I first smelled Nina Ricci Fille d'Eve on a business trip to Seattle about 10 years ago. Before we left town, a colleague and I stopped by Parfumerie Nasreen and sampled perfumes, none of which I remember at all now. The owner of the shop stopped us as we left. She pulled a small, apple-shaped bottle from a high shelf behind the cash register and asked if I'd like to try it. "This is very special. Fille d'Eve," she said and held the bottle as if she were presenting it at a game show.
Eve's daughter. How could I resist trying a fragrance with a name like that? She dabbed a bit on my wrist, and I asked the price. It was something exorbitant, so I left without giving it more than a cursory sniff. Half an hour out of town I sniffed my wrist again. It smelled not quite clean. Not dirty as in body odor, but like an accumulation of skin oil. Not pretty, really, but intriguing.
Over the years I'd thought about Fille d'Eve and wished I could smell it again. I heard Germaine Cellier created it which only increased my yen to get hold of some. (Since then, I've learned that Michael Edwards' database Fragrances of the World lists perfumers Michel Hy and Jacques Bercia as Fille d'Eve's real authors, but this hardly cools my ardor since Hy and Bercia created another of my favorite chypres, Yves Saint Laurent Y, and Michel Hy is also the nose behind Paco Rabanne Calandre, Balmain Ivoire, and the co-creator of Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche.) Finally, a few weeks ago I received a dram of the parfum in a swap. It's love.
Fille d'Eve is a quiet floral chypre with a gentle fruitiness. After the classic bergamot opening, a seamless floral blend takes a backseat to a lot of musky oakmoss, and the star of the show, costus. I hadn't heard of costus until someone referred me to a post about costus on 1000 fragrances. Its odor has been compared to precious wood, hair, wet dog, and by one reviewer on Basenotes as something between "plaster and goat".
To me Fille d'Eve smells like oakmoss crossed with the scent of the scalp of a baby overdue for his bath, underscored with a touch of musk and sweet sandalwood. The "body" smell in Fille d'Eve has none of the dead squirrel smell of civet, or fecal tint of indoles, or sweatiness of some musks and cumin (I hope no one is eating breakfast while they're reading this.) Instead Fille d'Eve smells clean plus two days rather than freshly washed. Instead of smelling sexy, Fille d'Eve smells innocent, but personal. If there was ever a skin chypre, this is it.
Fille d'Eve launched in 1952 and it shows. People who are used to modern fragrances with clearly identifiable fruit and floral notes might not see Fille d'Eve's beauty, just as someone who listens mostly to dance club music might be jarred by a switch to Debussy. The melodies are harder to pick out, and they're not familiar. Still, I think Fille d'Eve is worth the effort of getting to know, and if you're already a fan of chypres this one is almost certain to be a home run for you.
Of course there's a catch. Nina Ricci Fille d'Eve is still in production, but it's hard to get, and it's expensive. Sephora in France carries the 15 ml Extrait de Parfum in the Lalique bottle (shown above) for 344€; Beautyencounter in the US has it for $299.
Gorgeous review, as always, and I love the costus descriptions. This is not a scent I will go out of my way for – I have discovered i don’t care for oakmoss and I have never gotten the whole baby head smell love thing. “Clean plus two days” doesn’t sound bad – I know some people who smell good no matter what (I’m not one of them). I do like some scents that are “skin plus a little something”. This one, though, just doesn’t sound my cup of tea. As Robin would say: “Money saved!”
What a pretty bottle, though!!
You know, I feel I’ve done my work if I’ve described something clearly enough that someone knows they don’t need to try it unless it falls directly into her lap. And yes, money saved!
That Lalique bottle is divine. Like you, though, I don’t find “baby head” smell attractive, so — money saved.
Always good to save money! Especially that much money.
Angela, your description of Nasreen’s presentation gives me the image of the serpant presenting the forbidden fruit! I just saw Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande on New Years Day, and wish I could have worn Fille d’Eve, for your description of the scent would have fit the atmosphere generated by the story and music.
I’ve not tried many NR fragrances, but most of the ones I have tried (all pre-2000) have been beautiful: L’Air du Temps, Nina (1987) & Capricci all elegant classics, and Deci Dela was pretty and fun. This one sounds special as well!
It does sound like it would be perfect! I haven’t tried many Riccis, really, except for L’Air du Temps and Coeur Joie.
Bad Angela! I’m going to have to impose a price limit on the fragrances you review! lol! I”ll add this to my list with Ricci’s Coeur Joie.
I’m a chypre lover and this sounds gorgeous – or at least *you* make it sound so!
I agree with Rapple….naughty Angela! I liked it much better when you were shopping off the drugstore shelf last summer!
I think I must be making up for all those cheapies from last summer! But you’re right. This is getting way out of hand.
Agreed. Could you review a cheap chypre. You know, in the $75 range?
Due to current financial state, under $50 would be preferred….
No kidding!
Man. I wish I could find a good, cheap chypre that still smells mossy. I’ll keep my eyes peeled.
It’s ridiculously expensive! I bought into a split of an older, much cheaper bottle, though, and it came to less than $2/ml, including shipping and the bottle. That’s the way to go.
I did check the auction site for it, and found a 4 oz. regular bottle going for around $200. Not really bad at all. Where’s Daisy? We need to split!
I bought into a split of one of those! It’s much, much more reasonable than the $300 for half an ounce path.
I’m panting…….
It’s pant-worthy. At least, I think so.
My mom is a L´air du temps fan… in 1992 my dad got her a small coffret that had this, farouche (which I just recognized from a facebook post) and other small “lalique” bottles (of course they were not lalique crystal, but common glass reproductions of those. It had 5 or 6 fragrances and they were tiny tiny bottles. Still my mom was delighted! :-
Hey, I wonder if one of the minis was Fille d’Eve? I’d be happy, too, to get such a collection.
Sounds lovely!.
I agree!
Hello Angela, you talk of this and I cannot wait to smell it, a skin scent chypre sounds delicious and sexy.
I too am getting a decant and am sure it will be worth the wait.
Thanks for a lovely review, I’m excited!
I bet you’ll love it–although I hope you’ll correct me if you don’t! The reason I think you’ll like it is that it reminds me just a touch of Miss Dior, as if it could be Miss Dior’s younger, more quiet sister.
Am wearing this right now! You were right! I love it, it’s gorgeous! Wanna try it on a warm spring day, this one…
It would be such a great springtime perfume!
Oooh, a skin-scent chypre does sound delightful. Thanks, Angela, for a great review. I’ve talked to Nasreen on the phone a time or two and she’s a lovely person.
P.S. I’m the person who e-mailed you a while back about getting Bill Blass Nude. I got some in the Posse swap and am enjoying it. Thanks for corresponding with me.
I’m glad you scored some Nude. It’s a good, basic scent. I wear it to bed a lot. I was happy to correspond with you–anytime!
Mmmm…sounds wonderful. I for one looove the smell of baby head!
How about dirty baby head?
Oddly enough, plaster and hair and wet dog and goat all sound kinda appealing to me.
While this perfume doesn’t interest me on price alone (I just can’t break spend that much), I am interested to smell it in other perfumes.
The price really is out of sight. If a sample comes your way, though, it’s worth a smell. I wish they made an EdT version that was more affordable.
I love this scent! I have the ordinary but reassuringly large spray bottle, but I do dream of the original version – that Lalique apple in the most chic basket ever designed (see the photo that comes up in ebay searches). Huge sighs!
I have a decant coming my way, but I’d love the jumbo spray bottle, too! I’m sure I’ll be wearing it a lot.
Wow, Angela. I am probably too late to the game, but your post is so wonderful, I just had to respond.
I love those classic NR perfumes. L’Air du Temps, Capricci, Coeur Joie, Farouche, Nina, Deci Dela…I have worn and loved them all. But I never tried Fille d’Eve.
Now I am absolutely curious, although somehow it does not sound quite like the others, and I am not sure what to make of that. Slightly ripe baby’s scalp? I just don’t know what to think!
Hugs!
It definitely is a little bit of an odd duck–but in a beautiful way! I’m wearing Portrait of a Lady right now, for instance. It’s lovely, and I know what it’s all about with its rose, wood, and geranium. But Fille d’Eve smells so different to me.
Personally, I don’t smell baby scalp. To me, the animalic note just gives a beautiful scent more depth. Hope you have a chance to sample it someday and decide for yourself, VN!
I registered just so I could comment on your piece which I loved. Animal smells like civet, ambergris, musk and castoreum are foul like BO,road kill, excrement. In large dosages these smells are beyond offensive. They are wretched. In small amounts of course, they are quite wonderful and give perfume animation because these are the smells of sentient beings. Of all animal smells a newborn’s smell is the least offensive and the only one that is down right ethereal. It is the crack cocaine of human smells. Neoteny which smells really good is a cornucopia of gifts God bestows on the helpless to deflect fear and aggression in strangers and enslave the parent. Sweaty babies don’t get that sour odor like adults. The smell isn’t even the earthy/hardwood mulch smell of small children and dogs who have played outside. The smell of a ripe sweaty infant is pure and sweet as the milk they drink. Perfumes are often said to smell “milky” and it is funny but “milk” notes aren’t considered in that family of animal smells but nothing could be more animal than milk, which brings me to the smell of a newborn’s breath. It is like nothing else. It makes your mouth water. I absolutely must smell Fille d’Eve. Thank you for the article. It was a pleasure to read.
What a wonderful, thoughtful exploration of animal smells! I read it twice to think about what you wrote. I especially love your observation about milk and animal smells.
And now I’m going to spray on some Fille d’Eve. It’s been too long!