The Party in Manhattan by The Party 2008

Hello lovely Posse! Portia from Australian Perfume Junkies bringing you a surprise. The Party in Manhattan is a fragrance! It was released back in 2008! This is the first I’ve heard of it but everyone else on the scentbloggosphere seems to have tried it, written about it, praised it. So, feeling slightly left out and in need of an instant new frag fix, this is my choice. Come and try it with me….

The Party in Manhattan by The Party 2008

The Party in Manhattan The Party FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, tangerine, sage, carnation, bourbon/whiskey, carrot
Heart: Jasmine, rose, ylang-ylang, iris
Base: Vetiver, patchouli, oak moss, musk, gray amber

Spritz and close your eyes. All of a sudden it’s the late 1970s and Mum has just oversprayed herself in some killer fragrance before leaving the house, and you with a babysitter. Maybe you are the Mum leaving, maybe you are a young woman in your fringed sheath dress and barrel curled hair. Whoever you were at that pivotal point in time this smell, this scent The Party in Manhattan will take you right back there again. Part Femme, part No 5, part Maja and wholly itself. A sassy powdery glamour girl of a fragrance that is shameless and living life wholeheartedly.

The Party in Manhattan The Party Times_Square WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

The opening of The Party in Manhattan buzzes out with a herbal citrus zing that already has an ambergris aside playing deep & salty and riding side by side with a clean patchouli. I get none of the booze and mostly the flowers play second fiddle as a bouquet. Sadly this reads sweet 16 to me, historical sweet 16, but not a skank bomb at all. Though it is slightly over ripe and fully enticing in the most fabulously perfumey way, and I think if you are missing the olden days of French perfumery then The Party in Manhattan could be an excellent reminder or throwback fragrance. My only qualm is that surely in The Party in Manhattan they would have been smoking? This fragrance has everything fun, bright, flashy and sensual but there is no smoke or tobacco. I only miss it because when I read The Party in Manhattan instantly I thought of the gorgeous Holly Golightly and her parties.

Party Audrey_Hepburn WikiMediaPhoto Stolen WikiMedia

The Party in Manhattan manages to be both historic and modern, the story goes that it’s another formula reproduced with tweaks and that could be so but to be honest I don’t care. I think it charming and excellent and want only now to go back to Italy so I can buy a damn bottle.

Further reading: Perfume Posse and Grain de Musc
The Party site has a directory but you can ONLY buy in Italy
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $6/.5ml

At Surrender To Chance I went crazy and ordered the 12 x Animalic Skank Set in 2ml sprays. Do yourself a favour!

Did you jump on the Party In Manhattan bandwagon? Was it a filthy skank bomb on you? Do you WISH you could try it?
Portia x

  • Elia says:

    Happy coincidence, I received a small sample from a friend only yesterday!
    I only previewed with a drop, but I’d not say it’s skanky at all, and in all probability this one might be gorgeous 🙂
    I also received the new Bal a Versailles edt yesterday and it seems skankier than the parfum I tried… I’ll have to do a side by side.
    But otherwise I don’t think of most on the list as skanky, especially not L’Air de Rien which is 100% cuddly.

    • Portia says:

      Hey there Elia,
      I am yet to get L’Air de Rien on my skin. Maybe we are so used to lovely human notes that they pass us by?
      Portia xx

      • Elia says:

        Are we naturally ‘dirty’ then? lol
        Btw looked through Manhattan availability… didn’t realise it cost as much as gold!!
        They do ship within the EU, http://www.thepartyfragrancestore.com/?p=126, steep shipping, Area 4 for me (theoretically, as they don’t actually list my island), so any European could feasibly mule it. (Refill also available and preferable if there’s an aversion to bulb atomizers)
        also a basenoter has 200ml, UK intermediate mule needed,
        and one could get a 50ml from an Italian store, then muled etc, but 230e plus shipping and muling would make it silly versus the 100ml.
        not that I’m enabling or anything

  • Katherine says:

    I’m going to order this!!! So much fun!!! So little time!!! Party like it’s 2008 and I was 15 lbs lighter.

  • Ann says:

    A-ha, Portia! You’ve hit the nail on the head — this is one fragrance that I’ve always wanted to try, but keep forgetting the name of it to get a sample. Now I’m all set — thanks!!

  • Musette says:

    Portia – I just pawed through the ‘P’ box and couldn’t find my little sample – but I remember this being ‘fun’ but not young enough to take me back in the Wayback machine nor grownup enough to keep my interest in this era.

    dang. and I loved that era, too! xoxoxoA

    • Portia says:

      Hi there Musette,
      BUM! I am sad that it was not all that on you. If everything worked perfectly we would be paupers.
      Portia xx

  • Tom says:

    I really don’t perceive it as “skunk” either. But my skin tends to neuter that aspect of most scents..

    • Portia says:

      Hi there Tom (Of the perfect smile)
      Yes, a skankfest is only quite mild for me too. Having thought about it though Harbinger by SOIVOHLE is not skanky but it is off kilter on my skin and does feel like something a little unwell.
      Portia xx

  • Gwenyth says:

    This “skank” business has me shaking my head. Somehow I must be anosmic to whatever aromachemicals elicit the “skank” response from many people.
    I wear Vivien Westwood’s Boudoir – I perceive only a warm, oriental floral scent.
    I wear Serge Luten’s Musc Koublai Khan -(infamous for its skankiness) – I perceive only a soft, cuddly musk.
    I wear Paco Rabanne’s La Nuit – rumored to be a Skank Monster and get a definite leather scent, but no pee, poo, panties, or sweat.
    You name the skankiest scent — I’ve probably sampled it (except for Etat Libre d’Orange Secretions Manifiques – that one terrifies me)
    I don’t “get” skanky. I’ve asked my family to sniff my skin several times as I’ve worn the above-named scents, just to make sure I wasn’t wafting Ho Panties….and they say “no” consistently.
    I’ll thank my skin chemistry this time. 🙂

    I wish many perfumes were not so difficult to find and/or buy. Sigh…….

    • tammy says:

      You sound like my exact skin twin! Mind you, I do tend to strongly dislike musk, which comes across as unbearably sweet to me in many so-called skank monsters, but that MKK…divine, warm, cuddly on me, too! And Musk Tonkin was beautiful on me, really, really pretty.

      Have you ever tried any of the Smell Bent musks? They ARE pretty skanky on me, to the point of not being able to wear them.

      I never get any kind of dirty-panty from anything, although I do get a poo-vibe from some indolic jasmines, which I love. I don’t like the bright clean jasmines at all. The dirty-hair thing Mals mentions above is one I also like and I get it strongest in Mecca Balsam, of all things!

      • malsnano86 says:

        OH LORD that Smell Bent musk! It’s not in everything, but it’s been in several of them that I tried. I got interested in Commando when Tom said it was like the skin of a freshly washed baby.

        Um, no. no nonono. It was Locker Room Full of Hairy Sweaty Guys… in August… with no A/C.

        • Portia says:

          I LOVE Commando, and yes all the imagery you bring up Malsnano86 is EXACTLY why. Like the scent in the Village People movie when they’re doing YMCA. YUMMY!
          Portia xx

    • Musette says:

      I LOVE Vivienne Westwood’s Boudoir! Surprised the hell out of me! xoxoxoA

    • Portia says:

      Heya Gwenyth,
      I get skank at the beginning and thenm my skin eats it, sometimes I get breath, sometimes pooh but only at the start unless it’s incredi8bly OTT. Secretionsa Magnifique is a bizarre floral for me, only very slightly off.
      Portia xx

  • malsnano86 says:

    Due to its reputation as a skank bomb, I have avoided it.

    Isn’t it interesting that there are so many TYPES of skank? Horse, poo, pee, dirty hair, fresh sweat, stale sweat/BO, Ho Panties, floral decay, animal decay… I could probably come up with more categories if I really felt like it. For instance, with regards to PdN Maharanih, there’s a distinct note of well-worn male undergarments, to my nose. I mean, to the point that I called my husband in to check the verisimilitude. (bang on, btw.)

    Certain kinds of skank I can manage. Certain kinds I can’t.

  • tammy says:

    My signature! I get no skank, just a whole lotta YUM. I can’t even pick any particular notes out, it just smells deep and rich to me. I do get a slight, ever so slight ,whiff of tobacco…maybe not so much tobacco as just the impression of hairspray, perfume and tobacco combined? Very much like the ladies of my youth, all of whom smoked. ( Aldehydes can come off as hairspray to me, I think) Hands down my favorite perfume, ever.

    Sadly, I am all out. I got my original at LuckyScent and they no longer carry it. Escentual in England, do but when I tried to order it, they said they couldn’t ship to the US.

    By the time they got back around to shipping it here, I found that the price has doubled and it wasn’t cheap to start with.

    All this to say that you needn’t go to Italy! (Unless it’s a lot cheaper there, in which case, I’d be sorely tempted myself)

    • Portia says:

      ITALY! I need a scent mule please!!
      Tammy, I can imagine this being someone’s signature and smelling absolutely incredible.
      Portia x

  • eldarwen22 says:

    I have a really small decant of the vintage extrait that I haven’t gotten around to trying yet.