Shalimar is one of my favorite colognes. I would like some matching soap & powder, but they are awfully expensive to buy. So I wanted to see if I could find a fragrance oil with a similar scent & make them myself. I found a good replica at www.saveonscents.com They call it Shalimar type.
I see it fairly frequently (vintage ones) at antique shops and the like. Is even the newest version pricey?
I'm cleaning out my Mom's place and came across a Shalimar copy that I picked up in Egypt in 1996. Still smells like Shalimar, I wonder if its any good? Also have a copy of Chanel 5 from the same place. I wonder if my girlfriend will be willing to test them?
My mother-in-law used to wear Shalimar a while back. Sadly, I must say that I was never into the heavy vanilla-based scent that it has. Now, she wears Chanel Chance which I find to be much nicer.
I love Shalimar....I tried the EdT myself...I dug it...I settled on Habit Rouge EdT which I found to be similar....and I guess Old Spice Cologne is similar aswell....not as smokey but does have the powdery thing which I dig... It will be interesting to see what you come up with....
Sara, check this out....today I was by Nordstrom and as I was walking passed the Guerlain counter I saw a sampler out there for Shalimar Eau de Parfum....Well I spritzed my wrist and my wife's....She didn't dig it but it completely knocked me out...although on her wrist it just seemed to sit there.....but on my wrist it was working the room pretty good...ha,ha... Well my wife says this smells alot like that cologne you picked uplast week.....Sooo, qhen we got home I splashed my other arm with my glass bottle of English Leather Cologne Splash.....Unbelievable...the EL does not start like the Shalimar....the top notes of citrus kind of suck...But 15 minutes later it was actually hard to tell tahe differance.... Never thought of Shalimar as a leather scent or EL as a classic oriental...ha,ha...But they do have many similarities...
That's interesting. I never would have suspected that. BTW, I made some soap with the Shalimar oil. When I finish thebar I am currently using, that one will be next. More info, once I get to use it.
I started the Shalimar soap today. I like it. As I noted when I opened the bottle, it is not a perfect duplicate, but it is a pretty darned good one. It is a little sweet & a little spicy; a very enjoyable scent for me.
Make no mistake though.....while EL doesn't start like Shalimar EdP it does move into a Mids section that surprised me with some similarities.....But Shalimar is at the very top of the refined High quality spectrum...in fact it probably set the bar....and by the time the English Leather Cologne completely dried down it got a little sour and trashy....might have to toss it....but it deserves another chance... That Shalimar EdP I tried the other night will be finding a home in my shave cave very shortly...I think it's probably my all time favorite for very special occasions......Yeah, thats right...for Me...ha,ha...At least the EdP, I Am absolutely certain this is one perfect example of a definite unisex frag...When my wife smelled it on me she thought that it was a man's cologne and not even unisex....This is so well made it is timeless but not sexless, it is very sexy but it takes on the "sexuality" of whichever sex is wearing it. I even did a Shalimar EdP on my left wrist and Habit Rouge on my right, and in comparison I believe the HR smelled more feminine than the Shalimar.....go figure.... And I dig Aqua Velva.....ha,ha!....and no apoligies....Shalimar EdP Rocks! I've tried the EdT before and like it but it was more linier and a little sweet or maybe feminine,...but this EdP is a different story....and what a trip...an olfactory roller coaster...
Howdy! I gave my girlfriend, now my wife, a bottle of Shalimar because I liked the smell. She used it a couple of times and never again. That was 33 years ago. She probably has the same bottle somewhere. I never thought about it being used on men, however. Always, Gene
My friends....I am here to tell you that Eau du Perfum is definitely unisex....I like the Edt but it is a too sweet and unilateral for me to pull off...but this EdP is perfect for a man...a complex scent that opens with the best Lemon citrus I've smelled, and then moves into a smokey leather and woods...whats not to like, and whats not masculine about leather, smoke, lemon and barber powder....? Then it gets powdery, with leather and vanilla and moss and still smokey....My wife thought it was a man's cologne....But you must realize that this stuff is a masterpiece....therefore when sprayed on a woman it takes a completely different course of action... Also recently, as this is approaching its centennial birthday for some reason the price seems to be dropping. I hope it continues. But right now is very reasonable....$100 bucks for a nice size bottle, and the quality and longevity is indisputably a complex classic masterpiece......AND UNISEX although not marketed that way... .Guerlain is like that....their Habit Rouge is a man's cologne and tons of chicks use it. Their classic Jicky is a womans perfume released in 1890 at the Worlds Fair in Paris, when the Effel Tower was unveiled. It was the first complex perfume, til then they all smelled like something, you know, Roses, Lavender or Lemon etc. Well Jicky had a certain dreamy after sex aura that made it scandelous and the talk of the perfume world...Still is....and its marketed as a womans perfume but probably worn by more men, in fact it has always been Sir Sean Connery's signature scent...Jacque Guerlain said he actually invented Shalimar when he received a vial of the new atificial vanilla scent, vanilyn....He was going to add some to a big bottle of Jicky and accidently dropped the whole thing in.....He loved it and Shalimar was born although he refined, and continued to tweak it...Therefore, Jicky, one of the most popular scents with men of taste is very similar to Shalimar. And in 1965, Jean Paul Guerlain invented Habit Rouge to be man's version of Shalimar....for all the men who were using Shalimar in secret... Well like I said, I've tried the various versions of Shalimar and Habit Rouge, and I'm thinking that maybe Shalimar Eau du Parfum is the best incarnation of the classic Shalimar yet for men...Maybe even more so than Habit Rouge.
Good info here. I know its an older post but if anyone is still looking etsy has some vintage from the 60's, of both jicky and shalimar for short money depending on size of bottle. Might have to try both myself after reading these post.
One of my wife's top favourites is Thierry Mugler Angel. The composition seems quite similar to Shalimar but I find it to be much, much nicer. @Lloyd - I tried Habit Rouge but it just didn't seem to suit me too well.
