Houbigant mini oils with the black labels

[mumsy]

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I'm so happy, I've been hunting for 20 years for this scruffy looking bottle on the middle left. It matches my patchouli. I am still hunting for the musk and civet of the same label type. I saw a musk once on ebay but had missed the auction unfortunately. If you ever see these with the black labels, empty or full. Please guide me there or grab it and I will sort you out with a wonderful swap or recompense you. Then my houbigant collection will be complete for the 60's section.

[mumsy]

The full set finally....... after all this time....

It's taken me over 30 years to find them all....... then all three came at once. It cost me an arm and a leg but......

Here is a treat to behold....

[Foustie]

How utterly wonderful! Congratulations. Now you just need to get rid of your husband and children this weekend...wink!

[mumsy]

After buying these, I think they will get rid of me..... lol

[Guest 3]

Oh, oh!! Mumsy, what a find! That is an adorable set! I had Alyssa Ashley Civet around 1977 or 78, but it was a spray in a black bottle. I couldn't smell it on me, so I gave it to a friend. It smelled great on her, or at least I could smell it on her. Enjoy your treasures.

p.s. Here's a story: The friend to whom I gave it was with me when I bought it. It was in a clothing boutique and they had those AA Civet bottles on display. There was this much older woman working in the shop and she said, "Oh, honey you don't want that, trust me." And I was like, "No, I do want it!" And she said, "Do you know what that is? It's cat!", and she looked so disgusted. I suppose she had tried it when they got it in. Lol!!

[Foustie]

Oh, oh!! Mumsy, what a find! That is an adorable set! I had Alyssa Ashley Civet around 1977 or 78, but it was a spray in a black bottle. I couldn't smell it on me, so I gave it to a friend. It smelled great on her, or at least I could smell it on her. Enjoy your treasures.

p.s. Here's a story: The friend to whom I gave it was with me when I bought it. It was in a clothing boutique and they had those AA Civet bottles on display. There was this much older woman working in the shop and she said, "Oh, honey you don't want that, trust me." And I was like, "No, I do want it!" And she said, "Do you know what that is? It's cat!", and she looked so disgusted. I suppose she had tried it when they got it in. Lol!!

Hee Hee!

[mumsy]

When I was young, my father once had a company that sold redundant cosmetics in their original boxes, after their boxes had been redesigned, to ladies in their canteens at lunchtimes. We had a garage full of these..... I used to help myself to anything I wanted..... if only we had known then...

I reckon it is when my perfume addiction began at the tender age of early teens. The interest had already been kindled by my grandmother when I was a very young girl. She gave me a present of a tiny blue bottle of Je Reviens by Worth in a little drawstring bag. It was tiny and round and I so loved it. My next perfume was Blue Grass by Elizabeth Arden. A discarded one from my mother. I began young..... there is no cure.

[Guest 3]

I began young, too, Mumsy, with my mother and aunts and grandmother as examples. I was fated to be like this. No there is no cure, just management and maintenance.

[Foustie]

Me too. For lots of reasons, but one of the main influences was an Aunt who gave me my first Perfume when I was a child, Helena Rubinstein Heaven Scent. I really loved it. I managed to get some on ebay but it is spoiled. I still smell it though because it is still in there somewhere. I genuinely felt a rrrrrush of excitement when you posted the pic of your nostalgic haul mumsy!

Nope, no cure, but I find that several sprays two to four times a day is very efficatious in the management of this malady.

[paks2much]

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I'm so happy, I've been hunting for 20 years for this scruffy looking bottle on the middle left. It matches my patchouli. I am still hunting for the musk and civet of the same label type. I saw a musk once on ebay but had missed the auction unfortunately. If you ever see these with the black labels, empty or full. Please guide me there or grab it and I will sort you out with a wonderful swap or recompense you. Then my houbigant collection will be complete for the 60's section.

The question is, do they smell the same??

[mumsy]

The question is, do they smell the same??

Indeed, they do. The patchouli one has got softer and much nicer actually. I keep it in a cotton lined plastic bottle to save it from ever getting broken. I don't wear it often but allow myself a nostalgic sniff occasionally to return to Carnaby Street in my mind. The Ambergris has always been my favourite and the Civet gets softer and more sublime as it ages. The Musk is a light white musk and is easily found. I've rarely seen the patchouli oil intact, especially in the small bottle, because it would have been worn by all the hippies of the time. Me included with my primrose yellow jeans, long flowing hair, bare feet, cheesecloth tops with bellbottom sleeves and (trendy at the time) torn off bellbottom trouser ends...

Since that collection, I have bought them, and still do, whenever I find them. I haven't found the tall oil bottle in patchouli yet but have found the spray bottle since.

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I have a nice little collection of both Houbigant perfumes and of Cotys too. I only had to slow down when their price got more than a Creed. Collections of one brand really are pleasing for some magpie-like reason, and Houbigant has always been the one for me. I even found some of the wooden bottle design dummies for some of the Houbigant bottles. Unfortunately not all, as someone else bid for some of them before me. They got six of the really tiny ones. I do hope they value them as much as I do, and they aren't languishing all unloved anywhere. It was such a gigantic pity to break up the set. I was so cross with myself at the time for missing the auction end of them. The models really do all belong together to be given to a perfume museum one day. They were probably only bought for a dolls house. If that buyer is reading this, then can I please buy them to put back with these others?

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[mumsy]

Now I had to go and see where we were.... Some photo treats for all you uber nerds like me.

The musk bottles... lots of shapes and sizes. (There is a clear tiny musk bottle the same size as the black one, I forgot to include it)

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The Christmas baubles they produced one year... I don't have all because most packets probably got destroyed upon the opening.

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The gents cologne

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And my favourite of all time (so I have some dupes if anyone has a swap for the ones I don't have).

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Collecting things is quite ridiculous.... why do we do it?

[paks2much]

I just want to cry seeing all those black bottles. They are just nowhere to be found and if found, they're $500.00 or more. I certainly can't afford that. I'd even be happy with an empty bottle that still smells like them! The Ambergris was my most favorite but yes, all of them are awesome. It sickens me to think I can never smell them again.
Other than the internet, where does one even find them?

[mumsy]

Well no need to cry for anything other than joy then. We can play perfume fairies and share with someone as passionate about these.

They certainly weren't that expensive because otherwise I wouldn't have afforded them either. Only the huge one was something my husband might have grounds for divorce on and even that one wasn't that much. Send me a PM and I'll sort something nice out.

I had been working long ago on making a similar perfume to see if I could make it ever again. That led to the interest in real ambergris and why I have so much of it. A lifelong passion of over 30++ years is in these black and silver lines, not a five minute wonder. I even found some Houbigant gloves the other month, still with their label on.

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Passions are really quite potty. If you've got it too then it was inevitable you'd get here eventually. Basenotes is a haven for all smelliferous beings. Welcome into the fold.

[annetteo]

IMG_20170423_130751.jpg i remember the musk one vividly back then...heres my latest houbigant find from the 70s!!

[mumsy]

That particular bottle was a spectacular version I seem to remember. Deep and floral.

[annetteo]

Yes its a lovely frag,aldehydey sort of ,bought it for my mum but she cant wear perfume any more! And not to my taste ,so I chucked it on the 'bay!