Rochas Femme (original) (1944)
by Rochas

I have a bit of the vintage formulation squirreled away, and I took it out today to relish in all its glory. It's a lovely, lovely scent ... what I imagine Mitsouko might have smelled like at one time.

I do love the reformulated version of Femme, which is overly maligned imo, because it has not suffered through reformulations as much as, say, Mitsouko or Cabochard. In addition, the reformulated Femme is quite wearable, whereas many reformulations are not.

However.

Vintage Femme is quite simply ... DA BOMB.

16th October, 2011.

I'm uncertain just HOW vintage my little vintage bottle is ... no earlier than the 70's, for sure. I find this nice, but rather unexciting compared to other chypre loves. I don't get much green -- but lots of nice soft peach and peach skin, fruity in the classic rather than headache-inducing contemporary manner. A fairly gentle orange peel, intermittent soap. The fruit is long lasting & mostly pleasant, but sometimes blends with a sweet floral note in a way that reminds me of Tang drink crystals. (NOT overbearingly loudly or obviously, but that is the note.) Amber and musk dominate the underlayers for me, so it's quite smooth and round, rather subtle. It's warm and feminine, and distinctly calls to mind the generalized notion I had, during my 70s childhood, of 'what perfume smells like.' Perhaps that is why I find it just faintly generic -- or perhaps my body chemistry doesn't really do it justice. But I prefer something a bit more challenging in a chypre.

28th October, 2010.

When I was 18 or 19 in the mid 70s, the most exotic person I ever met wore this perfume, and everything in her little tropical apartment, from her satin sheets to her Persian rugs to her 40s vintage house dresses, smelled of it. She was Parisian, wore fire-red nails and long scarves, brewed espresso in a crusty old bialetti, and was completely independent in mind, body, and sensibility. She had a big hound dog called Plume that she took with her everywhere. I just bought a sample of the vintage Femme and it all comes back. A gorgeous, timeless, impossibly sexy fragrance that I'll wear now with a nod to my old friend -- if only I could ever be such a blithe spirit.

10th August, 2010.

Absolutely beautiful vintage juice ,this is. The color firstly is richly dark yellow -orange. Deep peach and oakmoss - much like Mitsouko used to be. Wonderfully blended - to enhance that mossy chypre peach . Makes me think of Mitsouko and her drama. These two are sisters.

16th July, 2010.

When I first experienced Annick Goutal's fragrances at I. Magnin (RIP) in the late 80s, one of my favorites was her Parfum de Femme (also RIP, I believe). Osmanthus is the star of that fragrance, and perhaps Goutal was paying tribute to the original Femme, which doesn't have osmanthus as an actual note, though smells like it, nonetheless. I was fortunate to find a vintage bottle of Femme, and it's mellow and warm and boozy, just drop dead gorgeous. While I wouldn't confuse it with vintage Mitsouko overall, on me, the dry down is very similar. True love.

12nd May, 2010.

This review is for the original and reformulated versions of Femme.

The orginal version of Femme is a green/leather chypre that has a lot in common with the original Miss Dior and has the reputation of of being a little on the skanky side. To my nose they are very similar, although I think Femme came first.

The reformulated version is slightly fruity with a big cummin note that lasts from start to finish. While some people seem to be put off by the cummin note, I feel that it adds that slight note of b.o. that takes it out of the cutsy, fruty floral range of most of the perfumes that are currently available in Sephora and the department stores.

The origanal Femme and the reformulated version smelll nothing alike. I don't even know how they can be called by the same name. I decided to layer them and what emerged was a whole new filthy animal that I liked much better than I liked the two separately. I'm still giving both a thumbs up separatly, though.

6th February, 2010.