Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls 1996

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Post by Azar

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Greetings Perfume Pals!

My previous post on APJ recalled my adventures in Spring Cleaning and the subsequent discovery of several bottles of the original Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls. I also wrote a bit of a back-story to the fragrance. Today I am attempting a review of vintage Black Pearls.

Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls 1996

The Power of the Peach – Part II

Black Pearls Elizabeth Taylor FragranticaFragrantica

Fragrantica lists these featured accords:
Peach, gardenia, bergamot, water lily, white rose, lotus, amber, sandalwood and musk.

First of all I have to say that there is nothing quite like vintage Black Pearls. For me this frag is, at once, peachy, wet and powdery, a combination unique in my experience. Some people report a surfeit of lilac and/or melon in Black Pearls. My experience is one of citrus, lotus (of sorts), honeysuckle, vanilla, synthetic smelling sandalwood, a rich floral combo and, of course, the powerful peach.

I am not talking about a fresh peach here. Even though there is an obvious attempt to simulate freshness with the addition of aquatic elements (via the lotus and water lily?), Black Pearls has very little of that squeezable, tart juiciness that characterizes newly picked fruit. Instead, Elizabeth Taylor’s peach is big, fuzzy and over-ripe, sliced, spiced, powdered; vanilla sugared, battered, buttered and baked into a cobbler drizzled with cream. This fragrant, mouthwatering dessert is set out to cool next to a huge bouquet of lilacs, gardenias, pale roses and osmanthus. Can you imagine that? Most days my skin loves Black Pearls and the resulting sweetness and warmth is not unlike the tender, young voice of Elizabeth Taylor as Velvet Brown in the 1945 film National Velvet. Sometimes, though, she smells like the sound of ET portraying the screeching, bitching Martha from the film adaptation of Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (the film – 1966). The split personality of this fragrance – either a middle aged harridan with monster sillage or a sweet, shy girl who stays close to home – makes Black Pearls a perfume I can wear for a variety of occasions and purposes. The problem is I can’t predict how she will behave on my skin from one day to the next.

Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls The Coincidental Dandy FlickrFlickr

Black Pearls started me wondering what percentage of the fragrances in my collection feature peachy notes. I haven’t come up with an answer to that yet, but a couple of the peaches I am currently wearing are Viktoria Minya’s Hedonist (date) and the new Miyako extrait by Auphorie (date). I imagine I will write more about those two sometime soon – in the Power of the Peach Part III?

Azar xx

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Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winners who will receive:
Continental USA DRAW: 1 x vintage Black Pearls .25 ounce parfum in the box
Worldwide DRAW: 1 x 2ml decant of the original Black Pearls EdP
1 x a little sample of a rare, impossible to find, weird mystery peach
P&H Worldwide

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged. Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me (portia underscore turbo @ yahoo dot com dot au) so I know.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

USA or WORLD

and

Please tell us your favorite peach-centric fragrance – if you have one. Or any fruit in a fragrance.

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 21st April 2016 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winner will be chosen by random.org
The winner will have till Sunday 24th April 2016 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

37 thoughts on “Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls 1996”

  1. Peach isn’t my favourite fruity scent, but Kilian’s Good Girl Gone Bad is all right. I do like the sound of the mystery peach!
    I follow by email, and live in the World. 🙂

    Like

    • Hi Jaybee!
      What do you think of osmanthus? Is that too peachy/apricoty for you? When peach is just too much osmanthus sometimes works. Re the mystery peach: I’m debating whether or not to let the winner know just what it is. If I did then it wouldn’t be a mystery, would it?
      Azar xx

      Like

      • Hi Azar! I haven’t tried enough osmanthus perfumes to be sure, but I expect I would like it – I like apricots.

        Mystery does make a sample more appealing, I think. 😀
        Jaybee xx

        Like

  2. via email
    USA
    Not usually a big fan of fruit notes in fragrances. I do have some plum like vintage Nahema and Natori.

    Like

    • Hi Gina,
      There are a lot of bad fruity frags out there. The fruit I like the least in fragrance is passionfruit. But as long as it stays in the background I’m good with it. What do you think of the new Nahema?
      Azar xx

      Like

  3. Hello and thanks for the opportunity. I am in Australia and follow by email.

    I do love my Burberry Weekend – with a strong nectarine note.

    Thanks again.

    Like

    • Hi Sue,
      I have not tried Burberry Weekend but the nectarine note soudns enticing! Thanks for commenting and joining the draw.
      Azar xx

      Like

  4. I follow via email. I don’t particularly have a peachy or fruit scented perfume. But I find this post most interesting because I am on the board of our towns Peach Festival. We have it every year and this year is our 75th! I would love to win and wear this fragrance to our festival this summer!

    Like

    • Hi Angela,
      Another great fragrance for the Peach festival would be Viktoria Minya’s Hedonist. Since your town has a peach festival I’m guessing you live somewhere in the Southern USA, but please let me know for sure. To be eligible for this draw we need to know if you live in the US OR if you live somewhere else on the planet. The prizes are different depending on where you live.
      Azar xx

      Like

  5. I follow by email! If you haven’t tried the newest Taylor Scent (White Diamonds Night), then give that a sniff! 🙂

    Like

    • Hi Jada,
      I’ll track down ETs White Diamonds Night and give it a sniff as soon as I possibly can! Thank you for the tip. Also… to be in this draw we need to know if you reside in the US or somewhere else on the planet.
      Azar xx

      Like

  6. Classic Chloe or Goutal`s mimosa, plus there is Horowitz`s Halcyon coming w/ Osmanthus 🙂 We follow AJP on Facebook and e-mail. Thank you for good! reading 🙂 🙂

    Like

    • Hey Linda,
      Referencing peach, I was thinking of Goutal’s Mimosa too! I have not tried Halcyon. Thank you for the tip. I’m eager to give it a go. I imagine you still reside in the US?
      Azar xx

      Like

  7. I follow by email. I recently tried Elizabeth Taylor’s Diamonds and Rubies and it was glorious. I’d be so interested in trying Black Pearls. I don’t have a peach centric favorite so this would indeed be a new experience. Thanks for a wonderful review and giveaway. My fingers are crossed.

    Like

    • Hi Ellen,

      Diamonds and Rubies IS lovely!

      Just a reminder: The prizes are different depending on where you live. It’s a postage thing. So tell us if you reside in the US or somewhere else.

      I am in the Pacific Northwest USA. Today we are having a mini heat wave. It is supposed to be springtime here but it feels more like early summer. I just walked out onto the back deck which is surrounded with blooming lily of the valley. The heat has amplified their fragrance. The entire garden smells like lily of the valley – or Diorissimo Extrait!!!

      Azar xx

      Like

  10. I follow via eMail!
    If i had to choose a favourite peach-centric fragrance I guess it would be J’ai Ose by Guy Laroche
    Cheers Scott

    Like

    • Hi Scott,
      Do you know if there is big difference between the vintage and the newer J’ai Ose?
      BTW are you US or World? I need that info for the draw.
      Azar xx

      Like

    • Hello Jc Loh,
      Apple can be a difficult note! Just a hint, as you say, is the best apple for me too, in a fragrance that is. I find that an overdose of apple in a frag makes me smell like a pie or a scented candle 🙂
      Azar xx

      Like

  12. hi azar,
    thanks for the draw.i really liked your review.i follow by email and live outside the us.before i got extra sick i really enjoyed wearing yvresse now i wear osmanthe yunnan instead and just adore osmanthus as a note and still love peach.

    Like

    • Thank you for your kind words, flowergirlbee!
      I think I love everything in the Hermessence series of fragrances but today (at this moment) I don’t recall Osmanthe Yunnan and so will track down a sample. I think there is still one floating around here somewhere. Be WELL!
      Azar xxx

      Like

  13. I love the peach and passionfruit in Rozy EdP although I wouldn’t call it a peach fragrance. I would no put myself into the peach categoy though, no. Mitsouko is beautiful when I am in the mood ……. Hmmmmmm. Shall have to invesitgae the peach thing in perfume. DNEM of course. Hugs! xxxxxxx

    Like

    • Hi Val,
      I Just spritzed my sample of Rozy EdP (thank you for that one!). To me it has just a hint of cool, airy peach and luckily I don’t get much passionfruit, which is not a big fav of mine. I find it interesting that many of the fragrances I like are, if not blatantly peachy, at least influenced by peach. I’m still hoping to experience a really big and strange peach – the James and the Giant Peach of peach-centric perfumes 🙂 If you run into something like that let me know!
      Azar xxxx

      Like

  14. I think the fragrance with peach note that may qualify as my favorite is Vintage Mistouko or maybe Femme Rochas. I am in the U.S. and I follow APJ through email. thanks a lot for the generous draw.

    Like

    • Hi Fazal,
      You are so welcome. Thank YOU for joining the draw! And – you are so right about Femme. I wore her years ago but, for some reason, didn’t equate her with peach. It is time to revisit my old Femme. I hope she is still in good shape and hasn’t lost her top notes.
      Azar xx

      Like

  15. DNEM because I already have a bottle of this one. I never get much more than a pleasant skin scent from it and the peach on me is quite restrained which is good because peach sometimes turns to cat pee on me.
    Xoxo

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    • Interesting, Poodle!
      Once in awhile a peachy fragrance will do that on my skin too. I always blamed the effect on black currant but perhaps certain peaches are partly responsible??
      Azar xx

      Like

  17. Dear Azar – i don’t think i have any fragrances with peach in them (but i must double check!). Regards fragrances with fruit notes i do love Pomelo Paradis by Atelier Cologne with pink grapefruit, black currant and orange – delicious! As the weather gets a little warmer i will be wearing this beauty again soon!
    thanks for the draw – i am in the UK. ta.

    Like

    • Hi there, Pats133!
      Yes, double check. I can’t help but think that you have something with at least of breath of peach in your collection. I agree that Pomelo Paradise ,like my much loved, yummy pomelos, is delicious! Perfect for our mini heatwave. Yesterday it was 90F – in April! That does not bode well for the summer. I like my summers cool.
      Azar xx

      Like

  18. It was love at first sniff for me with Champagne/Yvresse; I can’t imagine I’ll ever tire of it!

    I follow by email, from the World 🙂

    Thanks!

    Like

    • Hi lene,
      Thank you for commenting and joining the draw. I’m wondering if you find the newer Yvresse as good (and peachy) as the older Champagne?
      Azar xx

      Like

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