Lubin ~ Nuit de Longchamp
Lubin introduced Nuit de Longchamp I believe in 1933. (Other sources give release years of ‘34 or ‘35, but ads for it appeared in publications as early as ‘33.) Nuit de Longchamp presumably takes its name from the premiere fête thrown in the evenings for the first races at the famous horse track, Hippodrome de Longchamp. An old program stated formal dress was required of ladies for portions of the evening. No mention of the gents though, which gave me a chuckle at all the possible satorial choices that could have been made, heh.
My bottle dates approximately from the late 40s or very early 50s. The flacon’s stopper would indicate to our modern eyes a skeleton key. However the shape is an ode to lanterns, in keeping with the racing theme.
The juice I have is nearly dead, but not quite. It still is able to whisper its message from the past, a ghost with a hoarse throat. (*Must fight urge to write that as a horse throat*)
The oakmossy chypre still conveys, with a floral bouquet and touch of green, bearing the sparkling sweetness of fruit. It’s rather like Peach Os, meaning there is “peach” but not any actual fruit. Some serious musk is wrapped around the fragrance, but who knows if this is due to age or if it is part of Nuit de Longchamp’s essential character. I perceive a bit of cedaric woodiness at the base, as well as what seems like a speck of spice? Dunno, it’s hard to tell one way or another. Sigh.
Ach! What self-torture! Sniffing at a raspy vintage perfume makes me pine to understand how it must have smelled when new. A certain “masculinity” of Nuit de Longchamp leads me to think it must have been quite distinctive in the day, especially because it was intended for women. This is the sort of perfume that can make a perfume-addict chase the dragon: buying bottle after bottle in search of the penultimate fix. Is there a twelve step for this phenomenon yet? I may need one…
Ad image from delcampe.be, however, one can view other ads from various time periods for Nuit de Longchamp over at Okadi.
*moans* Don’t tease me with vintage Lubins. In fact, with vintage anything. Want!
Marina
7 Aug 06 at 3:48 pm
I agree with Marina- those old ghosts torment us with their possibilities.
chayaruchama
7 Aug 06 at 4:00 pm
Heh. Sorry M! I was thinking I might do all vintages this week, too, so prepare for an onslaught of lemmings. I will seriously try to find that Revolution again, though, just because you mentioned it. IF I can find it in the current disarray of my closet!
Chaya - heh, yeah, it’s hard to not imagine and long for what some of those old vintages really must have been like back in the day when you sniff at faded glory.
Scentzilla!
7 Aug 06 at 4:13 pm
Any chance of a today’s perfume which is similar? I loved it and would do anything to get it again. Rosemary
gordon.6876
20 Jun 08 at 11:16 pm
I bought a bottle of this about a year ago off ebay, and my mother sniffed me and said, “What are you wearing? Your grandmother had the same perfume.” Which is to say that maybe there’s some life in this bottle yet!
I don’t have the proper terminology and am unable to describe the scent the way you perfume whizzes do, but I can tell you what it smells like to me: It smells like if you took Joy, added some resin/ amber, and something more green, like a dab of coriander with quite a bit of anise, and poured in something indolic to boot.
Okay, that sounds not very pleasant, but I can say that I adore this perfume. It’s quite unique, unlike anything I’ve encountered before. It’s very heady and rich, almost bitter, but I find it appealing.
zia
18 Jul 09 at 11:30 pm
Me again.
I just saw that it’s been reissued, and descriptions sound NOTHING like mine. So my bottle has either morphed or my nose and/or descriptions are completely off. Could really be either.
zia
18 Jul 09 at 11:39 pm
………’NUIT de LONGCHAMPS” was my mother’s only scent. This was in the early-mid 60’s and she lived in malibu and then topanga canyon, and the bottle looked just like that…what a scent..it was my Mom…she wore flats, with peau de soie points, slim Jax cusotm made slacks of softest wool, soft merino sweaters and her Nuit de Longchamps….I can smell it now…my mom..a vision of class and elegance….
maureen kate
22 Aug 09 at 11:11 pm
Just wanted to note that I just received a decant of this from a bottle from 1944 and it is stunningly amazing stuff. Glorious!! The oakmoss - so glorious, and the topnotes include a warm molten cinnamon/gingerbread note that is just spectacular. It does indeed smell like it has a fair mix of the main components of Joy mixed it, but on a deeper resinous oakmoss base. HG stuff here!
KelseyP
5 Oct 09 at 6:37 pm
I inherited literally hundreds of full bottles of various vintage scents from my mother-in-law. I recently opened a bottle of Nuit De Longchamp by Lubin. It is the eau de toilette still in its cardboard cylinder packaging with its hang tag and it’s completely full. The bottle is about 5-1/2″ tall and is made of white glass with glass screw cap. The bottle is decorated with vintage clothed men and women with a floral pattern in dark blue outline. Anyone have any idea how old this bottle might be?
Sincerely,
RetroRandy
RetroRandy
15 Jan 10 at 6:10 pm