Alliage (1972)
by Estée Lauder

Top notes: green notes (galbanum), citrus, peach
Heart notes: jasmine, rosewood, thyme, pine needle
Base notes: vetiver, myrrh, musk, oakmoss

Estee Lauder's Aliage is a complex and challenging green chypre that caught me off-guard, by kicking off with a remarkably unfriendly but head-clearing blast of bitter greens, peach, herbs and citrus. Helloooo. This opening might make you question, "Why Aliage?"
Ok, if you make it through a few minutes of that without either getting a migraine, and/or scrubbing it off, then you could be in for a real treat.
Aliage then starts opening a wonderful wicker picnic basket of surprises for you, deep in the forest, as you spread out your blanket in the shade underneath the soft fir trees.
Aliage takes some of the bitterness, and slowly start to transform it into piney powdery woodiness, with a hint of jasmine and musk, and I would not be surprised to find out if juniper was in there as well. Although marketed as a "sport" scent, this doesn't smell like a gym, or locker room shower. Aliage to me is about the great outdoors, a cold wet morning in the forest that warms and dries in the sun. Very good.

21st January, 2012.

I've heard about this and was glad to sample it. It is a big scent. Marketed to women but it is so powerful and moderately dry that a man could wear it. The peachy fruit up top gives it a round, plump opening. It quickly settles into a 70's herbal-mossy-leathery brew. It is a sibling to Dior's Jules. Nice enough, some might find it a bit dated in today's market.

25th November, 2011.

New to perfumes (so much wasted time), I'm still learning what I like and the vocabulary to express it.

I have a current formulation and a partial mini of 70's vintage.
The vintage is so much better, surprise huh? On the vintage the nose biters (aldehydes?) fade quickly revealing a mossy, herbal, delightfully woody scent with citrus tops notes and a very subdued slightly powdery base with just a hint of sweet. The wood reminds me of douglas fir pitch, warm, aromatic with a slight sharpness.
Lord, I wish they would re-release this and sell it to men and save them from smelling like Krispy Kreme counter boys.
The newer formulation?
On it's own, it's alright. The resemblance is there but there's a flatness and kind of a musty, sourness to it with just a slight hit of just wrong. It's a dish cooked with poor ingredients and a dash of contempt for the diner.
I've got to get a full bottle of the vintage. I love this stuff.

11th October, 2011.

At first glance, Alliage, one of the Estée Lauder line’s inexpensive mainstays might be considered simply ‘cheap and cheerful.’ It reads, “Sport Fragrance Spray” in a functional, rather non-stylized bottle. Not exactly sexy. But cheap and cheerful implies an innocent simplicity whose grinning surface advises not digging any further. On the contrary, I’d argue that Alliage is inexpensive but sophisticated and spectacular. One of the impressive set of perfumes in the stellar-but-cheap sweepstakes.

Everyone seems to talk about Alliage’s notes, and I will as well, but briefly. I don’t get the peach. I don’t get the oakmoss. I do get a heavy green (loads of galbanum accented by vetiver) brightened by citrus rind oils (bitter orange, lime?) and florals. But since the green is already firmly in place, the floral tone is a clean, airy white jasmine bolstered by musk and what smells like rosewood. I’ve heard people lament the loss of a more heavily oakmoss-laden earlier version of Alliage, but I don’t miss Miss Moss. Alliage is wonderfully balanced just the way it is.

The cool white florals seem a dry counterpoint to the sweet galbanum. And galbanum’s lasting chalkiness lines up perfectly with a resinous base that gives depth and a slow-moving quality. Myrrh? Incense? It all feels very languid and heavy-lidded. I don’t need the bitter green that moss might add. Consider Alliage’s sibling Devin by Aramis for that.

Alliage has a cool quality that implies poise as much as temperature. Its cool impression is similar in to the effect given by mint/basil or camphorous components, but without their harshness or muscle-balm feeling. In cooler weather, Alliage feels forest-like, a bit moist. In my dry southern California heat, Alliage keeps its cool longer and more comfortably than any other perfume I’ve tried. It doesn’t blend with the skin. It’s more like a richly colored clothing accessory, like the perfect tie. It works as an accent and draws the nose’s attention. It doesn’t blend. I think this is how Alliage remains cool through drydown.

Clean and green, not so much tart as a bit sharp. This is one of the few fragrances I wear to work as an RN in a hospital. It’s cool but not quite grass-like, not quite floral. It has wonderful endurance, but after the topnotes, mild sillage. I think it just reads as quality grooming products to my patients and colleagues.

Again the price dilemma. In this case a happy one. Why does this cost so little? It sells at the same department stores that flog haphazardly brewed, blaringly marketed perfumes for 3-4 times the price. Alliage is a distinctive fragrance of high quality and name-droppable pedigree (Bernard Chant) that has been typically well maintained over the years by Estée Lauder. I could wear this forever (were I not so perfume-promiscuous, that is.)

21st June, 2011. (Last Edited: 18th July, 2011.)

In 1972 I received a packet of mail to tenants who had rented a small house before me. In one of the mass market magazines was a full page (or two page) ad for Alliage. It was just introduced, and there was a scratch and sniff attachment. I still remember the vivid green fragrance that wafted from that magazine, and my memory is a pleasant one.

That is a powerful recommendation for this perfume. I smelled the fragrance from bottles later that year on my skin and on paper. It was the first time I ever smelled a natural, dry, realistic green fragrance. It is the best natural green fragrance I have yet smelled.

At that time I favored Yves Saint Laurent men's clothing, and Zmy fragrance was Yves Saint Laurent Pour Homme, which I wore exclusively until I discovered Tuscany (another Estee Lauder fragrance) and then Tuscany Forte.

I never experiemented with Alliage as a man's fragrance, It was too vivid for me then. And I was not as taken with Devin as I was with Tuscany, so I imagine that it is not green notes that so intrigued me, but Alliage's green notes.

I must point out, however, that when I chose a gragrance for my gir friend at the time, later my first wife, it was not Alliage, but L'Heure Bleu.

Today for myself, I still like Guerlain fragrances, Heritage and Habit Rouge. I also wear and love Kolnisch Juchtern, and I enjoy Elsha 1776 (which is one of the great bargains currently available for men). The greenest I get is the basso root notes of Guerlain Vetiver, but I think I could go for a men's fragrance that used the dry green of Alliage if it were mixed by a master. And to be truthful, I must admit that I recently discovered I like the smell of Irish Spring Sopeed Stick Deodorant, for a deodorant.

The only other fragrance that ever had the same impact on my memory as Alliage was Knize Ten, which i woud wear much of the time, if it were more easily accessible. And if I had not become enamoured so of Kolnisch Juchten by Regence.

2nd April, 2011.

I still haven't smelled many Chypre fragrances, so I don't know whether I am a fan of the Chypre category. In any case, I have tried Aliage a few times, and I love it! When you first spray it on it is almost offensive in its strength, but it softens almost immediately. The dry-down is really earthy and feminine in a timeless and elegant way, rather than a classicly cloying way, which is a decidedly rare find among the hundreds of fragrances I have sprayed myself with. Those who describe the fragrance as irritating or overly strong do have a point, as much as I love it. But I think this fragrance softens so much that it shouldn't send anyone into a sneezing fit. I highly recommend it! (vintage formula)

22nd March, 2011.