Intoxication
D'Orsay (1938)

I purchased a bottle of the parfum about 15 years ago from a online auction, it was listed as being sealed & never used, to my surprise the original packaging was indeed still intact, after careful opening I found it had been boxed similar to that of Chanel extraits with a second inner split box with the base it's presentation stand. The flacon is the same as pictured below in image photos with a ovoid ground glass stopper & a square design similar to the Chanel bottle only slightly different and sealed with white/golden silk twine (bauderuche) thankfully very little evaporation had occured, also it is a 2 fl.oz size (60 ml.) I put all back together, re-sealed the cellophane and placed it in storage, from memory the quality of the glass is far superior to that of the Chanel flask in fact I believe it is crystal, very understated yet totally luxe including the coffret that is made of beige quilted cardboard and gold lettering, as a diehard lover of chypres and after reading these reviews I should search my hoard and liberate the contents of this now rare parfum by the house of D'Orsay, I will re-edit with my findings, I do hope it is still wearable after so many decades, this edition I think is perhaps the last production of the extrait before the 1960-70's re-edition in eau de toilette... stay tuned folks!!!

Intoxication by D'Orsay (1938) is not a chypre which makes the rounds often, even in vintage enthusiast circles, and part of that reason is the house of D'Orsay overall doesn't get the same loving attention as other classic French perfume houses such as Guerlain or Houbigant. Part of this is because D'Orsay wasn't really an authentic French perfume house, since it was formed in 1908 by investors banking on the name of the long-dead Alfred Guillame Gabriel, a famous French Bonapartist dandy holding the title of Count D'Orsay, and the other part is that the majority of the perfumes made by the house were arguably also-rans living in the shadow of landmark releases from houses like Coty or Chanel. Truth be told, D'Orsay did technically become a legitimate French house when it was bought by perfumer Jeanne-Louise Guérin, who helped D'Orsay gain some credibility in the first few decades by making it a true family operation composing perfumes himself, then later getting cousin Jacques Guérin to design bottles while he too studied chemistry to compose perfumes for D'Orsay as well. Ultimately, they resorted to outsourcing perfumers like the esteemed Henri Robert and eventually bottle makers like Baccarat, making D'Orsay no different than the other big names in the perfume world in the early to mid 20th century, and then eventually fading into the background when they failed to truly stand out. Intoxication was launched in the eve of WWII, and was a powdery white floral chypre of the usual order with a chewy oakmoss base, undeniably classic but not cutting-edge enough to stand out, nor altogether different enough from a lot of things existing at the time to become an icon like Chypre de Coty (1917), Guerlain Mitsouko (1919), or Chanel No. 5 (1921). To me, this feels like a precursor to the later Eyvan White Shoulders (1945) and Nina Ricci L'Air du Temps (1948) with its focus on a clean white floral heart with a bitter base, but with everyone crazy about orientals and animalic perfumes by this point, the kind of conservatism Intoxication ironically represented wouldn't really come into vogue until after WWII had concluded.

Intoxication is a rather soapy and conservative perfume for something carrying such a name, but with a slightly-animalic undercurrent tacked onto a dry base as was the convention of the day, meaning it may still seem somewhat challenging to modern noses thoroughly unaccustomed to a stern perfume without sugar and fruit, but is comparatively casual for its day. The opening of Intoxication is pretty straightforward sour bergamot and mandarin with lemon, and a few zingy aldehydes but no fleshy golden florals to get in the way of the citrus, just a muted citrus that leads right into indolic rose and jasmine paired up with the contradiction of soapy neroli and a cocktail of muguet and ylang-ylang. Nutmeg sits right on the edge to keep things piquant, before the whole thing dries down to a powdery French savon accord with sandalwood, amber, smooth nitro musks, dry vetiver, buttery oakmoss, and a hint of skin growl with styrax. Intoxication has the kind of smell you've likely encountered before with old-fashioned luxury soaps, cremes, and powders, but here in direct perfume format, with tenacity and a dark density not found in any bath products laced with similar fragrance thanks to the chewy base Intoxication rests upon. It's all very nice, but sort of conventional, and probably a bit prim for fans of the aldehydic or leathery chypres making the rounds during this era, or even the grandiose "kitchen sink" orientals that preceded them. I tested a vintage eau de toilette, which really wears like an eau de parfum in terms of longevity, with sharp but not overbearing sillage for 3 hours then reducing to a powdery skin feel after 7 or so hours. This is painfully classic perfumery that goes on a little funky with crossed arms, then settles into something with hands folded in lap, so no suggested context for use in a modern setting unless you're around people who appreciate vintage style. I imagine something like this would have made the perfect office fragrance for a secretary or receptionist in a film noir. Intoxication is really anything but, and I've smelled something in this vein as recent as Avon Unspoken (1975), although Unspoken was much more severe in tone.

By the time perfumes like Intoxication became more accessible due to growing department store chains and strip malls, this style had been democratized so much in the beauty industry that is was no longer novel like it must have seemed in 1938 when D'Orsay bottled it, but I bet this stuff was a lot more popular in the 1960's with American "baby boomers" than anyone swinging into perfume shops during the 1930's when this launched. Intoxication just has that quiet "Suzie Homemaker" vibe to it and feels like something everyone's grandmother would have worn to church or family picnics, saving the wild stuff like Shocking by Elsa Schiaparelli (1938) for fun weekends with the hubby after the kids went to sleep. This isn't the golden floral glow of Patou Joy (1930) or the soap-meets-civet dance of something like Coty L'Aiment (1927), but just a chypre accord made "safe" by dialing up the powdery elements and white florals to Victorian levels of proper, and just a comfortable familiar-smelling perfume that was likely worn for that very reason by those who knew. I'd say this was one of the more-popular creations D'Orsay made in the early years, as evidenced by how long it was on the market and how much survives long after discontinuation, but Intoxication falls by the wayside in regards to hobbyist interest for being unremarkable outside of quality, like all but a few landmark D'Orsay perfumes. It's a shame really, as this house seemed to have tried so hard at becoming one of the big French greats, from its choice of historical namesake to the talent that has passed through its doors in the century-plus existence of the company (although Intoxication's nose is unknown), but still just manages to cling to the fringes of perception due to the curious association with the famous count. Granted, obscurity is still a more respectable fate than being farmed out into an umbrella holdings company, with all it's legacy perfumes watered down or killed off like with Coty. Thumbs up, but with admonition that this one is only for die-hard oakmoss chypre lovers.

The Eau de Toilette:
The opening blast starts on a fresh mandarine-lemon citrus base, with bergamot rounding off the refreshing start. The drydown very much takes a floral turn, with a dark, rich and velvety rose impression mixed with a gorgeous jasmine; a hint of lily-of-the-valley provided a more light-hearted touch at times. Gorgeous all the way.

The base keeps up the high standard set so far: it is sweeter, with a great natural tonka joining a dark and brooding patchouli and a faecaloid musk note for a distinct animalistic twist.

The star performer in the base, however, is an amazing oak moss; of a raw, at times waxy, natural, pungently refreshing clarity, it reigns supreme until the finale, with only the occasional additional whiff of sandalwood present towards the end.

The performance is sheer brilliance, with strong sillage, great projection and a stunning thirteen hours of longevity on my skin. Beautiful in autumn and winter, the quality of the ingredients is nothing short of amazing and the whole composition is superbly blended. One of D'Orsays masterpiece chypres, showing the heights this house was able to achieve in its time. 4/5.

I had a bottle of what I assume was Intoxication nearly 35 years ago. I have dreamt of it often, tried to find it and have always come up short. For many years I had a severe sensitivity to all fragrances. Now that I have recovered from that I am once again dreaming of finding that elusive frag.
I searched ebay and bought a small bottle....hope springs eternal. I will let you all know how the quest goes!

FINAL - D'ORSAY – INTOXICATION (1938)

My initial review on Basenotes from April, 2014, was a neutral one. I found Intoxication “a spicy floral of no particular distinction.” Barbara Herman reviewed it as “a bright, sharp, sexy floral.”

It turns out I was not experiencing the original, but a re-formulation from 2006, minus the neroli, amber, oak moss and styrax. It was sold in upscale department stores in a replica of the original bottle in eau de parfum concentration.

This was after a failed attempt to create a flanker, Intoxication d'Amour, in 1997, also in a replica of the original bottle and sold in both eau de parfum and eau de toilette concentrations. The composition bore no relation to the original.

The original composition follows:

Top notes: Bergamot, Lemon, Mandarin
Heart notes: Rose, Neroli, Jasmine, Ylang Ylang, Muguet, Orange Blossom, Nutmeg
Base notes: Vetiver, Patchouli, Vanilla, Sandalwood, Tonka, Musk, Benzoin, Amber, Oak Moss, Styrax

Intoxication has been called one of D'Orsay's great chypres.

For my nose the citrus opening has not survived the years. I am immediately plunged into the rose and jasmine, “dark, rich and velvety” as R. Baker notes in the review here.

The tonka, vanilla and amber are given an animalic musk and depth from the styrax, which makes all the difference in this original composition. There is a spiciness, which emerges to float above the florals, which must derive from the nutmeg. It is big, dense and powerful.

The dry down is very warm and rich, a truly gorgeous chypre. I am not aware of any obvious oak moss, the blending is so truly masterful, but don't doubt it is there. The name fits, as it is truly a wrist sniffer, and I look forward to splashing it on other body parts in the near future. Great projection and sillage.

Very available on the internet, but certainty vintage can probably only be ascertained by the absence of any zip code on the packaging or bottle, since the re-formulation uses an identical bottle design.
Worth seeking out for vintage chypre lovers.

I received this with some others, it was a very old bottle with brown resin (mmmm....) at the bottom, not very much. Unfortunately, it leaked into the plastic baggy it was packed in. I thought it smelled heavenly. My husband pronounced it urinal cake. So I just left the baggy open slightly and put it in the bathroom to scent the air! It finally lost that ability, so today after my shower I put the few remaining drops on. I had been feeling not so good, had a different perfume give me a wowzer headache in the morning, but felt better after my shower. I find resinous goopy vintages very comforting, and this proved so. I looked up the notes elsewhere, but I see Tessara did a good job of listing them. I can see how my syrup had those beginnings, because as thick as it is, it is still a beautiful light fragrance. The ampule Tessara had would be so much truer to the original scent, and I would not have guessed L'Aimant, but sandalwood, you bet. I LOVE sandalwood. I think if you love vintages, you could successfully try it whether it is light or dark. Oh, and hubby quite liked it on me!