Molinard - Habanita (1921) EdT, Vintage from the 1980s, splash
“I see you undressing me with your eyes… Don’t stop now, you’re only half done…”.
Every year on my birthday, I decide to be extravagant and douse myself in a vintage collectable from my little stash of treasures. I had a few in mind for 26, but as fate worked its magic, a beautiful vintage splash bottle of Molinard Habanita in EdT, which I’d ordered from a fantastic seller on Etsy (Hanna if you’re reading this, you’re an absolute star) based out in Italy. What would you know, the gods that govern logistics and international shipping decided to bring in this bundle of wonderfulness on my birthday, and I simply couldn’t be happier.
The most sumptuous packaging befitting Habanita, from the ‘roses on black’ gift wrapping paper, the gorgeous bows, the little ornamentation, the gilded envelope and golden seals, I only wish I could’ve done an unboxing for ya’ll because Hanna’s packaging was so grand. She even sent me the gift of a necklace for my dear mum, since I’d told her during one of our conversations that it was from my mum that I get my taste in perfumery, for she had wondered how a 25-year-old lad came to love a grand dame of the likes Habanita.
I have forever been in love with Habanita, I have it in the sublime, and very true to the original, EdP recreation and in the newly imagined La Cologne as well.
Before I delve deep into the vintage, I must say that Habanita in EdP as it is now available remains a very successful reformulation and is oft praised by many a critic as being a very close approximation of the vintage EdT, which has been discontinued for a while now. So fret not if you can’t get your hands on a vintage EdT or Parfum, the EdP is a good reach too.
History, the beginnings are interesting because Habanita was never really conceived as a perfume, it was supposed to scent cigarettes. Just so that the rebellious flappers of the 20s could appear elegant whilst being chain smokers and not simply reek of stale cigarette smoke. This is the very first 'tobacco’ perfume, but it doesn’t contain a hint of tobacco. Though having said that I think that honour technically goes to Caron’s Tabac Blond, I’m not too sure what the general consensus on this is.
You could buy sachets of Habanita to put in your cigarette cases (so that the scent would permeate into your cigarettes) or a tiny liquid vial with a glass rod to drip a little of the liquid directly into a cigarette and thus perfume the smoke that emanated. If only millennial-cool Emily knew that her great-grandma Helen was the original vape girl, oh well.
I believe somewhere down the line people simply started using Habanita to scent themselves directly, which is when Molinard decided to bring it out formally as a perfume to be applied on oneself, 1921 being the widely accepted launch year for the perfume. To me, Molinard exemplifies the true essence of French perfumery from Grasse, with Habanita boasting a supposed 600 ingredients in all, working to create a nuanced melange of sultry, purring notes and accords.
Bottle, it is a gorgeously moulded Lalique flacon, an original creation of Rene Lalique, with the murals of many a lady in their nakedness cheekily attempting to cover themselves with shawls. Probably my favourite perfume bottle design. The screw cap is beaten golden metal and filigreed. It is a splash bottle.
Scent, in this vintage EdT, it opens rather differently compared to the EdP, the butch Leather is front and centre from the absolute start, with the Galbanum, Petit Grain and most importantly the Mastic gum resin peeking in shyly, the Leather decides to let the top notes sway in and out of stage curtains giving you a momentary freshness from the Petit Grain (far too shortlived) the tiniest bit of mildly green-resinous-dustiness ala Galbanum and the Mastic.
Note: Mastic is a resin from Yemen, obtained from a shrub and smells a bit like pine tree resin and follows after olibanum in scent profile. Milky tree sap?
The Leather in here is NOT the oddness that prevails in modern perfumery and does in no way smell like car seats and the like. It smells like Leather that is worn against bare skin, salted by sweat and has a slightly funky overtone to it thanks to the undertone of Musk. Mind you the original formula for Habanita is a 'Russian Leather’ base, it was never a simple Leather construct to begin with.
But the heart is important because it is what helps restrain the otherwise potent Leather accord, the Nutmeg and Heliotrope are most potent giving it the signature spiced powder feel. Habanita is spicy and it is powdery, of its Guerlain peers Shalimar and L'Heure Blue, and distant Caron cousin Tabac Blond, this is by far the most focussed on the spice of the three and there is unparalleled depth and floral darkness here.
There is an oiliness from the dense and rather indolic florals, the Grasse jasmine, the Rosa centifolia and Ylang-Ylang bring in the sweetness but the 'sweetness is cut’ and grounded by the Vetiver and Cedarwood in the heart. There’s enough in here to tame any manner of sweetness. There’s also an odd Raspberry note which plays a very adept game of 'hide and seek’ and is only perceptible when your skin warms up. This Raspberry note is nowhere to be found in the EdP.
The powderiness here is thick, in a mature and rather sensual way, there is something about this that would make one think of the smell of well-worn and broken-in Leather which has been powdered to mask the scent of wear.
The base is heavy and with a Benzoin-forward Amber, a perceptible dose of Vanilla, Patchouli, Oakmoss, and the aforementioned Musk which ISN’T 'clean’ thankfully.
Feel, this has never been a simple, decent fragrance, in every day and age this has been the scent of the morally dubious seductress, it is only for the femme fatale and she doesn’t border on the spectrum of the good or the kind, bad is in her bone and she’s smirking at you even when you tell her she owns your heart, she loves you sure, but with irony. The powder is proper and the leather is lustful. Habanita’s elegance is only skin deep, a deeply disturbing voluptuousness lies barely hidden from the discerning eye.
This is probably why I relate immensely to Habanita, there is a side to me that is prim, proper and preppy but that’s just the face that deals with the world at large and there is a darker bit of debauched longing lurking deep beneath, if you’ve been privileged enough to see that side, I’ve probably marked you with my teeth or nails, and if I’ve been subtle I’ve left you with a bruised heart.
Your very own,
The Perfume Vigilante
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