Topaze
I hope you will come along with me on my continuing obsession with finding the few varieties of forgotten vintage perfumes with special meaning to me from the past. How did we live without eBay anyway? The first Avon scent I remember as a small child came in a tall, slender yellow bottle with a golden jeweled topaz adorning the top. It was many years later before I realized that most topaz gemstones today are actually blue. (Because of this perfume, they’ll always be golden to me.) The scent smelled quite sophisticated to a child’s nose, as if a movie star as might wear it. At this moment upon each wrist I apply a drop from the unused bottle I just bought and am transported into a lady’s garden filled with fragrant night blooming flowers. The lady wears a silk evening gown of the Regency period and has powdered her bosom. With music and sounds of dancing emanating from the open drawing room door, she waits for her lover to appear. Of course by the jeweled adornment I mentioned above, you know the fragrance is Topaze.
Fragrantica lists Topaze’s scent accords as “floral, aromatic, woody, aldehydic, powdery, and warm.” Launched in 1959, Topaze is described as a floral aldehyde featuring note of “aldehydes, coriander, peach, bergamot, lemon, carnation, ylang ylang, lily of the valley, rose, sandalwood tonka bean, amber, benzoin, civet, and vetiver.” That’s an amazing number of fragrance notes, and what a beautiful blend.
I haven’t found Topaze yet in the original yellow bottle. This one is in a harp-shaped bottle described with the words Heavenly Music Topaze. One user is right on point, saying Topaze has that “extra unexplainable something.”
Cheers & Happy Reading!
Flossie Benton Rogers, Conjuring the Magic in Romance
Wow! Anew hobby! One I would like to embrace, too. The bottle looks special and from your words the perfume is awesome.
Sometimes a certain scent, fragrance stirs in me a memory or as you so beautifully described above, an image, a story even.
I like these posts so, please, do go on even if i can’t smell them I imagine I do!
Oh, thank you, Carmen. I do have a few more scents I’ve found. I don’t know why I feel compelled to this journey to the scented past, but it is fun. I wish we had scent-posts!
I loved your description! I could see you out in that garden with your vintage dress and perfume LOl. I remember the harp shaped bottle. My grandmother had lots of Avon Bottles. This is a fun segment and i can’t wait to see what fragrance is next..
Thank you, Cathy. I’m glad you are getting some fun from my journey to the scented past. Thanks for commenting.
Nice memories, and visual, mindful smells. Cool!!!
Thank you, Kay. I bet both our Moms word Topaze at one time or another.
I don’t remember this scent, but it sounds divine. And that might not be the original bottle, but it’s gorgeous. I loved your description Lady’s garden. It put me right in the center of that magical night.
These are wonderful posts. I hope there will be more!
Oh, thank you, Mae! I appreciate your lovely words. Topaze is divine.