L'Aimant (1927)
by Coty

Whatever happened to the REAL Coty perfumers? L'aimant (alot like Chanel No 5, but with more punch) was a great perfume. Maybe it wasn't for everyone, but there was a real quality to it. Now it just screams, "I'm cheap and strong". Same for Emeraude, which was similar to and almost as beautiful as Shalimar. I never had the pleasure of Chypre, but I can only imagine the quality of a perfume that defined an entire new classification of scent! Four stars for the old: no stars for the new.

It must be special, to have been in production for almost 100 years without going extinct! According to the online e-tailers, it is a shimmering floral perfume with notes of bergamot, neroli, peach, jasmine, rose and vanilla. I am lucky to have a very fine perfume strength vintage version of this, which I find to be very smooth and buttery aldehyde rich. Yet the citrus open of bergamot and almost shrap neroli gives this a hint of brightness, an attitude... very classy retro and it makes me think blonde all the way. The peach, I do not smell overtly, but it gives a fullness, a freshness... it is a glimmer of peach skin only, there is no fruit. Of the jasmine and rose, the former is the more prominant. The whole golden cloud rests on a bed of vanilla and (in the vintage version I have, I am certain), civet. It is a tame kitty though, and the dry down leaves you with a warm-glowy-soft-powdery-something-better-than-skin scent that really does make you feel like how Marilyn Monroe looked, wrapped in nothing more than a mussed bedsheet.

My Aunt has worn this scent for years, so I thought iId try it on my skin.
I bought the pink, cream version, which you apply with a little applicator.
What I mostly get is powdery florals (rose and jasmine0 ans a nice woody
drydown. Inexpensive and perfect for special nights out.

This was the first feminine perfume I have recollection of smelling. It was my mother’s perfume and I remember it from my teen years and before. L’Aimant had a consistently negative effect on me. Whenever my mother sprayed it and I was on within 20 feet of her bedroom, I would become lightheaded and get a headache: a precursor of migraines to come. This was a heavy, powdery, aldehydic scent and one that gave me a negative view of women’s perfumes in general until I was well into my 20s.

I love floral, aldehyde based perfumes, and normally they love me. This smells like a really nasty fly repellant on me. I have tried it many times over the past 10 years, so it wasn't as if I was testing from an "off" bottle. My suggestion would be please test first before buying. This is definitely one of those perfumes that body chemistry affects strongly.

A "whoosh" of clean, aldehydic florals, featuring lily and a lovely apricot aroma on a light sandalwood and amber base. Created in 1927, L'Aimant must have been designed to let a woman's own scent shine through. Delicate, and retro. L'Aimant is a nice departure from the earthy and vegetal scents of the new era. Definitely worth a spritz; it might win your heart. I thought I would not like it, but I did.