For a perfume lover, discovering a terrific scent that has flown under many people’s radar is exciting. The thrill amplifies when the perfume only costs about $10 a bottle. Now that my backup bottle is safely on its way, I’m ready to share my latest discovery: Bill Blass Nude.
I first heard of Nude years ago when I read Laren Stover’s The Bombshell Manual of Style’s chapter on Bombshell perfumes. Most of the fragrances she lists are grand old perfumes, including the numbered Chanels, Guerlain Mitsouko and L’Heure Bleue, Rochas Femme, and Lanvin My Sin. Among these heavyweights is Nude, which the manual describes as “a striking floral composition” and creating “a mental state of near undress”.
Still, Bill Blass? Wrack my brain as I might, all I could call forth were images of conservatively dressed women of a certain age with small, groomed dogs. Not really the feel I’m going for…