Parfum d'Été (1993)
by Kenzo

I just can't get past the first 10 min.s of brash, screaming discord, to get to what I smell as mandarin - Not a comforting, powdery Champs Elysses type mandarin but a sourer mandarin. I bought Parfumd'Ete having just fell in love with Flower. Since then I have gone through 3 bottles of Flower (plus given bottles to girlfriends) but I just can't bring myself to use this one. The ridiculous bottle takes up far to much space.

13rd June, 2010.

The original is gently fresh, green, and floral--and as generic as that sounds--it smelled unique and elegant due to a somewhat masculine, understated bottom note that I cannot identify. Perhaps tobacco? A treasure, whatever it is, despite that clunky frosted glass leaf bottle.

The new formulation, in the sleek, horizontal leaf flacon, smells like cheap, synthetic air freshener.

Wish they would switch bottles and keep the good stuff on the market.

My thumbs up is for the original formulation, which can still be found with a bit of detective work.

Big thumbs down for the new one.

2nd April, 2010.

Notes (from OsMoz.com): Peach, hyacinth, rosewood, leafy greens, lily-of-the-valley (muguet), rose, ylang-ylang, cyclamen, sandalwood, musk, cedar wood, amber.

Parfum d’Été’s harshly chemical hyacinth and green floral top notes put me off right away, smelling as they do of aerosol air-freshener. The arrangement of tomato leaf and reconstructed muguet that surfaces in their wake is no less harsh and no more pleasant. The eventual emergence of a lush, fruity ylang-ylang goes some way toward redeeming the central accord, but it’s contradicted by assertively soapy musk and scratchy cedar base notes. I suspect the whole thing would be better in a candle than on my person.

This kind of brisk green floral has been done much better in Annick Goutal’s Eau de Ciel and Folavril, or Comme des Garçons’ Lily and Calamus, not to mention predecessors like Capucci’s Yendi* and Jacomo’s Silences.

*The note pyramids given for Yendi and Parfum d'Été are near-identical.

14th March, 2010.

This was my first grown-up perfume. It is a light, fresh-floral scent. It smells like spring, with all its blooming trees, green grass and wet land. It has jasmine, which I love, with lilly of the valleys, peach blossom and lotus. I warmly recommend it! Whether you are 15 or 60 it is a wonderful happy, pure scent.

14th February, 2010.

Well must say i love this perfume, the old formula is way better then the new one!
If anybody has it for swap or so, just PM me :-P ive ben looking for it for quite a while!

23rd December, 2009.

i love it. i get smell of sun dried greens from it. so much summer. my grandpa used to grow his own tobacco when i was very small. in late summer when lines of brownish yellow tobacco were hanged to dry on the path to home it used to smell that way. i got no florals from it. so thinking it may be boring to others who do not have tobacco growing grandpas i wear it under some white florals; ralph lauren romance or estee lauder pleasures or versace bright cristal. i prefer the first combination most.

19th April, 2008.