Created by Molinard in 1921 to scent the cigarettes of the garçonnes, Habanita reached perfumeries in 1924, billed as “the most tenacious perfume in the world.” This woody, powdery floral oriental pairs vetiver, then reserved for men, with vanilla and patchouli. The 2012 eau de parfum keeps the frieze of naiads designed by René Lalique.
Kafkaesque, who wanted to love it, smells overwhelming powder, dry raspberry and raw leather, and finds it paradoxical, at once old-fashioned and strangely modern.
Olfastory’s review
Kafkaesque
In May 2013, Kafkaesque admits to having wanted to love Habanita, out of a taste for history, before turning away from it. On the eau de toilette reformulated in the 1980s, she describes an avalanche of powder, a dry, syrupy raspberry and raw, almost animalic leather.
The vetiver, neither green nor earthy, creates in her view the effect of powdered cigarette paper, tobacco without tobacco. She smells synthetics that burn her nose and concludes that Habanita, which she respects, is not for her.
She reports that Luca Turin files it among vetiver vanillas, and finds it at once old-fashioned and as strange as a present-day niche house: a paradoxical fragrance, worth smelling at least once in her view.