Blind Sniff Roulette #1: Yves Saint Laurent Paris

Paris 1990 advertising

This year's selection of fragrances to play with inevitably opens under the influence of my conferences about perfume history and in particular as many of you guessed right, we're in front of an '80s best-seller: Paris by Yves Saint Laurent here in vintage eau de toilette concentration. Legend tells that Yves Saint Laurent just gave Sophia Grojsman as briefing a watch with a pink strap. As all of you widely described, inspired by Après l'Ondée she translated this into a feminine (pale colours, floral prints) and lively (Vivaldi, La vie en rose) juice full of romance (Sissi, Audrey Hepburn, Lehar) yet with a contemporary naughty twist (Brigitte Bardot, lace and sheer fabrics) that through the decades has gained his place among the classics as the most refined expression of the '80s showy elegance.

Adjiumi

• if it'd be a colour? It would be a shade of violet, typical from iris and hyacinth fading to the Valentino red we can spot in some carnations.
• if it would be an animal? It'd be a domestic pet, a dog. I chose one of the most common ones because I smell geranium in the heart, one of the most common cultivated flowers.
• if it'd be music? Its score would feature longlasting high notes.
• if it would be a place? It'd be an endless avenue, like the typical ones leading to a cemetery in a winter morning, with frosted dead leaves after a cold night and some fog blurring the landscape like an aldehydic cloud covering your eyes.
• if it'd be a cloth? It would be a feminine garnment made of light fabric with a floral print.
• if it would be a movie/book? The Secret Garden, behind the door the view of an intense, bracing, living flower.
• if it'd be a personality (storical, pubblic,...)? It'd be a female who imposed her beauty as a model during a precise era: Audrey Hepburn as spotted in Gardens of the World.

Giampaolo Jicky Baldoni
The first perfume on this year's Blind Sniff smells delicious, green, bright and powdery like a Jeune fille en fleur! The composition opens with slightly moist crisp greenery (hyacinth?) forecasting the true spirit of the fragrance: a spring wind carrying luminous floral and powdery sensations (I guess mimosa, violet, iris), a soul spring alluding to the youth of feelings, to the thoughtless early years of life these notes conjure up.
I'd dare to say the fragrance is Paris, the classic Sophia Grosjman hit for Yves Sain Laurent or anyway something impressively reminding me of it.

• if it'd be a colour? It would be pale yellow fading to pink.
• if it'd be an animal? A swallow hands down, because I associate this bird to good news, to something good incoming, to the promise of rebirth just like the perfume I smell: the anticipation of a growing beauty.
• if it'd be music? I hope it won't sound pedantic and too obvious, but I can't help but saying “La Vie en rose” sung by Edith Piaf, as well as in the beautiful rendition from Grace Jones.

• if it would be a place? A great park full of mimosa trees with a small lake surrounded by hyacinths and irises. There's also a big hedge hiding a rose-garden.
• if it'd be a cloth? A light see-through silk scarf suitable as a shelter for the early spring cold wind.
• if it'd be a movie/book? It would be a Katherine Mansfield novel about getting conscious of reality and objective truth. This fragrance perfectly fits both a dreamer and a serene self-conscious personality.
• if it'd be a personality (storical, pubblic,...)? It would be Brigitte Bardot embodying a constant promise of pleasure, an ethereal yet accessible beauty.

Lorenzo
Thoughtless and sparkling with aldehydes, it reminds me of my mother's perfume when I was a child. A ball in a hall full of chandeliers.

• if it'd be a colour? If it'd be a colour, it would be iridescent white like velvet or silk.
• if it'd be an animal? If it'd be an animal, it would be a butterfly.

• if it'd be music? It would be a Franz Lehar operetta.
• if it'd be a place? It would be one of the many real or imaginary residences of Princess Sissi.
• if it'd be a cloth? If it'd be a garnment, it would be a lace petticoat, mischievous yet innocent.
• if it would be a movie/book? If it'd be a movie, it would be The sound of Music.
• if it'd be a personality (storical, pubblic,...)? It would be... It would be Princess Sissi!

Marina
Number one is a delicate vague floral with prominent rose and violet notes. Maybe it's a vintage floral aiming to render the younger and ethereal feminine beauty.

• if it'd be a colour? It would be the shades of violet of blooming violets.
• if it'd be an animal? An elegant persian cat jumping here and there while catching a fly flying in zigzag lines.
• if it'd be music? Vivaldi's spring: joyful, sparkling, cheerful.
• if it'd be a place? It would be a frosted rose-garden at dawn.
• if it'd be a cloth? A very light silk blouse in the wind.
• if it'd be a movie/book? The light-heartedness of Roman Holiday.

• if it would be a personality (storical, pubblic,...)? Brigitte Bardot singing in the '60s Moi je joue.