I do not like anything old: I enjoy looking at antique furniture in museums but wouldn’t want to see it in my living room. I acknowledge the significance of black and white classical movies but the only one that I actually like and wouldn’t mind watching again is Twelve Angry Men. I’m completely unemotional about art deco posters. And, as a rule, I do not like vintage perfumes.
How did it happen that I’ve bought this 7.5 ml half-full bottle of vintage Miss Dior parfum? Why did I decide to buy my first vintage perfume? I didn’t. I didn’t buy a perfume. I bought that bottle. I bought a visual aid to one of my childhood memories.
…
When I was nine my mother had three small bottles of Dior’s parfums – Diorella, Miss Dior and Dior-Dior. Out of these three Diorella in a blue box with white oval was my absolute favorite (see First Love: Love); Dior-Dior in a light beige box didn’t attract me much (it got discontinued, so I never had a chance later to check if my tastes changed); and Miss Dior in an elegant white box was somewhere in between. I don’t remember how any of them smelled, I just remember that imaginary hierarchy.
…
When I was nineteen Miss Dior (I think, it was an eau de toilette version) became the first perfume I ever bought. It wasn’t my favorite perfume, as I was buying it, I didn’t even remember how it smelled (at that time in the country where I lived perfume testers were out of question) but I saw it in a store (which on its own was a small miracle at that time) and remembered that I liked it, more or less, in my childhood. And those were reasons good enough to warrant the purchase. If it sounds like something strange and “from another life” – that’s because it was; you might want to look through my very first post in this blog First Love: Perfume to understand better my strange relationships with perfumes in my younger years. The bottle I bought was inserted into the golden metallic case (I haven’t seen that packaging after that here, it must have been either a limited or Europe-specific edition) and the box was still classy white. I didn’t love the perfume but liked it and used up the bottle.
…
When I was Many-many years later I saw that Miss Dior bottle on eBay I realized that it looked not exactly but very close to the bottle from my childhood, one of those three that my mother used to have. And I wanted that bottle just for the bottle itself; I would have bought it even completely empty. But it still had some parfum left in it. And it smells wonderful on my skin – much better than I remember from my two previous encounters with Miss Dior. It is so smooth and warm that I feel wrapped into that scent every time I wear it. It is so beautiful that it makes me very sad to see how little of it I have left. Should I try to find another vintage bottle? What if it will be of a different formulation (I’m not sure from which decade is my bottle) and I do not like it? Should I try the current version before Dior butchered it again during the renaming and maybe “repatriation” process (read the horror story about the upcoming changes at Grain de Musc)? Which version? If EdT can be found still at Saks, I’ve never seen a tester for the parfum version. Should I buy unsniffed? What if I hate it? Questions, questions… One thing I do know: I will terribly miss Miss Dior if it’s gone.
If you’ve done a review for Miss Dior please post a link to it in your comment.
Image: my own
Undina's Looking Glass 
hey girl , I have some Miss Dior to share with you – the houndsooth check bottle of EDT is gi-normous so let me send you some to see if you like it !
e-mail me….
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Hi Carol,
I won’t play modest and refuse to try your EdT! You know how they say “in love and in war…” and I’m definitely in love.
BTW, I remember seeing Miss Dior review at your blog. Do you mind giving it here?
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I’m all for buying vintage. True, it is a risk. And you have to be patient to find both what you want, at the price you’re willing to pay. But Miss Dior was not a rare or unusual perfume, and plenty of people’s mothers and grandmothers and aunts had some in a box in the dresser drawer that their descendants will simply try to dump on ebay. It’s definitely worth looking for – which I would not say about Dior-Dior (rare) or Diorissimo (which seems to not age well).
I have tried a small bit of vintage Miss Dior parfum (from Tamara J), and it’s lovely. It’s not very “me,” but it is wonderful.
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Yes, I’m almost persuaded to start looking for more vintage stuff. But it might be really frustraiting: you never know in advance how well it’s preserved. I wouldn’t mind to pay more for something that I can use but even $15-$20 for a completely not wearable perfume feels like a waste. But if I do not try I won’t get it – guaranteed.
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I have a tiny vintage mini of Miss Dior that I reviewed here: http://kjanicki-sotd.blogspot.com/2011/02/dior-miss-dior-vintage.html
I love it, but I also bought a vintage purse spray of EDT that is not as good. Vintage can be heartbreaking. When my mini is gone, it’s probably gone forever.
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It is hard with different versions even for the current perfumes (for example, I prefer Chanel No.19 EdT to pure parfum) and with vintage ones it’s even harder – two bottles from the same batch, I think, might be different depending on how they were stored. And if to add to that different concentrations and re-formulations through years… Mind-boggling.
Thank you for sharing your review.
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I do notice that my three (ahem) vintage bottles of No. 5 all smell different, with one noticeably more wonderful than the others.
Just wanted to say, I like No. 19 EdT much, much better than the parfum! The EdP is nice, too, but less striking than either of the other concentrations.
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I agree! Today I wore my No.19 parfum and though I think it’s very nice I enjoy wearing EdT much more. The ironic part is that I decided on the parfum vs EdT to be more descreet (I had a meeting scheduled in a small conference room).
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I also prefer the No. 19 EdT to the parfum. As far as Miss Dior, it isn’t a love that has hit me, but I’m glad you have found at least some!
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I think it’s for the best! Since the ONE perfume that everybody needs to have/love/etc. doesn’t exist, I think it’s safer not to even pursue discontinued scents unless you already happen to know and love them.
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Undina, you are dead right about this.If you don’t know how great the vintage stuff is why go down that expensive and risky road? I’ve already had to stock up on Diorella (glad you love it too!) and really can do without falling for vintage Miss Dior. I was unimpressed with the current version so that’s it I’m afraid.
Glad you have that nice bottle as a reminder of your mother and that the juice still smells great.
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Hm… Diorella, you say… I have just the current formulation (which I like since I don’t remember the scent from my childhood) and was thninking about finding and trying a vintage version. Now I start doubting if I should even try…
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I don’t purchase many vintage fragrances, but the few I have purchased on EBay have all been happy purchases (in other words, they kept well over the years). My two cents worth of advice is the same as Mal’s, I guess: I’d keep a patient but watchful eye on Ebay for the vintage parfum. Some things are worth the risk, and it sounds like Miss Dior has a tender but firm hold on your heart, Undina.
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Ok, I think I’m almost ready. I’ll just wait until this heat wave is over before buying any perfumes online. And then I’ll start my hunting season.
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Tricky. Vintage perfume can be fun, but if you have an emotional investment in a particular one, the disappointment can be great. And I agree – even $20 or $30 is a sad waste if the perfume is unwearable. On the whole tho’, I agree with others: better to take the risk!
Keep an eye on The Miniature Perfume Shoppe.
http://miniatureperfumeshoppe.com/
Leslie Ann has a large inventory and buys new collections all the time. You could get in touch and ask her to keep an eye out for you. She recently sold two minis of MD parfum (to me!) but they were modern, not vintage.
The bottles are frosted glass rectangular things, tiny, of course. I think the latest iteration of this bottle is clear glass, not frosted, but still I think mine are fairly recent.
I usually don’t chase d/c fragrances but I recently bought a parfum of Deneuve (Catherine Deneuve’s fragrance from the 1980s/90s, a lovely green chypre.) When another bottle came up, I snapped it up too. Neither was expensive, butI was lucky. I wear Deneuve around the house, when I’m by myself, can cook myself a dinner to please myself and settle down in front of the TV. I love Deneuve but I won’t be devastated when it is gone.
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Yes, I check this site from time to time but haven’t seen anything I wanted to buy so far: for the current version I’d rather buy a new bottle. But I will keep an eye on it. And will start checking eBay’s saved search more often.
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