Sortilège
Long Lost Perfume (1937)

This is divine... I started this review in the wrong category, as I will be talking here not about Long Lost Perfume but about vintage Le Galion Sortilège, parfum de Toilette Sortilèg. I have never smelled anything quite like it. It could be a "signature scent," it is so lovely, and so particular. I am sucker for anything with peach top notes, but here, along with the aldehydes and white flowers and rose, one really experiences this whole dazzling array of basenotes: "palisander wood, vetiver, sandalwood, cedar, vanilla, tonka bean, civet, musk, oakmoss, opoponax, ambergris" https://cleopatrasboudoir.blogspot.com/2013/04/sortilege-by-le-galion-c1937.html. (I really recommend that Cleopatra's Boudoir review, as it cites old marketing and review language that gets at the magic of this "spell," including, in a 1950 review, "the heavy scent of tropical woods." Yes! As if one wanders from the woods growing over Sleeping Beauty's castle into a woods aglow with tropical blossoms closing up at night. There is a fullness to the cedary vanilla with those aldehydes and oakmoss that is just rather unique in my book, despite all the comparisons to Chanel N 5 and Coty l'Aimant. Not sure how the longevity and sillage play out, but for complex sophistication despite the peach, sandalwood, and vanilla, I would give this a 10.

Review of the Vintage Formulation by Le Galion:

The opening is a dense mixture of bergamot with a basket of florals, namely orange blossom and hyacinth; initially a strong aldehydic is present, a bit like in Chanel No.5. Hints of a warn neroli develop a bit later, accompanied by touches of fruitiness, including some ripe peaches, strawberries, and strawberry leaves too, before the focus is shifting to the floral side.

The drydown develop a nice rose note, a bit veering towards a soft May rose but a bit darker than expected, with a strong and slightly creamy ylang-ylang gradually assuming olfactory dominance for a while. A slightly powdery jasmine joins in as well, a jasmine blossom with little of a green character on me. Muguet is another strong note arriving here and blending well with the ylang-ylang in particular. Darker florals added in also include some quite sweet violet, as well as a distinctive lilac impression.

Towards the base the whole take on spicy undertones, starting with a orris and enhanced by some opoponax; these two components are quite mild and accompanied, at times, by an underlying touch of a balsamic aroma. A very subtle chypre-like oakmoss together with some coumarin and some musk and an equally gentle civet are noted too; the latter two are much less animalic than one might expect - maybe the age of the sample led to some attenuation in this case?

Later on the base adds some woods, mainly cedar but also touches of sandalwood, with an ambery tonka some sweetness. Further into the base, the floral tones re-appear again is the guise of the jasmine, which, accompanies by a softly glowing vetiver, gives the final stages some additional depth. The vetiver is gentle and lacks any earthiness on me.

I get moderate sillage, excellent projection , and a splendid ten hours of longevity in my skin.

This beauty of a scent for special spring evenings is rich, a very good variety in its development and is superbly blended. The quality of the ingredients is marvelous. It exudes richness and confidence, without any mustiness, dowager-boudoir-style fustiness, or excessive powderiness. Age might have affected it, but it is still an impressive creation. The performance is excellent. The name is apt; it casts a bit of a spell. 4.25/5

When a beloved perfume from the past such as Le Galion's Sortilège (1936) is relaunched, the logic of perfume marketing demands that the new version be praised as a faithful continuation of the legacy. Meanwhile, those who know the original version can be expected to wail in chorus, “It's not the same.” But If you love vintage perfumes, you already know it won't be the same. At best, you hope that the relaunch shows some respect for the history of the perfume and the memories of those who wore it in its original form. Ideally, the essential character of the original perfume will be maintained in a new composition that uses current materials and technology. You just do not wish to see a great vintage reissued badly, as in the appalling new Jeanne Lanvin My Sin (2017), which transforms the great animalic aldehyde and its iconic Art Deco black flacon into a fruity floral in a hot pink bottle.

From the start, the Le Galion house could boast of an impressive pedigree, having been established in the 1920's by Prince Murat, a descendant of Napoleon I's brother-in-law. The perfume company acquired an even more influential leader when it was sold to Paul Vacher in 1935. Vacher (1902-75) was one of the most successful and talented perfumers of the twentieth century, with a long and highly diversified career. After training in chemistry, the young Vacher worked at Guerlain and then at Lanvin, where he and André Fraysse, the nephew of Jean Lanvin, designed Arpège in 1927. Vacher left Lanvin when he took over Le Galion. For the next four decades, Vacher produced and marketed his own perfumes under the Le Galion label while continuing to design perfumes for other houses, most notably when he collaborated with Jean Carles to produce the inimitable Miss Dior in 1947. Vacher also designed Diorling for Dior in 1963. With such success, Vacher was able to move his operations to Neuilly, where he formulated perfumes while also producing perfume essences and ingredients that he continued to provide to the Chanel and Dior perfume labels, among others.
Le Galion's biggest hit of all was surely Sortilège, launched a year after Vacher took over Le Galion, in 1936. In a particularly effective promotional strategy, Le Galion partnered with the Stork Club, which generated photos of Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, and Judy Garland sitting at cafe tables with a box of Sortilège in front of them.

Sortilège is often compared to all the usual suspects: No. 5, L'Aimant, and Arpège, and for a long time, Sortilège didn't seem mandatory to me as I investigated all of those better-known vintage perfumes in succession. I finally decided to try it and, of course, I thought it was wonderful. The vintage parfum lasts beautifully on the skin, as does the somewhat lighter vintage parfum de toilette. Sortilège's aldehydic opening is very soft and gives way to a luscious floral bouquet of exceptional quality, dominated by jasmine and ylang-ylang notes, that dries down to a honeyed, slightly animalic musky base. Vintage Sortilège parfum feels inevitably and ineffably gorgeous, and I wish I could go to the Stork Club wearing it.

After Vacher's death in 1975, the Le Galion company was sold and resold until it was acquired in 2014 by Nicolas Chabot, the current owner and creative director. Coming from a family of perfume retailers, Chabot worked in the perfume industry and became intrigued by Le Galion's history a few years ago. Although many perfume houses are revived as empty facades, Chabot has the spirit of an archivist and true vintage perfume geek.

The revived Sortilège (2014) is available in an EDP formulation in a tall classic bottle that evokes the shape of the vintage Le Galion parfum de toilette. I don't detect much of an aldehyde presence in the new EDP, which steers well clear of the powdery notes that can be perceived as dated by many current buyers. The flowers are just as lush as in the original, with perhaps a little more fruitiness. Worn side by side, the effort devoted to matching the 2014 Sortilège to its 1936 ancestor is evident, and the perfumes smell very similar in their middle stages. The base of the 2014 version does contain some modern musky ambery aromachemicals, Timbersilk perhaps, but used with great refinement and restraint. The EDP has excellent longevity for a modern perfume although it can't match the performance of the vintage parfum; nevertheless, I think Paul Vacher would be quite pleased with the new Sortilège.

Ladylike but not at all outdated or boring. Classy and chic. Sth Lauren Bacall could wear. Soft, not loud but yet undeniably enigmatic While clearly a fragrance transporting the vibe of the 1950s it is by far not what the old lady would have worn by that time. Consider Lauren Bacall was female member of honour to the rat pack. Sexy, nonchalant , deeply classy , symphonic yet uncomplicated to wear. Genious

Sortilege by Le Galion is a high quality essence of femininity. Strikingly beautiful soft floral notes elevated to the surreal with the use of superb aldehydes over a base of fine musks, sharp woody notes and subtle fruits.

Created by the brilliant Paul Vacher in 1937, Sortilege soon became Le Galions signature perfume and was soon adopted by the American elite with great enthusiasm. In fact, Sortilege was the house fragrance for the famous Stork Club in NYC, who had their very own immense supply of specially packaged Sortilege perfume as giveaways to special guests. Many photographs still exist online of numerous celebrities with their "free" bottles of Sortilege perfume while dining at the Stork Club.

By today's standards it's a very old fashioned floral-aldehyde perfume that recalls a bygone era where women wore gloves and hats while out in public, lunched with other ladies, awaited a man to open the door, etc...

I have not tried the "Long Lost" version nor have I tried the newly relaunched Le Galion Sortilege. This review is based on several vintage bottles collected over the years from the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's which have marvelous longevity and is a testimony to the excellent quality of Le Galions perfumes and products.

One of my absolute favorite scents is Coty's L'Aimant, so I am very familiar with it and to my nose Sortilege is a copy, done very well, but still a copy.

The only other Le Galion I've tried is Snob, which is a copy of Patou's Joy.

This house was certainly a master at duplicating the very best work of others who came before, but I wonder if they ever created anything original on their own.

Irregardless of the lack of originality here, I have to give it a thumbs up because if I love one, I must love both.

Top notes: Bergamot, Peach, Strawberry, Neroli
Heart notes: Rose, Jasmine, Muguet, Ylang, Orris, Lilac
Base notes: Vetiver, Sandalwood, Vanilla, Tonka, Civet, Musk, Opopanax, Amber