I was an Equipage fiend. When I smelled Equipage for the first time in Los Angeles in 1993, I became hooked on the perfume in seconds and, for weeks, took the bottle with me everywhere I went…spraying, spraying, spraying all through the day. My best friend, a perfume fanatic herself, asked me on one memorable occasion to “STOP!” applying, or should I say RE-applying, Equipage. My friend and I were going to dinner and she made a quick stop at a dry cleaner’s to pick up a dress; when she returned to the car, the Equipage fumes were so strong she began to cough. She smelled Equipage in her car for days afterwards (but went on to buy Equipage aftershave for her father at Christmas).

I depleted my last bottle of Equipage around 1996 and I decided to take a “break” from the fragrance so I wouldn’t tire of it. I never got around to buying Equipage again. Now, I am about to smell it for the first time in 13 years. Here goes — (pssssst!) — AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! I’m in heaven! Balmy, relaxed, warm and addictive, Equipage is as I remember it — and I want to use every drop of my Equipage sample immediately.

Equipage was created for Hermès by perfumer Guy Robert and it debuted in 1970...

Although it took me a while to appreciate some of the classic Christian Diors, as I've become more experienced with perfume I've come to love them more and more. For instance, the first time I tried Miss Dior and Diorella, I wasn't sure about them. They were intriguing, but I wasn't ready for them yet. Dioressence, on the other hand, I loved at first sniff. What I didn't know was that my first sniff was of the vintage Dioressence.

Dior's website describes Dioressence as a "spicy oriental" and lists its top notes as aldehydes, greens and fruit; its heart as jasmine, geranium, cinnamon, carnation, orris, ylang ylang and tuberose; and its base as patchouli, oakmoss, vetiver, vanilla and musk...

Isn’t it strange how two perfumes can have the same list of notes and yet sometimes smell so different? Lots of perfumes start with bergamot, neroli, or lemon, then segue to rose, jasmine, and iris with maybe some lily or tuberose thrown in. Then the perfume drys down to some combination of sandalwood, vetiver, amber and maybe tonka or vanilla. Racier scents might have civet, patchouli, musk, or oakmoss in the base. Of course I’m being overly general here, but so many scents have the same ingredients and yet smell so different. Madame Rochas is a case in point.

Helène Rochas — the real Madame Rochas — took over the House of Rochas when she became a widow at only 28 years old. It was 1955. Helène was the woman for whom Marcel Rochas commissioned Edmond Roudnitska to create Femme as a wedding present. By 1960, Helène was ready to add a new perfume to the Rochas brand, one that was easier to wear than Femme. She looked to Chanel No. 5 and Arpège for inspiration, and she hired Guy Robert to create it...

The first three chapters of the book cover perfume history, the sense of smell, and fragrant raw materials...

In 1992, Hermès released Calèche Soie de Parfum, a reformulated version that they hoped would appeal to a younger, more modern consumer. According to Women’s Wear Daily (3/27/1992), they "heightened and brightened" the floral notes, and cut back on the powdery wood notes. That is the scent I am reviewing today. I have never tried the original parfum, and I have no idea if it has been reformulated as well...

Amouage bills itself as "the most valuable perfume in the world", and Guy Robert was reportedly told to spare no expense:

"In my kind of work," says Robert, "you always have a dream of creating the perfume, the one in which you are given free rein to use all the essences of your experience, your thought and imagination, no matter how expensive." (via saudiaramcoworld)

It is perhaps no surprise that Robert considers Amouage his "crowning glory", and in fact, the emphasis on quality raw materials shows in the result...

The Pink Room is a boutique in Manhattan owned by Sarah Barton-King. Open by appointment only, the shop features scarves, shoes, and home accessories. According to Barton-King, Parfum no. 1 was…

...inspired by images from Marcel Proust. "I love old roses, and wanted a scent that would evoke the ones that grew in his aunt's garden." (Victoria magazine, 3/03)

To create the fragrance, she turned to perfumer Guy Robert. Parfum no. 1 was launched in 1999, and features lime, bergamot, rose, jasmine, lily of the valley, violet, vanilla, moss, and musk...