Parfum d'Été by Kenzo (1992)

When Kenzo's Parfum d'Été, or Summer Perfume, opens, a candied violet-like accord blasts out, edged with a very sharp greenness that keeps it from being cloying. That almost screeching green note becomes more herbaceous, less aritificial-smelling, giving Parfum d'Été's sweetness a touch of dried coriander or what Haarmann & Reimer call "leafy green."

Top notes: Leafy green, peach, hyacinth, rosewood

Heart notes: Lily of the valley, cyclamen, rose, jasmine, ylang-ylang, orris

Base notes: Sandalwood, musk, cedar, amber

Its fruity, violet-tinged top notes smell synthetic, but not in a bad way; it just has the kind of forwardness and intensity that means some synthetic olfactory steroid is giving it some oomph.(It almost packs the punch of Poison's tuberose-grape bubble gum accord. Almost.)

I emphatically don't like sweet scents, but although Parfum d'Été is quite sweet at the beginning, it's also pitched toward green, and floating in the direction of light, transparent florals — lily of the valley, cyclamen, rose. (Those flowers bloom as the perfume progresses, warmed up by amber.)

I use the word "float" because I'm looking at the beautiful ad to your left, with a melancholy fairy — or perhaps she's just hot from summer's heat? — sitting atop what looks like an origami version of Parfum d'Été's cute little leaf bottle. (Its bottle, as I've said before, is suspiciously similar to Fille d'Eve's Lalique bottle from the 50s.) You can't see the print to the right, but it says in French, "January, February, July, July, July, July...") meaning, I guess, that summer seems never-ending.

Is Parfum d'Été a good scent for l'été? Yes, if you want more than just "clean" and "fresh" from your summer perfume. Created in the early 90s, Parfum d'Été is on the cusp between the big fruit-bombs of the 80s and the minimalism and Cult of Clean to come, represented by CKOne, Bulgari Eau Parfumée Au Thé Vert, et al. (I'm spraining my wrist with the accents aigu today!)

I like the way that you can still distinguish the predominant notes even in the dry down — the fruit, the florals sweetened by hyacinth, and the leafiness which keeps it fresh and true to its intended season. It's a charming little green fruity-floral with a quirky personality and enough subtlety to work in the summer heat.

And you can't beat the cute little bottle and box. Even the color scheme tells you everything you need to know...

(Why not get yourself some from the Miniature Perfume Shoppe before summer's gone?)

 

 

 

Comments

[Anne]

I find the naming and packaging of Kenzo fragrances so confusing I have hardly bothered with the line. Is Kenzo Summer a different fragrance to Parfum d'Ete? The bottles and names are similar. I'm pretty certain that Ca Sent Beau is a re-naming of Kenzo's first fragrance, just called Kenzo. But they also have a fragrance called 'Le Monde est Beau' in a bottle similar to Ca Sent Beau. Blah. Too hard.

Anyway, Parfum d'Ete does sound lovely. I don't like sweet stuff much either. Synthetic can be good if it is done confidently, with feeling!

I'm longing for summer; here it is February, February, February ...

[brigitte]

Candied violet....yummy! As I am wearing my Calyx and Nocturnes during the summer I keep thinking that it would be nice to have yet another summer fragrance. Many have recommended Cristalle and Metal for the summer (yet to me these are winter fragrances) so I might give this one a whirl. I remember when it first came out and I thought to myself "what an interesting bottle" yet never proceeded to purchase it. Perhaps now I shall after this great review! And Anne, I think Kenzo Summer may very well be a flanker of Parfum d'Ete.

[brigitte]

Anne- from what I could find out they are all different perfumes- Kenzo (1988), Kenzo Ca Sent Beau (1988) Kenzo D'Ete (1992) Kenzo Le Monde (1997) Kenzo Summer (2006). There is also Kenzo Ryoko Summer and several other Kenzos (Kenzo Vintage 2008, etc.). I think the d'ete may have been formulated because there are two different bottles for the same perfume.

[Perfumaniac]

Anne-Marie and Brigitte - I think Kenzo Summer is different from Kenzo's Parfum d'Été (which translates as Summer Perfume.)

I'm no marketing/advertising person, but the whole concept of flankers and endless versions of the same perfume baffle me. Isn't that diluting the brand somehow? (And diluting the perfume, too, come to think of it, of whatever made it special in the first place?)

But then again, we live in a world where a popular film can have a seemingly infinite number of sequels, so what do I know. I like singularity.

[Anne]

Thanks Barbara and Brigitte. The usual flanker-induced confusion seems to be worse at Kenzo. Perhaps, to be fair, in the 1980s they did not count on perfume discounters buying up old stock and selling it on the internet years after a name or bottle design have changed.

A friend told me yesterday that she had bought Jennifer Lopez's Glow as a gift for her daughter. I'd forgotten about Glow, but when I checked I was stunned by the number of flankers. Glow This and Glow That etc, on and on and on. Estee Lauder may have the record, though, with all those Pleasures flankers.

[mehmet]

merhaba kenzo d'ete bayan parfumu kutusu acık mavi üzerinde sarı renklı bır yuvarlak var. bu parfumden almak istiyorum nasıl alabilirim bana yardımcı olurmusunuz

[Perfumaniac]

Thanks to Google translate, mehmet, I can answer you. You can get this discontinued perfume on eBay. Good luck!

[Jocelyn Red]

I really enjoy this scent. It is sweet, better than most other colognes

[JR]

Hi mehmet, I found some at www.thefragrancefactory.com
they had the perfume also. Go get you some!

[encrenous]

Bought this for my wife as its what she was wearing when we first met. She was quite surprised when she smelled it after 13 years...They also have testers on parfum1.com.