A few weeks ago a coworker asked, “You like chocolate martinis? I’ve got a great recipe for one.” To me a martini should be nothing but glacier-cold gin and a wink of vermouth, but I wanted to be friendly so I smiled and nodded. He started in on the recipe. “You take Godiva liqueur, Kahlua, Vanilla Stoli, and a little Baileys….” He ended by suggesting a garnish of a Hershey’s kiss. It was all I could do to keep my lunch down.
A few days later I searched the kitchen for something sweet. It was raining out, and cold, and I wanted a taste of something almost too rich to eat. Just then, my friend’s chocolate martini — a tiny one, for sure — would have been perfect.
That’s how I feel about Chopard Casmir. A daily diet of Casmir would burn out your nasal hair and leave you (and your bus mates) on the verge of nausea. But when the taste for something over-the-top rich and sweet hits, it’s hard to beat.
The jewelry company Chopard launched Casmir in 1991. Perfumer Michel Almairac developed Casmir, and the notes include mango, coconut, peach, bergamot, jasmine, geranium, muguet, amber, musk, vanilla, sandalwood, and patchouli. My overall impression is of amber, sweet tropical fruit, and vanilla.
Just as with the chocolate martini, Casmir is about overkill, only instead of liqueur it’s amber. Also as with the chocolate martini, Casmir isn’t particularly balanced. The only airiness I feel in the fragrance comes from the salty-scratchy texture of amber against the creaminess of vanilla, and the only contrast to vanilla and amber’s sugar is also sweet, but fruit-sweet. I don’t smell anything bitter or spicy to mix things up or cool them down.
Casmir isn’t about balance, though. It’s about gorging yourself sensually. Casmir is ideal when it’s cold out, you finally opened that old Barolo you hoarded, and you want to listen to Maria Callas while you shave truffles over risotto. Or, if like me the Barolo-truffle episode will have to wait until George Clooney begs you to manage his Lake Como estate, Casmir suits when you’re tempted to hole up and polish off a pint of Ben and Jerry’s while you watch Colin Firth as Darcy on a straight-through Pride and Prejudice marathon or a long night of screwball comedies.1 In short, Casmir is about excess.
Casmir is good value, too. One spray of the Eau de Parfum, or a few dabs of the Parfum, will last all day and have enough sillage to say hello to your coworker in the next cubicle. I wore a few drops of Casmir Parfum one cold day while I worked at a vintage clothing store and had one customer approach me with her turtleneck sweater rolled up over her nose. So be warned.
Really, though, if you’re in the mood for Casmir, who cares about those namby-pamby people who probably decorate all in beige and order their Thai food mild? They can go home and microwave their dinners and sit in their yoga pants while they watch boring TV. You, you’ll dig through your love letters, glass of wine in hand, and take advantage of a stereo's worth of songs to sing aloud with while you plot your genius next act. Really, life worth living is worth living to sensual excess. At least a couple of times a year. Casmir is good for that.
Although it’s getting difficult to find in stores, Chopard Casmir is still readily available online, where 100 ml bottles of Eau de Parfum sell for as little as $23. My Parfum mini is a lifetime supply.
1. I suggest starting with My Man Godfrey, then watching Dinner at Eight. If you need an extra spot of joy and you’re still awake, follow up with You Can’t Take It With You.
Excellent review, Angela! You had me laughing at namby-pamby people who order mild Thai curry and watch boring tv. I always liked Casmir… from afar. Every time I got brave and actually ventured to spray the waft was just too much. As I amp sweetness, I can only imagine what would have happened and it would have been grim. I once used a magazine test strip to scent a cupboard and it lasted months!
If George Clooney ever offers you that job do you think you would need an assistant?
I forgot to add in the review that Casmir last days on clothing, too. The sweaters I wore when I was testing it for this review smell like a pastry shop!
Yes, if George comes through with the job, you’ll have to come, too. We can shave truffles and decant Barolo together.
Sounds good. Wonder what my husband will think?? I’d bring my cute daughters along so they can play with the Jolie-Pitt crew when they visit!
That’s perfect!
Thanks for making me laugh over my lunch here. Ido know what you mean about needing excess sometimes. i don’t think Casmir is for me, but it seems as if I have seen it in my Ross/Marshall’s/TJ Maxx trollings, so that might be another place to look.
Thanks for the tip on another place to find Casmir!
You can buy Casmir at Chopard stores, they will ship. It will be more costly, but it will be the fresh product. Packaging has changed, the bottle is now gold, I sent photos to Robin. Photos were sent to me by Chopard within this past year. They said it has not been reformulated. I don’t trust online with old product, just me. I posted waaaaay at the bottom of 60 plus comments if you want to read more. Chopard stores are in NYC, Beverly Hills and perhaps elsewhere in the USA that I am not aware of. Google. And of course, Chopard would be in Europe. I wore Casmir for many years, my last purchase was at Chopard.
Thanks for the info! Casmir lovers will be glad to know the facts about where to get it.
That chocolate martini story left me equally amused, horrified, and nauseated. You were an awfully good sport, though — it requires all my willpower to remain pleasant and civil when I order a martini, and a perfectly well-meaning bartender asks if I want gin or vodka. (Not that I should be carping about martini orthodoxy anyway, being as I prefer a twist of lemon rather than an olive.)
If not for the tropical fruits, I’m sure I would have indulged in a Casmir blind-buy at some point. I do love me some high-calorie orientals (albeit in moderation).
I do the same thing with bartenders! A martini is gin, and that’s that. I’m a twist person, too. No olives for me, and the gin has to be downright rotgut for me to even consider a dirty martini. Casmir is about as far from a crisp martini as you can get, though.
When I make my own martinis at home, I rinse the glass with a bit of vermouth before I add the shaken gin. That’s about perfect. Your review has made me consider the relationship between my tastes in cocktails and my tastes in perfume — I do appreciate crisp, aromatic fragrances with a bit of citrus (i.e., the dry martinis of the perfume world), but I’m much more likely to go for the equivalent of an aged bourbon or a peppery rye. Which makes sense, because I like drinking those too!
Interesting–the relationship between cocktail and perfume preferences. I like old-school cocktails and old-school perfume, but that doesn’t mean they share much in terms of style. I’m going to have to think on that one for a while! Also, I’m getting mighty thirsty for a martini. Maybe I’ll have one tonight as a President’s Day treat.
I’m not sure there’s really much correlation between food/drink preferences and perfume preferences. I have a tremendous sweet tooth, and I don’t care for drinks that are too dry. I prefer wine that has at least a touch of sweetness, rather than the really dry wines. I cannot drink either coffee or tea without some sugar. I have to say I have never had a martini, but honestly, it doesn’t appeal to me. I suppose I should try one just to see what it is like, since it is such a classic cocktail. That “chocolate martini” your coworker described sounds right up my alley, although I don’t know how it would be considered any kind of martini.
When it comes to perfume, on the other hand, I generally don’t like super-sweet fragrances. Too much vanilla is generally a deal-breaker for me, and I don’t care for gourmands as a rule. As much as I love to eat (and drink) chocolate, I do not care for chocolate notes in my perfume. I do love sandalwood, patchouli, and amber, but I find I need some brighter elements in there as well (such as citrus, green notes, or aldehydes) to keep it from being suffocating. The thought of mango or coconut in a perfume is rather repellant. I may have to get a sample of this, though, just out of curiosity.
Maybe there’s an inverse relationship between perfume and beverage preference. If you like a dry drink, you like a sweeter/fuller fragrance and vice versa. Hmmm. I’ll have to ponder that one, too.
Great review, Angela. Casmir sounds gag-inducing. It’s a bit like dessert made with white chocolate. Any pudding made with white chocolate makes me nauseous. I’m reminded of the time I tried Nina Ricci Deci Dela and it was so fruity sweet that it made me cough and I had to ask the SA for a tub of coffee beans! I don’t care much for overly sweet fragrance. “All beige” is not for me as I’m a Matisse girl, so I might give it a sniff “IF” I come across it.
If Deci Dela is too much for you, stay far far away from Casmir!
I loved your “pitch”, Angela, but you still didn’t sell me! lol! Casmir sounds awful!! And your friend’s “chocolate martini” sounds more like a Black Russian (or is it a White Russian? I can’t keep them straight!).
Also in your nighttime movie line-up, I’d recommend His Girl Friday with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell – my favorite screwball comedy!
I love His Girl Friday! Another good one is Ball of Fire with Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper. Hilarious.
Oh – I haven’t seen that one. Thanks for the recommendation!
Tell me how you like it! Gary Cooper plays a professor who is writing an encyclopedia with a handful of equally professorial men in an old house in New York. Barbara Stanwyck is a gun moll who hides out in the house. The professors let her stay because they’re working on the “slang” entry of the encyclopedia, and she can help them with it. You can imagine where it goes from there…
A White Russian is a Black Russian with cream.
Thanks for the clarification!
I really do love your reviews. That description of “namby-pamby people” is going in my notebook, along with some of your other evocative descriptions.
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Mmmm Angela can’t believe you’re reviewing this fragrance! It’s one of my favorites. Yes, a bit sweet but so much ambery goodness!
“Casablanca” would be nice to watch with this.
Has anyone layered it with something a bit bitter, leathery or peppery?
Layering it is a good idea! I especially like the idea of something peppery. I’ll have to experiment.
it is a men-repellent in my experience
It would take a man with a sweet tooth to go for it, probably.
oh, while you guys are doing Casmir, would you do a review for Casran too?
I’ve never smelled that one! Is it a masculine?
A man repellant? Not in my college days or when I go into Blu Mercury, they ask what have you found now. And it changes on my skin. College was fun! Wink wink
My husband loves it because it reminds him of me then when we were best friends. We married and have grown apart. Maybe a college tee and some casmir and some hot *** is just what we need, oh and knee socks.
Go get yourself a spray or two of Casmir and remind your honey what it’s all about!
I always enjoy reading your reviews, Angela, but I suspect that this one is not for me! I’m not much of a sweet gourmande-lover. In fact, I’m in the middle of deciding if I want a bottle of Traversee du Bosphore, or if it is too candied for me to want to wear it regularly.
Well then this one would probably have you gasping for air! It’s pretty rich.
When Casmir first launched i was a much younger lad than now and in my perfunista infancy but i knew from first smell it was something ludicrously lurid and magically extrovert! I fell in love with it FIRST SNIFF! Just like Champagne by Saint Laurent (which for some reason to this day i get the same feeling from when i smell… why i could never tell you really…) but unlike Champagne’s sophisticated intoxication, this is just full out Opium Den Submission! I would also bet, to my nose at least, that there is some Hedonistic Tuberose and Gardenia in the fragrance as well… but what i loved and what i love til this very day about this fragrance is it’s SUBLIME almost Chocolatey Veil of Peach and Vanilla and COCONUT!!!!!!! I DIE for the scent of Coconut and Vanilla and add Peach too it… Bury me NOW!!!
and this Tropical elixir doesn’t skimp or shy away from either of those notes! I know when i do make my own Fragrance one day in the near future… it will be HEAVILY Dosed with Peach, Coconut, and Vanilla!!!!! (Although i intend on tempering it with Bitter Orange and Damask Rose!
Thank You, Mon Angel, For bringing this scent back to light… i am heading to Fragrancenet or Ebay right now to start pricing this long lost beauty… i think my mother could use a little useless decadence now and again and this would be the perfect vehicle for that indulgence! Love To Mon Angel! MWAH! :-* <3<3<3<3
I’m sure you’re right about the flowers buried in Casmir, but I can’t smell them at all! They’re snowed under by amber, vanilla, mango, coconut, and sweet, sticky fruit. It is truly a bigger-than-life fragrance, and we all feel that way sometimes. It’s good to have a perfume to wear when that mood hits.
The $23 price I mention in the review was at parfum1, and they have a one-day 20% discount today, by the way. It might be less expensive elsewhere, I don’t know. I hope your mom loves it!
Whenever I see Casmir mentioned my mind instantly goes back to the year of its release, when a local dept store SA handed me a silk rose petal spritzed with the fragrance. I politely accepted, sniffed, and listened to the sales pitch, admired the packaging, thanked the SA and moved on.
I didn’t understand the first thing about perfume classifications or composition, or anything – only whether I liked or disliked. This one I disliked immediately and your description is perfect. To this day I have no desire to smell it again.
Thanks for your humorous take on it, Angela. And – It IS a pretty bottle.
It’s not a subtle fragrance, that’s for sure, but sometimes it really hits the spot for me.
Now you’ve got me wondering about fragrances I smelled early on in my perfume mania. What would I think of them now?
I think that would be a great topic for discussion. (Should have thought of it for the weekend discussion thread…)
I know these last couple of years I have been actively searching to relive the feelings of yore. The only problem is having to find a similar vintage for some of us who have been “at it” for more than 15-20 years, and also if you can find them at all.
Coco reminds me a lot of my college years. I bet D&G, the red capped one, would, too.
Don’t know about the latter, but Coco (with an approving nod to Chanel) has changed very little since the bottle of edp I bought (and still own) nearly 20 yrs ago.
It’s a good one. I always try to have a decant of it around.
Don’t think Casmir is for me, but thinking about the perfect perfume for a Pride & Prejudice marathon is a good exercise. Think I’m about due for one!
Really, unless you’re diving into the P&P for emotional reasons, probably Casmir isn’t the best choice. Maybe a classic Penhaligon’s would be, though. Perhaps Bluebell? Or maybe something that smells like Earl Grey tea?
Back in the day I was one of those obnoxious people stationed around the perfume counters who would happily spritz you to high heaven if you let me. I believe I was technically called a fragrance model. I must confess that I was assigned Casmir and I remember liking it. I knew nothing of notes then. They never trained us they just gave us a bottle and we had to do our best to sell it. I never had a tough time selling it. It was sweet but at the time it was different from some other new releases and I think that helped sell it. Plus we were still in the throes of 80’s excess; big hair, big jewelry, big fragrances. I think all the big sellers were the sillage monsters.
A fragrance model! I love it.
There’s something hard to resist about a perfume that smells like an oven door opening to mango-sugar cookies, and I could imagine it selling well, even if it eventually got to be a little much for some customers.
“glacier-cold gin and a wink of vermouth” best description of a good martini ever.
Thank you!
Agreed. That is a good martini.
Definitely my favorite way to drink them.
I like my frags to beat me up a little to make me pay attention. Casmir is like an overly attentive and boring man, smothering and suffocating and bland. So why do I have two bottles? Barely touched. Because I was slow to learn about perfumes and slower to learn about men. If I liked something (one) even a little I wanted a lot of it, but not for long. I can appreciate it, but can’t wear it. Out of curiosity Angela, how does the extrait compare to the EdT? I’ve never seen it in pure perfume. Along similar lines, I recently got Must de Cartier in extrait because I remembered it being lovely and no longer care for it either, memory is a fickle thing!
Better to have two bottles of Casmir than two “overly attentive and boring” men, I guess! Still, isn’t it nice to have the attention once in a blue moon, even if only for an hour or so?
I find the parfum more ambery and dense than the EdP. It’s been ages since I tied Must de Cartier–I’ll have to seek it out for a reminder.
Yes, no attention at all would be the worst Angela!! Hard to believe the parfum could be even more dense and ambery, that’s a real feat! Must reminds me of coke or pepsi that has lost all its carbonation. Lovely packaging though, as a little one ounce spray in a red “leather” box that slides apart like two doors to reveal the bottle. Worth it for that alone. As always, super review.
The packaging and branding are really exotic and alluring. They remind me of a Merchant and Ivory movie.
I bought this when it came out back in the day but got rid of it because it really brought out my migraines .I even liked the bottle! Thanks for the memories!
And your friend’s drink sounds great to me.
I can totally imagine the migraines! But are they really worse than you’d get from a couple of those chocolate martinis?
Angela – I’ve been reading review on the interwebs for the past two years or so, and I must say that I enjoy yours the most. I noticed a couple of months ago that your tastes align with mine somewhat (not that I mind an evil scent twin – that can be very helpful as well), but more than that, I adore your writing style.
I’m glad you enjoy my reviews! They’re fun to write. Having a weekly writing assignment here has been a good discipline for me.
Of course, it’s ridiculously huge and lush, so I love it. Have been subsisting on a mini, though a few years ago there were some very odd flankers about – dubbed the Fragrance Festival versions. The blue one made Casmir seem a bit aquatic (think of the relationship between TM’s Eau de Star versus Angel), the pink was cute in the bottle but utterly forgettable, and I never did get get my hands on the white.
But yes, a martini or g&t it’s not. It makes a Manhattan seem restrained by comparison.
Wow, I have a hard time imagining an aquatic Casmir! I bet the white one had a knock of white florals in it.
Oh this sounds fun, and now I think of it someone said to me recently I should check this out, because it does turn up in T K Maxx now and again and has more about it than many of the things that end up there these days. There is a time and a place for “gorging oneself sensually”, and it sounds as though Casmir is an essential accessory!
It’s an effective accessory to gorging–that’s for sure!
I love this review. I have the same feeling about Casmir. I have a 30 ml edp and I only spritz a small cloud on the back of my neck and I can almost smell it for days. It’s perfect when u need a little too much. Who dosen’t from time to time
I would love to read a review of Chopard’s Wish. I know so many say it’s a copy of Angel. But I think it could be fun to read a review of urs. Just to see if u can find any difference or u think it’s a down right copy
I’ll have to see if I can find a sample of Wish. I know I have a sample of another Chopard around somewhere, but I’ll be darned if I can remember what it is.
I have a friend who, along with her pal, invented the McNuggetini:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX8Hzxu7C1g
They have invented several drinks and are actually a bit famous.
My sister wore Casmir and was devastated when it became hard to find. I re-upped my Goddess-hood when I got her a bottle for Christmas once she had run out. I’ve thought about getting some – I always liked it, too, but deferred to her at the time.
Nice review! Love the part about the boring people.
That McNuggetini terrifies me! I swear I’d rather watch The Exorcist again than drink one of those horrors.
Haha, Oh Angela, you’re my taste of sophistication. Fabulous article, as always. I can’t get enough of your style:). I love Cashmir, my Godmother gifted her old (almost-drained) bottle to me long time ago, but this is exactly how I feel about it. A drop could have killed me instantly when I was pregnant with my first kid, and still could sometimes (and I am a sweets lover), but other times one droplet of this is the only thing that can make a nightmare family dinner endurable. (is this even a word?)
I couldn’t come up with a fragrance that makes me feel this… umm, ambivalent.
You understand exactly how I feel about it! (And yes, endurable is a word as far as I know.)
Oh Angela, Angela, Angela, look what you’ve done – you’ve made me search for this, score a 30ml bottle of edp, and hand over a fairly meagre amount of moolah. Now please, can you stop twisting my arm, it’s killing me! Seriously, I gave some thought to trying this a while back, but had forgotten about it until your fabulous review, so I hope I like it. Now I just have to wait for a few days until it arrives. I can’t wait.
I hope you liked it!
I can tell you where to buy Casmir, and the only place I would buy it….at Chopard stores, yes, they will ship. They will not be as inexpensive as online, but I believe well worth paying more. I just don’t trust the discounters to have fresh fragrance. I KNOW Chopard changed the packaging of Casmir somewhat recently. I have a photo of the current packaging, same shape but bottle is gold….not sure if I can post a link to it.. I wore Casmir for ages and ages, when it first was introduced. The only fragrance I ever bought from smelling a magazine strip. This was before my introduction to niche and other fragrances, up until that time I was pretty much department store. Casmir was not successful in the US. But, for some time I could get in Canada (I live in Los Angeles). However, as stated, I am VERY suspect of the quality of any of the Chopard’s that don’t come from Chopard. Likewise, I am very suspect of any fragrance where I am not sure there is a demand, and thus receiving old stock. I will send the photo to Now Smell This!
It sounds like you’re familiar enough with Casmir to know if the new version is faithful to the old. So do let us know how you like the gold-bottled version!
I think this might be the best review I ever read! lol I love the descriptions and the “say hello to your coworker in the next cubicle”.
I just got a 100ml EdP for 30 euro, on a weekly offer. It opens with WOAH but its heart/drydown is pretty lovely. Yes, excess, but this is actually my first amber FB (I dont count Ambre Russe as I’m still not sure whether I’m loving or hating it whenever I wear it), and it’s less sickeningly sweet than the amber samples I ordered a while ago.
Also, that photo is bugging me as a photographer. She looks like she has a moustache!
I hope you enjoy your Casmir! It’s powerful, but sometimes it really scratches the itch for a wallop of amber and spice.
I didn’t even notice the mustache! Good eye.