POSSE! OMG! I was rummaging around in my cupboards and came across this unbelievable unicorn, Oscar de la Renta vintage parfum. I have no memory of where I bought this or when but am so excited. Maybe I didn’t realize it was a parfum when I got it? We’ll never know.
Little bit of back story: Many years ago when I was a holiday squirt bitch my counter was Guerlain, Worth, Nina Ricci and yes, you guessed it de la Renta. If only I knew then what I know now I would have spent every bloody cent I earned on scent.
The perfumer, Jean-Louis Sieuzac, is one you’ve probably worn perfumes of but he is not super duper famous. He signed off on Dune and Fahrenheit for DIOR, Opium for YSL, Bel Ami for Hermès and even 2022’s Kredo for Nishane.
Oscar by Oscar de la Renta vintage parfum
Oscar de la Renta site gives these featured accords:
Top: Orange Blossom, Basil, Coriander, Galbanum, Peach, Gardenia
Heart: Ylang-Ylang, Jasmine, Tuberose, Rose, Rosemary, Cyclamen, Lavender, Orchid
Base: Opoponax, Carnation, Patchouli, Sandalwood, Lavender, Amber
As you can see in the below picture my Oscar bottle is the spray version and is nearly full. I think the reason it’s lasted so well is that the lid is JAMMED on so tight there’s no air access. It took me real brute strength to even get it off. Maybe that’s why it got sold on. I can’t imagine it being easy for anyone a little bit frail.
How does it smell? Ridiculously fabulous. An aldehydic chypre from the time of kitchen sink perfumes. That very blows, over the top opening of greenery and flowers with a hint of sweet tinned fruit salad. The heart, and into the dry down, is a big bouquet but creamy and mossy with what I think are sandalwood, vanilla, oakmoss and patchouli all drizzled with a very sweet sappy, resinous amber. The last gasps are mainly a mossy amber in that now very old fashioned but still glamorous trope.
Lasting power is out of this world and I woke up this morning with remnants of yesterday before spritzing again.
Way back in 2012 Mrs Honey reviewed this Oscar de la Renta parfum
Do you remember the original? Did you or a family member/friend wear it ?
Portia xx
The mother of one of my BFFs back in the day wore this and I always thought she smelled impossibly chic (I was probably wearing Love’s Baby Soft at the time hehe) and I’ve always associated it with her. I also loved the bottle, she had that fancy one with the flower cap.
Yay for Loves Baby Soft March, even with those creepy ads.
I can imagine this being a style marker when we were younger. It still could be.
Portia xx
OMG, babysnakes!!! I wore the living daylights out of this one, with my Jimmy Gamba peplum suits and sky- high stilettos… good times!!!
Woo Hoo! So glamorous Musette.
Happy times.
Portia xx
Oscar is wonderful. Great find. Years ago, I bought a bunch of mini perfumes listed as vintage 80’s. Oscar was one of them. It was in the same bottle as your first picture. I loved it and emptied the first little bottle and did the same with a second one I bought. Then I wandered away to new scents. It was/is beautiful!
Maya!
I can imagine you wafting Oscar with great aplomb.
It’s such a beautiful fragrance. I know this word has lost most of its cachet but it’s classy.
Portia xx
Dear Portia,
It was so lovely to read about your reaction to Oscar, because I have had my own love story with the fragrance.
In 1985, when I had worn nothing but Y by YSL for four years and could hardly even smell it anymore because I was so used to it, I decided it was time to choose a new signature scent. I actually decided that I would develop a wardrobe of fragrances, but I wanted one as a type of default perfume that, like Y, I could wear at any time of day and with any type of clothing.
After an extensive and very enjoyable search during which I sampled at least 200 different fragrances (and there were nowhere near as many of them back then as there are today!), I chose Oscar. The perfume struck me has heavenly – both subtle and gorgeous. I couldn’t get enough of smelling it.
I’m glad that I bought a large amount of it back then, given all the major and disappointing changes in the world of perfumery over the years. In my fridge, I still have a 200ml bottle of the original, plus a couple of smaller bottles. I also have both a 30ml parfum and a 15ml parfum (a generous gift from one of my brothers). At one stage I bought the dry oil spray, which was nice, but I realized that I’d have been better off spending the money on more of the EDT.
The current version of Oscar, which I tried recently, is still okay, but not as lovely as the original, so I’m glad I have a good stock of the original. As I have such a large perfume collection of 300 plus fragrances, including backups of some of those, it should see me out.
As part of my fragrance wardrobe, I eventually added L’Heure Bleue (probably my favourite, and a relative of Oscar), Mitsouko, Shalimar, Femme, Le Dix and, as mentioned above, many others. But I’ll always have a soft spot for Oscar.
Thank you so much for writing about it.
With kind regards,
Tourmaline
LOVE this story Tourmaline. WOW! 200ml bottle. I love to have plenty too.
Yes, it has changed over the years but still, you can smell bones of it even in the current version. Attenuated and a little shrill but still attractive and surprisingly with all the IFRA regulation the dry down is very close.
Portia x
Oh yes! I remember it well, Portia. It was the signature scent of two dear older ladies in my life: Mrs Daly, who passed within the last year, and Mrs Lewis, with whom I’ve lost contact. Both wore it very well, always smelled fabulous. It was one of those big 80s scents, but one that didn’t shout too loudly.
I’m sorry you lost your friends DinaC. Especially such beautiful smelling ones.
TRUE! It does not shout too loudly. More a husky drawl.
Portia xx
Ah, that bottle — the one with the wimple — big sigh. Yup, thought kitchen sink immediately upon reading the notes list. This sounds glorious. You lucky one to have it hidden away.
Cinnamon, it’s ridiculous how many treasures lie fallow in this room. Every box is full of them. I go looking for something and find five stupendous things before hitting my original conquest.
In the early Buy Everything years I had a very large disposable income and it all went to fragrance (and travel for fragrance).
Portia xx
DagNABBIT! I miss those ‘disposable income’ days!!!
HA! Yeah, me too Musette
What. A. Find! I wish my rootlings in cupboards brought forth such glories! Ok sometimes they do.
I own an 11ml mini of OG OdlR but not the Pure Parfum. I can only imagine how fabulous it is. The OG big blousy overblown white floral bouquet. The lushest of the lush. Ahhhhh… I can smell you from here
Lush is a perfect word for it Alityke. That OG EdT is stunning, much more of a wafty powerhouse than the extrait.
HA! I wish you were closer so we could have sniffies
Portia xx
Me too x
One day…
“If only I knew then what I know now..” Hoo boy, is that ever true..
It’s weird: I remember this was pretty ubiquitous among ladies who lunched but for the life of me I can’t remember what it smells like. I’m sure if I did smell it it would be like opening a floodgate of memories.
Oh yes Tom,
It was a low key perfume compared to many of its contemporaries but made in a similar vein, and still quite large compared to many of todays femme offerings. Reminiscent of No5, Arlene and even subtle hints of Giorgio Beverly Hills.
Yes, it probably would open a portal. Still widely available to spritz in drugstores if you happen by one.
Portia xx