4 reviews for Cotillion American Belle Avon

1. 

   evanescence – 2022-06-07:

   5 out of 5

   Cotillion American Belle!
   In ’68 I was too young as a graduating college student for this fragrance but it was not a bad perfume to have in the home as it catered to the housewife and mother and it was indeed my mother’s favorite from this time. I never told her how much I loved this fragrance not only on her but just the perfume itself. Now, y’all, it is an Avon but never mind the ‘cheap perfume’ association Avon scents still have. This was a very gorgeous floral fragrance I finally wore it in the 70’s not the 60’s when I was already very much an independent woman out of my parent’s home. This was an inviting aroma of spicy carnation, bucolic lavender and a woodsy note in the dry down. Hard to figure out all the notes because I’m sure there was more going on in this perfume than just the notes in this Fragrantica page. I wore it mostly in the day time in the summer and early autumn when the incense note which is perceptible if small warmed up the skin and made me feel not only clean but enveloped by a very lovely slightly Oriental embrace of scents. Cotillion American Belle is a high society floral for the average American woman who is not a ‘belle’ or ‘debutante’ at a cotillion but wants to smell as grown up and beautiful as a high class society girl. She smells of iris with that sweet soft powdery cloud and of a rosy carnation with little bits of spice and of course fresh citrus. A clean day time daily soapy fragrance for a very nice and well dressed elegant and mature minded lady.
   Opens with citrus notes of lemon and bergamot orange, standard stuff by this point in 60’s perfume, old aldehydes and citrus top notes. It’s nothing that impressive but the lavender scent like a light rain or drizzle/mist comes through beautifully. The lavender note is just like lavender scented hand soap and it feels lovely against my skin. There is a silken texture to something in this formula. When the iris flower finally comes through it smells of a sophisticated talcum powder but it’s like a boudoir or dresser table scent, not in the modern sense, more like in the Victorian era or the Old West-Texas high society era. This is why it’s called Cotillion American Belle. The aroma is evocative of a time long ago before the 20th century when ladies smelled of floral perfumes and powder. The bottle for this perfume was shaped like a pretty American girl in a long dress that matches up with the feminine and very tidy polite floral scent that emanates from the bottle. In the dry stages this fragrance becomes a woodsy scent with possible cedar wood along with sandalwood. There’s definitely wood in this. The vanilla note is like a silk a beige colored silk or tablecloth type of clean blanket kind of smell.
   To be honest by ’68 I was already transitioning to heavier muskier and more ‘naughty’ type of evening perfumes and hardcore Orientals. This was far from being that! I wanted it to smell of musk and green notes, moss, dark woods more spices and more incense. I wanted a skin like dirty animalic you’ve made love for 3 days straight type of aroma. But it was very sedate and even boring. However the perfume smells really good, at least it did back then. Avon has long discontinued Cotillion American Belle along with so many of the wonderful and interestingly shaped bottles of fragrances from the 50s 60s the Golden Age of Avon! Some of them were reformulated or reissued with different bottles and packagings but nothing beat the originals in those cute shapes of telephones, frogs, churches, snails, kitten, lady figurines and many other characters.
   Nowadays you’re lucky if you find these old bottles on eBay. that’s where I found my current bottle. It was like an old friend had come to visit me after many years. Beautiful and very soft and conservative floral. If you like carnation, iris, and very sweet and grown up floral scents, and if you like sandalwood and cedar with a whisper of incense you should like this perfume. It is very satisfying pleasant if old fashioned and ‘old lady’ by this point. Never mind any of that. I don’t give a damn about such associations because I’m a grandma and I can’t go around smelling of Victoria Secret Pink! This perfume this fragrance right here is my kind of perfume. Loving it and experiencing it’s loveliness all over again.
2. 

   04andriy1993 – 2022-06-07:

   5 out of 5

   I am so glad Fragrantica has finally added this to its (already awesome) database. One of Avon’s classic scents, this was actually released in 1933 (I have a vintage “new from Avon” ad) and I have it in a rather generic (almost-Arianelike) pink topped bottle (30 ml cologne spray) and a (c. early-to-mid 1980’s) huge 5 oz (150 ml) splash bottle of cologne shaped like a protestant church, with the stopper being the finial crucifix!
   One of the things that (originally, anyways) made AVON so unique was the fact it offered an ever-changing collection of anniversary, keepsake and just plain groovy bottles; many now more valuable than the jux originally sold inside them. As Radchick says below, you can find any number of Avon/California Perfume Co. scents online or at flea markets and swap meets in just about any style of bottles.
   Their 32 piece cologne and perfume chess set (each piece a full bottle of fragrance in the shape of its corresponding chess piece, board sold separately of course!) and refills/replacements could be ordered, at least in the pawns both light and dark, in any number of popular scents. This hallmark and claim to fame, was indeed great; but, ultimately confusing for the collector more interested in the jus than the flacon.
   I will be revisiting Bird of Paradise (also recently added, thanks a million!) and a few other stunning retro finds from this House in the weeks to come and penning reviews. Suffice it to say: Cotillion could be considered “culture and class for the middle-class 1930’s housewife on a budget”. While amazingly affordable, this granted women who rarely got out of the house a chance to waft luxury and refinement and feel, like the name obviously implies, one was at a very proper and fancy cotillion…
   This gay soiree opens with sour somber bergamot striking up the band with a simple yet upbeat number, before sashaying into a very balanced floral heart; one that possesses simple beauty, grace and elegance. While redolent with powdery cool iris and spicy carnation it maintains a cool facade with a poised but tenacious lavender to balance the scales. The longevity of this deceivingly simple, yet tried & true, oriental drydown of sandalwood, vanilla and ambergris) is rather impressive. By today’s standards it’s truly extraordinary; especially when comparing in its humble “cologne” concentration against modern EDP’s and Extraits.
   Some things never, truly, go out of style. Simplicity is one of them. This perfume, discontinued decades ago after a distinguished 40 year run, after nearly 85 years still takes some fragrant scraps, adorning them with rather common odds & ends (and a little magic!) and; not unlike Cinderella’s fairy godmother, made a royal lady out of a common wretch.
   Sillage: 4.25/5 (heavy them moderate)
   Longevity: 4/5 (average to good)
   Overall: 4.25/5
   This was the signature fragrance of my (at the time she passed away) 89 year-old Avon rep (who had been selling the products for over 50 years) and bemoaned its being discontinued…to the point where I scoured the web and our fragrant fellowship to find her more than she would ever use.
   As a parting gift, when we said “good-bye” at her bedside (she died with dignity and grace surrounded by those she loved and whom loved her) I spritzed the blankets with Cotillion and though she was in grip of deep dementia and end satge Alzheimer’s…she smiled (she hadn’t spoken or really moved voluntarily in the days previous; except to say “…let me UP…”.
   When she finally did rise, it was on the WInter Solstice. Her service was on Christmas eve morning so no one was really feeling all that festive. I looked around that funeral parlor at the TWO rooms full of friends, neighbors and family who had all come to be with each other and say goodbye to this awesome woman. Her love, and how it brought so many people together at such a dark time during what should have been a bright and joyous time made me not sad.
   It filled me with the opposite as I said goodbye to her daughter, also my neighbor and now 2nd generation Avon rep. I bowed my head and said a prayer, only AFTER leaving a 15 ml decant, complete with an owl sticker on the bottle, of Cotillion cologne under Blanche’s hand. My gift to her, it seemed, was the fragrant paragon of all the things that made her special to me and wonderful enough to emulate:
   her full loving heart
   her beautiful spirit
   her down-to-earth savvy
   her strength and stamina
   all of which are just a spritz or splash away, anytime I miss her…or forget.
3. 

   YULIYA – 2022-06-07:

   5 out of 5

   Not quite a review but the name of the fragrance is just “Cotillion”. “American Belle” was the name of the bottle. The same bottle would hold a choice of several different fragrances, including Cotillion.
4. 

   garry – 2022-06-07:

   3 out of 5

   Now I know where the Disney people found their inspiration for the Belle character in Beauty and the Beast :D..