Parfum Sacré
Caron (1990)

Parfum Sacré is very warm and spicy scent, without the Opium-Cinnabar style spicy character that scares people away. A romantic yet sexy oriental. The scent transcends the fairy tale of Cinderella and takes you directly into the domain of Persian 'A thousand and one nights' with all that lethal charm of Shahrazad, where you can't help but abandon yourself and to be abandoned inevitably. Elegant, sensual, charming and feminine.

Warm and spicy seductive rose enter the senses to start. Then slowly, an infusion of smooth spices saunter subtley onto the scene. Predominantly, cardamom and sweet cinnamon are discernible with their earthy character in a soft and almost velvety accord. Honeyed amber and myrrh are most noticeable in the dry down, completely soft and gently resinous with just a freckle off pepper and a hint of aromatic rosewod. The combination of notes smells delicious to me. However, except for it's opening 30 minutes, it's overall sheer texture and difusiveness effectively keeps it from being cloying.

Smooth indeed. This is a very physical perfume, which is maybe in contrast with its name.
The myrhh with cardamom, pepper and cynnamon make Parfum Sacré voluptuous, woody and almost spicy.

A warm body scent, like a temple for "matter" an sich.

Very similar to Diptyque's Eau Lente. Both are predominantly cinnamon and myrrh. If you own one, you could probably live without the other. Eau Lente has better sillage.

EDP formula... Beautiful! Milky spices. Perfumed spices. Spices that flow into swirling floral notes. The flowers are blended well. Not overly sweet nor cloying. They are somewhat powdery, dry. Even the carnation comes off as a powdery flower! I believe cardamom and cinnamon really add charm to these flowers.

The heart slowly sinks into a heavy base; a marvelous blend of resinous, sweet-wood, and musky notes. It seems creamier, too. Smoother. Vanilla and myrrh and amber are particularly alluring. Love it!

Cardamom, vanilla, and spice mixed with a white floral. Sweet without being too cloying, there is a soap smell blended with the green notes.

Opening smells like soft leather with cinnamon, but I believe I am really sniffing some musk and spices.

After the initial opening it turns to powder, leather and violets on me. The rose or pepper notes are hidden, but I suspect they are just well blended into the fragrance.

Four hours into this scent and I smell like dusty violets. It is nice, pleasant and safe, but I do not think I will replace my 2 ml sample. This is my second wearing.

The sillage is soft to moderate. The longevity is just okay at six hours or so then it is a skin scent. It did last longer, but close to skin and there 10 hours and still going strong.

I've got a real love-hate thing going on with Parfum Sacre. Straight out of the bottle it smells like a rather pungent version of Dioressence; this changes quickly and the fragrance softens, and a beautiful powdery violet note appears against a clove and vanilla background, with possibly a touch of cinnamon too. If this is the way Parfum Sacre remained on my skin, it would be one of my favourite perfumes ever: however, after about an hour the violets fade and are replaced by a slightly chocolate note, and the vanilla becomes a lot more prominent. Eventually the chocolate fades too, and all I can smell is sweet vanilla (not unpleasant, but not nothing special at all).

Now for the worst part: Parfum Sacre is extremely clingy, and smells very strong and stale on my skin the day after I've worn it. It's almost like a hang-over; stale Parfum Sacre is the first thing I smell when I wake up the next day! Even after several showers, it's still there (the only other fragrance to have done something similar on me is Alien - and that didn't become stale smelling; I just couldn't get rid of the damn stuff!).

All this said, I could enjoy Parfum Sacre very occasionally in cold weather, but it's definitely not a fragrance I would want to wear regularly; also the way it clings and goes stale is very off-putting. The Eau de Parfum is only available in 100ml now, and there is no way I would buy it in this quantity to use just a few times a year. The violet-clove stage of this fragrance is beautiful, so I'm going to give Parfum Sacre a neutral just for this; otherwise it would be getting a thumbs down. For a heavy cold weather Caron, I much prefer Tabac Blond.

The vintage parfum extrait:
A stunning opening blast combining a delicious myrrh-herbal nite with lime, cardamom and a lovely tonka-gently sweet fresh green fruitiness galore and very well balanced.

The drydown turns towards the floral, mainly expressing a beautiful jasmine and a delightful rich but bright rose. Towards the base the rose takes on woodsy rose - stem characteristics, whilst still being carried by the superb underlying vanilla. The base is keeping up the the high standard that was established in the opening phase.

This is a gorgeous creation, well-structured whilst extremely well blended and with excellent performance: initially good then soft sillage, adequate projection but, above all, a stupendous longevity of over thirteen hours, the last ones albeit close to my skin.

A remarkablenarrating of grand quality, made of top - level ingredients. 4/5.

An intriguing blast of civet and a weird over-ripe fruit thing
followed by a procession of mainly sweet notes until
everything dissolves into vanilla milkshake.

Parfum Sucré

This is a warm, comforting oriental, with woody patchouli in the opening, underpinned by a soft amber, & a light dose of pepper that weaves in & out through the entire duration. The heart is powdery, with the retro feel of a rosy cosmetic face powder, fading to a floral musk, & ending in a puff of powdery pepper thirteen hours later. The projection is low, but it's such a fluffy cloud of a fragrance that its intimacy only adds to its charms. Very nice.

Genre: Floral Oriental

Parfum Sacré is one seductive potion. Its rich, heady opening includes well-blended notes of jasmine, rose, citrus, and crisp spices. A warm, yeasty note and a touch of incense emerge quickly to add sultry depth to the heart accord. The dark spices and incense become more apparent as the scent develops, joining the rose, jasmine, and vanilla to weave a sheer, exotic veil around the wearer.

This is an unapologetically weighty sent, and no apologies are needed! Some say it's old-fashioned, but Parfum Sacré is far too dark and dangerous to rate as stuffy or Victorian. If grandma wears this, grandma is one sexy lady. Mrs. Robinson, anybody?

This fragrance requires both maturity and confidence of its wearer. Not for little girls, but on a woman of thirty or more, with presence, poise, and plenty of personal style, Parfum Sacré can be devastating.

Parfum Sacré has tremendous sillage and projection, and a spicy incense, musk, and vanilla drydown that carries on for several hours. A great composition, but not your sweet, safe, casual daytime fragrance. Don't wear it to the office if you're not looking to attract undue attention.

Instant love for me. I had to go on eBay immediately and get a full 100ml bottle. This has never happened for me. It is full, and soft, peppery yet gentle, with the softest whispers of incense and amber underneath. I put it on...and ahhh...instant comfort and love. I was putting my three-year old son to bed a half an hour later, and he sniffed me and said "What's that smell?". I held my wrist up to his nose and asked "Is it my perfume? Do you like it?" and he simply said "Like it". To me, this is a private, sacred smell forever to be used by me as a bedtime/putting my children to bed scent. Tender, soft, gentle, and yet so totally me. This one took my breath away. Sorry I can not be more coherent than this.

Oh yes, to add a note - the notes are fuzzy and well-blended, but after the top notes, which are peppery (but not violently so), there is a long mid-section that is quite soapy, well, rosey and soapy and woody. But it is not harsh at all, it is very gentle, finely milled soap, and creamy woods.