Antilope (1945)
by Weil

It was all over the place. Every time it changed it was as if I had opened a new bottle. I did like the dry chamomile, and also the hearts where it smelled like skin but better, like something you could sleep in. But when the vetiver hopped up it turned into a cheap mens aftershave on me. So sad. The dry down thats after that though is lovely & goes back to that skin but better scent.

I expected more, I expected to fall in love.

Oh & it's the parfume I have.

i tested the EdC version, bought off ebay for a few bucks literally - it's dry as the dried out grass in a savanah, the dry land soaken with harsh sun, conjures meryl streep in out of africa somehow. it's aldehydic (as calchic mentiones above, chamomile! rarely seen in perfumes, gives it again a ceratin dryness and warmth), and never sweet. to sum it up, elegant, dry and sunny, never overpowering (given the tested concentration, stays close to skin)

This review is for vintage Antilope. The Perfume Intelligence website lists the notes in Antilope (a floral, woody, aldehydic chypre) as: tangerine, neroli, galbanum, acacia, farnesiana, narcisssus, hyacinthe, ylang ylang, may rose, lily of the valley, oakmoss, civet, sandalwood and musk.

After the initial vintage perfume smell wears away (5-10 minutes) the scent starts out very floral and adehydic. I don't care for scents with aldehyds and ususlly steer clear of them, so obviously, I'm not a big fan of Chanel No. 5 which is what Antilope kind of reminded me of as it started to unfold. I'm also not a big fan of overly floral scents, but I waited patiently to see where it was all going. I got absolutly no tangerine. What developed was a dry, baby powdery leather that stayed for a while. Then as it dried down further, it became a skin scent that was woody and grassy (that site doesn't mention vetiver, but that's what I got) like hay with an underlying sweetness that was nice and subtle.

I agree with castorpollux, except for the leather, this scent isn't as animalic as I expected. I didn't get any musk or civet at all and was a little disappointed. If you're just looking for nice, soft leather scent, you may like this a lot.

I can't add very much more to what Calchic has already said so well about how this smells. I think Antilope is an artfully composed fragrance, and perfectly named; it's a sleeper of a little conjurer. I get a dry, grassy, sweet vetiver from it, the blonde color of dried vetiver suggesting the natural habitat of African Antilope (though I think Vetiver is actually southeast Asian?). I agree, it summons up romantic visions of Isak Dineson's Africa, or camping out on Safari in tents, lions lolling in the grassy plains. It goes to show how influential a suggestive name is to the overall character of a fragrance (maybe that's why Envy and Insolence, et al. never grabbed my interest). Antilope is a sweet-dry scent, not bone dry like Amazone; and it's very feminine, imo, though it could be worn by a man too. It warmed and sweetened on my skin, drying down to a delicate soft whisper of sillage. My husband complimented me on it when I was using up my sample. I'll probably just stick with the edc, although I would be interested in testing the new edp to compare. It's very affordably priced online. I hope it hasn't been downgraded in quality.

Calchic pretty much said it all, and i found it also to be not as dirty nor animal-smelling as it sounds, and that would be the old version of it, as i haven't smelled the new one yet.

This is a warm, dry scent - if the name alone doesn't conjure the African Savannah or Serengeti plains for you, the fragrance itself likely will, with its finely tuned and distinctive blend of aldehydes, sage, Grasse neroli and bergamot. These, the fragrance's topnotes, immediately deliver an impression both refined and sun-baked, elegantly wild; if this isn't the ultimate Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) fragrance, I don't know what would be. What further makes this a brilliant blend of the sort that is truly rare these days is the inclusion of chamomile, which brings a lilting blonde softness, and the balsamic ambergris (likely synthetic - I should hope so - but even still a relative rarity in modern perfumery), woody and smooth, balanced out with notes of spicy-ish patchouli and iris to form a haunting, stirring base And lest this sounds like a masculine-trending fragrance, which it's not at all, the heart of muguet and jasmine bring a feminine touch, like a lavish bouquet sitting in the middle of a rugged hut. I am fascinated by this fragrance and wish I could find it in something other than EdC strength; as with Bambou, another Weil masterpiece, there is a newer version of Antilope on the market now and available, at Perfumebay, in EdP strength. I guess I'm going to have to try the new version, though I fear disappointment. Antilope is just so original and incredible - ideally, its magic will live on in its new incarnation.