Well this one has been a long time coming. I’ve actually had the sample of vintage Zibeline that I got from Surrender to Chance for almost a year now, and have been dabbing little pin pricks of it here and there when I needed a little lift. The vintage stuff was created in 1928 by Claude Fraysse and I wrote about it in doubtless exhaustive detail here. What I didn’t know was that there was a reissue that according to the interwebs was in 2010 and noted as a “pleasant Oriental feminine floral” (at least they left off “fruity.”). While the original wows you with the aldehydes, tarragon, and coriander seed before getting into the white florals, this one opens with a rather acrid plum combined with what smells to me like cilantro, the green result of coriander seed sprouting, which to so many tastes like eating soap. It’s not to say that it’s not interesting, and this new Zibeline is certainly wearable once the opening calms down a bit. A nice, plummy floral. I am not thrilled with it but since I got it dirt cheap I don’t feel like I got ripped off. What it is not however is Zibeline- smelling the vintage from StC on one wrist and the reissue on another is like watching the Gus van Sant remake of “Psycho”- you can appreciate it for the effort but have to wonder why they bothered.
I do wish that companies would stop doing this. Surely there are other names they can hook their products to. I don’t think it’s like there are loads of people who would have been consumers of the original around to compare it (unlike, say, the original Miss Dior), but invite the comparison it does. And the new Zibeline does not compare favorably to the old. Which is why, I suppose, I was able to score a cheap sealed bottle on eBay.
Have you tried this one? The old one? Let us know in the comments.
Zibeline (new) is out there on the interwebs anywhere from $40 – $150 for 1.7 OZ. I got mine off eBay. Surrender to Chance has samples of the original, which is where I got mine.
Photos are mine and Pexels.