Jasmin Imperatrice Eugenie

by

Saturday Question: What Is The Oldest Perfume In Your Collection?

By the time I click Publish, it’ll be probably Sunday Question even where I live, but I just came back from Hawaii where for the next 3+ hours it’s still Saturday, so I’ll pretend that I’m still there. I plan to share some photos in a separate post next week, but for now, back to our regularly scheduled programming!

 

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

 

Saturday Question #235:

What Is The Oldest Perfume In Your Collection?

You can interpret the question any way you like. It can be the oldest perfume by the date created. Or the date it was recreated. Or you could go by years in your collection for either the same bottle or a repeated purchase of the same perfume. Do not count samples, but any other formats can participate.

My Answer

One of my most favorite perfumes of all times, Climat by Lancome, would definitely fit the bill if to go by the continuation of one perfume in my collection (and I even still have my very first bottle, sadly empty). But Climat is my answer to so many questions (which isn’t all that surprising), that for today’s question, I decided to go with something different.

Jasmin Impératrice Eugénie by Creed was originally created in 1860s (different sites give slightly different dates, and since it can’t be found on the brand’s site any longer, I can’t confirm the official version), which makes it the oldest perfume in my collection by the date of creation. It also was recreated in 1989, which is still older than probably 90% of all perfumes in my collection.

Creed Jasmin Imperatrice Eugenie

Now, it’s your turn.

 

What Is The Oldest Perfume In Your Collection?

by

My First Creed: Jasmin Impératrice Eugénie

 

For a very long time I haven’t approached Creed. There were several reasons for that.

First, when I didn’t know anything about the brand, its line-up in Neiman Marcus looked so unapproachable that I would keep passing the Creed’s counter long after NM itself stopped being intimidating (though it’s still too expensive for me to shop there).

Later, when I already knew about Creed, in my mind it was closely connected to the testosterone overdose coming from the certain forum and some Facebook groups: all those batch numbers and bottles parts’ details were just making me nauseous and didn’t inspire the exploration.

I was bored. There was absolutely nothing new for me to sniff at the local Neiman Marcus. Because of my previous success with gardenia perfumes – Guerlain Cruel Gardenia and Ineke Hothouse Flower – I was mildly curious about the new Creed’s Fleurs de Gardenia. They didn’t have it yet but it was too late: I “left myself open” and a Creed’s SA, who looked like she also was quite bored, decided it was her chance.

For the next fifteen minutes she was enticing me with different scents on paper strips, names and notes. I decided not to fight back and compliantly stood there nodding. I must have fulfilled my part of the SA-potential client dance, so she easily agreed to make a sample of the perfume that I liked the most – Jasmin Impératrice Eugénie.

Creed Jasmin Imperatrice Eugenie

I wonder how Jasmin Impératrice Eugénie smelled 160 (one hundred and sixty!) years ago when, according to the official legend, it was created by Henry Creed II for the wife of Napoleon III, Empress Eugenie? I suspect it had been reformulated multiple times even before its public release in 1989 and definitely more than once since. But I’ve never smelled any of previous Jasmin Impératrice Eugénie reincarnations so no regrets here.

Official list of notes includes bergamot, Bulgarian rose, ambergris, Italian jasmine, vanilla and sandalwood. For a while I didn’t smell jasmine in Jasmin Impératrice Eugénie – until I tried it in parallel with Dior‘s Grand Bal. Now I can clearly detect it. But still for me this perfume isn’t about jasmine. This perfume is jasmine wrapped into and creamy sandalwood with just a hint of vanilla. I can’t detect rose but I’m not too good with that note when it’s not in a leading role. Jasmin Impératrice Eugénie is very smooth and well-blended. It has a good projection so it’s not one of those perfumes in which you can bathe. It stays on my skin for about 8 hours during which it doesn’t change much to my nose (though I’m positive that at least a couple of my readers would be able to parse out more distinct stages). I like this perfume very much.

Rusty and Creed Jasmin Imperatrice Eugenie

My vSO also likes Jasmin Impératrice Eugénie. I know that not because he gave it to me as a New Year gift (I had a hand in it) but because he complimented me on three separate occasions (which doesn’t happen too often) without knowing what I was wearing (which does happen a lot).

Do you have a favorite Creed perfume?

 

Images: my own