Paloma Picasso / Mon Parfum (1984)
by Paloma Picasso

I think it may have been the bottle design that had me running in the opposite direction for many years due to its very 80's style. Now that I'm older I've found some great respect for those classic 80's fragrances, so as would be expected, Paloma Picasso was on my list of scents to try.

If you like heavy fragrances like Dior's Poison, CK's Obsession or Jean Patou's Joy, this could quite possibly be in your collection already.

Paloma Picasso is one of those rich, heady, potent florals. Although dated, this fragrance has sex appeal. In a way it's a power scent, something that one can spritz on and instantly feel in control and defined.

I'll agree that this is not a fragrance for young girls or the light of heart, Paloma Picasso suits a woman with guts. The dryness, an element from its chypre quality, makes this fragrance all the more likable and all the more mature.

This fragrance is a sillage monster, there is no doubt about it. It screams, "I'm here, I'm proud, I'm wild and I'm a real woman."

Paloma Picasso is a scent that piques your curiousity. I am still discovering this fragrance with its many layers and complexities. If this re-formulated version is supposed to be less complex than the original, I can only dream of how wonderful the pre-formulated Paloma Picasso must have been.

24th September, 2011.

I am very, very new to this; I don't know many frags yet and don't have a good basis for comparison. But I got a mini of this after hearing about it in several threads about green chypres. My current favorite is Niki de Saint Phalle, which is variously described as a green chypre oriental leather, has made me want to try other things with those descriptors to figure out how all those scent ideas work.

So far, of the 40 scents I've seriously tried, Paloma and Ivoire de Balmain are indeed very closely related to NdSP. All go through similar stages on my skin: green opening with various strong players popping up and stepping back, not all of which I recognize, but all of which are interesting to me; early drydown (after 15-30-45 minutes) I start smelling the "oriental" wave, which I gather are the spices and perhaps the beginnings of the woods; then the long-term drydown -- after an hour and as long as it goes, which varies -- the part I love most. Wisps of the opening greens, smoke-rings of the decadent spices, and the base. Oh the base. I am still buying samples and reading largely because I want to understand that base. Is it the much-mourned, now nearly banned oakmoss? Is it an interplay of oakmoss and other tenacious basenotes as mixed by master noses? It's the drydowns that are most related to alchemy for me.

Paloma is close to NdSP, not in detail but in overall shape. But its drydown is not as enchanting to me. I like it -- I smile when I catch a whiff -- but it doesn't make me excited to smell more, and talk about it, and get to the bottom of WHAT IS THAT INCREDIBLE SMELL?! as I do with NdSP (every time).

Ivoire de Balmain is a little different, a little sharper, a little more assertive. I do like it, but it lacks some of the roundedness and balance that I think both NdSP and Paloma have. It keeps a slightly irritating, maybe attention-grabbing, character throughout. Ultimately, though, its drydown is disappointing to me, staying with the nose-clawing sharp greens and soapiness, never letting in the spices and -- the thing that might be what makes me love NdSP so much -- the completely different type of bitterness and warmth that comes from tagetes (marigold). Ivoire is one my husband asks me about, in his hesitant and deeply respectful way, because he doesn't much care for perfume that smells like PERFUME, if you know what I mean, and he came close to asking me to scrub it off. It certainly projects the most of any green I've tried yet. I may try it again in extremely small amounts and see what he thinks as well as what I think.

Ultimately, I guess that just being a green chypre doesn't guarantee I'll like it. They are remarkably similar in many ways, and I expect they smell mostly the same to people who aren't interested in perfume.

5th June, 2011.

Paloma Picasso opens on a big, brash accord of green jasmine, patchouli, peaches, and bergamot. The scale is huge and the intent is clearly to impress, then dominate. A rich rose note soon arrives to underscore the jasmine, while moss and labdanum base notes tie the bergamot into a recognizable chypre accord. In both its sheer mass and its basic structure, Paloma Picasso smells like a jasmine-based variant on the rose chypre style of its mid-1980s contemporaries Paris, Beautiful, and Knowing. Which is to say that it’s completely at odds with the current trend of minimalist chic.

While no fan of olfactory minimalism myself, Paloma Picasso’s flamboyance probes the boundaries of good taste. It aims at glamor but winds up smelling garish, and I can’t help feeling self conscious when I’m wearing it. A few hours with Paloma Picasso leave me craving a nice, brisk eau de Cologne. Or a shower. Paloma Picasso doesn’t smell especially bad - it’s just that unlike Beautiful, Paris, or Knowing among the rose chypres, Opium among the monumental orientals, or Boucheron among grand scale florals, Paloma Picasso doesn’t quite have the elegance or grace to offset its heft.

Sillage, projection, and endurance on the skin are all enormous, so there's no risk of Paloma Picasso going unnoticed. The big, bold floral chypre core doesn’t develop so much as (very slowly) fade away into a soapy rose, moss, and amber drydown that clings to the skin well past Paloma Picasso’s already lengthy active lifespan.

27th May, 2011. (Last Edited: 28th May, 2011.)

A perfume for night or when I'm feeling particularly feminine. The coriander and patchouli amp on me, but the honey and hyacinth make it lush. I can't smell any rose, and I swear there's jasmine in there.

20th May, 2011.

I see Van Cleef & Arpels Pour Homme has a little sister (I say 'little' because VC&APH came out in 1978 and this one came out in 1984). If I were to date a lady wearing this, I would be initially attracted, but would surely watch my step. Fancy, rich, and every bit as ladylike as VC&APH is gentlemanly. Someone here mentioned a cigarette-smoking mature lady in a Mercedes - that totally works, and no I am not being sarcastic either. Remember Foreigner's music video 'Say You Will' - the part where the lady was spraying on perfume? That was Paloma Picasso, I am sure of it.

3rd February, 2011.

Jasmine + Chypre = Paloma
Jasmine + Fougère = Troisième Homme

Has anybody ever found the two similar? In each case, they match a similar, greenish, not terribly indolic jasmine to a blunt accord that cries out for some lightness in an otherwise dank mix . In 3me Homme’s case, the green jasmine cleaves to a green lavender. In Paloma, the jasmine makes the green connection between the bergamot and the moss. In both the chypre and the fougère the accord is fundamentally stark and the jasmine fits into the opening spaces. Both the chypre and fougère formulas are fairly easy to recognize once you’ve smelled a few of each. Adding a similar jasmine to each of these historic genres make 3me Homme and Paloma seem like siblings.

29th November, 2010. (Last Edited: 23rd January, 2011.)