Today, dear Posse folk, I have a bit of a mystery, and I’m hoping that one of you might be able to help. Somewhere along the line, I got this small, cut-glass, cone (or top)-shaped bottle with a red faux gemstone on the cap. The cap has a long metal dabber want attached to it. At first I was thinking Faberge, and here’s why:
I have two other nearly identical bottles, and both are definitely Faberge. One is topped with a blue stone, and the fragrance is Faberge Imperial from back in the mid-‘90s. The second bottle, this one with a green stone, is Faberge’s Princess Grace of Monaco scent from roughly the same time period.
But this red-topped bottle has a scent that is unknown to me. The top notes have gone wonky, but what lies beneath is a warm oriental, somewhat similar to Opium, but with a little something else in the mix, and of course, turned way, way down. My memory of Faberge scents is spotty, but at one time or another, I had smelled most of them, and this one is not ringing even the vaguest of bells. I’ve scoured the Web high and low, trying to find out more about this.
But the more I looked, the more I began to think: What if it’s not from Faberge at all, but from another house? I know next to nothing about how bottles are designed and chosen in the perfume industry, so I suppose it’s possible that Faberge chose the blue and green variations of this particular bottle for their scents and another firm commissioned the red-topped flask for their juice.
What say you? Do you have any gems that you can’t identify? Or if you have solved the mystery regarding one of your bottles, how did you go about it? I must confess, this has definitely piqued my curiosity about what goes into a perfume bottle’s design and packaging. So if any of you are in the know about this process, please do weigh in. Thanks!
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Oooooh… didn’t get here until after the mystery was solved, but how interesting.
I would love to see everyone’s post-your-collection pics (though that might overload the server, unless we post links to Flickr or Photobucket or some other photo-hosting site)!
I was going to say Jan Moran but got beat to it. I’m no expert but would love to see what’s in your collection.
Hey, you were way ahead of me — I’d only barely heard of Jan Moran, so this has been an education for me. One day we need to have a fun post where we all post our bottles (or most of them). I don’t have many FBs but do have a collection of minis. It’s always neat to see what other folks have.
You all are amazing! Now, just come to my house and you can have a go at my vintage cabinet. Would be nice to identify some of my weird ones, lol.
Jan, isn’t that the truth? I knew someone out there among the Posse crew would help solve the mystery. Link to a pic of your cabinet and I bet you would get some answers right away 🙂
Plus we’d all like to see your stash, Jan! Pictures of people’s collections are fun to peruse 🙂
And then y’all can come to my house and identify my “orphan” bottles, too 😉 I was just mentioning to someone last week that I also have a bunch of small sample vials w/o labels and I’m always afraid to test them, because what if I fall in love with the scent and have NO idea what it is??? Seems like the ultimate heartbreak and the sort of thing that would drive my orderly German mind right over the edge…
I did finally identify my unlabeled Guerlain mini bee bottle as Herba Fresca, after sampling just about every (!!!!) dang Guerlain Aqua Allegoria out there!!
Isn’t that always the way — that after sampling all of them, yours would match the last scent! 😉 If I have an unlabeled sample, I go ahead and try it. If I like it, I’ll just wear it and enjoy it. If not, nothing lost.
Okay, found mine, and the description of the fragrance is about what mine smells like, too; like a slightly off Coco.
http://pinkmanhattan.blogspot.com/2008/03/jan-moran-fabulous.html
Yes, yes, Tammy! Sort of a very soft cross between Opium and Coco, so this may very well be it. Thanks so much, dear!
I just went and got my bottle out of a perfume that Jan Moran (perfume book author) put out a number of years ago. She had a couple of scents, but one of them had a bottle exactly like this with a red top (the other had a citrine colored top I believe). Sniffed it and it does have a somewhat Opiumesque vibe. Checked her website just now and there is no mention of her perfumes, so I assume they’ve been d/ced, but there may be some mention of them elsewhere on the web or on MUA. There was also a perfume put out called San – a stunning amber perfume – that had the same bottle design and a red top, but the glass was red. I think he put out a couple of other perfumes, however, with the same bottle and the glass for those may have been clear.
Okay, so mine IS Jan Moran, then. I couldn’t find any reference online, so I figured I was wrong. My bottle has a blue lid, so she must have done several.
Ah, the mystery is starting to unravel. Thanks so much Anna and Tammy!
I’d missed your comment above – was in a rush and distracted by family. But just saw your comment below – great detective work! I remember ordering them from her website when I got her books and there had been some talk of her perfume on MUA at the time, but it no longer appears in a search on MUA – too far in the past.
Thanks, Anna — good to know. I’m guessing when you ordered, you got your choice of bottle top colors, right?
Hi Ann, I can’t solve your mystery but I can add my opinion. I too have the green and blue topped versions of this bottle, containing the two Faberge parfums, which I bought on eBay. I was a bit disappointed in the bottles being glass, not crystal, and one of the dabbers was going kinda rusty. Average quality, like those produced en masse overseas. But don’t doubt they are genuine: despite its fancy-sounding name, Faberge was never really an exclusive sort of brand. My observation that the bottles were nothing special was supported when I saw (during my never-ending eBay trawls) other examples of these bottles which were not associated with Faberge. Unfortunately I cannot remember details, but I do know that it solved in my mind the question of whether those particular bottles were exclusive to Faberge… and the answer was ‘no’. 🙂
Very good to know, Christine, thanks so much for all the great info! I did finally figure out that I bought it among several other bottles on eBay and the seller listed it as being the Faberge Princess Grace scent. But after I got it and sniffed it, I knew that wasn’t right.
ok, so i DO think it’s Faberge, but WHICH i am not sure. did Flambeau ever come like this? here’s a link to someone who’s posted the same bottle. maybe you can get some info out of her, although it doesn’t look like she knows either.
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/108086459780776732/
meanwhile i saw some AMAZING bottles. 🙂
good luck!
and then i went here: http://fabergecolognes.com/otherfaberge.htm but couldn’t find it either. so maybe it’s someone WANTING to look like fabrege?
i give up before i start smelling like brut.
…or maybe a version of Partage, which had an oriental dry down.
ok, i’m done. dealer’s clean. *laugh*
Oh, your Brut comment made me LOL!
Oh, wow, thanks, Einsof! You always come up with the most interesting and clever takes on things. 🙂
No clue here, but it’s a lovely thing and I’m glad to have had a chance to see it.
They are pretty bottles, aren’t they?
I have the exact same bottle ( only with a blue stone) and while the name escapes me at the moment, I know it isn’t a Faberge. I keep wanting to say Jan Moran, but did she ever do a scent?? Seems like it’s by a woman who also wrote a book.
More good clues, Tammy! Thanks!
Ok, not Faberge – but I`m drawing a blank – as in the answer is just!! in the back of my memory! lol!! It is a smaller scent company…
Thanks, Linda! Do stop by if it comes to you.