can't really tell you why I don't like it, I just don't. It's sharp, pungent and nasty. As it dries down, it is more tolerable, but with all the other great perfumes in the world, why waste time on one you don't really like? Pass.

Mattie, the SA, splashed the En Avion extrait all over her palm, like with a men's cologne splash, and literally drenched my right wrist with it, the precious extrait dripping onto the floor! As a result, I had a great opportunity to follow its development for the next five hours, until I fell asleep.

En Avion is a serious leather scent, and to my nose is a touch dated when compared to either Tabac Blond or Poivre. Yes, there is some carnation, rose, and cloves in En Avion, but nothing like the fireworks in Poivre. Yes, too, there is lots of leather in En Avion, but different from Tabac Blond. En Avion smells like plasticy, chemically-tanned leather, versus the vegetal-tanned, suede-like leather in Tabac Blond. They are undoubtedly related, but Tabac Blond is the more resplendent of the two. Please don't mistake me, En Avion is a classic fragrance in the best sense of the term. However, Tabac Blond and Poivre happen to both represent the ne plus ultra to me, thus tempering my appreciation for En Avion.

Wicozani

Metallic soap! I get no notes whatsoever. Well, maybe a dry, sharp clove like the one in Coup de fouet? I recognize the metallic sharpness from Tabac Blond, but in Tabac Blond it's balanced by a musky/leathery/sweet base. En Avion is like smelling unscented soap. Still, somehow refined and elegant, I can't quite hate it.

Yummy. Powdery, orange blossom, mild leather & clove opening.. moss & violet shine when clove fades, still nice mix of moss, rose, & powdery Caron base at end. Not bad lasting power. It seems classy, intriguing and earthy; very nice.

During my first trial of En Avion (translation: by airplane or in airplane), I developed a comical mental picture: Someone had dropped a lit cigarette on the plane's leather upholstery and (as the clove note developed), I was cinching my parachute, ready to bail out on this ride.

A day or two later, after contemplating the notes and others' reviews, I entered into the experience again. I sought to focus on the leather (a favorite note in general). Present is a coarse, working leather as found on early farms and in industry, not the supple purse leather of Dzing! The problem for me comes from the clove effect of the carnation, which is more intense than can be ignored, and it seared me for a good two hours. After that, the clove died away and soft rose and powder were unveiled. Therein lies En Avion's beauty to me. However, it comes so late, I'm not willing to wait through the clove experience again when Guerlain can take me to this pretty place without such tribulations.

I got a decant of this as a gift, and I must say it is a departure from the other Caron scents that I have. The powder note is almost soapy, but in a clean very sophisticated way; it must be the oakmoss. I read that Daltroff created this to honor the new and daring aviatrixes of that time (i.e. Amelia Earhart), and it seems to fit a female risk-taker of the 1930's; one of those women who (gasp!) wore trousers, bobbed their hair, and flew all over the country when they felt like it.

The powdery wooded base jumps up to meet the topnotes right from the start! It gently settles back down to allow the fowers their share of the spotlight. Rose and carnation - spicey and ever so slightly sweet - really stand out for me. As time goes by, the entire scent really mellows. There is a certain sense of quiet confidence En Avion imparts to the wearer. More approachable than Tabac Blond ~ yet rich and classy!

Old classic perfumes and old classic movies share a lot in common, I think. Sometimes I'll watch an old movie, a classic title from the 1930's or 1940's, and find myself distracted from the plot by the dated acting style. It's not that the acting is bad, but it's much closer to dramatic stage acting than what we typically see when we go to the movies today, and as a result often seems a little silly and overblown when watching it through modern eyes. Every once in a while, however, a movie comes along that transcends its release date. Think Casablanca or Miracle on 34th Street. Well, fragrances are the same way in my mind. There are many older fragrances that, while I can appreciate the artistry of their composition, I find their scent to be too dated to wear today. And then occasionally (oh happy day!) I discover one that transcends its age and era. That's what En Avion is for me. It's an old classic that doesn't smell dated or overblown to a modern nose, unlike many of its fragrance peers. It's just a beautiful, luxurious, feminine work of art.

En Avion, next to Poivre, is my favorite of the Caron urn fragrances. The Caron Boutique in NYC has a wonderful sample program for U.S. residents, and a few etailers (and sometimes eBay) stock En Avion. It’s one of the easier urn frags to find. En Avion opens with a lovely rush of orange blossom and something that reminds me of leather, but not the deep, dark leather of Tabac Blond (another great classic), but a tawny beige, plush leather. The classic Carons need some time to develop on the skin. En Avion is no different. The drydown is simply beautiful and womanly. It’s a lovely powdery orange blossom mixed with woods, a touch of violet, subtle spices, and the oakmoss that seems to part of the famous Daltroff accord. The extrait is pure Art Deco elegance. This one will always find a place in my fragrance repertoire. Soar to celestial heights with En Avion.