Samantha with her …First Van Cleef and Arpels

Some love stories have a bumpy beginning. Often it wasn’t love at first sight, maybe at sixth or seventh sight. Sometimes it was more dislike than love à la Much Ado About Nothing, and sometimes, like every pop song and poem ever written, it sends you mad with happiness and ends with your happy ever after.

Maggie Smith’s Beatrice looks unimpressed with (future husband) Robert Stephens’ Benedick

And so it can be with perfume— as it was with First Van Cleef and Arpels and me. I’d discovered it as a little miniature splash bottle in one of those mini sets you can get. I’d heard of it and was curious and tried it on my skin. I was unmoved. It was over powering, over flowering and over my sleeve. I shrugged it off as yet another try-no-buy and went about my day. Fast forward a few months and it’s snowing. I have to take my son to school in the snow (we always walk). Out of curiosity or fate, who knows? I poured the rest of the 5ml bottle onto my neck, wrists and down my cleavage before heading out. The sky was blue, the ground was white and we could watch our own breath like baby dragons trying fire. A beautiful breeze of jasmine, roses, powder and amber drifted up to my nose. Cupid, in his winter coat, had shot me right in the heart. How have we not been together all this time? What was this miraculous perfume? Why didn’t I already own a bottle and ten back-ups?

As a measure of how much I love First Van Cleef and Arpels, I describe it as the nearest thing I have to a signature scent. As a perfume blogger of nearly eight years standing, with access to some of the world’s most beautiful fragrances and a sample collection that runs into four figures, trust me, that’s praise.

Van Cleef and Arpels advertisement for First 1977

If each note of this fragrance was a wallpaper, it would be a busy, ditsy chintz with nary a space between each flower. It would be decorated with plump, juicy fruits like a Roman feast: peaches, raspberries, blackcurrants and all the citruses. Throw a fine layer of dusting powder at it for the full effect. Crowded closely together you’ll find hyacinth, jasmine, narcissus, carnation, rose, orchid and lily of the valley. Feminine? Yes. Overdone? No. This is Jean Claude Ellena we’re talking about, the master of blending.

Of course, there’s aldehydes in here too, it was created in the seventies when aldehydes ruled the earth (Rive Gauche came out in 1971 and I remember my primary teachers wearing it).  The  aldehydes in First Van Cleef and Arpels  are archly sophisticated, as if you shouldn’t be allowed to wear it without a credit check, but the warmth of the amber throws its arms around you like an old friend. My beloved oakmoss sits in the centre throughout, waiting for its turn, and as the last notes stretch out like bunting after a party, the oakmoss stays with me all day long and that’s the way I like it.

Van Cleef and Arpels La Boutique by Rene Gruau 1986

First was the first step into the fragrance arena by jeweller Van Cleef and Arpels, hence the name. A youthful Jean Claude Ellena stepped up to the plate and delivered what is frankly, a modern classic.  I haven’t tried the original 1976 version so can’t compare, but I can say that my 2019 bottle and the two that came before it never failed to thrill me, no matter how the day unfolded. I always buy the eau de parfum and I’m always surprised it doesn’t cost more. This is a twentieth century masterpiece that should have a place on every perfume lover’s shelf.

First Van Cleef and Arpels photo by Samantha

From my cherished collection of perfumes old and new, designer and niche, I pick up this bottle with its strange Perspex loop and I say, (to paraphrase Benedick to Beatrice in Much Ado about Nothing ). I do love no perfume in the world so well as you. Is not that strange?”

First Van Cleef and Arpels was created in 1976 by Jean-Claude Ellena. The bottle was designed by Jacques Llorente. My personal preference is for the eau de parfum version

Notes: aldehydes, hyacinth, galbanum, narcissus, oakmoss, peach, jasmine, rum, lily of the valley, carnation, blackcurrant, tuberose, orris, vetiver, tonka, raspberry, amber, musk, rose, honey, ylang ylang.

Samantha Scriven, Senior Contributor to ÇaFleureBon and writer of iscentyouaday

Disclosure: My own bottle, opinions are my own.

Are you familiar with First Van Cleef and Arpels Eau de Parfum? Have you ever tried a fragrance, not care for it at first then wear it as your signature scent?

Editor’s Note: You can find the current formulation of First at fragrancex.com for under $50.00 for both the EDT and EDP, and  samples here