Le Galion quickie reviews

The set of Le Galion parfums de sac that I found at an antique mall was probably made between 1968 and 1978, because it does not look that old, and it includes Snob. I read in perfume intelligence that Paul Vacher's original Snob was relaunched in 1952 and discontinued in 1978. Also, the original Galion d'Or was reformulated and relaunched in 1968. I don't know how much to trust that source, since I don't know anything about them except that I found it by googling Le Galion.

Don't you love the galion/galleon brand illustration on the box? I took a close-up because I love ship images. There's a fabulous exploration and treasure theme in many of the names of the perfumes. The term galion, or galleon in English, was a particular type of ship sturdy enough, and well-armed enough, to transport gold and other precious cargo.

So anyway, some quickie reviews of the fragrances in this set:

Le Galion d'Or: (The gold galleon) Very sharp aldehydes, like Chanel #5 on steroids, plus a smidge of the violets as in Le Dix.

Bourrasque: This name means a gust of wind, and is a feminine noun. A resinous oriental that smells like the red-headed stepchild of Femme and Tabu.

Brumes: This name means a fog or haze. Smells like sticking your nose in a tin of herbes de provence, including lavender and tarragon, perhaps, then catching a whiff of the seashore at lowtide, which smells like ambergris, but is probably more likely the nutmeg, heliotrope, and benzoin merging. It does dry down to something like L'Origan, as Octavian Coifer mentions. Kinda loving this.

Snob: A lot like Joy, with a lovely, slightly indolic jasmine, turning slightly soapier than Joy, with a more old-fashioned sweet rose that gets more prominent in the drydown. Really lovely.

Lily of the Valley: Nothing like Diorrissimo, much more sweet and less sunny than vintage Muguet de Bois, and barely recognizable as LotV. It's a cloying LotV and orange blossom syrup.

Rose: Very sweet posy of roses settled on embroidered doilies.

Jasmine: Niiiice jasmine, not too indolic, reminds me of the banana quality in Montale's Jasmin Full.

A much more knowledgeable resource on the history and make-up of Le Galion fragrances is Octavian Coifan, and he has a couple posts about them in 1000 fragrances. This fragrance maker has a great look and history--wouldn't it be great if they were resurrected like Lubin has been attempting?