Babe
Beauty Brand Development (1977)

Babe is a kind of half way house between the classic aldehyde bouquet and the mirror phase innocence of Anaïs Anaïs.
It was around this time that the perfume market began to split into different audiences, the wives and mothers on the one side, and the daughters on the other.
Even though an aldehyde and coriander bouquet may sound a bit odd for a young woman's scent, that's what it was meant to be; while Opium was knocking 'em dead in the boudoir, Babe was boogying down at the disco.

This is a review of Faberge Babe perfume and cologne - *not* Beauty Brands, which doesn't smell like original Babe in a side to side testing by any stretch of the imagination, nor Brut Prestige which in my 54 years on this earth I've never actually even seen.
Yes Babe was always a drugstore fragrance. You could buy Chanel No 22 in the same drugstore during the 70s, as well as completely destroyed versions of Coty Emeraude. The 1/2 oz. perfume comes in plastic bottles with a tacky, round cap that screams 70s. Very low class. I was a poor kid and I could afford Babe when I was 13, it was cheap and marketed towards teen girls mostly. When my kids were grown and I got into collecting perfume I picked some up, for fun and to have a laugh at my terrible teenage taste. It turns out that my taste was pretty good. Despite being a drugstore frag, there are 118+ ingredients in Babe not the least of which is real oakmoss. It's a well composed gently aldehydic floral chypre starring rose with wonderful raspberry notes, orris, spice, ylang-ylang, jasmine and more on a bed of musky amber. The aldehydes here give it a sunny lift, but very little soapiness, if any. It does not wear espcially vintage as it's not powdery, musty, green, or difficult. The raspberry in Faberge Babe smells like raspberry, not candy and not bathroom spray. (I don't know how Beauty Brands can say they made 'Babe" without raspberry. If you wore Babe at any length in the original version, the BB is not going to fool you.) Sillage is good, as 70s perfumes were, and longevity - the cologne lasts 6-8 hours, and the perfume 10-12.

I was fortunate to find a very special seller (thanks Gary) and now have a massive hoard of well stored, wonderful smelling Babe, top notes intact, which I hope will hold me for the rest of my life. =) If you see it at a reasonable price and like happy, feminine floral aldehydics I highly recommend it.

As Barbara Herman accurately reports, this is a "floral chypre with light florals and raspberry, spice from carnation and amber, and an earthiness from vetiver, sandalwood and oak moss."

It goes on like a wonderful old fashioned chypre from the 1940s (Shocking, Replique), but that sadly evaporates within the first ten minutes, and we are left with just the memory of those honeyed florals, as it dies down to a dry musk without any distinction whatsoever.

This may have been one of those drug store scents, cheaply offered, that had a small concentration of really fine oils and the rest left to alcohol and aldehydes.

A cheat and a dismal failure.

I bought this in 1980, when I was 13; it was the perfect teenage fragrance, but I would still ware it now! It brings back very happy memories of fragrance shopping with my mum, when on holiday in Guernsey. We would come back after a morning's shopping, having tried so many fragrances, that we couldn't remember which was which, probably explains some of my more unfortunate early purchases, but this was a real favourite; clean, warm, and feminine, I loved it.

There was nothing "ultra" or complex to Babe BUT it was a very pleasing scent. Some of my female friends in school wore it. I found it to be "sexy" in its own way. It was a 70's "turn on" scent for guys to enjoy. Soapy, fresh, and clean !

Babe....if only someone could bring you back. I'm in my 40's and I'd be willing to bet that my teenagers would absolutely love Babe. I remember going on a date with a guy in my youth. His friends told me he wouldn't let anyone roll the windows down in his car. He wanted the smell to stay!! With a little updating of the bottle and the right advertising.....I KNOW for a fact this could be the best fragrence on the market....Keep the price down where EVEREY woman or girl could afford it...and Babe....would be in every girls purse. I know I'd stock up!!! Please someone give Babe a chance. I have ideas for commercials that would blow your mind.......