Detchema by Revillon

Detchema is probably the most famous perfume from Fourrier Revillon: a clean, aldehydic floral akin to No. 5 but lighter and super-floral (hyacinth, jasmine, ylang, rose), soapy and incredibly refined. In Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, Mia Farrow kindly mentions it to a viewer who asked about it in the pharmacy, proving its huge weight in the collective imagination. The pyramid is dizzying, but it’s a child of its time: dusty, aldehydic, and floral. It fits the movie perfectly, with its heavy furniture, large floors, and period-typical wardrobes. It starts floral, like a bouquet of lilies, jasmine, narcissus, and lemony citrus notes, then quickly shifts to aldehydes as a dusty, mature rose takes control. It’s beautifully interpreted: honey-soaked ylang-ylang blends with bitter roots, smoky green, and lily, briefly reviving the leather base. Basically, it starts very aldehydic but softens over time into something gentle, floral, and delicate. Another fragment of past lives destined to vanish into the fog of time.

I don’t care if it’s Detchema, Joya Myrurgia, or Blue Grass; any aldehydic floral lotion from the seventies makes me happy. It smells like wonderful oldness on whoever wears it, a haze of ylang, jasmine, and carnations that hypnotizes me. Detchema by Revillon is a talc-floral with carnation spice notes, the classic combo of ylang and aldehydes, perhaps a bit spicier. It’s a useless critique that only confirms my love for these pleasant fragrances on older women. Over time, as their wearers pass away, they’ll stop smelling like the last of the extinct grouse. Right now, I enjoy watching a group of retirees exit the chotis with a swarm of powdery, faded scents; they make me feel good, as if they have healing powers. By the way, Rosemary wears this in Rosemary’s Baby, proving it was once modern; often, gender and age perceptions in perfumes are just ideas we learn through repetition.