Rive Gauche

Still one of the best. I’ve always had Rive Gauche, but it’s only now, in the heat, that it reveals its full beauty. I am absolutely in love with it. It is sexy and intelligent, yet feels comforting. Edit: If you look at the perfumes created by Michel Hy, *Rive Gauche* is not listed among them.

Vintage Rive Gauche, ...that odd opening: powdery, coldly aldehydic, citric, green, and bitter (from the oakmoss already coming through). It's a combination that takes my mind some place else entirely, ...to violets and suede, though neither note is listed. It's a refined moment, and the most memorably distinct of the entire profile. By and by, those hard aldehydes dies away, and a mixed bouquet of florals grow up to replace it. Everything is still both powdery and mossy, but in a context that conveys as a traditional chypre. It's still quite pleasant, ...but now also more ordinary too. The deeper drydown becomes only woody musky softness; very gentle as it slowly fades.

My mom used to wear this. I don't know how to describe it, this scent to me is just mom. And it is kind of fun to see how this scent explains my love for aldehydes, green scents and some of the earthy tones. I would never wear this myself, but I liked it on my mom.

Beautiful, Clean "Metallic" soapiness! The opening can be a bit off-putting if ya dont like Aldehydes (I happen to really love Aldehydes) but the dry-down is where its at! Its like a mash-up of a classic, squeeky-clean soapiness along with a luxurious, high end skin cream. Then ya get that "Cold/Metallic" touch that really makes this undeniably classic scent have this sorta modern facet. Its just a really neat fragrance! Unisex for todays pallet as smelling like ya just stepped out the shower seems universally appealing imo. Also, the Aldehydes gives Rive Gauche a slight "Leathery" feel in the far dry-down and makes this smell super classy and elegant. Excellent longevity (8 to 9 hrs on skin wo over-spraying) and good sillage means you can just use 3 to 4 spritzes for a full days wear which also helps this awesome scent totally worth the $80 to $100 pricetag Rive Gauche goes for! Alas.. They just don't make em' like this anymore (unless it's "Niche" ofcourse!) A 10 outta 10 classic indeed. As a man, I LOOOVE wearing Rive Gouche for Women and no one bats an eye while complimenting me on my fragrance!

At first I felt "This is plastic!" but checking the notes, it's probably aldehydes that give such an impression. After a minute or two the heavy plastic feel faded and it became more powdery. Smells good after all, unisex. Interesting experience!

I had a girlfriend in 1979 who wore this and OMG was she hot. Terrific female scent.

There was a tin of this in my rustic grandmother's bathroom, where she went to smoke in "secret," while her fearsome chihuahua trembled in a basket. Rive Gauche just stood there, cold, metallic, powdery and modern, a contradiction to her world of endless baking in subjection to an invalid husband. It must have been a gift, as my grandmother never wore it. I would sneak a sniff every time I went in. That linear blue, black and silver can was a symbol of possibility, of the scent of the Seine and the embankment, far away from Levelland, Texas. My grandmother never saw Paris, but I have, many times (usually through a cloud of Jolie Madame). She was afraid to fly and had her duties. Although I've never bought RG for myself, because of the oppression and chihuahua, now that I'm her age, and wouldn't mind a cigarette or a tiny dog who loves only me, I'm tempted.

Sophisticated. Sad reformulation

Best perfume ever , elegant , aldehidic. Sad reformulation.

I purchased a 1980 vial of this from Vintage Decants because I wanted to revisit this 70's coveted perfume. I have a more sophisticated nose than I did in the 80's so I was curious to find out how I felt about it now. I found this fragrance to be very heavy on the oak moss (I can't usually identify the various notes too well, but being that have have many oaks that are mossy in our gardens, it was an easy one to find) and as it opened I thought it had a dirty type of woody smell that was trying to be grungy on purpose. After the dry down I liked it slightly better as it relaxed into a cleaner scent with some florals on the side. To me Rive Gauche smells of old, OLD money, it's loud in a way like Faye Dunaway playing Joan Crawford in Mommy Dearest. I tend to be very influenced by the shape and color(s) of the fragrance bottles, and I so wanted to connect with Rive Gauche because I adore the look of the striped metal canister, and I wanted to 'feel' the blue that matches the 70's Porsche called 'Pastel Blue'. But it didn't help bolster my affection. I'm very grateful to have boarded the time machine to enjoy this fragrance of the past, but it will remain in my drawer as a piece of history only to be whiffed again for a few minutes before washing it off.

Love it. Period.

It was the most disgusting thing that I have ever smelled.

I have an almost full bottle to sell or exchange from Italy (bought in 2025)- please message for details.

Probably one of thee most beautiful clean scents there is. I blind bought her and I’m in love

I have a vintage can from the late 80s and damn, it's so strong and intense even 1 spray can be headache inducing. That aside this is a really great scent. Even though it leans feminine in the opening once it dries down it's unisex, imo. It's also fairly easy to find vintage cans on Ebay for decent prices. Just look for "Parfums Corps" on the box or can.

It always amazed me the perfumes young men brought me when they were suiting me way back when. They were always very powerful, loud fragrances, very aldehydic. This heavy metal screamer was one of them. I couldn’t truly appreciate those fragrances when I was young but I do now. This is one I would like to add to my collection again.

I bought this perfume because my mother wore it and I wanted to smell it again. She passed away when I was a child. I love it. I didn't dare wear it for a long time. When I finally sprayed it on myself I felt transported. This is not a young girl's perfume. This is a woman's perfume. A woman that has gone through many lives and much suffering but came out the other end Victorious. It is great as a first layer of perfume. I layer it with sweet smells to soften the aldehyde blow and dampen the powdery smell when I wear it out at night. I enjoy mixing it with oud, incense, and musk. I always get compliments and a shocking look from My Friends and a desire to know what it is. I never tell.

I really used to love this fragrance! I coveted it. Now, the bottle I purchased a few years ago, after its many reformulations I would imagine, just sits on the bathroom shelf, waiting for someone to come along and spray themselves with what is now, a nothing perfume. What a shame! It was really a beautiful, fresh, springtime scent, that got plenty of compliments in its heyday. Today, it is not worth ten cents and I will surely never purchase it again. It barely smells as it used to. It is weak, ineffective, bland, boring and can only be used to freshen linens or as an air freshener. If you want to truly experience this perfume, buy a vintage bottle on eBay, but make sure to ask the seller if it was kept in a cool, dry place. Too many of the vintage bottles are stored incorrectly and the fragrances suffer greatly! Otherwise, move on and find something that stands the test of time, like Ciara.

Review of an early 1980s Charles of the Ritz EdT So says Stephen King having requoted Jonathan Swift, “sooner or later, everything old is new again.” I would like for that to be true of Rive Gauche. What’s “in” and/or “fashionable” is almost always a repeat of something that came before. Rive Gauche was supposed to be a perfume of a sci-fi future (it wouldn’t), completely reinventing how we think of the aldehydic floral chypre (it didn’t), and be unlike anything we had before (it wasn’t). But it got pretty darn close though! Today it would likely smell way too retro for most, but, at some point, “everything old is new again”. This futuristic perfume of the past needs a social media manager so that it can “reinvent itself” back into relevance. What makes Rive Gauche stand out from its predecessor aldehydic florals is the overdose of aldehydes presenting like ice shards, and virtually no sweetness to the fruit or floral notes. This was quite unique for the day, but hardly groundbreaking. At a time when aldehydic florals were typically hazy, abstract, powdery French chic affairs that smelled of old chateaux with well manicured gardens, RG wanted to smell of skyscrapers and glass, of flowers grown in a laboratory. The green peaches in the opening, covered in those icy aldehydes, give an immediate feeling of youthful, modern energy. Chanel No. 5, this was not going to be. Even in the floral heart there is a verdancy to the rose and jasmine that smells hurried and immature - but, in today’s perfumes that would mean sweet. Not RG. The florals are vividly saturated and devoid of any nectars and pollens. Orris and muguet act as street lights, shining a bit of a white and yellow glow into the cool, glassy, and icy night. Swells of oakmoss and musks work their way up and down the perfume before ceding to sandalwood, presenting a contrast of skyscrapers and flora. I have a soft spot, a big one, for Rive Gauche even though there is nothing soft about the perfume at all. It is hard, bifurcated, piercing, abrasive, vivid and saturated. It’s a lot of things that are negative and difficult, but the sum is greater than the parts and the sum at the bottom line says masterpiece.

My mum wore this perfume back in the 80s when I was a child. We lived in a very warm country, and this seemed to enhance the fragrance. I keep a bottle with me for formal occasions, often related to work. I think this is a versatile fragrance and very sophisticated.

From a male perspective, it’s great! Beautiful wafts of fatty jasmine, oakmoss hidden well, aldehydes very pleasant. Bottle feels cheap though.

Evil grandma. This particular type of an old customer in hospitality who will decide to test you just because you’re beautiful, young and ambitious, and her husband keeps staring at you. Then she’ll set her foot to make you fall.

My riskiest blind buy. I am stupid. The most expensive bottle in my collection. Surprisingly, I use it more frequently than I thought I would. If this is "old", then I wanna smell old. It is hauntingly beautiful. Even though mine is a fairly new batch, it is still a stellar fragrance. I can only imagine what this was like back in the day. I only found out this came in a metal canister when I opened the package. It was quite a surprise. I later found out the metal container is totally appropriate. This is the coldest fragrance I own. Metallic, airy, thick and full. Rather clean. The aldehydes really stand out and never disappear. The oakmoss and green notes are also quite strong. Although the fragrance warms up and sheds some of its hefty metallic cloud, it remains cold and full. A slight semblance of a citrusy note can be noticed in the drydown. Despite its "coldness", the fragrance is ideal for colder weather. It develops beautifully in late spring and early autumn. Great performance. The sillage is upper moderate for the first two hours then you may get noseblind to it but it will still be there for another 7 hours at least. Since the scent is also great, I do not regret my purchase one bit. It is worth every penny but it is not a blind buy, unless you are 100% sure you will enjoy it! "Rive Gauche" will always be a classic to me, along with my "Zino Davidoff", my "Organza", my "Gucci Rush" and other legends.

Vampy- clean. Wore this after years yesterday. A bottle for mixed emotions. It is not an everyday fragrance. It elevates you to its maximum level, depending on what mood you are in the day you wear it, I would say.

smelt a sample of this a while ago and was super confused as to why reviews for it was so negative. to me it smelt like an incredibly firm handshake from the most beautiful women with the largest shoulder pads and i didnt get any gasoline or buring tire notes at all. but thenn... i smelt another sample whilst i was on a ferry and i got exclusively burning rubber. it was so awful i had to immediately bin the paper id prayed it on. i dont know what happened :(

Even now, in its current formulation, it's still a unique retro-futuristic creature, unlike any designer fragrances, old or new, or any other aldehyde, powdery or rose perfumes. Unlike anything at all. It's like some kind of metallic carved moss and absolutely dry flowers. I haven't smelled it for ages, and memory often deceives us. You won't find it on store shelves anymore, so I ordered it almost blindly and don't regret anything. It still smells cool. I loooove this blue tin bottle. Even if it is an old lady for someone, it is a very badass iron lady.

Not everybody simply matches with this perfume. It has its character, it is not created to be docile. The flower composition can be wild and sharp with aldehydes for the first time, but reveals its elegance. As it melts on the skin, becomes more powdery, not so ostentative. This perfume is femininity, powerful, but noble. Its date doesn't mind - it has timeless quality of great art. R. Galbraith dedicated it to one of hers novel character, Margot Bamborough, and I love the connection, by the way. --- Strong projection and longevity 7-8hrs.

Well if this wasn’t advertised as a “grunge” scent, I would call it sickeningly powdery old house.

(I am reviewing a vintage, circa late 80s version.) Timeless elegance , incredible aldehydic profile with refined woody base and great floral notes that show up especially a few hours later after the top notes settle down a bit. Super strong, very intense. Too many sprays will definitely be headache inducing, and I am very used to other strong fragrances. A true masterpiece of perfumery that I feel is undervalued in today´s market where sweet profiles and ambroxan based fragrances with an aromatic profile are the best sellers. I love those too, but something like Rive Gauche, no matter what formulation, will stand out today and be simultanously familiar and unique. It is feminine leaning but I find it can be unisex (I wear it as a man) especially after the top notes dry down. The sandalwood base is nicely unisex and is very, very YSL. I think this is one of those everyone should at least sample. A lot will not like it, and that is cool, but this is a landmark like Chanel no.5 , Kouros or Shalimar.

Oh how I love these old perfumes. I feel like fragrances like these vintages stimulate something intellectual in the mind, and bring about moods, feelings, an inner world of deep hidden sensual delights, triggering memories and images. Okay, the scent. It's white, a little yellow. it's dry, slightly bitter from the galbanum, it's sunshine and an old book. Its the smell of a 70s makeup purse pulled out from a time capsule. It's the woman who wears tweed suits, and then goes home and slips into a muted grey linen shift dress. She's timeless and elegant. No longer interested in impressing anyone but herself. It reminds me a lot of White Linen but with a white musk component. These old fragrances are deep.