Welcome to the first 2020 edition of Mood Scent 4, where the fragrant team of Australian Perfume Junkies, L’Esperessence and I Scent You A Day and Megan In Sainte Maxime are your selectors for perfumes for various occasions. This time around we are focusing on discontinued fragrances. 

In the fragrance world there is nothing more miserable than finding out that one of your favourites has been taken off the market. You loved the perfume but perhaps nobody else did, or maybe there were various other nefarious reasons for its sad demise. Some discontinued perfumes have garnered huge reputations since their disappearance and hardly anyone has smelt them but everyone wants to. I’m looking at you Nombre Noir from Shiseido. If you have been a lover of fragrance for a while probably a few of your favourites have already disappeared and are stocking the discounters’ shelves or even worse have become very difficult to track down. Let’s commiserate and take a tour of a few of my favourites that are sadly discontinued.

1) Shalimar Parfum Initial : Guerlain : Thierry Wasser : 2011

This perfume is a flanker of the one and only Shalimar, a firm favourite even though I don’t whip it out often enough. Both this and the original have a lovely bergamot opening but really the difference ends there. This is much more of a gourmand perfume with tonka, vanilla, caramel and some sweetly chosen florals. I still wear this on occasion but don’t want to use it up in a hurry.  Fun fact – rock offspring Jade Jagger designed the bottle. 

2) Havana Vanille / Vanille Absolument : L’Artisan Parfumeur : Bertrand Duchaufour : 2009

This is a really sumptuous rum soaked vanilla doused in spice that hits the spot and can make you feel a little drunk with its deliciousness. It’s also one of the perfumes that I don’t wear that frequently yet each time I do, I wonder why not, as it’s a great vanilla. Don’t quote me on this but I believe it was discontinued because it became expensive to source the ingredients. I met Bertrand Duchaufour at Esxence one year and he said something to this effect. They obviously also had problems with the name as it was changed to Vanille Absolument and then sadly it was no more.

3) Le Temps d’Une Fête : Nicolai Parfumeur Créateur : Patricia Nicolai : 2007

One of the first green perfumes I tried and promptly bought a bottle. I realised later that the note that was creating interest was the wonderfully narcotic narcissus. Le Temps d’Une Fête really feels like the beginning of spring and it also has that pollen punch that might not be what you’d bargained for but I can assure you that as someone who has taken a long time to enjoy green perfumes this is one of the best. Thankfully there are other verdant perfumes to enjoy including Dryad from Papillon Artisan Perfumes and No 19 from Chanel.

4) Belle d’Opium : Yves Saint Laurent : Honorine Blanc and Albert Morillas : 2010

For lovers of the original Opium, this is not at all like its namesake. If you pay too much attention to the name you will be disappointed. However if you take the perfume at face value then you may be surprised. It’s one of my favourites from the Yves Saint Laurent line and it really was very annoying when it was discontinued. I would love it if a bottle fell into my lap again. Belle d’Opium is a lily centric floral but has a nice smoky aspect from the incense and tobacco. The whole perfume smelt rather va va voom and I went through three bottles of this in a row. Bring it back please.

5) Volutes EDT : Diptyque : Fabrice Pellegrin : 2012

This perfume was one of my first acquisitions when I developed a thirst for fragrance. I bought it in Paris at the original St Germain store and it was love at first sniff. The EDT is a honeyed tobacco that wafts wonderfully around with a delicate hint of iris that dresses the fragrance. The EDT is no longer available, however there is a newer EDP version,  but you know folks they are not the same. The EDP is nice but doesn’t quite hit the spot when one is acquainted with its predecessor.

Please make sure to read my fellow Mood Scent 4 group writers : Samantha on I Scent You A Day, Esperanza on L’Esperessence and Portia at Australian Perfume Junkies for their take on today’s topic. 

Thank you so much for reading and let me know your most missed fragrances.

Notes : Cover Image Canva : Fragrance images from the brands : Volutes by Megan In Sainte Maxime