L'Origan (1905)
by Coty

L'Origan is for me. I have the vintage and the modern bottle. I love this and it is my most beloved fragrance. I agree with Ms. Rockambeau's review. There is a thickness and weight to it which is probably the out-lawed ingredients. When you wear it, you really feel like you are wearing something! I'm just speculating now, but I think it includes in it's ingredients: amber, orange, rose and musk for starters.

Perfumes make you feel a certain way whether it's carefree, settled, beautiful or whatever. L'Origin makes me feel like a mature woman. (I am past 45 so I guess I should feel mature!) but even if a younger somebody wears this, it probably would make them feel older which could be attributed to the heaviness of the perfume.

Rich and heavy is this gorgeous remarkable perfume. It feels like another era, that is one of the reasons I love it so. It isn't a modern scent but it beats them all in my opinion. God only knows how much I love the vintage.

I finally managed to aquire a tiny bottle of vintage L'Origan. After reading a lot about it I can see why it's been said that this scent was most likely the inspiration for Guerlain's L'Heure Bleue. As it developes on the skin, it seems to have many of the same notes as LB that evoke a kind of pastry-like sweetness. L'Origan embodies an earlier era in that it has a kind of "thickness", or weight to it that most contemprary scents don't have, but that's exactly what I like about it...nothing flimsy or timid here. However, unlike LB, L'origan has a kind of pungent, coppery edge to it. I know that sounds weird, but there was a note that reminded me of warmed pennies. Or is it just me?

A very (in)famous femme fatale of the olden days used this one: the countess Maria Tarnowska.

Did she wear it mostly because it was fashionable (it came out two years before she was arrested), or did it really complement her apparently irresistible person?

I guess we'll never know... ;)
And I would love to smell it again.

A nice person sent me a sample of L'Origan, I think it was vintage. Oaf that I am, I couldn't appreciate it. I tried it on my skin but it didn't work for me. It was too strange to my nose. It smelled clovey and medicinal, and very dry. Its powderiness was like the dust of a century. I can see its relation to Mitsouko, actually, rather than L'heure Bleue. I would never wear L'Origan. I can, however, appreciate its strange echoes from the time of Gustav Klimt. It must have been quite avant garde in its day.

Powdery, woody and dry, almost dusty around the edges. Is there iris hiding in there? Perhaps some violet? Or mimosa? I like this fragrance, it is light but also has staying powder. Unlike many of the ambery/sandalwoody fragrances, this is bright enough to feel right during the day, or even on the weekend.

I own a small vintage bottle of L'Origan Parfum. It is lovely. I don't use it, just smell it for pleasure; wouldn't want to use it up! Smells a little like L'Heure Bleue (I believe L'Heure Bleue was partly inspired by L'Origan.)