Visa (1945)
by Robert Piguet

After trying it on a few times at Nieman's over the past few months, I finally just bought a 50 ML bottle today. It's lovely: A fruity peach vanilla leather. It's so reserved and subtle: you see the top notes and think it's going to smell like some kind of horrific Britney Spears perfume but in fact it's very mature and not the slightest bit too sweet. Its really wonderful and finding out that Guichard had a hand at this reformation just makes perfect sense. I absolutely love Chinatown -- but sadly it is one of the few bottles in my collection that is too outrageously feminine to wear. I have every intention of wearing Visa.

But oh, it's so frustrating when people compare the modern releases with their classic counterparts. I was hoping that this wasn't what I was going to see when I read the reviews of Visa on here. But, alas. so many of you are saying the original is better. I'm sure it is! But part of me has to wonder "who cares?" (the part of me that feels woefully inadequate that I don't have a vintage bottle).

I was so intrigued by Turin's review of "Bandit" being a "pixelated" version of the original that I felt compelled to buy decants of the vintage juice from ThePerfumedCourt (along with the original Fracas, too). They are both amazing, and (sadly) much better than the modern reformulations I have of both. But now I have to wonder if I should add vintage Visa to my ever-growing wish list ... sigh ...

5th December, 2011.

You've all seen a cat rolling around in ecstasy in a patch of catmint (nepeta) with
a glazed expression on it's face and body all a twitching - well that's me when I spray on
the 2007 Visa! I won't even begin to describe this scent except to say "SWOON!"
Definitely does it for me....

20th February, 2011.

This juice is incredible...very fruity indeed but incredibly uplifting...

I think Visa is the mother and sister of Bond no 9 Andy Warhol success is a job in New York...same perfumer behind it? Maybe...

Big thumbs up...!!!

19th February, 2011.

I'm thumbs up on vintage Visa but neutral on reissue, which seems much heavier on fruit and much lighter on the leather. Vastly prefer the balance in the original version.

9th January, 2011.

I agree with all the reviews below me. This thing is gorgeous, despite the fact it's made in 1947 this 2007 reformulation is very modern, the fruity top,t the mossy feel, are divine. I'm wearing it at the moment we speak, I wish I could pull this off but I find it very feminine for my tastes.

28th June, 2010.

What a gorgeous surprise! Like some others here, I'm no fan of the ubiquitous fruity/florals, yet here's something very different indeed. Is there such a thing as a fruity/floral oriental? It would seem so, but this is a vanilla oriental as well, securely grounded in an extremely well-blended base of sandalwood, patchouli, and benzoin--those notes that define oriental fragrances--with just enough leather to lend interest without overwhelming the rest of the composition.

"Transparent darkness" is the best metaphor I can find to describe Visa. Oxymoronic, I know. The plethora of fruit and floral notes, which is neither sweet nor cloying, adds enough piquancy to function as a beam of light in the amidst the darkness of its base. The heaviness that characterizes so many vanilla orientals is little in evidence here. Even so, the sillage is admirable, and the scent just keeps getting better as one wears it.

I have to wonder how much the Guichard formulation differs from Germaine Cellier's original, as I sense her compositions were ahead of their time, something for liberated and slightly dangerous female individualists who stood out from the crowd of polite postwar ladies. Visa strikes me as both classic and contemporary, and as a fragrance that can easily compete with the best of today's niche fragrances.

18th June, 2010.