Apres L'Ondee

Hi everyone
I did some reading this morning, and became so entranced with what I read about Apres L'Ondee that I searched out a supplier and ordered a bottle.

I only hope I did the right thing, having already spent massive amounts on perfume this year. Yes, this is becoming obsessive!!

I love Le Dix, Chanel No 5, Arpege, Knowing, Coco, Rive Gauche, Violette Precieuse.
A disparate lot of perfumes, I agree, but generally floral and some aldehydes. I don't like perfumes where the basenotes are too dark, or too dominant. Generally the perfumes I prefer tend to a floral accord, with basenotes that are not too overwhelming.

What do you lovers of Apres L'Ondee think? Is it the right choice for me?

Cheers
LiliB

Well, I'm getting some reassuring feedback.

At least I'll be ready to chirp back at LOML when he says 'Not ANOTHER perfume?'

'Beloved Barbarian,' I'll say,"This is not JUST a perfume, it is a great work of art, it is to perfume what Monet is to impressionism.'

Thanks to everyone who has shared their experiences of this lovely perfume with me.

I'm quite excited to have seen that it shipped this morning. I will definitely write something about it when it arrives.

There is a slight irony to me that perfumes described as vintage or classic are often very much of my time, and they are just there in my mind as a wonderful, fully French in the best way, part of my life.

I have found it hard to get away from a certain type of 'classic' perfume, encapsulated by Chanel 5, Arpege and of course LeDix. They have wonderful sillage, but are not overwhelming. I have joined this forum as much to widen my horizons as to learn about some of the subtleties of perfume.

I tried Paris by YSL again this morning, having given my bottle to my mother, and was so uncomfortably conscious of it on my skin, that I ended up washing it off. One quick squirt was enough to drown out a fine mist of Le Dix,

I also smelt, in the same shop, the kind of bubble gum, girly perfumes that seem to appeal so widely to the young girls today, and couldn't imagine wearing them as an adult. I guess its the kind of perfume that goes with being a wide-eyed, beautiful young thing, all long legs and perfect skin gleaming with good health and high optimism for what life is about to bring.

Not that my optimism and zest for life have gone, far from it, but it is just a different feeling from when I was 15 or 16.

To those who have suggested " Heure Bleue, this is high on my list of things to try next. I'm pretty sure that I can get a sample through TPC in my next batch of test vials. I'm also pretty sure I will love it.

Cheers
LiliB

I love the fact that this perfume brings such immediate and strong feelings from people all over the world. It must truly be masterful.

I've been delving into violets, and have also come up with Violetta di Parma and Penhaligon's Violetta. How do these compare to L'Heure Bleue.

I must admit that I am so entranced with Violette Precieuse that if any other violet can top it, I'm totally sold.

But of course you shouldn't fall in love with a discontinued perfume, anymore than you should fall in love with a man from another time and place. There are just too many complications in such a relationship, so I seek an available, ultimate violet that I can use whenever I like.

Lili

Hi Cocorocha
I am now really keen to smell the three violet perfumes I haven't tried yet. Yardley will be easy, since most small chemists and department stores keep it. The other two will be on my next list of samples from TPC.

Ah, Cocorocha

If only we'd met years ago, when I was working, and lived in the city.

What fun I could have had, hunting down wonderful perfumes and building a supply that would keep me blissfully happy for years. What I could have done with all these marvellous and intriguing suggestions.

But I live in a dusty town on the edge of the outback, and visits to the 'big smoke' are rare these days, and only happen on special occasions, major art exhibitions, flower shows, extra special birthday celebrations.

The rest of the time, I am here in my little office, communicating with the world via my beloved computer. I look forward to the life of a carefree retiree, with both time and money to indulge myself in my hobbies and interests. Able to travel when I please, I will surely raid the perfume counters of the big department stores in Melbourne and come back laden with lusciously packaged parcels full of delicious scents, and pleasant dreams.

I am accumulating a big list of "must trys" that will surely drive my other half mad over time. He's already bored with being asked to sniff my wrist and offer an opinion. But he cannot use words like 'okay' or 'nice'. Half hearted and unuseful terms are banned in this house. He will learn to wax lyrical about fragrances, and to shake his head vigorously at those he doesn't like as 'too skanky'

Anyway, what is 'skanky'? It's an intriguing term, but totally meaningless to me. Somebody tell me!!!

Thank you for your charming explanation.

I'll now be looking for that 'skanky' element in those older perfumes. I can immediately identify the element in Chanel 5.

Yes I know what you mean about perfumes that produce an undercurrent of animalistic scents. And they probably do have the associations with hormones and sexuality.

Well, the jury is in about 'Apres l'Ondee'. It really isn't me. It just smells strange on me. I have tried it on three separate occasions now and have had the same reaction. There's just not enough of a violet note to please me, And perhaps I do not like Heliotrope. I can't say I have even bent down to smell one in a long time, but thought of it as its common name "cherry pie' which ought to be pleasant.

My husband liked it, though he said it didn't really smell "like a perfume". That's probably because it's a Guerlain. An SA at a big department store whom I quizzed about its authenticity said that Guerlains "take getting used to", but probably not 'this little black duck".

Ah well, it'll definitely have trade value on the forum. I only hope that I am more positive about L'Heure Bleue when it comes. Even if I'm not, that'll also have trade value here I guess.

So it's onward and upward in my search for new perfume experiences. I have L'Heure Bleue, Tocade, Toccadilly, Mitsouko, Mitsouko and Miss Dior coming. I got samples of all but L'Heure and Toccadilly this time, so it ought to be lot of fun to get these new additions.

Isn't life wonderful!!!

Cheers
LiliB

Hi Sleepless in Chicago
I checked my source of Apres l'ondee and found I bought it through Amazon UK (Beauty Encounter) It is still available there for 69 English Pounds, which equates to approximately US$97. It was extremely hard to get hold of when I tried earlier in the year.

I doubt that Apres l'Ondee will ever be found as a bargain anywhere. I would be very skeptical about any bargain, since it is a highly beloved niche perfume, and shouldn't really be discounted severely anywhere.

Cheers
Lili

Hi Lilybelle
A couple of weeks ago I turned a corner in my perfume life. I decided that there were a number of perfumes I had bought, including Shalimar, Apres l'ondee and L'Heure Bleue which were just not for me. So I gave them away to good homes.

My feeling is that life is too short to try to love things you don't love immediately. My first instincts about most perfumes are right for me.

Some of the older classics just struck me as just 'not me'. Yes, I could see their appeal, their beauty, their rarity, but I just didn't feel like I wanted to wear them in public. They would probably just smell too strange to others who didn't know them.

So now I have my favourite floral and chypre classics which I know I will wear every day. And I am still leaving myself open to new experiences, but probably just with samples, rather than full bottles bought blind.