Mystere

I just got my bottle, so these are first impressions. It sparks my interest but stops just short of intrigue, depth, and challenge, for me at least, and I was hoping for all three. I think someone mentioned below, it’s a bit aloof, standoffish, when what I really wanted out of it is an intense experience. It doesn’t feel very giving. It feels withholding. I feel led on.

A vintage bottle of Mystere de Rochas, ...that 'de' being evidence of a certain age. This is an exceptionally complex polyfloral chypre, with a distinctive invigoration from aromatic and oriental undercurrents. Yet still, the whole is so finely blended that most notes must be taken on faith. The opening reminds me most of the scent of brandy, but there is a rich, sharp greenness to it, that is very likely from galbanum, as noted by others. Beyond, in the heart, there is also a strong infuence of herbs and spices among the flowers, coriander, rosemary, cloves, and cumin all seem likely. Enshrining all, the complexly bitter green of the chypre-defining oakmoss is also clearly evident. The use of civet is refined, but noticeable. The elaborately undefinable (mystere indeed) fresh sweetness of this scent seems to grow even more richly saturated in the drydown. To explore this perfume is to embark upon a true adventure.

Dried sweet fruits & flowers on a bed of dry powdery wood with a salty animalic touch that is not far from the basenotes of Paloma Picasso. Doen't smell anything like Rose Poivree or La Nuit. They are animalic but very different types of animalic. Review for Mystere Parfum.

Please try French Affair from Ex Nihilo. Similar

Here I am, spoiling myself with some vintage Mystere, wondering what went wrong with modern perfumery. This aromatic chypre has me drooling and longing for a bottle so badly it’s almost a physical pain; this is a seriously special perfume, I don’t know why it isn’t talked about more. The opening is character-building for sure: sharp, herbal and intensely green with a bitter-pissy singe on the nose. This soon adopts a soft, sort of fizzy yet gentle pillowy bitterness with the galbanum, among soft spices, musk and a boatload of oakmoss. What a perfume! It’s hard to put into words how fantastic this scent is, for it is something you have to really experience. Unfortunately bottles are hard to come by, let the hunt begin…

Mystere goes on pleasantly dry, with some skankiness from cumin, a little whoosh of aldehydes, and a cool, dark, cypress-shady breeze. Within a few minutes there’s a ruddy-spicy warmth from the carnations, and then in the far drydown it simplifies into woodsy earthiness with a halo of dry spices. The woody-cumin skin scent predominates throughout. It’s subtle, earthy, natural. Works on days when you don’t want to be wearing “big perfume.” Mystere feels like walking under the shade of gnarled cypresses in a Mediterranean or Californian coastal-scrub landscape, with cliffs overlooking the sea. It’s a very “Saturnian” perfume, as far as traditional planetary correspondences go. Cypress, narcissus, cumin, and moss are “under Saturn”, and Mystere is a rather dark and dry, mossy-earthy chypre. It feels mature, grounded, a little intimate and a little austere.

Wow it finally happened, walking through a HUGE flea market in my hometown I ended up stumbling across a more than half full 1.7 ounce bottle of Mystere with the words "Mystere De Rochas eau de parfum 85° It was only $4, so of course I bought it Okay, so the top notes are 100% gone! I'm left with a mixture of florals laced with a wallop of CIVIT! It starts with a bang, but soon mellows out. This perfume reminds me of Cotys La Rose reformulation of the 1980's in some ways. The longer i wear it the sweeter it becomes, I wonder if the styrax is contributing to the sweetness

i have a vintage mini bottle. it starts very green and pungent- primarily oakmoss, galbanum, cypress, coriander, rosemary and some civet. very bitter green and herbal. there is a hint of musk in the background. it has an underlying mustiness, maybe from civet. it gets woodier as time passes and the coriander is pretty strong here. after about 10 minutes some florals peek through-hyacinth and carnation primarily. it then gets pretty sour on my skin, which i don't really enjoy. i do struggle with bitter/herbal scents, and then there are some i love. this one is more of a struggle...i think my skin dislikes galbanum. still, this is an intriguing vintage perfume...it's musty, green, herbal and a bit spicy. really interesting more than wearable for me personally.

Dark mossy rose. Sultry femme fatale. Notes are focused on the base and draw you in. Lovely.

Brown leather interiors, round vanity mirrors, a lounge in an airport. Could easily fit either a balmy Miami night off the coast in the 80s, or in a hotel lobby tucked away behind a vase in late 70s Paris. Fur stole and diamond rings. This feels like what a woman in her 30s would dream of smelling - leather purse hung off the back of a velvet chaise chair. Dark cherry wood. Penthouse datenight. 70s B-movie Giallo. I want to live in a palazzo with marble tile while I wear this. Beautiful. 20th century Luxury in a bottle.

This perfume is my Time Machine to the amazing mid 80s, one can not understand what a smell of French perfume would mean for 15 years old girl raised in Soviet Union. My friend’s mum had it, we would put one drop of it on and walk into frozen wintery night to go to after school classes. That what it smells for me even now - desperate hope of better future from simple and difficult today. It was also the first perfume I bought from the first salary I earned in the beginning of 1990s. Thanks God for eBay, I bought a vintage bottle and it still works. Even if there would not be as much personal history involved I still think it is one of the best perfumes ever made. I don’t feel separate notes in it, it is like heavenly chord playing simultaneously, gradually disappearing in the distance but still recognisable in its completeness.

Vintage Rochas perfumes are underrated gems in my opinion. I have a collection of miniatures, and Mystère is the latest I tracked down. My bottle is very old, and the top notes have turned slightly, but once it settles, it becomes the earthy, forest-y green scent of dreams. It is of its era, very 1970s in style, of the opulence that is not found in modern designer scents anymore. After the first few gone-off notes dissipate, Mystère becomes a hazy green scent, with lovely vintage galbanum the most dominant note. Bright aldehydes keep things clean, complementing the floral heart that follows. Polleny, hay-like narcissus is quite prominent to my nose, bolstered by sweet ylang ylang. Hyacinth adds body, fresh and lily-like, but is more subdued here than is typical. The floral heart is powdery, with soft spices adding interest. I get a prominent clove note in particular thanks to the carnation. Powdery rose follows. The mossy chypre base shines through from the early stages, complementing the florals beautifully. The oakmoss note is delicious - the kind that doesn't exist in modern perfume anymore - mossy, earthy, dense and dark. A cloud of patchouli and some soft woods enhance it nicely. There is an animalic musky undertone, giving an amber edge to the base. It fades to a musky, earthy skin scent, rich and full-bodied until final fade. Sillage is strong and longevity is long-lasting. It is a feminine-leaning autumn/winter scent. Old-fashioned in the best way, Mystère is up there with the best from vintage Rochas - even vintage French perfume in general. A beauty from another time. 4.5/5.

I got this perfume from my grandma! She bought it in the 80s, on an airport in Germany. This perfume just screams 80s! When you first spray the fragrance you get hit with this strong herbal, green, almost jungle-y smell. The smell of galbanum is quite prevalent. The drydown smells animalic with a hint of incense, vanilla and moss. Overall I would call this perfume herbal, spicy and green. This is a very love or hate fragrance, so I would not blind buy it. Plus, this fragrance is discontinue so it may be hard to find. This leans unisex to me. Overall, if you are a fan of green, animalic perfumes, you might want to try looking for this one!

Aptly named, Mystere may elude even the most open-minded fraghead in that it is the embodiment of all that is shadowy and uncertain. It takes you by the hand into the deep, dark woods with tall trees filtering the aldehydic sunlight to its thinnest beams, and then lets go of you, saunters away and says, "good luck." It begins with a cool bergamot and a stemmy galbanum, like the aroma of an unruly thicket and you make your way out of it, a panoply of florals, violets, creamy white blooms of all kinds, wild roses and herbal blossoms, swirl, a round bouquet where no flower comes forward and says "I'm the king of the castle." But someone is a dirty rascal here, because no sooner than the floral cavalcade reveals itself does a sinister civet's eyes glow from within the shrubbery. Mystere is just as carnal as it is darkly woody. The cypress releases its exudate as if overly excited, and we are left with the most enchanting dry down of musks, civet, and moss. A rolling stone gathers no moss, but how about two rolling bodies? Then I detect costus, which renders it all yet more lascivious, skin and hair and sweat and latex mingling with the trees and wild herbs and lichen. When this untamed beauty reaches its climax, I am left bewildered, but wanting to be led right back into those deep, dark woods once more.

Mystère definitely might well be a Norma Desmond's perfume when she was mourning her chimpanzee and she was shut up in her house full of furniture, dusty velvets, closed blinds and dark. It smells like a Black Widow. Rochas have gone too far with this perfume. They maybe took the risk but it didn't go well. Too woody, too bitter, too dark. Opium was also a risk for YSL because it was just as extreme as Mystère is, but it turned out differently: it was a success. It was weirdsexy and in some way joyful This wasnt. Intriguing, unique but sad. In the 80's my friends and I used to secretly spray it on each other to tease each other. The perfume had been given by her husband to the mother of my friends but she never used it. It smelled like furniture polish. Tremendous. This perfume is very far from today's standards of appreciation but it was certainly a very original gamble as a fragrance at the time.

Mystere is indeed a mystery and it is the only perfume that has ever made me cry in pure disbelief and almost extatic frenzy. It was when I smelled the extrait the first time. That was also the first time I truly understood the meaning of the sum being larger than the individual parts. At least perfume-wise. I read the glowing and very different reviews here. People experience Mystere in incredibly many - and likewise incredibly different - ways. I agree with all of them and that’s the true magic of this. It’s everything, not at once or twice, but every time and then again. It’s new. And wise beyond years. I sometimes open my extrait thinking “just one sniff” and then I’ll put it back, fearing it’ll evaporate as soon as I take off the lid. One sniff is never enough, though. The true magic happens on your skin. It smells amazing from the bottle, where bergamotte in its purest form lures you in with its icy promise of coolness, but that’s not really Mystere. To me Mystere isn’t icy, once past the chilly metallic opening. Mystere is imaginative. A forest-floral fantasy dancing on my skin, providing me with a sense of wonder for more than 24 hours. Last time I wore it, I still got wafts 30 hours after application. It just keeps evolving and my mind keeps drifting from sphere to sphere. First time, I wore the extrait, I thought I was going crazy. It was evocative in a way I never experienced with a fragrance before. It send me back and forth in both time and space and just when I thought I had the answer to its effect on me, I felt something else or something more. I even held my breath for a moment more than once that day, simply to pause it from affecting me, but all in vain. It demanded my presence and my experiencing it, through all its tantalizing stages. That day it was floral, but at times fairylike, airy and non-tangeable with a damp, almost spongy moss base that seemed to have soaked up the intensity of both the animalic and spicy parts. Next time, I tried it, it was woody warmth, almost velvety in its thickness. The other day, where the weather was hot and humid, it came forward as a very austere green chypre with next to no florals detectable. Mystere is a tour de force of feelings and emotions like no other and a fragrance I’ll keep returning to. It’s my perfumed sanctuary, in spirit, body and soul.

Naturalmente gli ingredienti sono molto maggiori di quelli elencati,più di un centinaio,come nella maggior parte dei profumi creati in quell'epoca. Mystere è verde ebraceo,molto ricco e sofisticato,ha uno sfondo misterioso blu vellutato e colori che sembrano acquarelli. Mystere ha un'atmosfera grigia,forse data dalle note animali che qui erano naturali, dal muschio di quesrcia, dai fiori di cascarilla, storace, rosmarino,violetta, cipresso verde cupo e fiori nascosti. Mystere è molto affascinante anche se piuttosto freddo come genere, non lega con Opium,anzi sono antagonisti. E non assomiglia neanche a Magie noire.

If Rochas reformulated Madame and Femme in 2013, and Byzanze in 2019... why no remake this marvellous fragance???

I miss Mystere so much. It was my first sophisticated grown up scent. It lingered on my clothes for days. I had a Saturday Job in a high end jewellers and always received compliments from customers. Please come back.

I had to find a pressi for my best friend, it was urgent, so I fleed into the perfumery at Nesttun, Norway, I smelled a very nice perfume, which I could afford, wrapped it in a paper in a hurry, they were closing, this was back in 1981, or 82?, I just remeber the case so very well, also because I still have the old pictures of us, but not the excact date.... My bestfriend was ever so happy about this perfume, it smelled heavenly!!! And, of cause I couldnt buy a similar to myself, the one I found was the last, but I could have shoot myself in my leg - because ever since I have wanted this perfume for myself, and, it was no where to find in this rocky nowhere .... Really, I should have keept the perfume for myself and bought her a soap insted.... hmfr...

Magnificent majestic Mystere, the bedrock and foundation of my collection since the 80's, the one that let me know green leather chypres were my thing. Never equalled or surpassed... but we all know that don't we so I won't try to sell coal to miners. This is about the most smellalike scent to Mystere I've ever come across, (I've been searching for a long time) it's by Lentheric, was first produced in 1913 and it's called Sukina. I was at a car boot sale last week and there was a lovely lady with a tableful of old scents so of course I swooped. The first bottle I picked up and sniffed almost floored me, this was Mystere de Rochas, albeit with a less heavy galbanum top note, but beside that exactly the same, so similar that I even asked if she'd decanted another scent (Mystere?) into the bottle, she said no, they were untouched. Long story short, I bought it, then ordered another from ebay to confirm it really was Sukina and not a decanted Mystere in a Sukina bottle. It was really Sukina, couldn't believe it! So if, like me, you want to save precious Mystere for special occasions, get yourself some Lentheric Sukina for a slightly less galbanum infused hit, as otherwise it's exactly the same. Prices are decent, about a quarter of what Mystere costs. You won't regret it.

Where are the times when Rochas brought something like this on market under the inspiration of the wonderful Helene Rochas? Where? Long gone! This perfume is simplement magnifique! It is the quintessence of the strong woman, dressed in a dark suit, who walks relaxed on the street in the spring time in Europe on her way to lunch. It has everything, cold but strong, mysterious but also overwhelming, earthy but also floral, musky and powdery but also vibrant, everything a woman who demands respect can want. It smells like carbonic ice put in a red clay pot, over which cold mineral water is added, petals, a little citric shell and roots, earthy roots such as carrots. And it may sound strange, but it's divine, it's the smell like Maggie Smith should have in Death sur le nile, at that magnificent blazers and the impeccable image from the middle up, at which, some thought of adding skirts to be more "friendly" with the American-Hollywood and UK movies directors mentalities from 78, even if those blazers screamed pants and women on the Agatha Christie time were already wearing pants. I recently found two bottles at collector who wanted to sold it and of course I didn't even blink before buying and I'm euphoric. I had a business meeting the other day with a lot of my lodge colleagues participating at it, I used this and go, the moment I enter the conference room three of them instantly turn around, and one of them instantly said: this is an old Rochas, where did you hide it till today. It has that aura, it catches your eye, slaps you, you know it's in the building.

Mystere.. I am thinking of an ivory Haussmann room with cognac herringbone floor. I also swear my ginseng cereal smells like Mystere. What a truly masterful creation. I could almost think of an entirely different set of accords. I am swayed. Just, be-you-tee-full. -AB-

Just look at the notes: oakmoss, civet, coriander, cypress, carnation, rosemary and many other less noticeable, considering them this scent can't be bad, however, it must be gorgeous! Mystere is one of the rarest scents from that era, with a reason, it has luxurious image, French class, with very simple but so beautiful bottle. Scent itself is magical. Mystere should be ,,queen'' of every good collection.

I just received in the mail my 5ml vintage Mystere ( Eau Parfum ) I got it from Ebay. When I first applied I was bit disappointed with the strong smell...but few minutes after I was taken back 30 years ago...Fabulous..intense....so happy now.

Mystere was my first beloved fragrance I used to wear in teens' age. It developed my taste and desire for perfumes. For many years after, looking for similar fragrance, captivating, complex, luxurious, feminine, just simply amazing, came across many great fragrances but could not find anything else even close. Recently bought two vintage Mystere pure perfumes (5 ml one is identical to what I owned a few decades ago!!!) and one vintage ou'de perfume... all three of the gems smell almost identical.... and different from what I remember!!!.. The notes from memory come alive and are not heavily overlapped by "heavy" ingredients when warmed up either on skin or just in warmth.. The perfumes are original vintage have darkened so could the "heavy" "additions" be a result of time?.. Still beautiful and intriguing, the smell perfectly matches descriptions of other reviewers. I just wonder if the original fragrance is lost in translation in time...... One of reviewers said "goodby old friend", I would like to say, welcome back my friend, I still love you.

I have such memories of Mystere. She was my first perfume and conjures up images of decaying grandeur, mist and autumn leaves. Seductive, mysterious, old World Mystere. Hauntingly beautiful, sorely missed, endlessly adored.

Just bought a parfum..hadn't smelled it for years...it is hard to find. Great, unique fragrance, very 70's. I love it for being so different from the "top 40", of what is out today. Most new fragrances are variations on one or two themes, and people end up smelling the same. This is different. Long wearing, feminine, sophisticated, floral, but not sweet. Personally, I prefer this type of fragrance in the cooler weather...and for special occasions, or at least not work. And at the price it's at, definitely not a daily work fragrance. But perhaps I say this because i have the parfum...the edt may come across different. I get a lot of carnation and tuberose..at least that's what I think it is mostly... Would recommend.

To me, my dear little pittance of vintage is a beautiful treat. When I wear it, the styrax, tuberose, coriander and ylang ylang merge together to form a honey accord that is lightly spiced with nuances of green clover and herbs, only just sweet enough to create an aura that is feminine but confident, never needing to be cloying. The vintage tends to age well, likely due to an excellent original crafting.

This one is so good! Old-style perfume, difficult to classify. A soapy, floral, green. animalic chypre. Somehow, it works. It works wonderfully, deliciously! Complex, beautiful and very well-blended. Soapy and lady-ish with so many flowers, while at the same time clearly animalic and sexy underneath. Strong oakmoss, and sometimes the cedar comes through as well. I feel it to be office-appropriate as it is not a beast of sillage and its animalic character is rounded by the floral part, but if you get close enough it becomes sexier, just like it should. I own a sample. If I find a nice inexpensive bottle, I am sure I will enjoy buying and wearing it. It's not a must-buy for me (as Opium or Niki, or Noa, were for me), it is a "would be nice to have".