Description
Revlon launches Scoundrel fragrance in 1980. The fragrance was advertised by the actress Joan Collins, also known as Alexis Carrington from the very famous TV soap “Dynasty.” The scent is advertised under the slogan “Seize the moment” as witty and successful, designed for women with great personal style. Joan Collins describes it as sophisticated, elegant and a bit sexy.
Top notes: aldehydes, pineapple, bergamot, artemisia, mint and marigold. Heart: jasmine, hyacinth, mimosa, peach, cyclamen, lily of the valley, rose and tuberose. Base: cypress, cedar, oak moss, musk and raspberry.
The fragrance is available as pure perfume, and as a cologne spray since 1981.
hamo-05 – :
Aldehyde heaven in a bottle!!! The main notes are tuberose and hyacinth. The rest supports the leading role. Yes, there are fruits but this is not a fruity floral. they lend that vintage roundness and sweetness to the composition. Everything sits upon the musk and keeps from being too cloying with the addition of the woody and herbal notes. The oakmoss comes out in the base, making this a chypre but it isn’t overpowering for those, who like me, hate it.
Valonadoxia – :
This is a 1980’s take on aldehydes. Scoundrel isn’t modern or classic or timeless. It’s a visit to the ’80s – big shoulder pads, big hair, big perfumes.
True to the style of the era, it’s a huge scent with all kinds of stuff tossed in the mix. It’s as though someone was cleaning out the lab and just tossed in whatever was available.
Florals? Yes, grab the marigold, tuberose, jasmine, hyacinth, rose, mimosa, orchid, muguet.
Fruits? Sure, bergamot. raspberry, peach, and toss in some pineapple.
Greens? Why not! Mint, Artimesa, let’s add some cypress just to be weird
And make sure you toss in some musk! And Woods!
Weirdly enough, it all works. Sure it’s huge and you want to be light on the trigger, but it’s great.
QQcuk – :
Happy Birthday Joan Collins
1981 Scoundrel By Revlon
How To Build A Fire By Joan Collins
It takes something black (a black evening gown)
Something brilliant (diamond jewelry)
Something cool (champagne on ice)
Something hot (a fireplace)
Something Scoundrel!
And when something happens and it will you can always say it wasn’t me it was my Scoundrel!
Joan Collins was the face of this fragrance during the first season of her hit TV drama Dynasty. With those lines from the TV ad as I quoted, I thought it would be a sexy, seductive and feral fragrance that suited Alexis Colby’s fiery persona. But no. This is a beautiful, sweet and mature aldehyde floral and chypre. It’s elegant and quite sedate, lady-like; which only makes me think that Joan was probably interested in wearing this fragrance herself and had more to do with Joan the woman than Alexis. I have owned both the eau de parfum miniature splash bottle as pictured in this page and also the cologne spray. I am now wearing the cologne spray from eBay. It’s just as I remember it!
Opens with aldehydes, bubbly aldehydes freshened up with citrus notes of mint and bergamot orange. I don’t get any pineapple but it does seem to match up with the mint it’s almost, almost candy-like, and there is a peach and raspberry note in it as well. It has a fruity flavor like a fuzzy peach or citrusy alcoholic beverage. When the fruity top subsides, the middle stage is all floral with tuberose, creamy and very distinctive, a mimosa that smells like orange blossoms, a jasmine and lily of the valley. This is white floral stuff in the heart as I mostly get that tuberose and lily of the valley. Green notes are thrown in as well courtesy of wormwood (artemisia), possibly a patchouli or herbal note, cypress, and definitely a lot of oak moss.
The dry down is mossy and musky. The dark musk note is warm and with all the green accords it is more of a nocturnal autumn fragrance or for winter. Something to wear to the opera or the symphony on a cold December night. This is like an authentic bear fur coat on Alexis, as she walks to and fro in the Blake mansion that she fights so hard to claim, giving everyone hell but looking gorgeous. So here we have a very lovely almost forgotten but luxurious and beautiful aldehyde floral vintage perfume. This can still be purchased as a cologne spray on eBay and I highly recommend it for fans of vintage Revlon and fans of our favorite diva Joan Collins.
Here’s To You Alexis Darling!
5642 – :
Fragrance Review For Scoundrel
Revlon
Top Notes
Aldehydes Bergamot Pineapple Mint Marigold Artemisia
Middle Notes
Peach Rose Tuberose Jasmine Cyclamen Lily of the Valley Mimosa Hyacinth
Base Notes
Raspberry Cedar Wood Cypress Oak Moss Musk
Thank you eBay!
2 editions Perfume Splash Miniature Dab Bottle (1980) Concentrated Cologne Spray (1981) Nose: Uncredited. Joan Collins: Actress and advertisement model, appeared in a TV commercial for the perfume and modeled in photo shoot ads.
Released between 1980-1981, Revlon, a household name in America for cosmetics and fragrance, capitalized on the Dynasty craze during the early 80’s. The face of the fragrance was none other than Joan Collins, Alexis Morell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan herself! This was actually her first foray into fragrance. She would later on formulate and sell her own fragrance line: 2 perfumes Spectacular! (1989) and I Am Woman (2014) the latter which was sold through QVC. Joan Collins’s glamorous evil millionairess character of Alexis on the hit TV drama Dynasty captured the entire TV watching world. Her fancy designer clothing, shoulder pads, jewelry, big hair, bold make-up and her gets-what-she wants ambitious personality spoke of feminism at the right time in both the US and the UK (where Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher set the bar high). So naturally I was expecting a powerful perfume of the 1980’s. Instead I was treated to a very lady like fruity floral chypre with a sweetness that doesn’t seem to match with Alexis more aggressive nature. It’s a very womanly scent and certainly quite expensive “old money” in it’s style and only in that sense does it seem like Alexis. It’s aristocratic and floral, soapy, clean, fresh and pretty but as it finalizes it’s performance it does have that seductive naughty quality that was advertised in the commercial on TV. This was a “sex bomb” in it’s day. I will be reviewing both concentrations of the perfume and the cologne.
Perfume Splash Mini:
This was a small (about .10 ounces) tiny glass bottle of the perfume which was the first edition that was sold and can be seen in the TV commercial. Joan Collins applies the perfume on her neck using the stopper. Smells very old fashioned and even contains aldehydes as it opens. The fresh fruit in the fragrance consists of bergamot orange, a mint flavor, and peach. The fruitiness is not overpowering and I would have to say that this is more of that clean soapy aldehyde than anything else when it opens. At the time, many fragrances smelled like this. They were ancestors to the modern fruity floral. This has a delicious raspberry note in it as well that was also found in such fragrances as Dior Poison and even Lancôme Magie Noire not to mention Ivoire de Balmain. The fruit scent however is not the big attraction. The fruit gives it a fresh tartness and a femininity but the aldehydes seem to embrace the developing floral notes. A beautiful bouquet of spring flowers, or rather a floral soap scent begins to emerge. This is not powdery as I imagined it to be but more like the kind of flowers one would get from an Oriental or a chypre. The jasmine is dominant but so is the white floral note of lily of th valley, at least as the flowers begin to play their performance. Then I picked up on marigold, a dainty rose, hyacinth and tuberose. This is a white floral for sure but it’s not a very loud white flower perfume. The tuberose and jasmine are evenly paired and smell lovely, subtle, and quite graceful. The driest portions of the fragrance smell musky and woodsy. I detected the oak moss, an ingredient no longer used in perfumery. There’s cedar wood and a musk that is somewhat smoky like a combination incense and musk. At times the concentration of pure perfume in the splash is rather warm and animalic, sensual, sexy, smoky. The perfumes that are provocative Orientals for women like Opium by Yves Saint Laurent come to mind. This then is the scoundrel portion of the perfume. As it begins it’s a very refined and conservative lady, more elegant and simple than showy-glamorous. More of a Nancy Reagan than Alexis Colby. She is a public figure who is photographed as she gives to charity and causes. You’d hardly think she could be capable of being even the littlest bit naughty. A day time perfume for a woman who only comes out in the day and shuts herself in at night. But the dry down with the mossy musky and animal skin scent is more the sexy and sexualized temptress who lives for the nightlife. I loved this splash so much. It’s so beautiful and a hard to find very rare vintage masterpiece for us vintage lovers. Being so tiny I can easily put it in my handbag when I’m out and about and want to splash a bit of perfume on myself.
Concentrated Cologne Spray:
The spray bottle looks cheap as hell, not even a drugstore cheapie of today but more of those 1970’s kind. But the scent is very lovely and more expensive in it’s air. This is a lighter and sweeter version of the perfume splash. The soapiness of the florals are the focus here. I don’t get any aldehydes at all. I don’t get any musk. There’s a touch of green moss at the base but this is mostly a floral toilet water type of smell. I detected a beautiful citrus as it opens mingling with mimosa and orange blossom. This is fresh and sweet, summery and very pretty. The rose is more dominant in this version, a rose that is embracing white lily of the valley. It’s more a rose plus lily scent, keeping it simple and feminine. This is also very subtle compared to the parfum. It doesn’t last very long either. But very nice. My mother loves Dynasty and we watched it together when I was a little girl. I always thought Alexis looked great and was misunderstood. She was not as bad as she appeared to be plus like my mother said you’d be as bad too if you still loved the man who divorced you and had to see him succeed in life while you struggled in a man’s world as a businesswoman! This is a really beautiful sweet cologne and as a spray one can liberally spray and it won’t be too offensive nor headache inducing. I still prefer the smaller doses of the pure parfum. I bought a set of the mini and splash for my mother too. Revlon was smart to sell this stuff when all of the US was mad about Alexis. Women in the US followed her fashions. She is an icon of the 1980’s woman. The perfume is a time capsule item of that glamorous era called the 80’s.
aealekseev – :
I had this in the 1980s and loved it, no idea it was still around. I wasn’t a Joan Collins fan, but I liked the name so I bought it. Yes, it was strong, and the travel bottle had a little foam dabber which was nowhere as durable or leakproof as a modern rollerball. My tastes are a bit different now, but I might wear this again if I could find it.
Troy7 – :
I used to wear this (and love it) in the 1980s like many other reviewers. I found it recently on Fragrancenet, and since it was still inexpensive, I thought I’d relive my youth… Either my tastes have changed significantly (even though I wish shoulder pads would come back) or it was vintage stock that has gone strong, because the bottle I got packed a whallop! I could smell Scoundrel even before I opened the package… it permeated EVERYTHING, like a closet sachet on steroids. The scent did bring back memories, but I had to get it out of the house. Too much even for a commanding presence like Joan Collins (who still looks like a million bucks)!
robacipana – :
I’ve been on a bit of a quest to amass fragrances that remind me of my youth. When I was a young teenager, I was given a mini of this as a gift. I wore it till it was gone, having no idea what a mature powerhouse fragrance this was. I just bought a huge bottle of this and received it today, and the scent memory has returned. This is a huge, powerful floral, not very aldehydic or spicy to me. The florals are strong and slightly bitter, and the jasmine a bit indolic. There is a mild soapy quality that is subtle and sporadic, all on a green woody base. A drop of this fills the room, and its a cologne concentrate. I cannot see wearing this often but I am glad I got this back into my wardrobe.
timik198420 – :
So this scent is still available? I had no idea! I hope the perfume sold now has not been reformulated, as I LOVED the original Scoundrel. This was my first introduction to tuberose (although it is not a top note).
Scoundrel is a heavy, rich, extremely sweet scent, with amazing longevity and sillage for an inexpensive fragrance. I am seriously thinking about buying some, but am worried about possible changes.
Swaberare – :
Joan Collins used to be the face of this one and I remember seeing an interview with her a few years ago where she mentioned that she used to promote a fragrance but actually thought is smelled like room spray. I wonder if Scoundrel was the fragrance in question? Or was it Spectacular? Whatever the case, it’s pretty rare that you hear what a celebrity REALLY thinks of a the fragrances they put their names to.
arhimed62 – :
what’s with the pineapple note in almost half the perfumes released around 1980? I wonder which aromachemical caught like a wildfire around that time
Doolvewaiva – :
i had this years ago when it first came out. what a sexy fragrance that i wore to go out for a night on the town. a strong and pleasing blend of notes that dried down to a sexy simmer. memories.
dima.spec2010 – :
I loved this one! Why do they keep DCing the best fragrances?
And the beautiful Joan Collins, still looks great to be her age! Wow!
kozak1986 – :
This perfume smells so good but you cannot find it now liketalking about. I Purchased abottle of perfume oil in this a few years back all gone now and cannot find the site anymore that I ordered it from