Histoire d'Amour
Aubusson (1984)

I own a version of Histoire d'Amour from long before it became a Palm Beach Beauté zombie, and this darker, golden liquid is an ultra-chypre of the dry and dowdy variety, a surprise for 1984 release, and the kind for which I have such a soft spot. It is destined to elicit disapproving wails of "old lady" or "old man" or "Old Gold cigarettes stuffed in one of those cig carton snap-purses with a compartment for a lighter." Yet, it also feels very earth god/earth goddess, which could be attributed to this basil-wrapped ylang ylang and its heaps of honey patchouli and oakmoss.

The best part of Histoire d'Amour is when the heady bouquet settles into a green-woody dry down. It is persistent, giving me the same sensation as Dioressence or Aromatics Elixir—autumnal and enchanting.

Histoire d'Amour by Aubusson (1984) gets shot down these days because most bottles seen for cheap on the gray market are from Palm Beach Beauté, who bought the brand (much like they did Kanøn from Scannon) in 2011 and outsourced all production to China, with incredibly dubious results. There's reformulation, and then there's downright desecration for a fast buck, and that is pretty much what Palm Beach Beauté did to most things of an older nature coming under their umbrella, not all too dissimilar to what Dana Classic Fragrances did when it rose from the ashes of New Dana (itself a rebrand of New Renaissance Cosmetics, who bought the original Dana), busting down the formulas to the cheapest thrill a GCMS machine could get you, and making unrecognizable monstrosities of drugstore classics. At least in Aubusson's favor, it was never a "classic" house to begin with, having only started like around the time Histoire d'Amour released in 1984, originally branded as "Daniel Aubusson" as seen on original boxes. But, from about 1984 until about 2010, Histoire d'Amour was something to respect, even if not necessarily admired in the crowded field it traveled.

For the most part, this is a bog-standard white floral chypre, made with good materials, mostly unfettered by IFRA or supply chain woes that would come later when the perfume market grew too large for the planet's capacity to provide it natural essences used in prior centuries for perfume making. Granted, we were right on the cusp of that, so I don't know how much natural rose or sandalwood would be in bottles into the 90's, or oakmoss into the 2000's once IFRA had to capitulate to the SCCS, but at least here in my bottle I can feel everything as intended. Aldehydes start the show, and there is a bit of callback to things like Chant d'Arômes by Guerlain (1962), Dioressence by Dior (1969), or downmarket latecomers like Avon Emprise (1976) here. Aldehydes and dry citruses lead into violet, rose, geranium, jasmine, muguet, narcissus, and orris in a way most familiar to classic white floral chypres. They all sort of blend in a nondescript way that could be points deducted for someone looking to have greater separation of florals, but how much of that is age versus intent I cannot tell. The soapiness and the honeyed piss civet and styrax over oakmoss, patchouli, and basil; a balancing act between powdery and musky sharp chypre. Performance is good on these old bottles, but I imagine probably not on the Palm Beach stuff.

I think nostalgia makes this seem better now than it was against its contemporaries in 1984, as the style was a bit dowdy coming this late in the game against big boned chypres like Creation by Ted Lapidus (1984), which this seems to be the missing link between Histoire d'Amour and the later Désirade by Aubusson (1990) that played leapfrog over it and Joop! Femme by Parfums Joop! (1987) later on. Unlike later Aubusson fragrances, there is no attempt at straddling the past and future with Histoire d'Amour; this is very much a mature, older-style perfume for the time, and coupled with its name, wore that statement on its sleeve. I mean, the name literally translates into "History of Love", so the shoe fits here. Regardless, this serviceable white floral chypre was doomed to duty-free shops and high street stores as the entire house slid down into that market, "Daniel Aubusson" dropping all pretense of being an actual designer and just becoming an obscure brand of discontinued treasures and a zombie lurch into modern-day airport gift shops, mall kiosks, and gray market sellers with endless flankers to sell, including the aquatic Histoire d'Amour 2 by Aubusson (2003), which was the counterpoint to Man in Blue by Aubusson (2004). Thumbs up

Well, well, well....they don't make 'em like this anymore. Old lady, indeed, but in the best way. This old lady oozes class and money, but is not the least bit snobby. She lets her grandkids play in her salon on 5th Avenue overlooking Central Park, throws great soirees to raise money for deserving charities, and is an active supporter of all things artistic. Then, she pops the collar of her linen shirt, heads to her house by the ocean, and hosts a clam-bake on the beach after an afternoon on the sailboat. This is an old-school, very French chypre in the manner of Caleche, First, 24 Faubourg, et al. Just lovely! (nb: this review is for the parfum)

I have mixed feelings about my cheap & cheerful blind-buy (the parfum was only $13.99!!! How could I not?) The parfum lives up to the reviews prior to this one. The edt... well, not so much. The parfum is made in France, and the edt, much to my surprise - "Made in China". I say no more.

Amour perpétuel...

Histoire d'Amour... Oui, mais quel sorte d'amour est-il? It's strange, but this is one of the most ambiguous perfumes I have ever smelled. At first it looks and smells like it comes right out of the pages of a Victorian horror novel. This is how a theatre dressing room would smell back then. But whoever would be waiting for the young thespian outside, could be nothing less than Jack the Ripper. So the poor beatiful thing would meet her doom-laden fate, but smelling divinely nevertheless.
On the other hand it smells of something a firebrand would wear. Tough and hard-boiled, but straight and honest to the extreme. I don't know, how can be something romantic and cynical at the same time? Oakmoss battling narcissus and osmanthus quarrelling with basil? I love to watch such fights taking place! Their outcome is usually a mess, except some messes are unique and stunning.
And concerning its "gender", this one's feminine and (I'm Francisco "Paco" Rabaneda Cuervo and I've made) 1 Million (in a month) is masculine? Right... O tempora o mores!
Now, I can already hear the Old Lady Alert screaming, and see youngsters pointing at its "outmoded" bottle in sheer horror. So, do we have an old lady here? Of course we do! The youngsters are right, but also so wrong. She is an old lady indeed. Only this one packs a pair of knuckledusters inside her old lady bag. And after flooring any arrogant and pompous brat, she'll kickstart her old lady motorcycle and vanish into the sunset. The very kind of an old lady who can use this gorgeous bottle to spray a mesmerising shroud around her, but can also bludgeon every hater to submission, before (s)he'll be able to say: "Hey, it smells like old la..." Bang! You're down! Now, be smart enough to stay down and kowtow before her prodigious awesomeness! It's so much fun being an old lady sometimes! Especially when embarassing clueless newbies is the name of your game.
I can't stress enough how much I miss smelling perfumes of this magnitude and quality in public nowadays. So, ladies, please, wear this and go somewhere. In a club, to a ball, it doesn't matter; somewhere. If there's any gallant and fine gentleman there, rest asured he'll come directly to you, like drawn by a magnet, tossing every fruity-candy-sweety girl aside in his wake. And perhaps your Histoire D'Amour will be born...

I scored this unusual woody chypre purely by accident.
I received the Histoire D'amour pure perfume miniature, created by Aubusson, merely as a free bonus to a mainstream, popular floral-fruity miniature I bought online, both for only $10.
I'd never even heard of Histoire D'amour, and when I removed the very ornate, lalique-style bottle from the pouch, I first thought "hmmm....another old school scent." Which I certainly don't mind. After all, I love Bal a Versailles, L'Heure Bleue, vintage Miss Dior, just to name a few of the old school perfumes in their old-school-elegant-ornate bottles.
But no old school here.
Wow, it is far better than the popular floral-fruity perfume I originally purchased. When I tried it, my immediate thought was the now discontinued Mariella Burani's Mariella Burani, which I had received as a gift.
The smokiness with which Histoire D'amour opens is probably due to the basil mixed with osmanthus and bergamot. All combined with mandarin, which I can't smell. Next, in the middle, I smell galbanum, ylang- ylang, jasmine and rose. Also included in the middle notes is narcissus and orange blossom, which I don't detect. The middle being the best part, it then dries down to patchouli, musk and oakmoss. But it's not an overwhelming, in-your-face patchouli.
My skin absorbs scent like a sponge. So silage and longevity are not great with me.
I couldn't find any Histoire D'amour lotion online or in stores with which to layer as a base. So I mixed five drops of Histoire D'amour with a small amount of unscented lotion before applying the perfume.
This helped staying power considerably.