Lanvin Oxygene: fragrance review

 Everything old is new again and now that things aqueous and lightly transparent, with a mist of cool fresh air like Drop d'Issey, are making ripples, it's time for a comeback for those musky, airy, cool and dewy fragrances that defined an era. The presentation for Oxygène by Lanvin followed the trend for diaphanous or light blue (Light Blue anyone?) bottles that dominated the 1990s and up to the millennium. Then pink erupted and has never left us since. Indeed nowadays blueish bottles are almost solely geared to men.

The olfactory reception I get in Oxygène is quite something, as it recalls and depicts vividly one of my favorite flowers, the wisteria, or glycine in French. It's an early spring flower and, therefore, associated with cool air, dewiness, and a certain hesitant expectation. The heat and the sun have not come in to orgiastically lavish upon it. Its peppery spiciness, inherent also in mauve lilacs, is due to eugenol. I begrudge L'Artisan Parfumeur for discontinuing their lovely scented candle Sous la Glycine - Under the Wisteria - which remade the effect to perfection. (If the good people at the head office are reading, please bring it back!)

Delicately floral, with a subtle spicy note of clove, the central chord in the Lanvin Oxygène' fragrance recreates the beautiful, utterly gorgeous scent of the mauve, hanging grappes of wisteria, perched like bunches of decadent grapes over terraces, latticework and verandas in early spring. A fusion of spicy goodness reveals itself from the core: a middle road between peppery twinkle, a clove note, and carnations, with a side of a somewhat oily green nuance reminiscent of hyacinth and lilacs.

pic borrowed via pinterest

I do not get real milky notes, not the potable kind nor the milky body lotion type, which is prized among millennial women. It could only be said that there is a faint whiff of creaminess in the musk, but it is the overwhelming impression of white musk - redolent of white flowers and lilies - specifically that does it, not the milk or sandalwood, really. A very subtle hint of vanilla fuses with the headiness of the base. Any sweetness is due to the musks. On the other hand, Oxygène's freshness of citric notes and ozone in the initial spray is very perceptible and, to me, delectable; they recall that long-lost zingggg that scents of designer brands used to do so well back then.

Lanvin's scent Oxygène can be bought at discounters and online at relatively low prices nowadays.

Related reading: The History of the Lanvin House