Histoires des Parfums 1826 - Eugenie de Montijo
Notes: Corsican peach, strawberry, Tahitian coconut, white flower bouquet, orange blossom, Egyptian jasmine, Bulgarian rose, incense, vanilla, cacao, benzoin, patchouli, cedar, sandalwood Eugenie de Montijo was the wife of Napoleon III and the last Empress of France. Encouraged by couturier Charles Worth, her fashion-forward style influenced European fashion trends.
Her namesake scent is a fruity chypre. It’s one of those scents that is so well-blended, few ingredients really jump forward and speak for themselves. The opening is an elegant sueded peach note that is rich and deep, slightly musty, very much Mitsouko-esque. There is also the barest essence of sweet strawberry, with an underlying blanket of smooth white florals. As the fragrance dries, the rose comes forth and the peach dies out, while a sweet creaminess coats the balsamic woodsiness of the base notes. And then…it’s mostly gone except for a floral sweetness. For a fragrance that comes on so strong at first, the relatively quiet drydown is quite a transformation.
Eugenie de Montijo is, antithetically, not at all trendy, but a lovely perfume in a very classic mode.
Is this perfume still with us today? Which company made it?
Yes - it's a relatively new fragrance available online at
www.shopmiomia.com (see the other Histoires des Parfum posts from the same
week on my blog).