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venera265km – :
This was the coolest scent on my college campus for women in the 70s . I still love it !
It lasts and is a woody and green scent that is really preppy smelling to me. There are no others like it now that I can think of except for Safari by Lauren.
Aliage is sporty, sexy , and polished and lasts many hours . It is a very energizing and upbeat fragrance and has an elegance of its own – great for casual wear in my opinion . I still love this one!
inaya 070 – :
Aliage is one of the rare Estee Lauder frags I don’t like. Yes, it’s well made, there’s not a cheap note in that vintage bottle. It’s got lasting power and probably good sillage too, but there’s definitely nothing sporty about this scent. Unless the sport in question is tossing the caber (sp?) or volksmarching through the forest after a cold rain.
Aliage is a fragrance for women in name only, what’s in the bottle is actually incredibly masculine. There’s a slight resemblance to Emprise by Avon, a softer and less mossy fragrance. Aliage is all moss and woods, with a hint of wormwood, the olfactory equivalent of a deep, dark forest filled with dripping moss.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, none of those notes make Aliage bad. There are some men’s frags I wear happily, but Aliage won’t be one.
Which really is a shame, usually I’m all over the older EL frags. I’m not a girly girl, but Aliage is a trifle too butch for me. Or maybe it’s just too sophisticated for me, maybe I just don’t get this fragrance. Maybe I should give it another try. In any case, Aliage is a difficult fragrance, one of a kind.
Bxsxs – :
Aliage is not the “sporty” scent in a contemporary sense. It opens with a cloud of loud aldehyde, behind which comes the tarragon with a hint of nutmeg. In the first hour or two, the projection is about arm’s length, then it softens to sit close to skin. As it warms up, I get a hint of sweet citrus. The dry down comes within 3 to 4 hours, which is a nondescipt woody base that feels quite natural. Overall it is very unisex.
I got the sample from theperfumedcourt. They didn’t indicate if it is the vintage formula.
VIP – :
I’m testing both the vintage and current formula today, wrist to wrist.
At first speay, they’re very similar, but the vintage version is sharper and greener. They start to show very different notes within a minute or so after application. The current version has noticeable wood notes and comes across as more earthy and a little bit soapy. They both have a kind of camphor/menthol note in the background, although it’s more pronounced in the current version.
I smell no floral notes in either.
Yep, after some wear, the difference is very clear and they are two different fragrances. The vintage version is a green dominant chypre fragrance, and the current version is a wood dominant chypre-ish fragrance.
I like both, but am more drawn to the vintage version because it’s so very, very green. My husband likes the current version because of the wood and camphor-ish notes.
Staying power is weak on the current version, but the vintage lingers quite a while and stays green the entire time.
abincViexCani – :
Thank you so much for your info!!
I kinda dig this version. After the taxi cab pine air freshener wears off, the drydown is awesome! And my skin tames perfumes, versus wearing on clothing. So Its not unpleasant at all. Just perhaps odd for people to sniff around you.
I’ve been wearing it all day, no taxi cab comments from the mister. It loses sillage so I can smell myself, so I layered with Molinard de Molinard once, which was pleasing. I also mixed a spray of H’istorie D’Amour which was incredible. So, all in all, This formula is still a winner for me, if only for myself…. Alone. 😉 And I love it as a base for layering. Mmmmmmm, I wonder what this Pine earthy smell would do to Bandit, Miss Dior, G3, Etc.
Haha, my very first tissue test is now 5 days old…. and it smells like an ACTUAL LOG that is half burned.
Egor30 – :
mschnabel666- I have the same bottle. I purchased it sometime in the mid to late 2000’s. IIRC it was quite soon after they changed the bottle from the original shape. It is, unfortunately, not the vintage version of Aliage but a reformulation and very inferior to the original. Yes, it is more masculine and more bitter. Earthy rather than green as it used to be. I can not wear it and my husband really does not care for it on me either. I only keep it in my collection as a reminder and a commemoration of the fragrance that I once loved.
idioliLit – :
I blind bought this, in a bottle that is NOT the current version, but I can’t seem to date mine. The batch codes show 2013 or 2012 (AA2 12333 from the box, AA2 on the bottle. EL codes are reused every 10 years tho) but it’s a tall rectangular bottle with a silver cap, spelled Aliage. The bottle, when capped, has no “shoulders” so it’s not like the photo of either Aliage listing. It’s a 1.7oz, not 2. And it’s called the Sport Fragrance Spray. Made in the USA.
And this is very masculine. Incredibly. I can’t seem to find anything feminine. I DO love vintage scents, earthy, chypres, aldehydes, leather, civet, etc… but this is very peppery pine/green earth. I like it, but I’m not sure I can wear it. It smells like a very mature dapper gentleman. I have Aromatics Elixir and J-LSherrer and this is way darker/earthier/more masculine.
This review is actually from a tissue test (bottle leaked a TEENY bit in shipping, and I wiped the nozzle) so I’ll update proper if my wearing is different. 🙂
Now I think if worn lightly (I never thought I’d say that) it does dry down a bit more feminine. I think some myrrh is moving in! <3 More woody now than earthy/pine.
alligators – :
I must have bought a vintage from eBay. It is a strong green moss and 10 hours later, a still strong close to body fragrance. I refreshed one spritz because I’m going to BBQ dinner. Jasmin and rose? No. Just green and mossy and I love it. Reminds me of a Christmas tree lot with many fresh trees for sale.
vladsv – :
Whatever this once was it no longer is. It’s a nice soft herbal floral leather. I like it but I can guess it’s been tamed.
Axxxel1996 – :
I wore the original in the 70’s. As all EL fragrances were, it was potent, and a little went a long way.
It was very green, “herbal”, not sweet at all. It was given to me when I was about 10 years old. I wore it and felt very grown up, though looking back it was probably too grown up for me at that time.
It did last a long time, so one spray was plenty for the whole day. Nothing else smelled quite like it, very distinctive.
I still have my old bottle that I sniff. It is very concentrated now , from the 70’s!, but the smell is very distinctly there. I cannot say I desire to wear it nowadays, but perhaps if I found a “new” bottle, I may try it. Though I expect it will be very different.
hps2010 – :
I handled the spray nozzle just to smell it and I couldn’t get it off my fingers! Maybe the tester was turned as it smelled acrid bitter and rancid. Nope!
MaKaP_777 – :
I believe this has been reformulated, and that is pretty much all I have to add. It doesn’t have the zip it once had. Meh. If you think you might love a truly crisp, green, fresh cologne, buy a vintage bottle. I wore it in the ’70s, and it smelled nothing like it does now.
xxxxxk – :
Aliage (1972) By Estee Lauder is an aromatized fragrance equivalent of a fine vermouth and wormwood wine. Yes this is unisex and just what I look for in vintage fragrances that, although ostensibly marketed towards women, it’s scent is not too floral, sugary, sweet, fruity, berry-like, candied and powdery in the style of a typical woman’s perfume. Rather it’s aromatic and musky with a masculine touch. I found a vintage from sellers on ebay. Aliage is the successor to Chanel No 19 a classic chypre which can be far too much like grass in a bottle for some folks. It preceded Ivoire de Balmain (1980) which I also wear and is drier and woodsier. This predates green florals like Charlie by Revlon. As such it belongs in the Greenpeace 1970’s era, green is good, not greed is good, a forest fragrance with an earthy bitter green galbanum and artemisia accord. It has plenty of oak moss which is an extinct note in frags today. By definition a chypre, with musky dry down, totally unisex and a breath of fresh air in today’s cookie cutter boring fragrance industry.
The opening is of alcoholic aldehyde and it smells really chemical and strong. I didn’t care for the opening and if you don’t like strong aldehyde content as your fragrance opens then stand back. But the strength of the opening is later subdued by a number of different aroma chemical scents all with a green theme and a brown theme. Aliage is all pine,herbs, leaves, wormwood, grass, plants, bushes, sage, vetiver, moss, root and brownish bark and cedar wood. This thing’s a chypre on steroids! Very unusual and creative for today’s industry and when I wear this it’s not something anyone recognizes. It is meant to be splashed on not sprayed on and meant to be worn in autumn and winter with apparel like pea coats, leather jackets, fur coats, trench coats, and so forth. It has a decidedly outdoorsy scent so one might call this a sporty fragrance. On a woman the dry down and final stage is powdery but on me it’s woodsy with a dash of nutmeg caraway and vanilla and spices.
Back to the unisex part. I can totally smell this on a lumberjack, or a miner, someone who works outdoors all the time out in the open air, with their hands, and who wants to wear something to reflect that. It’s not a clean scent. The animalic musk in the base plus the green notes and woods give it a kind of bold indolic body that does not smell clean but like you’ve been rolling around in grass all day long. Remember when you were a kid and you rolled down hillsides? This smells like getting your hands, face, feet and butt covered in grass. This has a rural, rustic vibe. A country cologne for sure. This is a trip to the country and not the beauty salon. Not always easy to wear but recommended for guys and girls who enjoy vintages and chypres and have experience wearing them. Deep, green, woodsy, wonderful.
Wearing it even though I’m a city boy..
Mefad165Bessinepome – :
While a perfume or two has made me swoon, Aliage is the first to introduce a wave of unexplained nostalgia.
Aliage is green, cool, and damp. It has helped me to better understand oakmoss, which predominates among vetiver, artemisia, and pine. Artemisia includes the more familiar species of mugwort and wormwood. You will find their essence in the Aliage blend. My nose has not teased out any individual floral or fruity notes.
The nostalgia Aliage evokes involves no person. Instead I am overcome with sensations of the large country house with the willow tree out front, a brook dancing through the forest floor, the sound of the wind high in the pines by the old church. I am so glad no one in my past wore Aliage. Instead of a memory I feel places in time. It’s like reaching through the veil to touch something from long ago.
Sporty, to me, means high energy and colorful. Aliage is serene. At times the accords are earthly like straw or the wooden smell welcoming visitors to the homeplace. I have trouble imagining how I could incorporate Aliage into my modern, electronic, and too often synthetic life and wardrobe; yet, I could ponder the fragrance itself for days. Aliage will last a day and stays true to itself throughout. Sillage will make you smell fresh to anyone closer than an arm’s length.
kjz603Negeltzex – :
Lately started trying some fragrances targeted for women, to expand my collection and horizons. I was able to get a decant of Aliage.
It’s very nice, definitely more of a unisex fragrance. In fact, it reminds me of another “masculine” fragrance from about the same time frame (early-mid 70s): Grey Flannel. For me, Aliage actually comes across as a greener, more-masculine version of Grey Flannel. Will be an autumn/winter scent for me, especially for more formal occasions.
ckorpio44 – :
Autumn Aliage
I have the vintage orignal ’72 Country Cologne splash bottle
Aliage by Estee Lauder is a beautiful chypre
You won’t find a fragrance quite like this in stores today. And that’s a shame.
This fragrance doesn’t open with fresh, cool or aquatic notes, it’s not sweet or fruity, nor very floral.
It’s a wood based chypre.
It takes a very experienced nose and perfumista to appreciate it’s beauty.
Aliage is redolent with nutmeg, spices, pine, cedar wood and Artemisia, grass and oak moss.
It’s a green, earthy aroma and it contains galbanum.
It’s herbal. It’s wearable in the autumn and fall, October through November.
Like the other reviewers have noted, this is a country fragrance, a sporty frag to wear outdoors if you live in a farm or outside in a rural area.
This comes off as unisex so a man who makes his living as a carpenter or lumberjack can wear this without smelling like he’s got on woman’s perfume.
It’s not aggressively masculine but it’s still unisex on account of all the woodsy notes.
On a woman this smells perfect for when you’re outdoors working with your hands as a botanist, or if you have a greenhouse, or if you’re a farmer’s wife.
The rustic vibe can’t be missed. It’s absolutely beautiful. I’m from Tennessee and this is such a blue grass scent, the smell of a wooden cabin or cottage.
It suits my environment and me, especially this time of year.
This smells like a number of things as well:
The kind of wood floors in a brand new house you’ve just moved into, a wooden floor that has no paint job on it but you keep clean with a scented polish.
This is a wood polish scent but on a larger scale.
This also smells like green galbanum and grass, vetiver, an earthy, mossy outdoor scent like a lot of leaves that have fallen off trees and lay scattered on dirt.
Far from being unpleasant, it’s nice.
The lightest bit of citrus sweetens it as does the spicy nutmeg.
The jasmine flower is the only floral note I can detect. She is shy.
The dry down is woods woods woods.
Beautiful
Sillage and longevity is incredible.
This is on you for a long long time. All day in fact.
Sometimes when the cedar wood has dried down, it turns powdery and even sweet.
I was enchanted by Aliage.
be-ar89 – :
Holy crap! This perfume bottle has been redesigned. It says Aliage edp. And it smells like crap. What is this I’m smelling? smells like half cooked meat.
vurhez – :
When I was in college, I rented a room from one of my profs in his big house. He had a younger, very beautiful girlfriend who stayed over sometimes. She wore this and smelled fantastic. She turned me on to Grape Nuts too (lol)!! She would shower in the morning, spritz on Aliage, then go downstairs for a bowl of Grape Nuts (Isn’t it funny the things you remember?) I think this was the first designer perfume I ever bought, even as a poor college student. These were the days of Calvin Klein designer jeans and white, silk button down blouses. Now, when I wear this gorgeous perfume, I always think of her. Spicy, delicious, and beautiful! LOVE IT!
vlad1976 – :
I loved Aliage in the ’70’s. It made me feel so unique and happy and green! Now, all these years later, I pulled out a bottle today, spritzed some on, and went back to those wild, first-professional-job happy days. I can’t figure out if the scent actually triggers a happy response in me or if I get happy because I think about being a youthful, independent, discovering woman. Either way, it makes me happy. I have wanted a change to my normal routine and Aliage will be it for the next several days It’s mystical, green, a little intoxicating with its woodsy notes. Starts out very green and dries down to something green and mysterious–almost a nod to being sweet in a strange sort of way (I am NOT a sweet scent woman). It’s not a crowd-pleaser as someone else noted but it is an individual pleaser. I’m the one closest to me and I’m happy!
WrofeWher – :
Aliage by Estee Lauder
I wore Aliage for years in the 70’s when these type of fragrances were very common; i.e. Chanel No. 19, Scherrer, and Ivoire de Balmain. This is the scent of pine, oak trees, oak moss, leaves, vetiver grass, artemisia and indolic jasmine. The fragrance lasts a very long time and it can project strongly. I see it as wearable in the cold winter months. It’s soothing and enjoyable as a spicy chypre. The woods are the dominant accords. Woods and moss and a trail of scent that smells amazing. I’ve always enjoyed the vintage original splash bottle but have not tried the new formula. Reading the reviews it makes me happy that I’ve only experienced the real thing, the masterpiece that is the original. This scent matches up with fur coats and gloves. It’s mature and plain, without any of the sweet fruity floral aspects found in today’s youth-oriented fragrances. If you like chypres and oak moss, vetiver and woods, this is your perfume.
Глам007 – :
MISTAKE !!!!!
Dear Fragrantica ,this mish-mash of Alliage sport should be corrected.Also the list of Estee Lauder is incomplete ! Alliage and Eau d’Alliage are missing.
Instead you have 2 entries for the SAME Alliage sport.
Making an error is ok ,no problem.But ….at some point it needs to be corrected . Hope you do agree .
Thank you !
P.S. even E Lauder has produced a lot of confusion by using diffrent bottles and writing this or that on the same product in the end.Am reffering to the vintage editions.Nothing is clear in their choices.
Have never tried the new reedition.
Legion – :
I remember back in the day (early seventies) when friends would join up downtown and wander through the department stores enjoying looking and smelling things we couldn’t yet afford. I loved Aliage and everytime I had a male friend with I would get him to smell it. Nobody liked it, male or female, we were in our early 20s. I remember asking a male friend WHY he didnt like it cause even then I considered it unisex. He said maybe it was because it reminded him of having to cut the grass as one of his chores. Too funny. Definitely was ahead of its time. Different, classy, European risky.
serkov – :
The best scent for me .. it classification for woman but actually it is unisex perfume and nearest more for men. I Can’t find it now.
أفضل عطر عرفته ارتبط بطفولتي و بدايات مرحلة الشباب تم تصنيفه كعطر نسائي و لكن في الحقيقة هو عطر للجنسين و أقرب لأن يكون رجاليا اكثر. للأسف لم اعد استطع العثور عليه حاليا
ugd680elipseskism – :
Vintage splash bottle country cologne Aliage Estee Lauder. This is a really mind blowing perfume. I’d never smelled anything like this. I’m not the chypre type but this is beautiful. Really beautiful. I’ve already worn Ivoire de Balmain vintage and this smells like that. It’s spicy aromatic woodsy autumn fragrance. It smells sweet too because it does have some sweet citrus and jasmine in it. Something spicier was coming out too. I wondered what it was. It smelled like cinnamon but it was the nutmeg and caraway that is listed on Fragrantica. This also has a lot of oak moss like someone literally took moss of trees and put it into this bottle. Woodsy dry down. Woods for days. Gorgeous.
alexutk – :
Sorry, but only buy the vintage ….if you can find it.
The new one is a re-formulated MESS. I am so very sad.
I will just have to stick with Aliage’s brother scent DEVIN….
njw903Diobtetty – :
I wanted a bracing cold, green galbanum-based scent, and I was sure this would be it. And it actually was it for a few short minutes. Heaven. Bitter, icy-cold, green, powdery galbanum. Unfortunately, in the heart, Aliage became somehow warm and slightly spicy. I was thinking coriander and carnation, which are not in the pyramid yet I can smell them. The drydown is soapy and very nice.
Aliage is definitely worth testing. I dislike the spiciness in the middle because I just wanted this to be different, but it is a very well-built scent, IMO. And I can see it working in any temperature but the desert temperatures.
vozduh – :
Oh how much I loved this! I wish it was still around.
semerka336 – :
Need a beautiful fragrance to wear during autumn? Look no further than Aliage by Estee Lauder. My girl friend Arianna in Bonaire sold me a vintage 1972 bottle of 1.75 fluid ounces. The bottle is small enough to fit inside my handbag so I’ll be carrying this baby around all winter long. This is a classic Estee Lauder which sold very well in the 70’s. It was one of the “clean and green” earthy scents that were very popular. I can see why. It’s so beautiful, so comforting. It’s not warm nor soft. In fact it starts with some cold harsh aldehydes. Then you’re blasted with woodsy and green notes of pine trees and cedar wood. It smells like a gray overcast cold day in the forest, just after it’s rained and the earth soil is wet. This is a definitive chypre perfume. It’s all woods. There is supposed to be a jasmine flower but it never found my nose. There’s also supposed to be citrus but I didn’t smell any oranges, bergamots or mandarins or lemons. I’m wondering just how many different versions of this fragrance are out there. Mine is called a COUNTRY COLOGNE which is a splash bottle, not a spray. Other versions are sports fragrance sprays. I think it’s possible mine is a first issue. Easily unisex as a cologne for men, but I found it to be very feminine because of the sparkling aldehydes. Fragrantica lists the notes of: citrus, green notes, peach, pine tree, jasmine, caraway, Brazilian rosewood, musk, oak moss vetiver and myrrh. Of the reformulated version it lists: citrus, jasmine, nutmeg, rose, artemisia, vetiver, oak moss and cedar. I would say that mine appears to have all these notes with the exception of the fruity scents of peach and citrus. Mine would read more like:
Top Notes: Aldehydes, Pine Tree, Nutmeg Caraway, Galbanum
Heart Notes: Brazilian Rosewood Artemisia
Bsse Notes: Oak Moss Vetiver Cedar
Galbanum or ferula is not listed but it’s obviously there. It gives this fragrance an aromatic, bitter greenness, oiliness and camphor. It’s my most woodsiest fragrance and I love it. If rose and jasmine are there they are very well hidden in the woods. My friends think that this is not sexy, pretty, or that even smells good. They think it’s strange and they can’t quite understand why anyone would want to smell like a forest. But if you’re an outdoorsy type and love to go camping, hiking, mountain climbing, skiing and traveling to places like the Alps, this fragrance will enchant you. I’m a New Yorker and this stuff smells like the Catskills to me. It’s a mountain fragrance, a forest fragrance, very New England in autumn. It’s like hiking through the forests of Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut. I recommend this cologne for both women and men, but you have to be big on woodsy scents. This fragrance reminds me of Chanel No. 19 with it’s aldehydes and strong green notes of grass and woods. It’s also reminding me of vintage Ivoire de Balmain. This is the kind of perfume Coco Chanel herself would have loved. She preferred chypres woodsy fragrances. Too bad she didn’t live to wear this. Aliage came out the year after Chanel’s death. Had she lived one or two more years she would have discovered this fragrance and enjoyed it. I will wear it for her.
odio – :
Old Alliage and Alliage sport are the same on me.
Don’t know if there is a slight difference or if they are identical , but it is quite the same fragrance in my opinion.
Gorgeous !!!
Can’t really see the similarity with Scherrer .They are very much different (speaking about old Alliage sport).
Beeklymaymnzdhzt – :
Update: Broke down and bought the new version after running out of the previous vintage.
The top blast of ginger that had been annoying in winter dissipates into a nice green citrus in summer humidity. It’s a natural clean green, not the atrocious chemical “fresh” Chanel loaded into Chance eau Fraiche.
Green, citrus and moss makes for a refreshing summer cocktail that for me wears like a step up from cologne.
Fortunately, there’s no hint of peach.
The moss is old school – rich and dusty. Thank you Lauder for using the real stuff.
The new vintage doesn’t last as long as the old, but it reads as very, very good quality.
Again, thank you Lauder for not loading your classics up with bugspray musk and Iso E. This and Pure White Linen will probably be my permanent summer staples.
vegas34 – :
Tested the new bottle & it smells like the most recent reformulation, but a bit lighter.
Still too much ginger overwhelming everything else for me. The notes say nutmeg, but I’m getting a pushy ginger of the same type that drowns St. Laurent L’Homme.
jio963Unlogrere – :
I love oakmoss and especially vetiver, has that manly dry scent, I think I’m gonna buy this. It should be nice in rainy weather or so.
Sca31 – :
For all those out there appalled by Estee Lauder’s “new” bottle designs for their classic fragrances, please go to esteelauder.com and send a letter to customer service! Let’s tell them how we feel about this moronic choice they have made!!!!!!
HoWaRD – :
So apparently Estee Lauder has redesigned the bottle for Aliage, among a number of its older landmark fragrances like Cinnabar and Azuree, and has unfurled a new marketing campaign that showcases these scents. Where I live it probably won’t arrive for a while, if at all.
Can anyone who lives in the US – I’m assuming that is where the launch is taking place – have a sniff and let us know if this is yet another reformulation, a return to the vintage juice (too good to be true, I know) or just the same stuff that they market now in a refurbished bottle?
Aliage was my very first scent and to this day I haven’t found anything that compares with the wonderful original scent. I miss it so much.
mobilnok – :
very difficult to find. a client from the u.s.a bought it for me as a gift. expected something vintage ,which i like, but instead got an old fashined scent. something that smelled at the beginning like a pine room freshner .
i agree with tittertat the first phase is not very appealing. you have to wait for the good refreshing part for a very long time, almost for 2 hours. not everyone has the patience to wait. my advice : do not put it right before you leave the house .put it at least more than an hour in advance. it is suitable for the sour-refreshing scents lovers
igor2110 – :
I sniffed this one recently because Id never heard of it before…whoa mama! This is some strong juice, very 80-s shoulder pads and huge hair. In fact it reminds me of hairspray in the way of Alyssa Ashley. Chemical and synthetic, not my taste at all. Of course maybe it settles into something different once its on the skin but I don’t really have any desire to find out.
zpokolys – :
Estee Lauder, Dior and Chanel were all running the 70’s with strong fragrances. This one stood out to me because of a tenacious giant hay scent. I could have purchased this then but wasn’t sure it would have suited me then.
Never tried to purchase it because I knew they would reformulate the ingredients. I hate they reformulating scents to do it cheaper. Co-worker wore this everyday and it was wonderful on her.
QunneD – :
Very gratified to read TillyWave’s review of this fragrance, because I was not aware that it had been reformulated. I used to wear this almost exclusively in the 1980s, occasionally switching to Prescriptives’ Calyx or Joan Collins’s Scoundrel (I know, I know, it was Revlon!) and when I recently purchased a new bottle of Aliage, I thought I’d gotten old stock or something. It smells like a very, very concentrated version of the old formula, but without the green, citrusy notes. The old Aliage was more aldeyde than chypre, as well. I still like the fragrance, very much in fact, but it’s not the love affair I had with the original Aliage.
Lots of reviewers (good reviewers, too!) are calling this scent “green,” but TillyWave is right. If you had smelled the old version, this isn’t the same green. The new formulation is spicy by comparison. The original was better…. significantly better, but this is still nice in a heavier, more subtle way. I miss the grassy notes. Miss them a lot.
swerkl – :
Aliage is the French word for “alloy”
romartyr – :
I scored about 15 ml of vintage juice today. I am so excited; I haven’t worn this fragrance since I ran out of my last bottle sometime in 1983. I have missed it so! Spraying it on today was like reuniting with an old flame from college, except without the disappointment. 😀
chainufandins – :
Aliage, ‘new’ (May 2012 batch) vs. ‘vintage’ (poss. late 90’s/early 00’s)
The older Aliage is so amazingly green, 3D green, like balsam/pine essential oil and camphor, forest air, a mulch/soil drydown, for more see my other review a few down.
The new, when compared side by side, relies far more on woody notes than pine and green notes. Shockingly, I smell MORE oakmoss in my newer bottle (listed fairly high up in the ingredient list, as well as treemoss further down.) I can smell the oakmoss from top to bottom, as well as the fresh spicy nutmeg, rosewood, cedar, and vetiver, with a hint of peach. The lush, camphor green is present as a ghostly sidenote that occasionally weaves in and out, but does get stronger the longer you have it on.
I actually enjoy my current bottle very much, as much as the ‘old’ Aliage, but this is an example of a perfume truly changed by reformulation, vs. small tweaks over time. Side by side they are not even recognizable as the same perfume.
I read with interest Assiduosity’s edit that Aliage is being reformulated yet AGAIN, this time I would guess not for the better, and I went to the Estee Lauder website for another bottle of one of my favorite perfumes before it is gone–alas they are already out of stock of Aliage, maybe waiting for the new reformulation to come in?
dsj333speagoessenda – :
Something unfortunate has happened to this. Bought the newest reformulation and all I can smell is ginger or nutmeg. In a too much way.
AccoryFrokcor – :
Update:
I’ve changed my mind about this; I actually like it much more now. I think of it as my little oakmoss monster (in a good way). I don’t notice the pee note anymore–or perhaps I’ve gotten used to it? I look forward to spraying this one on.
Original:
I know it was intended to be a “sport” fragrance, but I get such a “70s working girl” vibe from Aliage. I get a kick out of wearing it to work when I have a big meeting or project due and want to channel my inner Melanie Griffith (from Working Girl, an 80s film so dated that it could have easily been released in the 70s).
As far as the scent goes, I think of it as a sweetish green fragrance. I don’t find it as bitter or “cold” as some other folks do. Only rarely, I’ll catch a note that I can only describe as slightly urinous. Maybe I’ve gotten used to the idea of unexpected or unpleasant ingredients in perfumes (civet, ambergris), because it doesn’t even faze me. I just think, “Oh, there’s that pee note again,” and then I go about my business.
As you can perhaps tell from this review, I don’t really take Aliage very seriously. I do find it a lot of fun to wear, though.
2Shae – :
Oooh…Aliage. For a long-time chypre lover like myself, it’s one of the few ‘casual’ versions of the form (other than Y by YSL and Gucci no. 3). My earliest memory of it was getting it in a box of old perfumes from my great-aunt, who was apparently getting rid of her Estee Lauder stash (my mom snagged the White Linen and Estee). I was completely freaked out by it: it did not fit my conception of ‘feminine fragrance’–ladies in those days wore Chanel no. 5, or Opium (my personal fave of preadolescence), or Shalimar. (People also smoked much more, life was generally much smellier, and no one cared if they offended you with their fragrances.) My mind read it as ‘aggressively vegetal’; not at all floral or sweet or spicy. I could not figure out why you’d want t