Description
Faberge Babe was launched in 1977 and discontinued in 1992. Babe is a fresh, beautiful and fabulous fragrance, advertised by the granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway – Margaux Hemingway and, later, by Kathy Smith. Babe is for beautiful women with an exciting career, active, engaged in sports and interested in romance.
The composition is blended of 118 different essences, including aldehydes, raspberry, bergamot, jasmine, hyacinth, ylang-ylang, lily of the valley, honey, rose, orris root, carnation, citrus, coriander, oak moss, amber, vetiver, musk and celery seed.
It is available as a perfume, eau de cologne and the accompanying collection for body care. Faberge Babe was launched in 1976.
alexi61 – :
As a child of the 80’s, I recall this one vividly…in your face, forget subtlety. It was everywhere…and teenagers wore it by the gallon.
I don’t know what else to say but it was there. Everywhere.
I hated it.
Kill it. Kill it with fire.
EDIT: My apologies to those who love it, I am kinda interested to smell the re-issue, if only to re-affirm my intense dislike for this fragrance. Maybe it would smell differently to me now…but I have such bad memories of that cloying scent I don’t care to find out.
Aerohopleneriepf – :
Just to point out that even when you’re from the era that a perfume is supposed to be about, you don’t have to like it, let me throw a figurative turd in the punchbowl of nostalgia and say I LOATHED this perfume. Every single girl in my high school, (save me it seems – I was rocking Chanel No 5 EDC at 16 – so much for “old lady”, right?) was trailing a noxious cloud of this stuff, although to be fair, it might have been young women not knowing to NOT marinate, and to use a lighter hand. But there was definitely something or a combination of somethings in it that did NOT agree with my chemistry.
In that era of course, you did not confront someone for wearing something you didn’t like, you just assumed they had a right to wear it, like you had a right to wear something that might inadvertently gross out someone else. While I don’t miss Babe, I absolutely did NOT forget it. And I miss the attitude of live and let live, in today’s world of mostly timid, sanitized, and fruit-drenched perfumes. So if you walk by me trailing vintage Babe, I may hate it, but I will definitely respect your chutzpah for wearing something with presence. Go for it.
Wladislaw_Krunstein – :
I decided to complete my 1970s exploration with Babe. This is a catapult ride back to ABBA on AM radio. The teenage wasteland at the end of the decade smelled beautiful and Babe was definitive of the era.
Babe, Halston, Loves’ Baby Soft, Smitty and Calvin Klein was what the 16 to 21 year old females sported to dates, high school dances, roller rinks and the mall to check out the latest fashion. I was caught up in this world as family and friends wore these mostly forgotten classics.
Babe was in a class by itself. From its pop art log(Pepsi and Coca Cola) to its unforgettable formula that took it to dazzling levels. My mother had a bottle and my father gave her the nickname “Babe”. She was 50 in 1978, so it appealed to a large audience, including my teenage cousins. Oh yes, our back yard had a lake and we used the giant inner tubes to float around in that summer of Babe.
I have an original formula from the 1970s. Not a note had gone off! Big aldehydes and raspberry is the first thing I noticed. It is powdery with white florals, rose, iris and musk that is generally hard for me to pick out. Oh, it has lots of oakmoss/vetiver that frames production! It should be sickly sweet syrup from the notes. Its surprisingly dry and sophisticated. I cannot believe the quality of its composition. You could easily get a bottle at your local pharmacy for $3.
Feathered hair, blue eyeshadow and always wet lip gloss went well with this. I also think of Olivia Newton John in Xanadu on roller skates. Its like having iridescent rainbows released on every spray! It you wear it today you will get attention. Its not old fashioned or dated. Its a lost classic that the perfume world will never see again in this formula.
Santi – :
I’ve been thinking about getting some for a while, and I finally got myself a bottle of vintage Babe, and I’m so glad I did. This is not one that I wore in the 80s, but I do remember it. My sister had some at one point (I may have had the deodorant at one point in the 80s). This was popular in the late 70s/ early 80s, and although I was in Elementary school and not old enough to wear perfume yet, we had some family friends who were older than me and in the age group that would have been wearing this. The smell of this is so nostalgic, it must have been everywhere at the time. You can smell the aldehydes and floral/ musky notes, but it’s all well blended to smell like “Babe”.
Funny watching the commercials now, they make it seem like such a fresh, fun, youthful fragrance, but it’s not “fresh” in a fruity or sweet way by today’s standards. To my nose the raspberry note is just barely there, but the previous reviewers are right, in that it’s nothing at all like today’s fake/ over the top sickly-sweet raspberry. I wouldn’t have picked it out as being raspberry if I didn’t know it was there, but so interesting how different the notes were back then. This perfume was everywhere much like Revlon Charlie was, and smelling it floods me with memories like so many fragrances of the past do. It makes me think of wide leg jeans, feathered hair, that show Eight is Enough, After School Specials, Kathleen Beller movies, shopping at Bradlees and Caldors, Wella Balsam shampoo (it would have been great to use with this- similar musky note in common), roller skating rinks, Dynamints, shiny lip gloss..such a perfect scent for teenagers and young women of that time period.
I wish scents like this were still popular, but even if they were, I’m sure they wouldn’t be the same with the difference in ingredients that are now being used in perfumery. Can’t think of anything in today’s market that smells like this, it might one of those “smells that don’t exist anymore” things. I did have the current splash in the white and pink bottle a few years ago and gave it away because I didn’t like it, it was not like the vintage (missing notes, synthetic smelling), but the vintage is good. If you want Babe I’d hunt down a vintage bottle, it’s worth it.
soygata – :
Growing up in a time when Babe was released I had forgotten about it so I wanted to take a trip back down memory lane. Come down memory lane with me to see what Babe smelled like.
Let’s go back to 1977. Disco balls and the release of Saturday Night Fever (the heart of the disco era) and Disco Inferno. Bell bottom jeans and perfectly feathered hair. Men doused themselves in Brut colonge and women lathered their hair in Faberge Organic’s Shampoo. Touted for their silly commercial – you tell two friends and they tell two friends and so on.. (Youtube that one for a giggle). Let’s also not forget Bonnie Bell roller ball super shiny bubble gum lip gloss – because of course the shinier your lips were the better… but now back to Babe.
She was a universal fragrance who could be afforded by all – even some of the less fortunate girls such as myself. Margaux Hemingway the Granddaughter of the famous Earnest Hemingway made Babe look so glamorous in her commercials. I believe $4 could get you a giant 4 oz bottle of this magical juice. Babe is classic, she is vintage but she is also extremely wearable to today’s standards. There may be a vintage hint but not in a off putting way – there is a rasberry note, some pretty hefty oakmoss, an extremely fresh happy note that instantly lifts a bad mood. Babe in a word is “classic”. She is also timeless. In a world of sweet sugary gourmands she certainly is a square peg (sorry more 70’s slang). But she could easily be a Niche fragrance. I have the cologne splash and it’s got enormous longevity and a pretty moderate silage. Babe bears a resemblance to Estee Lauders “Super Colonge” the vintage version of course. So in closing I would suggest finding yourself a vintage bottle. I adore the retro cheap look of this bottle as well and display it proudly on my dresser top.
nata6700 – :
i found half a bottle of this stuff and i am liking it. i am a guy but i really think i can make this stuff work with something.its an old bottle and i dont get any raspberry but tons of oakmoss.flowery as heck but i like it.
tamerlan – :
Where can I find this perfume in Turkey? Do you have the ability to send to Turkey?
nastona1 – :
I agree with Beaufort. I own the original and the current ‘copy.’ To me the reformulation is a weaker strength interpretation at best. Track down the vintage if you can. However my love is so deep I will use the copy if I can’t locate the vintage. The original is just delicious, warm, sexy, and yes, raspberry.
79207115658 – :
“You’re fabulous Babe”! sang the commercial and Babe sure was! This was something new and exciting for my generation(the Baby Boomers). Babe was not the frou frou girl who slept on a special satin pillowcase to keep her do from getting crushed. Nor was she the girl who said things like, “The only degree I want is my Mrs. degree”(we thought that was terribly profound!). The Babe woman let the wind blow through her hair and went to college, probably on a scholarship, to get an education so she could have a career. Oh yes, she wanted marriage and family — someday, just not right now. Babe is the first perfume I remember having a fresh, breezy quality. It was lightly sweet, clean and a bit soapy and very energetic. I would not call this a chypre floral, it seems awfully warm and spicy to be in that family. I would call it a light oriental, an athletic, outdoorsy version of Opium if you will. Whatever you call it, it was a pioneer among perfumes, wish it had lasted longer.
alexei-kamaev – :
I loathe chypres. With that being said, I like this scent. It goes on BIG with a blast of aldehydes and oakmoss but quickly settles on the skin to a soapy aldehyde floral. It almost has the feel of a Caron with a bite.I do not detect raspberry at all. I am wearing the vintage original.
prefissespids – :
The original 70’s release was a wonderful “soapy raspberry” fragrance which lasted forever on the skin. High quality, elegant and not overly sweet like todays offerings. It reminds me a lot of Robe d’un Jour from Carven.
Warning !!…the new recent release version doesn’t even contain the prominent raspberry note. Get the original if you can.
If you like the smell of natural fresh raspberry you will love the original version of this fragrance.
alonsos – :
This is a review of Faberge Babe perfume and cologne – *not* Beauty Brands, which doesn’t smell like original Babe in a side to side testing by any stretch of the imagination, nor Brut Prestige which in my 54 years on this earth I’ve never actually even seen.
Yes Babe was always a drugstore fragrance. But you could buy Chanel No 22 in the same drugstore during the 70s, as well as completely destroyed versions of Coty Emeraude. The 1/2 oz. perfume comes in plastic bottles with a tacky, round cap that screams 70s. Not aimed at the upper class…their loss! I was a poor kid and yet I could afford Babe when I was 13; it was cheap and marketed towards teen & college age girls mostly. When my kids were grown and I got into collecting perfume I picked some up, for fun and to have a laugh at my terrible teenage taste. It turns out that my taste was pretty good. Despite being a drugstore frag, there are 118+ ingredients in Babe not the least of which is real oakmoss. It’s a well composed, fresh, gently aldehydic floral chypre with an oriental feel that stars rose with wonderful raspberry notes, orris, spice, ylang-ylang, jasmine and more on a bed of musky amber. The aldehydes here give it a sunny lift, but very little soapiness, if any. It does not wear especially vintage as it’s not powdery, musty, sharp, or difficult. The raspberry in Faberge Babe smells like raspberry, not candy and not bathroom spray. (I don’t know how Beauty Brands can say they made ‘Babe” without raspberry. If you wore Babe at any length in the original version, the BB is not going to fool you.) Sillage is good, as 70s perfumes were, and longevity – the cologne lasts 6-8 hours, and the perfume 10-12.
I was fortunate to find a very special seller (thanks Gary) and now have a massive hoard of well stored, wonderful smelling Babe, top notes intact, which I hope will hold me for the rest of my life. =) If you see it at a reasonable price and like happy, feminine floral aldehydics I highly recommend it.
Pre 2005 Estee Lauder “Estee” is a very close relative.
мишель – :
And the news is that Babe is back.
No more Faberge/Brut, but Rebuilt by the same company of Aqua Manda.
I could not try but they say they carefully rebuilt it testing the scent during that process with Babe’s fan to recreate the same sensations.
You will find more infos at babeperfume.com.
Let us know
kab536elipseskism – :
Oh yes, had it, loved it……back in the day! Margot Hemingway, by far one of the most beautiful natural looking ladies of the day! Sadly gone too soon also. I forgot about this too, but I can still see her face. Truly beautiful. What did Cher sing “If I could turn back time”. They could never make this today to smell exactly as it did back then, well maybe if allowed. Good times back then and great drugstore perfume!
zevs123 – :
I bought a tiny spray bottle, decanted. I don’t know whether it was not stored well, or if it just does not age well, but the smell was strong and pungent. I opened the top and filled it with water and it smells better. I wore it today and so far 6 hours later I can still smell it on my shirt.
Brings me back to a time of roller discos and wanting to be older than i was. I would defintely buy it again if they brought it back…youth in a bottle
Antecesem – :
There is a demand now for anything retro or nostalgic. Those who never experienced it want to know! It could be marketed as “That Hemingway aura.” 🙂
lexus92 – :
I loved this in high school and had all but forgotten it till I saw it here. Brings back fond memories of my teen years! I remember it was a very long lasting scent.
xNero007 – :
Someone respond to my plea! Bring it back. There is a market for this. The memory lane market at least.
stoloktit – :
I also was given a bottle of Babe as a teenager. It was also my first “real” perfume. In Australia the bottle was different to the one shown above, with a peach coloured plastic lid and Babe written in the “Fame” style. I kept my empty bottle for at least 20 years, occasionally sniffing my happy teenage memories. Then, on a decluttering binge, I threw it away. What a mistake!!! I would love to smell it again one day.
zve011speagoessenda – :
Oh I love this fragrance so much ! It was a scent I longed to posess in the 80’s when I was in grade school.The girl who boarded the bus before me wore it and it smelled so good! I finally asked what it was and then begged my parents for it for Christmas.I cannot tell you a single note that stands out, but it was just so sexy.Like salty skin, flowers and musk.I just acquired a bottle on Ebay.It is old, but I can still detect the original, beautiful scent.Bring it back, honestly-bring it back!
betawmin – :
The opening was a beautiful 1970s green floral/chypre very similar to Coty Nuance, that quickly evolved into a sticky raspberry and oakmoss stench on my skin. Off-putting.
SeoDor – :
A blast from the ’70s past. I can only remember liking the opening then experiencing an almost sickening drydown. Even now I can still remember that smell :{
I just recalled what this one reminds me of: Missoni by Missoni, an EDC version of it. Still can only take so much of it.
c932mm32 – :
I wish they would bring this scent back! It’s one of the few perfumes that have a carnation note but DON’T make me sneeze. I think Babe has an interesting and complex mix of notes, for such an inexpensive scent.
I first used it as an afterbath splash, which was four for a dollar, small bottles, in a local discount drugstore. The splash lasted surprisingly long and had a decent sillage. Then I bought a small bottle of the Babe fragrance oil—incredible longevity!!!
I could never pick out an individual note, in terms of any being dominant, but the mix of herbal and sweet really appealed to me.
Babe was named for legendary female athlete Babe Didrikson, and the spokesmodel was Mariel Hemingway.It was one of many “liberated woman” scents that emerged in the wake of Charlie, and I think it actually smelled better on me than Charlie.
Correction: The spokesmodel was Mariel’s big sister Margeaux.
ValeriyRU – :
I diddn’t think much of it when it came out, thought it was just another “teen scent” in a big, loud, ugly bottle. I recently aquired a 4 oz. bottle and am liking it for an everyday after bath type fragrance. I don’t find it strong or lasting all that long. It’s just a nice mellow scent for everyday. It has a nice flowery, musky scent that is comfortable and inviting. It would be fine for any activity or occasion.
Rok – :
This was gifted to my by my siblings in the late 70’s and I was still in primary school. I remember liking it, but it was given to me being the baby of the family and nicknamed Babe. (well before any movie) I wish I could buy it now just to smell it again.
oly100000 – :
@Scarlette, I used to wear Cie in the 80’s, when I was in high school. I loved it so much. I was looking around for it here, and was surprised it wasn’t listed. I also wore Babe a lot in the 80’s.
manushkino – :
The best scent ever made. Wore it to clubs-danced ALOT and the guys always commented on it. Exact comments not suitable for sharing (wink). There is a page on FB for it with hopes to raise a cry to re-market it. If you loved it, go and LIKE the page. I miss it, and paid a small fortune for a very small amount and would do it again.
bardanov82 – :
I LOVED Babe in the 70s and 80s!! I wish the best ones weren’t discontinued. Very feminine, strong, confident; a sweet airiness coupled with a deep sensual mossiness.
Reminds me of Cie by Shulton…not in the system.
mauricio.gad – :
Loved this fragrance way back when I was a teenager. Too bad they discontinued it. What fragrance resembles Babe? Really would like to know.
kirponos – :
The sweat you made dancing your butt off all night only made it smell better!
There was a lot of men who danced with me at nightclubs and one thing I could always count on was being asked to dance and hearing, “damn, you smell good” in a purring voice next to my ear.
I knew I did. I still love things that smell wonderful. This perfume still rocks me whenever I can manage to track some down.
There is a FB page dedicated to getting enough ‘LIKES’ to entice the owners of the rights to the perfume to re-release it due to popular demand. We want to show them it WAS loved-greatly, we DO want it back, we STILL want it!!! Please, if you’re on FB, look up the page.
Vlad19550 – :
Babe also made underarm deodorant spray- very inexpensive- which I wore for a couple of years in the mid to late 80s, and always got tons of compliments. It was really awkward when people would ask what my amazing fragrance was!
I think I saw some in a drug store within the last year or so, but have learned my lesson about trying to relive past fragrances from that far back. (They seem to have turned or been reformulated…Or maybe I have. Lol!)
namiq_357 – :
Oh, what a trip back to when I was 15 or 16! If you wanted to be à la page, you had to wear Babe. I remember the slogan with Margaux Hemigway and her 1 million dollars. It was an intense scent, very long lasting, almost annoying to people around you (some of my schoolmates hated it – I was in a nun’s school and I felt very trasgressive wearing Babe but also L’Heure Bleue and tons of Charlie and Miss Dior) but very nice. I do not know if it would be welcomed again today, maybe a bit surpassed but truly truly truly very nice. Very special in its own special way, very innovative back then.
verdesiubre – :
“Babe” what a blast! This fragrance was hot back in the late 70’s, it reminded me of “Charlie’s Angels”, flared sequinned jeans, shiny lipgloss, big hair and disco lights… It smelled the same on every girl or woman though, and everyone was either wearing it or talking about buying it! I got a bottle too of course, it smelled to me like a fresh sweet breeze, buoyant, wearing “Babe” was like going up in a hot-air balloon and maybe not returning to earth again!! Interestingly there were many notes in this fragrance, so many florals for instance I see, hence the sweetness.I didn’t smell the musk though and the drydown in my view was not much different from the opening notes, it started off sweet and stayed that way, there seemed to be nothing in “Babe” to stabilize the light notes. The perfume was complex, but just about every woman or girl at the time liked it, because it was so feminine exciting, and incredibly sweet and “airy”. Hence the description of the hot-air balloon and not making it back to earth again! By today’s standards “Babe” is slightly dated though but at the time of launch it was “the” perfume for a young woman to wear. Getting a bottle for your best Girl friend for Christmas was the ultimate present! The name suited the perfume very well too. Thanks for reading my review!
Paranoid Android – :
This was my first ‘proper’ fragrance in a bottle. I think I was around 12 ( so that’d be 1983) and I got a huge bottle for my Christmas from my mum and dad. I felt so grown up, with my bottle reminiscent of the ‘fame’ logo and the gold lid.
I vaguely remember it being very sweet, but not in an annoying way, just very clean and innocent.
Happy memories and good times.
GoDxANGEL – :
this was my signature fragrance as a teen. i loved this and couldn’t get enough of it. it smelled like all the notes described in a wonderful mix, poured into a cute, young stylish bottle. this site is sure bringing me back.
Initiathy – :
The favorite of the 80’s teenagers, like me!! very fresh and clean like a soap
Gavriil-78 – :
I was surprised to see the complicated formula and all the different notes in Babe. It was always a drugstore/mass market retailer scent that was very affordable in its day, though that was an era when even an inexpensive mass market scent still contained quality ingredients.
My favorite aunt and my sister wore this one in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The aunt seemed very sophisticated to me: a career woman in her 20’s with a handsome husband and no children. She had a trendy wardrobe and traveled the world. My sister was in junior high when she wore this one. Oddly, the scent didn’t seem out of place on either of them.
My recollection of this scent is purely the MUSK. It was very feminine, very clean but very musky and it lasted for ages. I agree with the other comments that it wouldn’t sell now. It seems very much of its time and place. Would love to give it a sniff for nostalgia’s sake.
sersparklin – :
To me this is a typical 80’s perfume: the opening is sparkling and fruity, the middle an undistinguishable melange of flowers. The bottom is rather sharp. Nothing to make it memorable.
dretImmeday – :
I had a roommate that wore this . She used too much and I think it was meant to be used more sparingly. It was a real 80s perfume and was strong and powerful. Women liked perfume that rocked your world back then. It was a pretty good one if used with a light hand. I don’t think it would sell now though, too eighties.