Coriandre by Jean Couturier (1973)

 I love green fragrances, so it was hard for me to pass up a chance to take on the 70s-vibed Coriandre, with its emerald green bottle cap and namesake note coriander, the aromatic, soapy-tasting and sightly stinky herb beloved in Southeast Asian and Mexican cuisine.

But if you're looking for the bracing freshness of Vent Vert, the cool as a cucumber Chanel No. 19, or the aridness of Bandit, you're going to want to take a shower after putting this one on. Refreshing, it is not.

The florals bloom initially, aided by aldehydes, but no sooner do they arrive than they are accompanied by the dank herbiness of coriander, which almost smells like dried fenugreek, an herb used in Persian cooking. Coriandre gets a little soft, soapy and woody in the end, but its primary note, musky and dusky in a cooking-herb-in-an-ethnic-market way, never leaves.

I happened upon an ad that sums up the eccentric chypre well: "Subtilement tenace" (subtly tenacious). Coriandre is indeed subtly tenacious, not only in sillage (this thing goes on and on for ages), but in its effect on your imagination.

I've been wearing it on and off for a week, and although being busy has kept me from writing about it, so has my need to process exactly how I feel about it. (The following notes are from Susan Irvine's perfume guide courtesy of Now Smell This.)

Top notes: coriander, angelica, orange blossom, aldehydes
Heart notes: rose, geranium, jasmine, orris, lily, ylang ylang
Base notes: patchouli, oakmoss, vetiver, sandalwood, civet and musk

Like downtown artsy types who get invited to ritzy parties to provide some edge, stink notes are usually hidden in the background of perfumes where they lurk around and provide depth and interest to more acceptable florals and fruits. (Examples: the civet in Shalimar and the cumin in one of the Femme reformulations.) But to give a perfume a musky, musty and dank herb the starring role? Pretty brazen.

I've had my whiff of perfumes with animalic notes, as well as crazy perfumes like Secretions Magnifique (which smells like blood and semen) and CB I Hate Perfume's Old Fur Coat (which smells exactly like its name advertises). Coriandre is up there in the category of "wonderfully weird" perfumes whose purpose is not to make you smell like a bed of flowers.

So many '60s and '70s perfumes happily amped up the patchouli, musk and amber in perfumes, recalling faraway lands and head shops. What's wonderful about Coriandre is that it seems to participate in this self-exoticization — but with a cooking herb!

It goes to show that so much of the enjoyment of perfume is aesthetic and intellectual, because I really love Coriandre without liking it.

Comments

[Heather]

"Stink notes" - love it! I think there should be a new fragrance pyramid with the stink notes in there between the heart and the base. I enjoyed reading this and will track some down to try now. I've heard it compared to the modern Agent Provocateur, which I love, and also contains some stink notes! LOL.

[Mary]

Great review! I find the orris in Coriandre to be especially buttery, and that is pretty much my favorite note in this scent. It's a nice segue from the weird herbs in the top to the animal-butt base. I've been enjoying your blog!

[Perfumaniac]

Hi Mary, Thanks for stopping by and commenting. "Weird herbs" and "animal butt base" really sums it up! Not sure if my nose is sensitive enough to catch the orris! :) Coriandre is something else, that's for sure.

[rk]

Nice review! I have a vintage bottle of Coriandre that I bought a few months ago unsniffed. When it arrived in the mail I was totally unimpressed, it just seemed like a slightly musty, sort of watery hodgepodge of indistinguishable green notes and light florals. But recently I resniffed and I realized much to my delight that I was being enveloped in the prettiest scent of roses! It's very well blended but on me it smells like a dew-dappled rose garden, leaves stems and all. Very nice stuff. I've never sniffed the modern version, but read somewhere ("The Guide?") that it is even more rosey than the vintage.

[Perfumaniac]

I haven't smelled the reformulation, rk, but the vintage is something else! It would take a very special woman to get away with Coriandre. Ill have to stop and smell the roses in it again...Thanks for reminding me about this intense perfume.

[Pami Gales]

I've been wearing Coriandre as my signature scent for 39 years but since the house closed the remaining perfume bottles are all rancid. Hate to say it guys but I think you've fallen victim to old perfume vs the wonderful one I wore so long ago and have people following me around to catch a whif of and ask what is that, omg I love it.

I buy the remaining body lotions when I find them but even they are starting to turn scent after all this time. I miss my original Coriandre fresh from France. Sorry you all had such a bad experience with it.

souls

[Jane Sullivan]

I would like to purchase the original coriandre perfume. Where can I get it?

[Perfumaniac]

You can get it on eBay or the Miniature Perfume Shoppe, Jane.

[Perfumaniac]

Try eBay or miniatureperfumeshoppe.com, Jane.

[Neva]

Hi, just recently I got a sample from Heeley's Hippie Rose, sprayed it on and after a while (I was walking down the street sniffing my wrist)- guess what? Suddenly there was something familiar in it: yes, it reminded me of Coriandre which I haven't smelled for at least 25 years. So maybe it is the patchouli-rose in the end? Anyway, I liked Coriandre back then in the 80-ies. It was edgy, sharp, but wery pleasant.