Raffinee Houbigant for women

Sorting though the perfumes I have stored in a spare cupboard not currently in rotation, I curiously sampled my Raffinee. The delicious ambergis/orange spices accord is just what I am in the mood for wearing lately, and put it back in with my fragrances in heavy circulation...

Next, I re-read the review I wrote some time ago, and it sounded like it was written by a stranger. How could I have not loved this gently sweet, amber, orange and spice melody is the great mystery of the moment.
Raffinee is such a blessedly beautiful composition. The amber warm as melted butter and maple syrup.
I have to laugh to myself for how ridiculosly easy it was for me to spend more than 4 times it's price for 24 Faubourg, a fragrance which for all it's incredible beauty I have found doesn't budge on my skin after the inital spritz.
Raffinee, although not the same by any means has the sillage I am looking for, and hits upon many of desirable elements of 24 Fauborg.There's the orange with spices accord along with warm, heavenly ambergis drydown.The orris,ylang, hyacynth are all there. Layer on some of the high quality gardenia soliflore I possess if andwhen I want to duplicate the stong white flower accord.
The contrasts between white flowers and earthy amber are surely the central component of 24's legendary status.Raffinee projects much more boldly and warmly, like the ambient heat of the sun rising off warmed skin at the beach. I get to enjoy Raffinee for myself, instead of having to steal a sniff my arm or hope to get a ribbon of scent drifting past..

I love 24 Fauborg, but regrettably, I have to wonder if my cool body temperture is the foil yet again!!

Same family as Navy, Oscar de la Renta, Gloria Van der Built.

So sad. I tried the new version of Raffinee by Dana and it is just a whisper it used to be. My mother wore the original in the 80's so it is a "memory scent". It has pretty good staying power but NO sillage. I am going to give it to my mom because she likes lighter perfumes than I do. :(

This is the best aged champagne in the house. Smooth, well-blended, beautiful. I wore this back in the 80's and just recently purchased an old formula bottle. It's that expertly crafted full-bodied powdery cinnamon spiced potion that I remember and loved so well.

It does remind one a bit of Lou Lou...a bit more grown up. I never get tired of this scent, it's just beautiful. My all time favorite face powder scent! ;)

Lovely stuff, a cheaper Lou Lou and Red Door rolled into one :)

Well when i got this in the mail and took a look at it i said "Uh oh.. this is probably really stank" It just looks like its super heavy. I sprayed it on and to my shock its actually quite nice! It is heavy, it does smell like Navy but better (a little lighter) its def a Classy Evening scent. This is just one of those Fragrances: if you spray too much you will smell like a old woman and give people headaches, or if you seriously mist it and just walk into the mist, or spray the wrist then rub that all over, it smells very sexy classy, high end and vintage with a modern twist! This is not for anyone under 25 and it is not a day time scent. It smells like a Holiday specialty hot drink (think orange, spice, cinnamon, and fruit with a hint of edible flower) its very nice when used lightly!

Sooo 80's; such a powerful scent. On me, it's smelled like a spicy, orange flower tea. Not bad, but I don't want to smell like tea. It gave me a headache. The dry down is too powdery for my taste. I gave it to my mother in law, who seems to love this dated fragrances.

Oh yes! This is lovely.

It smells like all the good parts of Cacharel LouLou and Vanderbilt. The jasmine is not very dirty, so I can stand it. I hate indolic flowers...

Incense, spices, sandalwood, vanilla, amber... warm, smooth, dark, mystical and sexy.
Very potent oriental. Not for the shy, cause you WILL get noticed wearing this.
Very vintage and fantastic.

UPDATE: I got myself a reformulated bottle of this made by "Alladin fragrances", and it smelled really really bad. Like cat pee and stale cigarett ashes. It`s so damn sad! :,-(

Ugh, this smells just like the commercial strength insecticide used by the pest control service in an apartment building I had the misfortune of living in years ago in Queens, NY. The second Monday of evey month I smelled it and knew that roaches were dying. Me thinks if the exterminator just used this he'd have gotten the same results.

This used to be my super sexy potion. I haven't seen it around or smelled it in God knows how long . I think I will have to grab a bottle for old times sake . Memories !

For fans of the 80 s. Imagine Linda Evans/Christelle Carrington with a super brushing and parfumed with Raffinée...

I have worn this fragrance off and on through out the years since the early 80s.

It is that woodsy, spicy, Oriental type floral that I love. I just gravitate to these Oriental florals that are strong in their base notes with lots of what I call "bottom" (more earthiness) to it.

It lingers well after 8 hours or so.

This is a flirty, seductive, sensual type fragrance not for the faint at heart!

Was one of my favorites back in the 80's.

Cinnamon, Carnations, and Class! This is a strong, sweet, confident scent that begs for fancy clothes! I love to wear it anytime. Is sweet, warm, slightly spicy, and lovely. It reminds me of LouLou, but is softer, sweeter, and more wearable. Powdery like Lou Lou & Gloria Vanderbilt. Sweet classy powder. Just lovely.

UD: And I used up at all up and need another! ADORE it!

Whoa! Shoulder-pads, hairspray, full face make-up....the 80's come flooding back. This is a full-on, sweet floriental with a plastic punch.

I admit: I am NOT a big fan of the 80's. The music, the outfits, the attitude, the food. I grew my way around it, but I never fully embrace it.

OK - I owned a pair of pixie boots & a reversable cartoon animal jumper...but I was very grateful for the 90s to arrive.

Raffinee is exactly how my mother's hair & make-up drawer in her beautiful wooden dressing table smelled. EXACTLY. If I could gather up all the Max Factor Gay Whisper pressed powders, blue Cover Girl eye shadows, waxy Rimmel lipsticks, Elnett hairsprays, numerous powder puffs, Opium samples, polishes, lotions & potions I would have Raffinee.

I should hate it....but....but....

Raffinnee is strong, sweet & filled with cinnamon. At first, a plastic-plum & sage arrive followed by a peek-a-boo floral aspect - strong & sweet. The main body of this scent is cinnamon, carnation, osmanthus & a whole heap of powder on My Little Pony plastic.

Whilst Tabu made me feel uneasy (in the same way that Kingdom did), Raffinee is wearable. You could go out on the town with her without being embarrassed & she'd last her way through a few disco dancing moves.

Raffinee makes me feel happy. You can't buy happiness but you can buy a whole heap of memories in just one squirt.

Just got a vintage brand new bottle of EDP...and wow, this is gorgeous! I didn't get my hopes too high because you never know with these old school "stinkers" and I had to send back quite a few of them recently, but Ruffinee turned out to be absolutely beautiful. Warm carnation and jasmine, slightly sweet and spicy, it feels like pure luxury on the skin. I think this is what Gorgio Red is trying to be but completely misses the point and lacks the complexity and this luxurious feel.
Ruffenee is a wonderful choice for a dinner at a fancy restauraunt on a winter night. And don't forget to wear your fur coat to match this beauty!!!

Don't know about the version made by Dana, but Houbigant quality is always exceptional.

A true women 80's power scent. I see the padded shoulders and blue eye shadow and very very red lipstick with this one. I guess you could classify this one as a florential.

My mom wore this in the 1980's so there is that olfactory connection there for me that is full of sentiment. I love this! If you are a fan of the original version of Raffinee, you may also love a not to familiar gem called "Red Pearl". They are very similar in composition but I feel Red Pearl is more complex and longer lasting on the skin. It is also very inexpensive which always shocks me! You just never know what you are going to get with perfume! I think that these can be worn in the winter for the "cozy" factor or even in the summer....hot nights out dancing would bring out this fragrance like a cat on a hot tin roof!

The original version of this perfume was probably okay but the reformulation I got was disappointing. The top notes were pretty but they didn't last long. I couldn't get past the jarring, cheap middle notes. The composition of the bottom notes is a throwback to yesteryears when they didn't have the advanced perfumery techniques we have today. This perfume will be returned promptly to the store. Why waste time on a mediocre fragrance when there are so many excellent perfumes to explore?

The smell of this reminds me of something my dad used to cook. A type of chutney and it always made our guests wanting to eat more. Yes it was strong to the nose, spices, sweetness of melasses then pepper then... Like whoa ''nelly'' did you take a shower after your shift at the restaurant. But yet, you didn't want ''nelly'' to leave, just stay a little longer and longer.

Just like chutney..You ignore it, you hate it, you get something you like from it, then you remember it, you desire it, you leave it then you must have more but not often.

This smells simular to Oscar De La Renta
with more spice in contrast to La Renta
have more frankincense and suble woods
i prefre Raffinee It stands out without
the overpowering Effects like Giorgio of Beverly Hills Red Has. i love the color of the liquid the bottle a little
above average but noting to whrite about but it's worth keeping when it's empty and put colored sand in it.

This is very nice but it has changed dramatically since the 1980's! Its way weaker and less powdery than it used to be. Time has a bad habit of changing things most times for the worse. Although this is a very nice scent, I have something to compare it to and I know the difference that most others don't know. Pretty scent still though.

As a fan of spicy scents, I love this one. My favourite flowery scents - carnation, jasmine, mimosa - also put in an appearance. Strangely enough, colleagues mistake it for "L'Air Du Temps" (another favourite!) when I wear it at work. A warm and feminine scent, with good staying power.

Woa, I bought this unsniffed this morning and had to take it back by lunch time! I never return fragrances but on this one I had to. I guess I can't pull off most fragrances made in the 80's. Those powdery notes they used back then had some power... POWER POWDER! Civet and aldehydes does not mix with me and my chemistry. I love the 2 reviews below but all I got was cinnamon that got swallowed by the powdery pee-pee fairy! I think even in the 80's this perfume was low in cost, so maybe its just cheaply made.

I would call it a "Spiced Oriental".
I would not call it a "Spicy Oriental" because the spice is light and mainly for the top notes. The spice lasts gently in the middle notes, but, not strongly. However-the whole perfume is strong! Itś pungent, persistent,loud, and the fixation is great. I suppose I used this fragrance, um, 20 years ago, and Raffinee instilled my love and fascination of uniquely styled orientals. Itś very Oriental, itś a tad gourmand. The spicy opening with sweetening plum leads to the strong florals that enwrap you like a velvet cape-next you wander into the mysterious, dreamy realm of sandalwood, musk, and insense, tonka, and vanilla combination wich creates a fantastic scent and carries the perfume all day, while creating the illusion of Amber and powdery notes in the base.

This perfume is definetly perfume in the 1980s category, for sure. It is remeniscent of Ciara, Lutece, and then a later more sophistcated Spellbound.
I had this perfume as a teen and a generous member sent me a large decant recently so I could enjoy it again.
I am enjoying it again, however it feels unusual and a bit cheap or lower quality to me now beacause the powdery dry down is so strong. It is only a touch sweet, and very strong!

Sherihan, at the very beginning the smell is really spicy and hot, but not sweet at all. (I just thought it reminds me the smell of Chinese spicy chicken soup a bit:)) But then it becomes sweeter like a black bitter chili chocolate.

I do love hot and spicy food - spicy meat, fish, chicken,soups, chocolates and other sweets:) That is the reason why I really loved Raffinee!

Raffinee has the edible spicy smell of black chocolate with chili peppers. I can also smell a nice note of cinnamon, no flowers, no fruits. Raffinee is a very intriguant, complex, unusual oriental fragrance. Love it!