Oscar Perfume

A spiced-floral fingerprint from 1977 still runs through Oscar Perfume, the year its designer released his first eponymous women's fragrance. Cloves, gardenia, coriander, orange blossom, basil, peach and bergamot crowd an unusually generous top accord in this Oscar Eau de Toilette. Tuberose, ylang-ylang, lavender, iris, jasmine, rosemary, rose and orchid build an equally enormous floral heart. Cloves return in the base alongside myrrh, sandalwood, lavender, amber, opoponax, vetiver, musk, patchouli and coconut, a warm, spiced foundation that anchors everything above it. As a floral oriental, it's built for evening and cooler months, dense and old-school in a way that newer, more minimal florals rarely attempt anymore. The repeated clove across both top and base is a structural choice typical of its era, giving the fragrance a spiced continuity from the very first spray through to the final hours of wear that a lot of modern florals skip entirely in favor of a cleaner, more linear development. For anyone curious what maximalist 1970s perfumery actually smelled like, this is close to a living record of it, largely unreformulated in spirit even decades after its original release, a rarity for a fragrance this old still sold at retail today.