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kravez – :
I love and completely agree with your review Angela Agiannidou!!! Very gorgeous!!! I love Kobako!!! It’s fantastic! Sooo super strong, and long lasting, and all those wonderful things you said!!! And heavy!! It’s a gorgeous rich and potent fabulous divine perfume. I love it!!! So replete with spices and flowers, and beautiful soft rich animalic, leathery, mossy, sweet undertone. It’s just fabulous!
elenkaaaa – :
I know it may sound crazy but I detect a “horse” note in it… so does my friend… We’re both crazy but we can’t help it!
Otherwise, it’s a great classic, too much amber and benzoin in it for me to wear it but I totally love it on others, my class teacher used to wear that and she was an angel!
magerramov82 – :
Fascinating vintage fragrance! I’m unsure if I have the original or the reformulation so I’m posting this on both. This is a beautiful (although definitely dated) aldehyde/ spice/ leather/ earthy fragrance that is softer and more harmonious than the notes might imply. I feel sure I must have the 1980s reformulation but I would swear the overall effect is so classic it would not be out of place in the 1930s or 40s. It’s like something Rosie the Riveter would wear. It takes an old-fashioned sensibility to appreciate. A little soapy on the drydown, but not unpleasant, and incredibly long-lasting: 12-24 hours. Overall, a remarkable example of historical perfumery.
Update: On further exploration, I’m sure I have the 1980s reformulation, as, I suspect, do most people here – the original is extremely rare, having been out of production for decades. The Osthmoteque pefume archive has recently recreated it; what I wouldn’t give to be in France to sample it! I can only imagine the modern 1980s version pales in comparison to the glory of the Ernest Beaux original, but I quite like it. I get the idea of exotic herbs, florals, and spices, only a hint of leather. I believe the original was very leather based: one reviewer who visited Osthmoteque described it as “Cuir de Russie with a blast of cinnamon.” The rest of us can only imagine.
MOPKOBKA – :
Very mossy and spicy enough to make 3 Biryanis, 5 chouricos, 2 chili con carnes,3 imam baildis (apologies if I left any International Cuisine out…). The earthy element and spices, pepper, carnation, cloves, cinnamon keep a strong hold in the composition and only towards the dry down vanilla, a touch of leather and Amber appear but briefly. The projection is gigantic and very long lasting, the quantity of oakmoss lends a rather Seventies beautiful vibe. It is very close to Opium. Only if you are madly into spicy florals venture towards it,it is extremely potent!
PUPSIK— – :
I was fortunate to find one bottle of Kobako in a friend’s shop yesterday. It must date from the 1980s/90s as there is a bar code on the packaging. I’ve been looking for this for ages so I feel I really struck lucky.
I think this is an interesting fragrance. I can detect leather in the notes, but not in the manner of Lanvin’s Scandal. There’s a prominent rose note (on my skin at least), as well as spice in the base, possibly oakmoss.
I wouldn’t say this is a masterpiece, but I’m certainly enjoying wearing it today!
sholt – :
A pity it has changed a lot since the beginning. Although it still has the same sweet oriental thing in it. Good longevity, sits nicely on the skin. I like it the best after about 20 minutes from spraying it, it becomes a creamy oriental scent, very pleasant even for people, who don’t like strong scents.
JLstanton – :
The bottle look like a cheap version of an old YSL Opium bottle.
hys668intitytek – :
I also was using it 10 years ago. I did not know what I like, so I bought this perfume as they had the others. It was not my scent. This perfume was heavy, sweet and a bit oriental. Not for the 20-year-olds.
TaifyTOTraf – :
I used to like this perfume, years ago. Now I find it extremely heavy with some strong soapy aftertaste which seems to have replaced the spiciness of Kobako I remember
o14OmibedrilmTib – :
I came across a very old Bourjois perfume yesterday which has the exact bottle design as this one but the cover is a lighter maroon, you can say red I guess. I can’t see it listed here unfortunately, its called FLAMME, I liked it a lot so I bought two 50ml. It actually reminds me of Estee Lauder Private Collection :>
Charlesbexy – :
This Bourjois Kobako smells nothing but soap.Nothing light,nothing powdery,nothing citrusy here…it is so bad scent…
cnapta2 – :
I got rid of it, had a bottle about a year ago. I remember I liked it when I was a teenager but my tastes have changed since then. I sometimes like “heavy” fragrances but Kobako is a real killer that I cannot wear. Too heavy with a strong leather note I don’t like – but I guess it can be liked nowadays too, just not by me – it’s a strong oriental.
zinya – :
I have let myself to try this, since it appeared in our home. Love the fragrance when it projects. Exactly like the cloud of it in the room It’s been sprayed. Marvelous, lady’s scent. I feel lot of spices, orient flowers and woods/grasses. But I honestly can’t stand it while sniffing my wrist. It feels horrible sour and bitter, no sweetness of it’s projection. A heavy headachey smell.
I believe small doses of this mixture will do a magic, though. Because of it’s mature, feminine, oriental charm, when it projects, also with a great sillage.
DIZIL – :
i remember my mother wearin in the 90s !! such a heavy scent! i couldnt breathe when she was aroung because the perfume was sooo strong, but nevertheless i have so many memories with it ! 🙂
it starts very light, but from one sec to another it is so strong, flowery, dusty !!! at the end, it doesnt last that long, but quite a while it turns into a light, nice scent with this spice which i love ! 🙂
Schirmer – :
Bourjois Kobako is a vintage mystery when
applied to the skin conjures on a vast
rubber and spice plantation in French Indochine of the 1930’s opens with the
scent of Cinnamon, Chai, and frankincense
dries under the setting sun on grassy field with a sharp green note that can be overwhelming if applied to much as it
grows darker nocturnal jasmine starts
to steep though the warm air blown though the vastness of the night sky
roses bloom with it’s blood red vibrancy
makes it defined and known carnations
adds to an fiery texture orris dries the middle with powdery finish, the drydown
is mossy but it doe’snt have the wetness
to it due to the dry Sandalwood like the
wisp of incense floating beneath the sky
patches of musk makes it ancient and
it’s semi-masculine drydown of leather
finishes the scent.
Kobako is Elegance with a sting picturing a scene with Bette Davis shoots a man in broad moonlight in
the letter what do you think she is wearing?.
123denver321 – :
There are no notes listed here for this fragrance..
The perfume is a modern leather chypre fragrance with citrus top notes, vanilla, jasmine, rose, magnolia, galbanum, cloves, cinnamon, carnation, tonka bean, lily, orris, benzoin, frankincense, amber, oakmoss, musk and leather.