Guerlain's L'Heure Bleu parfum on my left, Miss Dior EDT on my right (before I wash my hands)

I sought out some classics tonight; L'Heure Bleu parfum by Guerlain and Miss Dior EDT by Dior. I wanted to smell the parfum of Miss Dior but Saks didn't have a tester.

L'Heure Bleu has been reviewed a bunch, and I don't think I have much to add to what I've already read. Somewhere I read that it smells like Playdoh; I'm sorry to say that's exactly what I smell. Sharp, peppery, powdery Playdoh. I do like it, but it's not for me. It's very, very different than anything else on the market right now, which I can appreciate. I'm always a little relieved when I'm not hot on a perfume; it means I won't have to buy it!

Miss Dior, on the other hand (literally) started out super earthy and dirty green, then turned grassy, and finally settled into this lush, rich, comforting patchouli on me. It's warm and round and encapsulating. It feels familiar, but I don't know anyone close to me who wears it regularly. It's utterly classic and sophisticated, like the kind of scent you'd smell on someone once and instantly recognize if you smelled it again. It's a close, skin scent on me ... and yet I feel like I'm not wearing Miss Dior, but rather Miss Dior is wearing me. Quite lovely, though! It's a chypre, which I love. It smells like a heavier, oilier Chanel 19. Nothing wrong with that!

Chanel No. 19 EDT

I've been wearing Chanel No. 19 EDT all week. It's a moody perfume. I reached for it last Saturday morning after a night of rain. And then I reached for it again on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday-- again and again up until today. I find it comforting in a cozy, grey-wool-sweater kind of way.

I've always been intrigued by No. 19. I think my mother had a small sample bottle as a child; I feel like I knew what it smelled like long before I actually smelled it.

It's not an easy smell to like. It's one of my more complicated perfumes. It's not at all sweet or fruity. No sugared vanilla or berries here. And I can't detect any warm patchouli at the end. Wearing it every day for a week, however, I've discovered some of No. 19's subtleties that had previously evaded me. Its most striking feature, I think, is its softness. At first spray, it's all angles and sharp edges; fresh cut grass and hay and crumpled leaves. Then, slowly, a soft leather rises up, followed by a sideways rose-- more of a green, antiqued rose (if such a thing even exisits!). It dries down into a warm, powdery finished, fresh in an earthy way; like freshly tilled earth.

When I got a sample of No. 19 earlier this year, I wrote in my little perfume notebook that it was like jasmine graphite, sophisticated, ladylike and heartbreaking. I certainly feel the same way now except I would add that it's very distinguished and very distinguishable from all my other scents.

Osmoz lists it as a floral green but I've always known it to be the queen of chypres-- an oakmoss that smells earthy and mossy and godly green. I have a small vial of the EDP that I hope to review later; I had a sample made at a Sephora in Paris as they only sell the EDT in the United States. While in Paris I also mustered up the courage to walk into *the* Chanel on 31, rue Cambon (no one hardly noticed me and it turned out to be not as scary as I thought), and was delighted to see a giant spray bottle of the pure parfum. I gave my arm a liberal squirt and spent the next 8 hours sniffing my arm every 15 minutes. It was absolutely gorgeous. No bitter angles at all; just soft, pretty green magic. I kick myself for not splurging on a small bottle of the parfum; a quarter ounce, however, was about 80 euros ... next time!