Three Faces of Habanita

On Valentine's, Josephine over at Notes from Josephine posted an ode to Habanita.  It went:

Wood Stain

Just Lit Cigarette

ATV Exhaust

Root Beer with Dry Ice

Board Meeting

Fresh Laundry

Divinity

It's getting complicated with these older perfumes.  There are now several versions out there.  Sometimes several means many.  I own three versions of Habanita--and each smells quite different.  They're clearly the same fragrance.  I wouldn't say by any stretch that Habanita has been vandalized beyond recognition.  But the earliest version I own is a slightly different conversation than the latest.  So when I read Josephine's ode, I wondered which she was talking about.

One of the easiest ways to make distinctions between versions is to describe the packaging.  In the event the packaging hasn't changed (I don't believe Habanita's has--much, if at all), the list of ingredients is instructive.  My earliest bottle of Habanita lists only aqua, parfum, and alcohol.  Let's call that Version 1.  Version 2 has a longer list, and that list includes oakmoss.  I take this to be a more recent version, but not maybe as recent as the parfum formulation Molinard released a few years ago.  That's Version 3.




 Version 1 is the richest of the lot. I guess this would be the musks, but it seems more than that, too.  There's a density and a clarity to this one that the other two lack.  It's a great deal spicier.  In fact, Versions 2 and 3 don't feel spicy at all to me.  Of the three, Versions 1 and 2 are both leathery, but Version 1 feels more like old leather, very worn, soft and supple.  It's a leather that smells not just of curing but of the hands and places that have passed it along.  Smelling Version 1 is the closest I've come to understanding what a cigarette scented with Habanita must have been like.  That isn't to say the other versions don't have any qualities resembling tobacco.  But something in the first version feels smokier, not just sweet but slightly rustic and woody.  You get a sense of the ambiance, as opposed to merely the cigarette itself.

When I read on Fragrantica that a reader thought Habanita had, on first spritz, the "strongest blast of baby powder, EVER," I felt pretty sure she was referring to Version 2.  No mistake, Version 1 is powdered as well, but not to the same degree.  I would argue there's a lot more going on in Version 1, but the nose approaching Version 2 could easily mistake bombast for complexity.  I like Version 2 a lot, and it smells very rich.  It's also incredibly powdered.  I say that in a good way.  Almost without fail, when someone talks about powder overload and Habanita I feel sure they're referring to Version 2.  Version 1 is thick, too, but you feel its layers.  Version 2 is a sort of wall of scent; equal parts tobacco, vanilla, and oakmoss.  Fragrantica lists raspberry, peach, orange flower, Lilac, Ylang-Ylang, rose, bergamot.  I'd be lying if I told you I get anything remotely floral, and not getting any closer to the truth if I led you to believe this is because the fragrance is so "well-blended".  I believe that Version 2 is a much cruder facsimile of Version 1, and that many people take this crudeness to be the source of its infamous reputation.  Again, I love this version.  I happen to like crude and bombastic.  But Version 2 resembles some of my favorite cheapo drugstore fragrances (Toujours Moi comes to mind) and relates to Version 1 the way they relate to their earlier formulations.  Many people get root beer or cola from this version.  I never really have.

Version 3 is my least favorite, and the most expensive.  What disappoints me about the pure parfum version of Habanita is the sense that when cleaning up the fragrance Molinard took Version 2 as its starting point, rather than Version 1.  Consequently, what's being "clarified" is somewhat muddy at the bottom.  The primary contrast and chemistry in Version 3 involves vanilla and vetiver.  The sense of spice is long gone by now.  The herbal bitterness of oakmoss is gone, as well.  The vetiver has a very clean, streamlined quality, causing me to wonder what kind of opportunities were missed.  I can't smell Version 3 without wondering how fantastic a little more grunge and grass might have been in the mix, giving some of that original spike back to the affair.  Ultimately, Version 3 smells and feels more like a cologne than a parfum to me.  When I spray Version 1 on my skin, it's the color of something soaked in cigarettes.  Version 3 is lighter and cleaner, and a lot less interesting.  Of the three, it has the poorest longevity, or maybe I just stop listening to what it's saying a lot sooner.  Version 3 is also the least powdered.  I wonder if that was the overriding objective in the reformulation, given "too powdery" often seemed to be the biggest criticism.

I'm really curious to hear other people's experiences with Habanita.  Do you know which version you tried?  Have you tried a version even older than mine?  And what's so impossibly bad about a powdery fragrance, by the way?