New York-based Harvey Prince has launched Ageless Fantasy, a fragrance billed as “prescription free youth” in a bottle:
Patent-pending Ageless Fantasy was engineered to make you smell younger. No other product available today offers this technology. Research proves that men around women who used the perfume thought they were on an average 8 years younger! The Essence of Youth, this precious youth elixir is a blend of pink grapefruit, mango, anti-oxidant rich pomegranate, jasmine and musk.
Additional fragrance notes include apple, pineapple, leafy greens, cherry blossom, lily of the valley, peony, precious woods, musk and vanilla.
Harvey Prince Ageless Fantasy is available in 100 ml Eau de Toilette, $120. (via agelessfantasy, found via wwd)
34 Comments
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Kudos Robin! That was the most straight-faced delivery I've ever seen.
If you spray it on an 8-year-old, she smells like a fetus.
Didn't you post something (within, say, the last year or so) about a scent that supposedly made you smell thinner? Like, when a woman wore it, men thought she was about ten pounds lighter than she really was?
Just watch. Any day now there'll be a men's scent that makes him smell six inches taller and three inches longer.
Gosh, what else can you do? I mean, really…this doesn't even need editorial commentary, LOL…
Spewed my tea at “smells like a fetus”!
I don't remember the 10 pounds lighter (although surely that's next), but there were news items awhile back about pink grapefruit making you smell “younger” in general, and House of Rose already sells a pink grapefruit scent with added pheromones for about the same purpose as this.
I found the skinny-perfume thing. You might not have posted anything about it, but there was a study that indicated that spicy-floral scents make men perceive women as being anywhere from 4 to 12 pounds lighter than they actually are. I won't bother to post the link, because I always manage to screw those up, but if you Google “scent pounds lighter” you'll find a bunch of links to write-ups on the same study.
To hell with smelling younger!! I want to look younger. I'll never relinquish my La Mer budget to fragrance. Never. . . grrrrrr. . . .
llol, omg just snorted diet coke through my nose!
Yep, I save my pennies for Retin-A.
So funny! Love the idea of the men's fragrance!
That's just so funny… I am 21, I really do NOT want to smell like I'm 13 years old. What else are they gonna come up with seriously? They were probably testing this perfume on some good-looking, elegant women even if they were older, they'd still make a good impression on these men. Or maybe men that were participating in that research were just trying to be nice…
I think the sitcom 30 Rock did something about plus-size fragrance. My friend was telling me about it. I think that was more about the target demographic than actually making you look fatter, but your comment made me think of it. Seems as though every branch of the beauty industry is jumping on the anti-age bandwagon. Hair products, lash products, spa treatments, etc. Guess they all want a piece of that multi-billion dollar pie.
OK, so if I use 4 squirts, will I appear to be 48 pounds lighter? Just what I need. Of course, I'll also be 32 years younger. Hmmmm, but I understand buying just one bottle reduces your IQ by about 100 points. . .
So when is the men's flanker, 'Giant Fantasy', coming out?
Continuing the theme, they are marketing this to women who were born yesterday, I assume!
I love all the comments, and might even be suckered into trying out the fragrance and the theory…however, don't we concede there is a phrase “old lady perfume” and that we might get some agreement here about which fragrances qualify? Do we consider scents “old lady” because they are/were popular in past eras or because of how they react on “older” bodies or because aging noses can't detect how much scent they're applying? Isn't “Youth Dew” considered an “old lady” scent despite the name, and will smelling like “Ageless Fantasy” eventually be a dead giveaway of one's age, like a Botox-frozen brow?
Er, I would just concede the term exists due to the stupidity and/or ignorance of young women who have no capacity to elaborate/for any eloquence in their speech. A lot of this is also borne out of the sugar candy-fruits scents that have been marketed as the sexy/womanly (actually no one ever says this)/sensual etc perfumes of the generation, unlike now classic scents such as Youth Dew, No.5, Shalimar, Fracas, and the later classics such as Poison, Opium, White Linen. Judging from what I smell everyday, it's the 20 year olds and teens who can't detect how much scent they're wearing. There's a difference between a discreet trail of sillage and spraying on half a bottle of Pink Sugar or Clean at a time.
There you go, figures that it exists, even if only on TV.
I think that the scents some consider “old lady” perfumes are just a result of whatever type of fragrance people have smelt on their mothers, grandmothers and elderly relatives growing up.
In 2048 years or so Daisy and sugary pink fluff will be the “Old Lady” perfumes!
Hey, we already have all those lip plumper gloss thingies! Actually, it probably already exists & I just don't know about it.
Kyriaki, The phrase certainly is used, but it isn't one I'd ever use — I think it's a particularly unkind way to describe something — unkind both to the fragrance and to old ladies in general, and since I'm well on my way to being one, I object. Youth Dew is what I'd call “old-fashioned”, not “old lady”.
NST, thanks! from a 40-something gal.
I wear YD and get lots of complements.
I went to visit my 89 year old grandmother this summer and I was so impressed with her older and her more up-to-date collection of perfume (I had no idea we shared this same obsession/hobby) The whole weekend she was wearing Chinatown by Bond No 9. I of course complimented her on how great she smelled and she said to me with great conviction:
“Honey, I may be an old lady, but that doesn’t mean I have to smell like one”
She wasn’t referring to the scent of “old fashioned” perfume, but more of the musty smell of a nursing/retirement home at which she resides; moreover she wasn’t trying to make herself smell 8 years younger either…her goal was to simply smell good.
Therefore I don’t think it is the type of perfume or the year it was created that matters but the care, presentation, and style in which you wear it. Here’s to Grandma Katy
De nada
Robin, I meant to say it seems that a fragrance marketed at being perceived as 8 years younger (by men)–rather than for its intrinsic qualities–will only underscore one's age (once the scent is widely recognized). As for my use of the term “old lady”, I'm a grandmother of four, and just as my husband says “Does this shirt make me look like an old guy?” I might ask “Does this scent make me smell like an old lady?” Perhaps those comments belie his ignorance of fashion and mine of fragrance, but both of us mean “like I'm older than I am?” (About which we mean to laugh at ourselves, not mock those older than us, hoping to join their ranks). I really appreciate that you advocate considering fragrances objectively. They're so rooted in our histories–cultural, generational and personal, and it's fun and interesting to appreciate what was or is used by those who came before us. And I was posing a question, at least, about the influence of age on a fragrance choice. My own 88 year old mother didn't like Youth Dew at all until several years ago and now she comments on how beautiful it is. I wonder why her perception changed. I also find it delightful when someone (such as MiKailing's grandmother–below) wears something quite unexpected. It might be disconcerting or pleasingly quirky to smell Shalimar on a 16 year old.
Also, as I get older I ask myself whether I'm applying too much scent because I'm losing some ability to smell it or if my body chemistry has changed. And if that's true, will it influence my preferences? Will I choose EDP or more intense scents in general? Do people of a certain age favor fragrances because the scent itself is more appreciated by a mature nose, much as “fruity” scents are said to be preferred by younger people?
That, and I can't live without my Anastasia eye lights stick, it takes 5 years off my eyes.
Of course everyone is different, but I always think that for many people, their tastes in most things (food, wine, perfume, music) crystallize somewhere around the late 20s/ early 30s, and so with perfume, they continue to wear whatever they liked then. Obviously that's not true for everyone, and if you take up perfume as a hobby your tastes are likely to expand dramatically.
Also quite true that your sense of smell weakens as you age, and so light fragrances are going to be less appealing to you.
I don't know that product, but I'm pretty darned lazy…I'm lucky if I find the time to put on mascara!
Kyriaki, I think a lot of us are sensitive about the expression “old lady perfume” because it seems so often meant as derogatory when used by non-perfumistas, so using it here tends to rile folks up. I'm too lazy to see if it's possible to google all the times “old lady scent” has appeared on NST, but if you did, you'd probably see me being as irascible as anyone about it. I personally love the fact that I am old enough to wear some of the heavy duty chypres, and things like Youth Dew, which I love, and that they really suit me know (or so I flatter myself). It is interesting to contemplate the physiological changes that must occur to make us love things we once were indifferent or worse to, and of course the psychological factor is there as well. I like to think that, as been stated elsewhere, that we get away from wanting to wear perfume as artificial pheromone (i.e. the fruity floral that seems to be the olfactory mating call du jour) and more for it's intrinsic beauty, or interest, or even intimidation factor (I'm raising my hand here).
So anyway, welcome to the “old lady scent” controversy. I'm glad your mother digs Youth Dew, I love it and always feel like I have to jump up and defend it.
Cheers!
“smells like a fetus” is a Nirvana song, no?
Don't know whether to laugh or groan!
It smells just like Ralph Lauren Romance. So “pink” and so uninteresting
Though marketing idea should work for someone who wants to be desperately younger.. 
I am going to wash it away. Too shallow for me.
Oana, I still haven't smelled the stuff. RL Romance is popular enough…if it smells like it, it should sell!
Thats exactly the point
Intoxicating! May not smell young, but simply fantastic!