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Iteplecem – :
I remember having this wonderful fragrance in the late seventies. I had been given a present of a Balmain Gift Set comprising of Ivoire de Balmain (it must have been to celebrate the launch of Ivoire as this bottle was a bit bigger than the others), Miss Balmain, Vent Vert & Jolie Madame. I was about 18 and too young really to appreciate these wonderful little treasures. My boyfriend at the time had previously bought me another larger bottle of the Miss Balmain and I had loved it and thus my love affair with it began, hence being my signature scent.
Vent Vert, as I can remember it, was much greener than the more sweet Miss Balmain. It wasn’t as much to my taste back then and, as I mentioned, I was too young to savour the notes as well as I might do now. But I must have used it and the Ivoire too. Having said that, on moving house recently, for the third time since my teens, I found the little bottle of Madame Jolie tucked away in a box. A find indeed.
I may have to track down Vent Vert again although I doubt I’ll come across the original version. Here’s hoping I might come across the original bottle of this in one of the still unopened boxes in the house. Miracles do happen!
vdvparf – :
First, a big Thank You to Svetlana at Fragrantica for adding this as of June 2018. So glad that we’ve got a separate listing now for the original Germaine Cellier brew. It’s so much different than subsequent formulations and it definitely deserves its own time in the limelight.
Imagine walking into the woodlands in a deep valley somewhere north of Paris. It’s Spring; the narcissi and hyacinth are up, and everything is turning green with the new season — so verdant, so vivid it almost hurts your eyes. You reach down and rub wild young grasses and herbs between your fingers, and on the breeze is the scent of sweet moss from the forest ahead. The whole world is newly alive and there is the sense that wonderful things are just about to happen.
That’s how I feel whenever I wear Madame Cellier’s iconic 1947 creation.
Interesting that there is more than one set of notes ascribed to the 1947 Vent Vert. One version — to me, the one closest to my own impression, from my own well-preserved one-ounce bottle, and the one adopted by fragrantica — lists:
Top notes: bergamot, neroli, jonquil and violet leaf
Middle notes: geranium, narcissus, basil, galbanum, lily of the valley, freesia, rose, jasmine and hyacinth
Base notes: sandalwood, oakmoss and musk
Others mention this set of notes: galbanum, citrus, gardenia, peach, rose, lily of the valley, hyacinth, iris, jasmine, oakmoss, vetiver, styrax, and musk. These are plausible as well. Apparently it’s said that over 1100 ingredients went into Ms. Cellier’s formulation, so adding up all of the above is still only scratching the surface!
(Another description raves about the inclusion of oil of marigold. There is a note that certainly gives that particular impression. And it’s been said that the iris in the second list above is more correctly the distinctive note of orris root. That would be my impression as well.)
Any which way, it’s said that galbanum comprises a whopping 8% of the formula. I wouldn’t be surprised. If you love galbanum to distraction — and bonus points if you can’t get enough of the kind of sharp, complex bergamot they used to use back in the old days — this might be the fragrance to have you fall in love all over again.
To me, regardless of the notes, the beauty of Vent Vert 1947 is in the Whole-is-greater-than-the-sum-of-the-parts perfume trope. Inhale slowly, let all analysis go, and enjoy the deep, rich, glorious beauty that is the original Vent Vert. If you love intense, bitingly green florals, and vintage is your thing, this might be a new Holy Grail. It was for me.
Svarog88 – :
Happy to see a listing for the original here, so we can disambiguate our reviews for the different versions. I love green perfumes, but I’m very hard to please since every new green perfume has to be measured up against my benchmark green, Cellier’s Vent Vert (1947). The concentration of galbanum in the original Vent Vert was very high, and I love how it sings out true, clear, and invigorating in both the vintage parfum and “Eau de Vent Vert.” After the hit of galbanum, vintage Vent Vert gradually softens and unfolds other notes, including rose, gardenia, oakmoss, and sandalwood. Thankfully, there is not a speck of cucumber, melon, or sugar in the cool green shade of Vent Vert.
I always wonder how Cellier came to compose Vent Vert, which seems to me to be the first of its kind and the archetype of a new perfume genre. There is certainly some relationship between Vent Vert and masculine mossy fougeres colognes of the same period, but those gentlemanly toilet articles are more restrained and often possess warmer basenotes of vanilla or coumarin. I can see how Vol de Nuit (1933), with its highly-unusual-for-a-Guerlain galbanum opening, could be part of the distant ancestry of Vent Vert. And it is clear that Cellier must have had a thing for galbanum, since her 1944 composition for Piguet, Bandit–an endlessly compelling and precise alignment of green, floral, chypre, and leather notes–also foregrounds the bitter green resin. Is Vent Vert simply Cellier’s reworking of Bandit without isobutyl quinoline? Meanwhile, two other indispensable feminine chypres from the 1940’s – Carven’s Ma Griffe (1944) by Jean Carles and Dior’s Miss Dior (1947) by Paul Vacher and Jean Carles–also use galbanum to add backbone to the chypre structure. Perhaps galbanum was trending in the 1940’s? Taut, galbanum-infused chypres such as Bandit, Miss Dior, and Ma Griffe make the old school chypres such as Chypre de Coty (1917) and Millot’s Crepe de Chine (1925) feel as soft as faded green vintage silk velvet. Meanwhile, Vent Vert, not a chypre but strongly green, moderately floral, and slightly woody, feels like a bolt of green summer lightning.