Anais Anais

Absolutely amazing. I love what i call 'wedding day frangrances' that smell like yankee candle wedding day. white floral, hope, exhilaration. This is one of those large bouquet white floral fragrances. to me it smells mainly of peony and ylang lang, with lilies, lily of the valley and aldehydes. there is a freshness even though no green notes. its floral and exhilerating and very very feminine. i could not smell any roses. it is the perfect wedding day fragrance. i compared it with houbigant quelques fleurs and Estee Lauder Beuatiful which are also the same 'large big biuquet white flowers wedding day ' scents. Houbigant is much more complex, it is described as a thousand flowers bouquet. The com[plexity and subtle notes create the impression of a more expensive fragrance for sure, and the civet animalic vintage sour note also makes it feel very much like a vintage 1970s perfume. Anais is like the younger sister of Quelques Fleurs, the 199os version. simpler, fresher, more aldehyde, less cat wee. Estee Lauder Beautiful is also a very grand white flowers bouquet and I do love it. It has a six page long reciepie and a load of research. The opening is greener and the dry down has a much more honeyed smell. lots of white flowers, but also a very noticable honeysuckle, honey, vanailla, tonka bean, amber, overall warmth to the fragrance. Whereas Anais is simpler and in place of all the honeyed wamth, it has exhilerating aldehydes, bergamot and lemon giving a fresh crisp feeling. for me, personally I would like Anais to have more green notes and less lilies.

Testing a mint condition vintage EdT splash mini: Oh no. This evokes such a strong sense memory of those scented talcum powders and wipes we used on babies in the 80s and 90s, before we decided that dousing newborns in perfume was a bad idea, that I can't smell anything else. It almost makes me want to sneeze.

I bought a sample of this. If I concentrate REALLY hard, I can almost smell it. I guess I’m anosmic. Disappointing.

Very floral in a retro and parume-y kind of way. I can see this making a comeback at some point. It evokes a sense of nostalgia in me. Beautiful scent overall.

Didn't every high school girl own Anaïs Anaïs, Lauren or Halston from 78-88?

It's delicate and complex. There's depth to her that you don't find in modern floral perfumes. It's honestly surprising. This single-handedly convinced me to love lilies more. Amazing

I couldn't even bear to test this on my skin as I immediately recoiled from the tester strip I'd just sprayed this on. To my nose, it smells like something middle-aged chain smokers would douse themselves in back in the 80s. And as a middle-aged non-smoker in the 2020s, it's a no from me haha

This has just never smelled good to me. I have it another chance recently, thinking that maybe in the past my nose had not been sophisticated enough, but nope. Still smells like a cheap old lady smell.

OMG... This is ... All of the flowers ... I think this was made to cover up the smell in a room where they were smoking. Not for me.

I bought this for nostalgia purposes because my mom used to wear it when I was little. On first spritz, I was surprised I wasn’t immediately transported back to the early 80’s. The original version is still there but I actually like the modern version better. The 80’s Anais was very harsh and screechy in its opening. Think green flower stems and bitter florals. The modern version is a hair softer and I get a lot more of the powder and spice on the background. It’s fresh and clean and would be great for day and work use as long as you didn’t go overboard. I bought this originally just to have but I already know I’m going to use this up.

Pretty, vintage smelling spring floral. Easily accessible because of the price, and inoffensive enough to make me want to add it to the rotation.

Cacharel's Anaïs Anaïs, sampled from a vintage bottle. ...and speaking of that bottle, poor Anaïs Anaïs, saddled forever with one of the most notoriously cheap-looking perfume bottles to ever be conceived by overly pragmatic marketers. Alright, nevermind the bottle, the scent of Anaïs Anaïs is a delightly well-balanced polyfloral. One in which it is difficult to separate out any specific leading flower, ...though the pyramid voters on Fragrantica do seem keen on lily (lys). Maybe so, maybe so, but most real lilies I have smelled are much more prominently spicy. In any case, the lilies of perfumery are only subjectively constructed accords. Regardless of exact notes, Anaïs Anaïs has now become a bonafide vintage classic; much admired for the exceptional pleasure of its soft, but powerful, floral sweetness. Of course, it would have to be much better than average, just to overcome that ugly bottle (okay, I'll stop).

My mom had a bottle of Anais Anais in the early 80’s I was a teenager and wore it many times. Very floral and feminine, a classic that fit those old good times but I wouldn’t wear it nowadays.

I recieved this when I was in my mid teens around 2006-ish and it smelled dated to me THEN. It is interesting to me, as I didn't even have any pre-conceived ideas or notions about what defined "old lady perfume" until I smelled this and yeah.. this is just *it*. Which shouldn't be surprising really, because it just IS literally an old fragrance now that was once very popular with young people a long time ago but isn't anymore. Anais Anais went against literally everything I desired to smell like at that age, haha.

Anais Anais by Cacharel is the closest representation of a hyper realistic white lily, in all perfumes I came across. It has that freshness, but also very assertive and loud quality that Easter lillies have. I love that scent, yet some may find it too intense.They project far, if you ever had them in your home. This fragrance emulates that exactly. If you're a fresh natural flower, and garden, lover, this is a great choice. It's rather linear and doesn't evolve much. I would say First by Van Cleef and Arpels is very close, but more complex, less linear, less blended.

This was my grand mother’s signature scent 😍

Wow so many notes in this classic! I personally never owned this one but it was such an iconic fragrance growing up alongside other Cacharel classics such as Eden and LouLou when I was a teen, virtually everyone at school was wearing these fragrances alongside The Body Shop's Fuzzy Peach, Dewberry, Vanilla and (of course) White Musk. So I didn't ever have my own bottle but was happy to find that my mum has a bottle squirreled away along with Coty and Avon bottles on dusty forgotten shelves. I would've thought this would be a linear and straightforward white floral to evoke the innocence and purity of a young girl and yet there it is at first spray: the leather note and even the vetiver woodsiness. What a masterpiece of so many notes to evoke that soft focus meadow of young ladies picnicking like in a Degas or a Botticelli. It is so reminiscent (both fragrance, packaging and advertising) of a particular moment in a young girl's life in a highly romanticised way and yet those earthier notes are very much present. A bit of a paradox in a way as it evokes both floaty, ethereal virginity whilst also having something more developed sophisticated and earthy and yet never becomes sultry. It does have a slight melancholia about it very much in the romantic poet's tradition of first love and a moment of exquisite beauty being endlessly frozen in time and yet untouchable and unyielding. I can imagine Elvira Madigan wearing this fragrance. I can see her white gloves and white parasol.

Anais Anias is soft, clean, breezy, angelic, feminine, powdery, and slightly sweet. Forget smelling this straight from the bottle! The magic happens when it dries and settles on skin! If I had floral printed Laura Ashley bedsheets I'd make sure this scent lingered on them! Perfect for bedtime or spring mornings. Cottagecore vibes. I bought a vintage bottle in honor of my husband's beautiful cousin Maria. She passed away on December 1st. She loved this fragrance enough to name her daughter Anais! Both Maria and this perfume were timeless classics that have a special place in many hearts. P.S. I don't even get a hint of the heavy or darker notes listed in the basenotes whatsoever. I'm off to get those sheets now. 🤍.

Carnation. Carnation is easily what this perfume centers around. But this is much more complex than I anticipated too. I've mentally been stowing this perfume on my list of classics to try for some years now. I was able to score a bottle for a very affordable price, and...here I am, finally wearing it. Immediately upon spraying, I'm impressed by the white tones mixed with a strong dash of powder. It's clearly oldschool, but smells youthful. What?! Yes, (I sound contradictory) because it smells like the coming-of-age for a generation past. It's youthful, decidedly feminine, and makeup-y. Not modern makeup though, vintage makeup from the 80s (accords I remember only in my deepest and earliest stages, stuff my mom used, things don't smell like this any longer). Lily? Yes, but also golden setting powder. As it dries, a spicier, orange-toned carnation and slightly incensed vibe emerges. It's fascinating, and truly reminds me of day turning into night. If you were to apply this an hour before sunset like I just did (quite literally, and I couldn't have planned it better), it fades perfectly alongside daylight, through duskier twilight, and finally into the moody night. It smells like extinguished incense sticks permeating your room, along with makeup, and flowers from a neighbor boy. Also, despite how warm it is, it reminds me of late spring. Prom in the early 80s, dancing to Lost in Love by Air Supply awkwardly with a boy who makes you uncharacteristically nervous. Unfortunately for the neighbor boy who actually brought you flowers...it's not him, it's a guy who smokes clove cigarettes and uses his father's aftershave instead of purchasing a fragrance of his own (and the scent of him is in your hair). I've been recommended this because Sweet Honesty from Avon was my first real perfume. I get similarity, but this has more of an edge to it. I'm going to decant some and rehome this bottle with someone who will use it more often. I really enjoy tbe experience of this, it's a time warp in a delightful way 🩷🧡

Um dos poucos que não me dá enxaqueca, assim eu consigo usar todos os dias. É muito gostoso e acabou virando minha assinatura 💕

To me this is one of the prettiest vintage scents out there. Just a beautiful bouquet of spring flowers, this is definitely dated but that doesn't make it any less beautiful. I'm 27 now and first tried this perfume when I was 23, yet it somehow brings me back to my childhood. The hyacinth is strong and brings back memories of Easter and early spring. It's heavenly and pastoral and nostalgic. It's the perfect perfume for when you're feeling down or sad and want to be reminded of happier times.

I hate the opening but it does improve once it develops in the skin

This smells like my German grandmother! Sydney, 2000. Picture an impeccably clean woman with an impeccably clean house with spa baths, a saltwater pool she did laps in every day and got a lovely tan, a rose garden with paving stones and vines, those weird wiggly forks and knives, and brown glass plates for us kids. She was a flawless cook and housekeeper. I thought she smelled like bar soap and talcum powder and radiant good health - but apparently she smelt like this. She would have been in her 50s so I am not saying this is an old lady scent. I am saying this is a very specific scent.

Awful. Pure spice. From being gifted it decades ago, to smelling it on a friend the other day, I've never liked it. Have never understood the hype. Such a lovely bottle, the contents don't match it (it SHOULD be like Diorissimo, or Fleur de Fleurs, or Emma!), such a shame.

Quando dicono che un profumo sa di "vecchia signora" vorrei sapere la "giovane signora" di oggi di cosa odora. Vaniglia e roba sintetica da vomitare tipo La vie est belle o oudh chimico da due soldi? Molto meglio odorare di vecchia signora. Di solito lo dicono di grandi profumi sempre molto ricercati.

This is a calming, nostalgic scent for me. I think this is my grandmothers perfume. She was a happy spirit. But the scent for me is also youthful, I think of her being happy, warm and strong. Not of her being very old. This kind of scent could come back as a scent for a younger generation very soon, the same way fashion in clothes comes back around.

WHAT IS YOUR FIRST PERFUME EVER? Mine is CACHAREL: Anaïs Anaïs This is a nostalgic scent which evokes good memories from my childhood. This was my first perfume and my mom bought it for me when I was 8 years old. I was so happy after remembering that even if in some point I put all my "too old" perfumes away, this one I kept and there it was, on the shelf in my childhood room. This is such a nice blend of florals, mostly white ones. There is greenish and fresh nuances in this scent and it’s reallty delicate and sophisticated. I don't know if it's really of the nature of the scent that I get melancholy feeling or is it just because I almost start to cry while remembering that feeling when I got this, all that happiness and proudness of getting my first perfume. Even after a long time it doesn’t feel outdated as a scent. Even if this bottle is really old and Eau de Toilette it still smells amazingly good. I don't have the new one to compare so I don't know how is it but from this perfume everything started a long time ago. This is not my style of scent anymore but think this was a perfect scent for me when I was a little girl. Rating in based on my taste now. Thank you for reading, I hope my review was helpful. I would appreciate a lot if you want to follow me on IG and/or YouTube (English subtitles): @ninamariahperfumes It gives me a lot of motivation to write more.

My first I wore it all through the 80s. I would never buy a perfume like this nowadays was so many florals, but am dying to have one more bottle on my shelf. When I was 13, I wanted to smell like an old French lady. With red lipstick. And this got me halfway there.

My first perfume, gifted by someone who left this world a bit too soon. Not an "old lady scent" for me, quite the opposite really. Anais Anais smells of innocence and girlhood, of child's laughter, getting dressed to go to school, rushing to catch the bus, meeting your friends at recess, birthday parties the memory of which has grown hazier over the years. That childhood friend you often think about calling, but never do. Now she probably wears something else, but this is the scent you'll always remember her by, because that's what her hair smelled like when she sat beside you in class. I don't think I'll wear Anais ever again, but do I miss her like crazy.

I keep this on hand for days like today when I'm feeling nostalgic 🩷 it brings me back to the late 70's when it was my "signature scent" of course because it was the only scent I had 😂. Still smells good, still gets me compliments, a lot of people ask me "where do I know that scent from? " So everyone else remembers it too.