There was a time — not long ago, either — when “clean” didn’t smell like laundry soap. In those days, a clean fragrance was crisp and green with a hint of citrus, but might also waft a pretty floral heart and deliver a punch of oakmoss. Clean wasn’t a stack of folded sweat pants hot from the dryer, it was a white kid glove slid onto a cool, powdered hand. Chanel Cristalle and Estée Lauder Aliage embody this style of clean. Molyneux Quartz must have been one of the last mainstream fragrances of this genre.

Quartz was released in 1978. The Parfums Molyneux website mentions only honeysuckle and patchouli among its notes, but Jan Moran’s Fabulous Fragrances lists peach, hyacinth, cassie, jasmine, rose, carnation, orris, melon, sandalwood, musk amber, moss, benzoin, and cedarwood and classifies Quartz as a “floral-fruity.”

To me, Quartz Eau de Parfum is a delicate green chypre with hints of peach and melon and a whiff of cut herbs…

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