Casmir by Chopard, 1991

Beautiful, beautiful! I was trooping through a perfume store, trying on several scents and being uninspired by every one I spritzed, when I spotted a bottle of Casmir and, dutifully but wearily, I sprayed a bit on a patch of skin, not expecting anything. I gave a disinterested sniff, and--BOOOOM! Glory filled my senses. I was so overwhelmed by beauty that I could not tell what it was I smelled--vanilla? Peaches? Spices? No idea. It was just glorious. Dazed, I staggered home, overcome. Days later, warily, I came back to the store and tried it again, afraid it wouldn't be as wonderful. Ahhh. Still glorious. Still beautiful. Still delightful. After many tries, I bought a full bottle. I am very happy with it. It begins with a bright, non-alcoholic blast of bright warmth. Then the perfume glows for a while on the skin, emanating variously at different sniffs: pure warm goldeny vanilla; peaches and apricots and vanilla; spices; vanilla again; and so forth. For some reason, I always think "Honey!" when I wear this, although that clearly isn't true. I don't smell vanilla when I wear this, I smell "honey." That's what my brain registers, anyway. I HATE vanilla perfumes. They make me gag. But not Casmir. Casmir is the only vanilla perfume I can stand--so far, hopefully. This vanilla smells different than any other perfume I've tried that has a strong vanilla aspect to it. I also like "Cinema" by YSL, but the vanilla's too overwhelming in "Cinema" for me, and I end up disappointed when I try it. Not so with Casmir. Casmir can get to be too much, though. I've had to scrub it once, after two direct spritzes to my arm. It was overpowering. Sometimes I "cut" the power of it, when it's too vanillary, with a spray of musk, and it smells delightful, just delightful, combined with the musk. NOTE: I just tried this on today with my brother in the room. He turned from what he was doing and looked at me. "Are you baking brownies???" he asked. No. It was the Casmir. Something to think about.

I had searched both high and low for Casmir for approximately 6 months, so you can imagine how excited I was when I finally stumbled upon it. My expectations were huge. I was so eager to test this famous vanilla-based scent. I sprayed on both the card and my wrist, and unable to resist or contain my excitement any longer, I inhaled deeply. The aroma was indeed strong, but only very subtle with the vanilla. It had an oriental feel to it, yet I felt that the citruses were a little too sour and basic. I was quite disappointed, since this had been something I'd dreamt about, almost being crazy enough to buy it blind. I proceeded to test other fragrances to ease my disappointment, until about an hour later I was met with a beautiful scent wafting around me. I was pleased to discover that it was Casmir enchanting me with its glorious aroma. Casmir is the absolute perfect orange-vanilla fragrance; gourmand, just like an orange flavoured cake topped with sweet vanilla icing. However, this is no toothache, this is incredibly sexy and rich. Towards the drydown, Casmir captures me with its subtle spicyness and smokey incense quality. It's exotic and seductive all rolled into one. May I also add that the sillage and lasting strength is highly commendable. I added Casmir to my wishlist immediately.