Where to start with vintage?

To be honest here in the UK they don't appear it charity shops. Usually its yard sales in the US you hear of people finding treasures. Ebay really is the place to look, but be aware it could be off and many goes for very big money.

The Perfumed Court & Surrender to Chance carry samples of some vintage fragrances. l got a sample of vintage Narcisse Noir parfum from STC earlier this year, & it's gorgeous; a rich, animalic floral. Only problem is, now l have a hankering for a vintage bottle, & l really can't afford the prices on ebay! Just be aware that although exploring vintage is a fascinating journey, if you fall in love it could an expensive, & sometimes heartbreaking exercise .

Being on a budget doesn't help. I'd wait till more disposable income is available.

A friend bought vintage no.88 by Czeck and Speake. A whole 200ml. It was sealed never opened. It was off and only had 100 or so in it.

You're right, it's difficult. I started with scents that I knew I loved from years gone by (then again, I'm quite old and started buying posh scent at 16), which had changed: Diorella, Eau de Lancome, Trophee Lancome - all my favourite fruity chypres, then I got a bit carried away... I also tend to refer to Basenotes before buying. I'll whip out the smartphone and check out the reviews before I commit.

I paid a bit too much for Shocking off eBay - but I really had to know how it smelled, and got some Soir de Paris from Etsy. I'll buy almost every old bottle of Chantilly (up to the 80s) that appears on eBay - but not the new stuff as it's appalling.

May I also modestly suggest that you have a little look at my website? 4160Tuesdays.com
I did a vintage talk with Odette Toilette (The Valley of the Lost Scents) and am about to do one of Lila's Perfume Lovers' London events (January) on vintage. I started collecting because I needed to know what the older versions had smelled like. S now I've got loads - far more than I've put up on the site - and sell them from 1ml at a time.

I go to the occasional car boot sale and have picked up one or two interesting things, but some of my best buys have been from old chemist shops who've still got ancient stock in their cupboards. I bagged a nice bottle of Nina Ricca's Deci Dela, which I LOVE to bits, for half price in a central London chemist not long ago. But I only bought it because I already know I loved it. I was in Lille earlier this month for the biggest car boot sale in the world, and got some In Love Again (YSL) which I adore, Choc de Cardin for one Euro, some brand new Givency III (gold dust!) and took a flyer on a Johnny Halliday scent for women - four Euros - which isn't as bad as you'd imagine.

Just watch out for bottles with no boxes. Aoid them if they are old and unboxed. My mum's generation would put perfumes on the dressing table in full sunlight for a year and wonder why they went a bit stinky. But even if they stink at first, after 20 minutes or so, vintage scent can still smell OK. The basenotes might have stayed intact. In my experience, anything pre-war is likely to smell pretty god awful by now, but I've got some classics that had been stored in the cool and dark and have lasted amazingly well.

Good hunting.

I buy quite a bit from Ebay, if the price is right, and have been mostly lucky. I have several vintage bottles, sourced from various places. What have you tried, and disliked? I added some pictures of what i have, in the Rare and Discontinued Fragrances thread. i often sell them on Ebay. I am also obsessed by vintage, but there are few places to find it in Alaska, we have very few antique stores, and garage sales have not provided me with anything, despite diligently spending the entire weekend, going to as many as I can, and hassling the hosts for bottles of perfume. They look horrified that i would even ask. So for me, it's mainly Ebay, and i have to sell stuff, in order to expand my collection.

Good luck

Scent-imental, it is not the first time I hear about your fragrances in Rare and Discontinued thread. Since your Wardrobe does not show, I went through everything we have here on the Ladies' side and for the life of me I do not see it. A link please, perhaps?

Twolf,

When the wardrobe icon doesn't show, you can generally see a wardrobe by going to the member's profile page and clicking on View Wardrobe in the left sidebar.

http://www.basenotes.net/group.php?groupid=79

They should show as thumbnails on that page

I have also been mostly lucky on ebay, but they're not particularly cheap. I've been less lucky in stores, I don't seem to find all the marvels that some people seem to find in antique stores, though I did have a couple of sensational finds (diorissimo and bandit parfum for less than $50). In general, on Ebay brands like Guerlain, Chanel and Dior tend to reach stratospheric prices. In other brands, sometimes one can find reasonable prices.

As for what to try:
Tabu: reference leather animalic oriental. This one was so common that it can be found for less than $20 on ebay, both in parfum concentration and in edc. Tabu is still available in stores for little, but the modern version is rather harsh, so make sure you get a truly vintage one.

Caron: now mostly reformulated, but stuff like Narcisse Noir (already suggested), Tabac Blond, Bellodgia, etc. They tend to be expensive, though

Chypres: since they are now severely restricted. Vintage Mitsouko, Coty Chypre, Diorella. Regrettably, other stratospheric prices. But stuff like Givenchy III (already suggested) sometimes is more reasonable.

Finally, I'd recommend stuff by Cellier (Vent Vert, Jolie Madame, again, make sure it's vintage as they still exist), or other "difficult" perfumes like the already mentioned Shocking by Schiaparelli (rose, honey, animalics).

cacio

Vintage My Sin will certainly give you an idea of what all the fuss is about, and can be gotten for not too much on ebaY, if you don't mind an already opened bottle (fwiw, a half-full bottle I bought smells divine). What is past recapturing that draws us to vintage? IMO it's the animalic ingredients. My Sin has loads of civet that make it an extremely sensuous aldehydic floral. It also has genuine sandalwood, whose creamy depth can't be duplicated.

Good luck!

One problem with vintage is the rare off fragrance; usually "squashed" smelling aldehydes. If the perfume color is not terribly dark (unless it was intended to be such) and the bottle has been stored in the box, it usually smells okay. I've blind bought hundreds of vintages, and only two of them have been off: Chanel No. 5 from the 1930s (unsurprising) and Quelques Fleurs edt from the 70s (stored under bright lights in an antique shop).

You might be better off starting with late 60s through early 90s vintages (at least pre-IFRA up to the early 2000s).

Minis are a good way of finding affordable vintage, especially in the strongest parfum concentration. Some find minis difficult to apply, so a funnel and atomizer for each scent might be worth the investment--I wash out and reuse mine with no trouble. The Perfumed Court and Surrender to Chance have semi-affordable vintage samples. 2 ml gives at least enough wears to become familiar with the scent.

A decent intro to vintage might be:
one Guerlain of your choice, one Caron of your choice, one older Dior, and one or two of Chanel, Balmain, Balenciaga, Lanvin, or Lancome. You could see which classics from these houses have notes that you like, since even if something is an agreed upon classic, you are not likely to think so if you hate the notes.

here's what I'd choose: vintage L'Heure Bleue parfum, vintage Tabac Blond parfum, the oldest Arpege you can find, vintage Diorella, 70s First edp. And like cacio said, anything by Germaine Cellier.

Since you live in the UK, you might have luck buying from eBay France?

It says I have to be a registered member of your group to view them. Will NOT want to do that, too much hassle. Could you please tell me what you have, without pictures? (I saw your Wardrobe as per 30R's recommendation, it showed Mon Peche, Arpege and Norrell +27 more items).

A group for members who are specialized in collecting discontinued and rare/special edition/limited edition fragrances.
The purpose of this group is to share information about discontinued perfumes and help each other with questions.
Also, to document any information regarding discontinued perfumes, such as olfactory pyramids and descriptions, (often included in the packaging).
To create a list of all discontinued fragrances that have so far not been listed in the basenotes fragrance directory.
The promotion of sharing/ sampling/swapping and selling rare and discontinued fragrances within the group.

You need to be a member of this group to view its contents

yellow cello, the problem with vintage is that you need to gamble a bit from times to times... also what exactly you are getting and whether it really suits your taste. I was (I hardly go vintage today) very lucky, but I know my taste and preferences very well. You need to sample and smell a lot, find common notes that you adore etc.etc. Having said this, I would recommend to you vintage sampling packs that contain several samples for one theme (e.g. vintage leathers, green chypres etc.), read a lo here in the review section. Go to the old reviews - there were very knowledgeable and experienced perfumistas sharing their impressions (vintagevogue, Purplebird, bbBd, if I get their names right now).
One word about vintage - don't fool yourself with really old and dark juice. Depending on the perfume, you cannot expect e.g. certain floral notes to be intact after decades. E.g. Vol de Nuit, En Avion, also L'Heure Bleue if you care most for the florals in it, all age poorly (and anything prior to 1980) is most likely more than slightly off. Opened, unsealed or not full, possibly, not properly stored (offered without box) increases the risk of turned juice and or deteriorated notes dramatically. There are very very few perfumes that age so well like Shalimar Extrait does.
Last thought - there are so many 'endangered' (but available) perfumes now that are sooner or later disappearing for sure (e.g. Guerlain's Sous le Vent, Vega, maybe Liu, Vetiver pour Elle is already discontinued) that you might want to find out what you really like giving you the chance to back up some private stock of perfume in perfect condition.

Ok, here we go.
Shocking You by Schiaparelli
1000 by Jean Patou
Tweed by Lentheric
Nuit De Noel by Caron
Bellodgia by Caron
Pheromone by Marilyn Miglin
Tigress by Faberge
Ambush by Dana
Balenciaga Le Dix
Possession by Corday
Enjoli by Charles of the Ritz
Chantilly by Houbigant
Jontue by Revlon
My Sin by Lanvin
Tianne by Nettie Rosenstein (this one was a cream perfume and has gone kind of off)
Al Di La by Fra Grande
Coeur Joie by Nina Ricci
Youth Dew by Estee Lauder
Shocking by Schiaparelli (all over after bath cologne splash stuff, smells like it might have turned slightly)
Floral Dawn by Max Factor
White Sholders by Evyan
Tailspin by Lucien Lelong
Arpege By Lanvin
Chanel No 5
Norell by Norell.

I have some minis, some unidentifiable stuff, and a couple of masculine colognes, and have sold 6 or 7 recently on Ebay. The Arpege is extrait, everything else is edt i think. Thats about all them i think.

Very nice, thanks.

I adore vintage perfumes, and eBay is your friend.

When starting with little money to spent, I'd go for
the big houses like Chanel and Dior. They have always
been big sellers, so, the market is flooded with lots of
vintage goodies - some to be bought way cheap on
the Bay.
Givenchy, YSL and Guerlain are also good houses to
start with, even though, vintage Guerlains often gets
ridiculous prices at auction.

Vintage delights - which are often somewhat cheap:

Chanel No.5
Miss Dior
Poison
Ysatis de Givenchy
Rive Gauche
Shalimar
Arpège
Ma Griffe


... or Danish flea markets!

Ooh Yellow Cello, all wonderful fragrances, i hope you enjoy them, and post your impressions here. I have My Sin, Le Dix, and i did have L'aimant too, all delicious.

Here are a couple of blogs where you can read more about vintage perfume:
http://yesterdaysperfume.typepad.com/
http://www.thenonblonde.com/search/l...tage%20perfume

I am thrilled! I won a vintage Joy EDP unopened 1oz bottle today on Ebay. I like the current formulation, so I am expecting to love this.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on your fragrances you chose yellow cello

Start with Shalimar, but know that it will all be downhill from there. Okay, L'Heure Bleue is fantastic, too.

I went through the insane buying stage, where as a newcomer, I wanted to try all those classic perfumes at once. Then, with a string of disappointments, I calmed down and took a more measured approach with my purchases.

After determining which vintage perfumes were written about with love and great enthusiasm, I slowly began sampling. I have found that minis are a really good way to get a taste of vintage without some of the risk associated with old, half used, treacle coloured bottles. Lots of them appear to have been kept in their boxes and therefore out of light and the extremes of temperature.

A friend gifted me a small collection of minis and they formed a great beginning. I believe you need at least a couple of mls to really understand a perfume. This is what put me off getting samples. You really need to try perfumes more than once.

Initially, they are sometimes so unusual that your nose is given a shock. A mere ml of some rare classic can cost a great deal, whereas if you track down an original mini, you get from 2-7.5mls depending on the brand.

You soon get a feel for the vintage products from the big perfume houses. I found starting with the classics from Chanel, Dior, Rochas, Patou, Balenciaga, Guerlain, were a good way to start. You then get a feel of the notes you enjoy. The various classic perfume houses had a distinctive style in their perfumes. Once you become acquainted with them, you'll frequently find new ones you encounter, are just part of a family of fragrances that appeal on the basis of the first few you try.

I found many of the older classics were so strong on civet that they didn't appeal. I was astonished that we used those perfumes back in the 60s and 70s and I wasn't aware of that strong animalic aspect.

There are specialty mini perfume sellers who have new stock all the time. At least with a $10-$20 investment in a mini, over time you can afford an occasional bottle and build a collection. Once you're certain of your great loves, then it might be time to start trying to source full bottles.

Hello Ladies!

I just wanted to pass a long a great place to pick up perfumes, parfums and perfume bottles. You all have heard of Goodwill, well all Goodwill's from across the country take items of designer value and puts them up on a auction type website called www.shopgoodwill.com. If you search cologne,perfume,parfum or fragrances you can come across some really nice bottles, a lot vintage, of fragrances. They have some nice things up for bid right now! The only drawback is they ship by ups or fedex which is a little pricey, but hey your saving so much on perfumes it's worth it. I picked up an $85 dollar bottle of Dior Homme, full and unused for around $35!

Give them a try!

Best Regards