Germaine (1971)
by Germaine Monteil

On eBay a while back I saw a pure parfum of Germaine going for a song - and I'm now kicking myself I didn't snap it up. But then (as now), I could find no online reviews of this fragrance to guide me. Recently I acquired a mini cologne just like the foreground bottle in the photo above. Ignoring a slightly acetone-tainted opening (to be expected from a vintage cologne), I find Germaine to be a fresh, green, floral chypre of delicate beauty (nb. Perfume Intelligence describes it as a 'green floral').

I've no idea what Germaine's official notes are, but I smell a galbanum and lemony/lime citrus top, followed by non-indolic white flowers and/or crisp rose over a mossy base. I don't detect any herbal notes, so to me it's more feminine than unisex.

Personally, I adore this style of fragrance, so it gets thumbs up from me. On the other hand, it's not particularly distinctive, and somewhat similar to other 'fumes of this type, such as Quartz by Molyneux, Deneuve and Rabanne's Calandre. Still, it's quite gorgeous to my nose (and I reckon would be even more gorgeous in parfum form).

27th August, 2011.