Review by fleurine
Top notes: aldehydes, orange, green leaves and bergamot Middle notes: cyclamen, lilac, jasmine, lily-of-the-valley and rose Base notes: sandalwood and musk This is a review, mostly, of the vintage EdT, but also layered with a touch of the vintage Parfum Extrait. The jus is supposed to be a yellow/green color, not brown as the one in the photo. The vintage bottle I have is the same, I am sure many many vintage versions of this fragrance are floating around. Anyway, what is going on here? Well, MdB opens on a strong bitter/ green note, with lilac and bergamot, which may take you through WWII era romance. You could find yourself sitting under a tree in a forest, near a lily of the valley patch, wearing a ton of hairspray. This may not be your cup of muguet. Maybe not yet at least. But, if you give it 20 minutes or so, you will start to get the Bois of MdB, along with some rose, more sandalwood, and more soapy lily. It's very nice. What it is NOT, is a sparkly, silvery or sheer Muguet. This is what I would call a wartime floral, similar to Caron's Muguet de Bonheur, but more with more woods. MdB has enough heft to withstand some times of hardship and desperation. It does transcend them. I had worn this 2-3 times, but it wasn't until I decanted some out of the enormous, bell-shaped 4 oz EdT splash bottle into a little atomizer that I could experience some of the many other notes listed.
