 |
| The beginning of the end... "Youth Dew" by Estée Lauder. Launched 1953. |
The
coming of Youth Dew in 1953 put paid
to perfume as we knew it. It was the end of subtlety, the death-knell of
artistry and discretion. It was cheap, loud and vulgar and it blazed the trail
for every cheap, loud and vulgar “fragrance” that churned through the open
flood-gates for the next 30 years.
Van
Ameringen, President of Ameringen-Haebler, later merged with International
Flavours and Fragrances (I.F.F.) gave the formula to Estée as a present. He had
been allowing her almost unlimited credit with the company, knowing she had not
the money to buy for some time, and felt she needed a helping hand.
Van
Ameringen kept Estée company for a while during her separation from her
husband, Joe, but when Van wouldn’t leave his wife, and she subsequently
re-married Joe, they remained friends.
Youth Dew was said to have been developed at
I.F.F. by Ernest Shiftan known as “Mr Nose USA”, and by presenting her with
this fragrance, Van Ameringen ensured Esther from Brooklyn’s future
multi-million dollar empire, and the decline of subsequent modern perfumery
into mediocrity.
Youth Dew, surely the most ‘icky’ name ever to
be bestowed upon a fragrance (although I don’t know, White Shoulders, and Baby
Soft take a bit of beating...) began life as a bath oil, and some might
argue that is where it stayed, heavy, cloying, clinging to the bath and whoever
was in it. That it was oil-based was significant.
The
cognoscenti of the trade called it “vulgar, brassy, cloying and nauseating”. “I
hate it, it’s vulgar: I wish I had a piece of it” commented Harry Doyle of
Revson Inc.
No
combination of carnation and patchouli has ever been known to fail, but Youth Dew went further; it removed the
top and middle notes and went straight to the base. What you smelled first off
was all you ever smelled. There was no ‘development’.
Just
fine if it passed you by; God help you if it stopped to chat.
Americans
are known for wanting everything “yesterday”, not the most patient of nations,
why wait for a base to emerge? Let’s have it right off.
So
it was with Youth Dew.
And
Mrs Joe Public loved it.
There
was a fly-spray available at the time that smelled exactly the same and which
cost 7½ pence a can. Nevertheless, there was no point in wearing your ‘best
French’ to a party if someone was wearing Youth
Dew – you’d be sunk without trace.
Today,
whole streets can smell of Opium, and
Giorgio can be banned in restaurants,
but in the ‘50’s it was Youth Dew.
Youth Dew which blazed the trail and hammered
the last nail in the coffin.
Soft Youth Dew was practically on the stands when
Yves St Laurent launched Opium.
No-one could prevail against his choice of name, the Chinese in particular were
deeply offended. YSL could not be budged. Opium
it was, and Opium it remained,
and as Opium it took off like a
forest fire (inevitable – it was another carnation/patchouli combo).
Estée
Lauder had 40 fits: “It’s Youth Dew
with a tassel!” She yelped and renamed Soft
Youth Dew so fast that some actually made the stands with the name
unchanged. Most however were renamed Cinnabar
and put out with a tassel.
Cinnabar was originally intended as a make-up
range, a colour concept for an overall look, and the department stores were
kept waiting while a frantic rejig took place.
However,
at less than half the price of Opium,
Cinnabar more than broke even on the
stands.
The
actual ingredients of Opium cost
pennies rather than pounds, it is always the hard-sell publicity that bumps up
the price and the launch cost so much that it is still spoken of in the trade
in hushed tones.
Maja by Spanish firm Myrurgia, the
prototype for both Youth Dew and Opium still comes in at a fraction of
the price.
But
at some time over the past 30 years, someone tumbled to the fact that a certain
section of society buys perfume not for how it smells, but for what it
costs.
Soon,
I feel we will be back to the Romans who sold perfume for its equivalent weight
in gold. And nobody can deny we’re going backwards with scents flecked with
gold-dust and diamonds suspended in bottles so your money shows.
Sally
Blake
Date unknown
