SpM. Micallef Royal Vintage – giveaway!

micallef royal  vintageMy daddy was an Aqua Velva Man.  If you are over 40, chances are your daddy was, too!  There really was Something About An Aqua Velva Man, that cool, bracing, crisp blue aftershave that tore the living daylights out of your skin but left that wonderful smell.  It was 1960, daddy was in charge and the world was in Technicolor!   The Micallefs have channeled that fabulous, comforting sensory memory into a totally glammed-up, swanky, Retro-New Millenium men’s scent, M. Micallef  Royal Vintage.   It’s Sean Connery, in his very first Bond role.  Tony Curtis’s elegant, suave, slightly OCD casino manager, Steve McCluskey, in 40 Pounds of Trouble (dashing back to the Nevada State Line in his Roller convertible.  Too louche for words!) micallef royal  vintageIn that time-twisty way, 25 years later (and earlier), Don Draper would wear this, too.   The minute I opened Royal Vintage I was transported back to the sleek, sauve 60s.  And I think that’s exactly what the Micallefs intended.   This is a decidedly masculine scent (but I like it, too!), with a classy, begamot-y aquatic feel at the open, like you’re coming into port in a beautiful classic Italian motor yacht.  The leather comes into its own at mid-point, though I don’t smell it as much on my own skin; on El O (my willing resigned  perfume guinea pig)  the leather really takes center stage, melding with his skin and …it’s that same sexy-as-hell scent you get when a man slides out of the butter-leather seats of a vintage roadster to come take you to dinner at that fabulous place overlooking the bay.  You can’t tell where his skin ends and the other skins begin…and it doesn’t matter because You. Want. It. All.    If you don’t, I do!  So send him over here!  Make sure he brings the roadster.

It’s an elegantly simple scent, in a vintage style  that a quietly confident man would wear – it doesn’t beat you over the head with with a big ol’ steroided Man Stick, which is a welcome relief.  I tend to lean more towards florals like Carnal Flower and Fracas on a man but sniffing Royal Vintage on El O, as we dressed to go out to lunch, I was reminded that sometimes it’s good for a man  to just smell ‘manly’, in that retro way .  Damn shame we don’t have that roadster, though.

notes for Royal Vintage (stolen from Luckyscent) Pink berries, bergamot, Cypress and leather, Patchouly and musk.  $185/100ml

So:  giveaway time!!!  I have the cutest little sample of Royal Vintage – and I am happy to share.  Tell me your favorite 60s movie/memory/something (know nothing about the 60s?  make something up! ) …. I’ll put everybody in the mix and pull a winner via random.org and send you off a bit of this lovely fragrance!

  • Steve Tsotras says:

    Plain and simple, the music. Anything from the Nuggets anthology, and one of my favorite bands of all time, The Stooges

  • Joan says:

    I’m not sure what to say about the 60s. I think of songs like “Wooly Bully” and about going to the moon. I agree that Don Draper would wear M. Micallef. I can’t say I liked it as much as you do though: it was a bit thick and incoherent on me. It has good basic notes though. Great review!

  • Ninara Poll says:

    The 60s predate me by quite a bit… but definitely the Olympics in Mexico City, as thanks to that the Metro (subway) was built and is still growing 🙂 And it showed the world that my birthplace was as modern as the US and the capital cities of Europe 🙂

    NP

  • Jenny Katz says:

    I was born just after the ’60s but “The Pink Panther” remains one of my favorite movies… and I second Susan about Motown! After all, that’s how Stevie Wonder got his start! And I married my husband chiefly because he sings like Stevie Wonder.

  • I don’t even know if I could tell you what Aqua Velva smells like. My dad was (and is still) a Brut guy.

  • susan says:

    I don’t know a ton about the 60s. I mean I do, kind of – I’m a historian, but maybe culturally it wasn’t my favorite decade. I guess I’d say Motown. 🙂

  • Maureen says:

    Wow reading all of these posts made me so nostalgic. I used to rush home from school to watch Dark Shadows, and the new movie was disappointing to say the least. I remember my Dad and most of the priests in my church wore Old Spice. I remember the neighbor boy that wore Aqua Velva…mmmm. We used to play basketball together, just as friends, but one time we banged into each other and there was a moment when he was on top of me and we were just staring into each others eyes…OMG, time stopped. Mad Men is probably my favorite new show…loved the sixties, I remember them fondly.

  • Monica K says:

    Jackie O, Dr. Who, the fashion! So many classics!

  • Elia says:

    My favourite 60s film is Point Blank. Thrillers just don’t get any better and Lee Marvin is mesmerizing.
    Bullitt is a good second.

  • Mad Hemingway says:

    The Rat Pack in Oceans Eleven. Frank, Dean, Sammy, and the gang, the best definition of cool then and now. Fun, smart, and talented with a good story to tell. They are timeless. I love listening to their CDs today as the Rat Pack, and each independently. The Rat Pack on stage was something to behold, and very politically incorrect too, but funny. Wish we had something like them today. Oh well, I guess we got to have something to aspire to, right?

    My second favorite is Roger Moore in The Saint. Cool across the pond. Those shows are still pretty good today.

  • Tiara says:

    My dad was an Aqua Velva Man as well, but only on the weekends. He was railroad yard conductor and there was no way he’d go to work smelling “like that” but on the weekends, oh yes! One of my favorite movies was released in the 60’s — The Sound of Music. I can still sit through the entire movie all these years later.

  • Damir Gašljevi? says:

    Many great movies I like are from 60’s: Easy Rider, Satyricon, Jules and Jim, Midnight Cowboy, Psycho. The great music festivals as Woodstock, Monterey. Very important are student demonstrations in 1968. G.G. Marquez published One Hundred Years of Solitude, and M.Bulgakov published The Master and Margarita, one of my favorite books.

  • Jan Last says:

    Dark Shadows and Paul Revere and the Raiders on TV. My Dad drove me and a couple of friends to see the Beatles here in Denver. As MichelleU says, the music was great and spoke in so many ways. Going to see West Side Story. My Mom wore Chanel, my Dad wore Old Spice, I wore Avon, which was all my babysitting money went for, Wishing, Topaz and Bird of Paradise.

    • Ann says:

      Oh, Jan, so glad you mentioned “Dark Shadows”! I’d forgotten all about it. Used to rush over to a friend’s house to catch it every day. Thanks for a great memory!

  • MichelleU says:

    The 60’s had some very good movies that I love! 😀 Breakfast at Tiffany’s, La dolce vita,The Fortune Cookie, The Birds, The Pink Panther.

    And good music: Animals – House Of The Rising Sun, The Monkees – I’m a Believer, The Beatles – Yesterday, Ike & Tina Turner – River Deep – Mountain High, Louis Armstrong-What A Wonderful World, The Rolling Stones-Satisfaction. 🙂

  • Maria Barsaki says:

    Tom Jones!
    I can remember my younger brother and i watching his shows and making jokes on his “stuffed” pants,when my granny left the room…
    I was born in 1962….
    i can recall GET SMART and BeWitched and STARTREK and BONANTCHA(wrong spell???) and LAW-RANGER. and Lassy and FIURY( the horse…)and the friendly,smart dolfin-does anybody remember his name?..
    My grappa was an OLDSPICE man…my granny a 4711 lady…not very into parfume but still…i can remember the smells…

  • dremybluz says:

    Sean Connery will always be the best Bond on film

  • Connie says:

    One of my favorite things about the sixties would be Sim & Garfunkel. When I was little my parents played the music during long car rides, the songs bring back many memories….

  • Red says:

    The Windmills of Your Mind, theme song from the beautiful movie: The Thomas Crown Affair which stars Steve McQueen & Faye Dunaway.. So haunting, hypnotic, romantic, well-made & full of soul, both music & movie. My favorite timeless classic, grand & regal just like the M. Micallef Royal Vintage…

  • Amer says:

    The 60’s… Those were the days. I loved the way money flowed in the streets and petrol in the open seas…

    PS: a google search on Aqua Velva to see how its current bottle looks like turned out a very interesting article titled “Do NOT Put Aqua Velva On Your Genitals”. Seems like we are progressively running out of places to use the stuff on… I’ll probably be cleaning the leather seats of my roadster with it 😉

  • MariaA says:

    Oh I love the 60’s!! The clothes were amazing and the cars as well! TV was boomimg and I don’t know if Star Trek startet during then or later but I used to watch it (a couple of decades later)!

  • lucasai says:

    Can you believe that Disney’s The Jungle Book is from 1967?

  • I wish I could say that I don’t remember the 60s but I do. I was a kid, but life was pretty tame and sweet and much more simple. Now you got me feeling all nostalgic!!! 🙂

  • Alityke says:

    My scented 60s memory is of being allowed to run to meet my father from the bus he travelled home from work on. Thursday was pay day and he always brought “us” something. When I say “us” I mean my mum. Sometimes chocolates, sometimes, flowers but on one memorable occasion it was scent. Apple Blossom by Helena Rubenstein I think, but certainly Apple Blossom. Unbeknown to him mum LOATHED it. She loved Femme & Shalimar which he would never have paid for. Guess who get to wear it? Yep I was the only scented 4 year old in class

  • jillie says:

    The 60s are jumbling around in my mind: my first mini skirt, first lipstick (Yardley), growing my hair long and conditioning it with Breck. This was whe I started to be interested in skin care and cleaned my face with Anne French, toned it with Lemon Delph and moisturised with Oil of Ulay (before it became Olay). My dad smelt wonderful all the time, and my particular favourite was an Old Spice flanker, Burley, and I sometimes used to steal a bit! My perfume habit had already begun and I had a growing collection (usually presents from my generous dad) which included Coty’s Masumi, Lancome’s Magie and Guerlain’s Chant d’Aromes. Aaah, I can smell them now in my mind’s nose!

  • jillie says:

    This isn’t a 60s memory, but I am giggling so much I had to share – inspired by Musette, I just googled Aqua Velva and noticed that one of the websites is entitled “Do NOT put Aqua Velva on your genitals!”. I am too squeamish to click on to it, but it has made my day!

  • Katrin says:

    I saw this movie about 15 years ago, but it’s still fresh in my memory: Zabriskie Point!

  • Emily S says:

    Don Draper, you say? *Perks up* To me the 60’s is vibrant gypsy paisley and oversized tinted sunglasses, Mia Farrow’s charming, kinda quirky beauty in Rosemary’s Baby (at least in the beginning!), I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched : ) Thanks for the giveaway– good luck everyone!

  • solanace says:

    One of these days I was watching 101 Dalmatians with my 3 y old and was delighted by how bohemian it is! The guy is a jazz musician, they are kind of broke and still keep all the dogs! I immediately wondered when it was made. 1961. Good times, good values.
    Thank’s for the giveaway, Musette!

  • TaffyJ says:

    The Avengers!…John Steed and Mrs. Peel. Oh, how I loved Mrs. Peel and her leather catsuit, mod outfits, and her entire look. Steed was divinely handsome.

  • Janet in California says:

    Mr. Lippet! Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! Elvis Presley.

  • ojaddicte says:

    Audrey Hepburn, Belle de Jour, The Apartment, and Steve McQueen are the ’60s to me. 🙂

  • kelly says:

    The Supremes, the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Allman Brothers, The Association, etc…..
    And not to forget…. Jackie O.

  • Ann says:

    Cool post, Ms. M! I was just a kid in the ’60s, but loved those carefree days. Tony Curtis? Oh, man. He was adorable in “Some Like It Hot,” and I saw many of his films following that, but especially enjoyed him in the ’70s series “The Persuaders” with Roger Moore. Anyone remember that? This scent sounds great (but no draw for me, of course) and thanks for the fun blast from the past!

  • Diddy says:

    For me the sixties will always be the decade when the first man went into outer space in 1961. So, sixties is Yuri Gagarin. Any vintage perfume from that time is special.

  • Sylvia says:

    Loved growing up in the 60s; watching Star Trek, Lost in Space, The Monkees and my dad liked Get Smart. I remember dad liking Aqua Velva and Old Spice. And something with lots of lime. Thanks for the happy memory and the chance at the sample. Have a happy day!

  • hajusuuri says:

    My favorite 60’s shows include Get Smart and The Addams Family!

  • spiker says:

    I wish I was cool enough to have a wonderful sixties story, or creative enough to make one up. But, my memory of the sixties is tied up with a quirky movie called The Incredible Mr. Limpet, featuring Don Knotts as a talking fish. Silly as it was, I loved that movie. In fact, I may be headed to Amazon or Ebay next to find a copy.

  • Jan Last says:

    The sixties, huh? My life WAS the good, the bad and the ugly. I did a little modeling here in town, I tried every bad thing there was for me to get into, met the wrong guy at the right time, and the right guy at the wrong time. Tubing in the river, wrecking my body on the ski slope and met friends who have lasted a lifetime. BTW, I was sample browsing today and found, yep, orgasm in a bottle, also known as Perfum de Nicolai Maharanih Intense. It was a very good day!

  • Cat Schultz says:

    Gotta love anything Clint Eastwood. So one of my favs is The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!!