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Alisher – :
Love it!
Strong yet silky. Sharp with a hint sweetnes, balanced by citrus notes and flower/roses.
AccestyIcep – :
strong, sweet, with galbanum, oakmoss and woods, geranium, ylang, tuberose
didabrierge – :
Lucien Lelong Still Produce Indiscrete and other classic fragrances of the House. They sell only online I think.
You find the link of Lucien Lenong clicking on the name above on the left
biliberda – :
I am 65 now but used to wear Indiscret when I I was in my early teens, my mum loved perfume and still does at the ripe old age of 98 so I expect that is how I had such a great scent, I had a miniature which was a bottle with a pearl for a lid set in a white leather clam shell, Oh how I wish that I still had it. The smell has haunted me all these years and would love to be able to wear it again.
Fraier – :
So many perfumes have misleading names. “Indiscret” sounds dark, smokey, not at all for a proper woman. Instead it is a girlish scent: full of carnations, a little bit of spice, a little bit of pepper. It is one of the creamiest perfumes I’ve ever encountered. It smells like a softened version of Caron’s “Bellodgia”. Lovely, lovely, lovely.
ррромеррр – :
Ohhh I would really LOVE to try the Lelong perfumes!!! Only can pray I will ever be able to smell them 😉
Yury_Hrodno_2 – :
A wonderful Fragrantican (and a darn excellent writer) kindly sent to me several very vintage parfum “nips” recently. Indiscret had to be the first I used, as I’ve been curious about this fragrance for a long time.
On my skin, quite sophisticated clove and carnation are most apparent. Either done with restraint, or perhaps mellowed by age… no matter, the result is divine! These two powerful notes are tempered by the florals, which have held their own through the years. Lovely.
There comes up a most wonderful orange/mandarin, that is rather surprising. It is subtly sweet, a twist of sour, just what the doctor ordered!
I am humbled by a good number of vintage fragrances. Indiscret is somewhere near the top of that particular list.
I won’t even try to find a correct bottle. But I’ll always keep the memory of this sultry and interesting wonder in mind (just in case) 😉
Try it if you get the opportunity. You’ll be glad you did.
extrimal1977 – :
I would dearly love to smell this perfume. I’ve been reading about it some, and have decided it’s “for me”.
zirro2007 – :
This is everything described in the other reviews. It is the green, spicy, citrusy bombshell formula that makes us love vintage scents & shun the modern, vapid scents. I am considering this as my signature scent. It has the added allure of being sexy, and tasteful, suitable for day or night.
miwell – :
When I was a child a neighbor had an extensive collection of vintage 30s and 40s French perfumes and Indiscret was one of them and one of my favorites, along with Le dix de Balenciaga and Shocking by Schiaparelli. Unusually for a 30s scent it has no aldehydes ( the “modern” perfumes, since aldehydes began to be used by Chanel 5) or civet (the “exotic” ones, like Shalimar) or even both which makes it very distinctive for its era.Perhaps because of that it comes off as more modern than most fragrances of the time.Its aroma was woody floral with an spicy aura (there are no spices here but I remember them on Indiscrete), very feminine (with a femme fatale aura) and very long lasting with heavy to moderate sillage(one daub was good for 10 hours).
iljich – :
To me, Indiscret is defined by its rich clove and cinnamon notes, but there are many Indiscrets. This is a long review, because I would like to clarify this perfume’s history, which a bit muddled with reviews of different versions all mixed together.
Indiscret was launched in 1935 and it continued to be produced by the Lelong company into the 1950’s. Lelong died in 1958. I’ve read that Coty purchased an interest in the Lelong perfume company, but I have been unable to pin down when that occurred. In 1977, the Lelong trademark was registered by a perfume company based in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, which seems to be the same company that continues to market Lelong perfumes today, including Indiscret, but most agree that the perfumes have been significantly altered. In 1997, the company announced the launch of a reformulated Indiscret, which I have not tried. It is the EDP pictured above in both white and black boxes and seems to be a fruity floral. There is also a new .25 oz parfum bottle presented in a “near perfect replica of the original flacon” as well as ball topped EDP miniatures, which you may see misidentified as vintage.
What shall we say about the perfume itself? Indiscret was a very popular perfume in its original form. I first tried vintage Indiscret from 1950’s perfume nips, and the scent in my well preserved 1950’s bottle of the parfum is the same. Indiscret is an intensely spicy, sultry perfume with a strong clove note, cinnamon, lots of creamy florals (gardenia? jasmine?) It is toothsome, like a spiced pudding, and it dries down to a sweet, smoky, ambery, musky scent with a lingering violet ionone finish. Galbanum is frequently mentioned as a note in indiscret, and you will see galbanum as the main note in the Fragrantica pyramid, but there is no perceptible galbanum in the versions of Indiscret I have tried.
And then there is the Mystery of the Green Indiscret Cologne, which remains unsolved. Some vintage bottles of Indiscret cologne contain golden juice while some have contents that are vividly, even luridly green. At first, I thought the green colognes were the fruity floral reformulation, but I now feel sure this is not so. Were the green colognes a galbanum-infused variant of Indiscret? This doesn’t seem to be true either. The green cologne bottles are older, definitely as far back as the 1950’s, and in a recent Vintage Orientals thread, Fragrantican Loobloo posted that her green vintage Lelong EDC “has green juice and is NOT a fruity floral, but is rather an oriental spicy!…Carnation and clove and everything nice spice!” That settles it: the green EDC is clearly a version of the original Indiscret.
If you are still with me and you have Indiscret, do post a review of your version and your experience with it. Many praise the newer version, and I wonder if it bears any traces of the older scent in its DNA. If you are trying to find the vintage version, I hope this review helps you sort out your options
lalgeshorgari – :
This is what I call a classical bombshell fragrance, a favourite of both Marlene Deitrich and Lauren Bacall. Indiscret gives me the impression of “daytime glamour”, and is something that one would wear with a floral dress to perhaps a garden party, with one of those wide-brimmed hats and a pair of cat’s eye sunglasses.
I found this to smell very harsh in it’s little bottle; and on the skin, the opening is strong and green and floral. Galbanum is definitely prominent in this, I can detect it’s greeny bitterness, but I don’t find it too sharp or off-putting. There is no sweetness in this at all. The scent then mellows into something more smooth and fluid, and a touch creamier, which indicates ylang-ylang on the skin, and a spicy geranium that is sometimes present in the background, but the white florals always remain constant and full. The scent fades away into a lighter and cleaner jasmine in the base.
On my skin, this was predominately a green and white floral. It’s impeccably well-blended and the sillage was excellent; strong to moderate in strength, and the scent lasted for a good 6 hours. And, although this perfume is loud and has presence, I did not find it to be obnoxious or screaming in any way; it sits very well on my skin. However, as it’s the winter season now, my impression is of a scent that’s somewhat subdued. I am looking forward to wearing this again, during the warmer months, where the warmth may encourage more of the billowing and blousy white florals, and I can smell the scent living up to it’s name.
smago – :
still looking for this elusive perfume…
yuliy – :
I have the vintage, jeannie bottle with the green juice and at first I thought it had gone bad when I sniffed it out of the bottle but it smells good when you actually put it on your skin. I’m not very good with picking out notes but I can detect bergamot, orange blossom, geranium, ylang-yang, and iris. This is not a modern smell but there is something about this blend that gives an antiqued vibe. This perfume is black & white film starlet, classic beauty, glamour in a bottle. I love it!
lkr048bedyWelty – :
Going off other reviews I am unsure which version I actually have as it appears there are big differences.
The version I have (large decant) came from a bottle that looked very similar to the bottle shown in the picture but with a different lid, and the box was totally different, being black with gold curved lines decorating it.
The version I have (and am wearing today) is certainly not what I would describe as “fruity floral”. It is not sweet at all.
I would describe this as being a vintage type scent, less common in modern perfumery. The galbanum is very present in the opening, with a very green note, amongst classically done flowers. I could not easily say which flowers, admittedly I am a bit snuffly today but I have worn this before. I think there is ylang, jasmine, something that feels like some kind of yellow florals, very heady and extremely feminine.
This feels like a big, glamourous, voluptuous scent to me. Something to wear for a night out – not a night out in the sense of pubs and clubs and dancing, more fancy meal in posh restaurant followed by theatre or something. It feels like “old money”, something you would not be surprised to smell on a passing well-heeled lady, yet is completely accessible too – I love wearing this and am not yet 30.
I like this, it doesn’t smell like anything/everything else available. Longevity is pretty good at around 7 hours, although I have noticed I sometimes become a little desensitised to it while wearing and find it less easy to discern on myself, although others have commented on it even when I cannot smell it, and I smell it on my clothes the next day.
This is really beautiful. Don’t be put off by the fruity floral, I don’t get any fruit, just classy, glamourous florals.
Zcar – :
This page needs some clarification. The bottle shown at the top, a recent incarnation is in fact a very fruity floral, and has no relationship whatsoever to the original Indiscret by Jean Carles. Fragrantica should really clarify this. I have had both kinds of Indiscret. The original one, smelled obviously so many years after it was made, was a green juice, came across like a spicy floral scent with some refreshing green notes in it. I have no idea what was in the base, but I don’t believe it was leathery and it certainly wasn’t a cedar chest type of base either. It was simply divine, and a type of perfume that hasn’t existed in probably 40 years. The new Indiscret as shown above is basically indistinguishable from the hundreds of fruity florals which have been cranked out since the 1990s. Heavy and sweet and fruity. Not my bag.
bonichka – :
I bought a collection of nips from Ebay (it was a set produced for the US Air Force recruiting, Lockbourne Air Force Base, Ohio and probably dates from the 1950s I think. OK, I know its a collectors item and I should keep it, but it’s perfume and perfume is meant to be worn!). Anyway, this was one of them. It is very ‘vintage’, a strong and intense fragrance that bears little resemble to todays ‘fruity florals’. The nip only contains about 3 drops, but one of this would be enough. It is very full on, a wall of scent, not at all subtle or discreet. The initial notes on me are spicy, very spicy, overwhelmingly so-its carnation, clove and cinnamon. There is also a bitterness to it, not too sharp, but no sweetness at all. It does calm down after about an hour to produce a more rounded and smooth woody note with a hint of soft violet. It lasts and lasts and last, and the sillage is…well, all the way to the other side of the room really!
To me, this is a ‘love it or hate it-no inbetweens’ fragrance-its powerful, feminine without giving an inch, this is screaming “Diva coming through!’ at me. Interesting, not sure I’d wear it again or track another sample down but I enjoyed the experience.
sanekpor – :
I got a couple very old packs of perfume nips earlier this year. There was one nip of Indiscret in one of the packs so I thought I’d give it a try tonight. One drop is VERY powerful! I’m getting some orange and lots of geranium in the opening. The first thing I thought I smelled was rosewood, but I don’t see that in the notes. As time goes on, I’m getting something akin to violet now, is that the iris? I’m not familiar with iris scents, but I do have some orris root powder which smells strongly or violets. Heavier florals are coming up now, its starting to smell of ylang, it has a VERY vintage smell now. I think this is going to be one of those perfumes that gives me headache, so I’ll give it a rest and sniff more later and see what the base is like.
Ok, now about an hour later this had dried down to a lovely soft wood and powder. There’s a flower here too, must be the orange blossom. Something here reminds me a little of the drydown of Bal a Versailles. Completely different from the earlier perfume. It brings to mind a cashmere sweater or an alpaca shawl, warm and comforting. 😉
ephemaVasia – :
I was lucky enough to discover some unopened ampules of this perfume c. 1950 at an antique store. Wonderful, sweet creamy powdery woody musk. Lots of iris, a bit spicy. Glam to the max!
Eugene327 – :
I would love to try the new version, and as I like to see the old houses continue, I might eventually. I have had a package of nips for a while that I finally broke into an hour or so ago. One nip later, I had been through the kitchen earlier, was back in the bedroom and my husband came in to ask if I was burning incense. Now, that’s sillage, folks! Yes, it does indeed have a resin, incense, smoky quality that keeps it from being fruity/floral girly as you might think from the description here. A nip that has been completely sealed and protected from light is about the closest to the original scent as you could find today. I don’t know what the darkened vintage versions will be like, but you can bet that I am going to find out as soon as I can! OMG, this is glorious and unlike anything I can think of. I don’t get the orange or bergamot at all, I do get the geranium and galbanum. Lauren Bacall, huh? I love being in such company. I can definitely see this working for a man or a woman with strength, confidence and purpose.
xxl801speagoessenda – :
I bought it because I heard Lauren Bacall used it and I wanted to be an actor for the big screen – and I thought she was gorgeous
Meotn473Negeltzex – :
I got a 0.25 ml vintage EDP and I really don’t know what to think of it. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to smell like this or it’s changed due to its age, but it does have that “vintage” smell that you would never detect in contemporary or reformulated perfumes.
At first it is super strong, sharp and bitter, but after about 20-30 min it mellows out and has some sweetness to it. It’s not by any means disgusting, but I can’t say I was enjoing wearing it either.
I will give it another chance but looks like it will be one of those perfumes I will appreaciate from a distance.
max_ase – :
The day I received my bottle I had a severely stopped up nose and did not like the opening. However, after about 15 minutes the florals kicked in and the fragrance was lovely. It has excellent sillage and longevity. I also do not see this as a fruity floral. My nose (which is now better) smells a woodsy floral in Indiscret.
Another plus about this fragrance is that you will smell very unique. It is hard to find and not sold on the mass market sites. Check the Lucien Lelong official site for information on this scent. They also beat the pricing of the few perfume sites that carry Indiscret.
I must say the more I wear Indiscret the better I like it.
cas5610 – :
This is not a floral fruity to me, this is as vintage as they get! True classic, ultimate masterpiece, would LOVE to have a large amount of it.
asdewq – :
I own a small bottle of vintage parfum, and found its opening to be gloriously fruity (I seem to smell peach as well as citrus) and opulent. The heart is voluptuous and rich, with rose-geranium, orange blossom, and the creaminess of ylang ylang. I had been unfamiliar with Indiscret before buying it unsniffed, and I was really, really enjoying it… and then the resiny base showed up. I have never been a fan of Youth Dew or Opium or their ilk (no offense to their fans), and to smell the deep bitter notes of resin in the bottom of this scent just ruined it for me. I was disappointed.
снежожо – :
I have always loved this fragrance, and I finally got my hands on some vintage – wow! As Tessture says, it is a whole different animal – not sharp or fruity but deep and spicy. I can still tell that the two are related, but there is a luxurious carnation and orange blossom depth to the vintage that is just enticing. The new version does dry down to a spicy feel after the sharp opening, and I really don’t know how many of the top notes are gone in the vintage, though it was never opened until I got it. Either one is well worth trying, as both are very sophisticated.
smf818Diobtetty – :
The original is a smoky, smoldering orange-blossom delight, all slinky curves and powdery decolletage. Love the vintage. Would be interested to see how the reformulation smells by comparison.
romanl1 – :
I’m a bit surprised to read that this one is being classified as a “fruity floral”! That title always makes me thing a fragrance is light and airy and modern. Indiscret is none of those things. Zero. Like many scents developed during the decade that gave us Garbo and Deitrich and Hedy Lamarr, Indiscret is a full blown floral femme fatale of a scent.
True it starts with a bitsy weeny bit of citrus, but lets not confuse that with fragrances that traffic in melon-ious assault or riotous quantities of sugary pears or raspberry waffles. Indiscret is a grown up womanly scent all full of orange blossoms roses and carnations. It is heavy duty and opulent, almost decadent in its bouquet.
Calling it a “fruity floral” is like calling Louise Brooks or Gloria Swanson “a starlet”.
Indiscret is seductive in a straightforward and mature way. It’s not an eyelash fluttery giggly scent, it’s a romantic “I’m here to be noticed…by you” one. It’s a bit intimidating and would not try to be unobtrusive and quiet. The florals are big and inrusive and the sillage is first rate.
I love this scent.