My Sin (original)
Lanvin (1925)

Some have said that perfumes were considered "potions" back in their day, so as to suggest that wearers then respected their magic and potency. If there was this reverence in the past, then My Sin surely must've been perceived as materialized through the incantation of a mysterious Madame Zed (Marie Zéde). An elderly Russian perfumer hired by Jeanne Lanvin, Zed composed this potion with its startling use of aldehydes, citrus, and florals to collide with a sensuous, animalic base. In my "Eau de Lanvin" version, the pure and sinful duality titillates, and while it's not loud, its stealth seduction is nonetheless powerful. I would also argue that the ingredients used are of a phenomenal quality.

What's most prominent as My Sin develops is a musky jasmine and rose is underlined with civet and resins, verging on lascivious but there is nothing crude or offensive (modern indie perfumers who fetishize animalic accords will want to take note). It just reaches that precipice of anticipation where one wants so much to unbutton and let loose but chooses to relish the earliest stages of foreplay. Madame Zed was on to something: temperatures rise, heart rate increases, one gets flush, but the desire is encapsulated and enhanced in My Sin. As clean and respectable as we may appear, those dirty thoughts are just under the surface, looking to reach a climax.