Blend 7
Avon (1973)

With a top note of anise, Blend 7 pre-dates the release of Azzaro Pour Homme by five years, making this one of the earlier uses of this licorice-sweet aromatic in a masculine. Paired with galbanum makes the opening invigorating and sharp, even in this nearly 50 year old bottle of cologne I own. This quickly yields to a floral heart of lily of the valley and jasmine flanked with herbs and conifers, underpinned with a shadowy rosiness.

What is most forthright though is cedary, woody musks and oakmoss that bring it all home for much of its development, fixed with again, that ambery Avonade. This dry down is heavenly, feeling so much like a portal to the past that it almost makes me forget the turbulent present—though one would argue that the year of its release, 1973, was itself a rather turbulent time (Watergate?). It helps that the bottle is such a time capsule as well, and as Varanis Ridari in his review below notes, reflects the 70s modernism in vogue at the time. Yes, "Channel 7 News" vibes for sure.

Opening is a startle as Anise and green catches. The bloom of rather perfumey Jasmine, LOV oomph as simile to that of Lauder for Men. Very pleasant Ambered Smoky Tobacco Tonka base lasts nicely on drydown. The Anise drifts in/out for a bit and had me feeling a little Knize Ten leather-ness. Fades in a couple of hours, so it invites another spritz.
Overall a beautiful composition. With timing, the Designer competition were gearing up with the likes of Paco Rabanne PH,Givenchy Gentleman etc, so it probably was overlooked by most. Shame.

Stardate 20181009:

Thought it would be 23.3% similar to Blend 30 :).
It is really nice. It is a lot like Open by Roger and Gallet.
Herbal fougere. Has a smoky tobacco and leather accord too. Drydown is floral sweet.
The best of the pass so far with good development.

Blend 7 is an oddity from the 70's time period for Avon. It doesn't seem to have had nearly as much advertisement as some of it's earlier and later contemporaries, and it smells a fair bit more unique than most other things they made for men at the time, plus more unique than a lot of things being made by anyone for men at the time. Blend 7 isn't really the 7th cologne from the house (it's somewhere around the 10th actually) and it was probably named to sound more exotic or upscale as some higher-end houses have a tendency to give numerical designations to their scents rather than names. The most intriguing thing about Blend 7 is it smells like a precursor to Bogart's One Man Show (1980) in some ways, Rochas Globe (1990) in others, but years ahead of either, and is a rather distinctive aromatic fougere unto itself. It launched the same year as Paco Rabanne Pour Homme (1973), but has little in common with it, leaning more toward the bitter edge of Aramis 900 also released in that same year, but not necessarily with tons of galbanum. I reckon the smell of the stuff was either too ahead of the curve to be appreciated, or it's lack of promotion from Avon made it an "Avon exclusive" also-ran alongside other male 70's favorites and it fell into obscurity for it. The scent launched a year after Avon's Tai Winds (1972), and being a far stranger creation with much less mass appeal, little advertising outside of catalogs, a "money back guarantee" on the label, and a quirky name to boot, this really was a niche scent in spirit before the term was invented when it hit the pavement. Does it have niche strength and quality? Hell no, but it certainly has niche design. I think it's a nice anecdotal blip in perfume history, and the fact that it released in tandem with much higher profile scents yet smells arguably more advanced than them proves that Avon was still capable of remaining a creative leader without resorting to copying others, as there's just no way they could copy something that wasn't out yet.

Blend 7 has different opening notes than most green aromatics of this period, with it's slightly leathery and sweet anise accord that fades fast, the slight galbanum sting, before growing Globe-like with heart notes of fir, jasmine, muguet, and maybe something rosy in there too, not quite the orris of Globe, but maybe something synthetic or less intense borrowed from one of Avon's own feminines. It then dries down to the usual green mosses and tonka common to this category, with a slight dollop of castoreum, which makes the Bogart OMS connection, but also surrounds it with vetiver, cedar, musk, and the Avon amber, but never smacks you in the face with anything in particular. It's a lot drier than other 70's aromatics of the period, and we can blame that on a dry chypre-like wood notes mixing with that hint of rose; it's not intense, but it's a small facet that really shapes the end of this. Blend 7 can also be semi-related to Paco Rabanne just in much dialed-down soapy transition from heart to base notes, but otherwise it's pretty much it's own creature, and not something heavily "inspired" by a more prominent designer juice like Avon was increasingly inclined to later on. As mentioned before, this almost presages stuff from two entirely different decades, which is rather impressive. The opening is really kind of scary and until you get past it; you think this thing is gonna be licorice on the skin, but that delivery system soon gives way to the real magic in this bottle, even though it does get a little soapy in the telltale 70's way like some prominent selections in this genre. Blend 7 is a bit more balanced than some of it's designer peers, and unsurprisingly well-blended given the name, and it's unique enough that if it had a push from a designer company, it might have fared a lot better than it did, which speaks very well of it's unfortunately unknown perfumer (Avon wasn't really into revealing their in-house perfumers like most tend to do now).

Speaking of the bottle, it's very "70's modernism" with softened corners and rectangular shapes, chrome cap, and "7" etched right on the glass. The cap is annoying poor in design, with the over-sized crown often separating from the cap itself when turned, just like the back end topper of most automotive decanter caps. Everything about this bottle and it's motif screams "Channel 7 news" and by appearance alone, I would say avoid this unless you like your colognes to look like your local bank branch exterior. Blend 7 is very deceptive in it's progression, but by the time it delivers it's pitch, it evolves into quite the dry, tart, pleasantly herbal and green scent that can serve well in the work space or a casual day out, just not around anyone that can't appreciate dated fragrances. This "pre-powerhouse" doesn't have the strength of nor may have actually inspired the later fragrances in any way, but one can't deny the similarities outside of the much larger dose of moss and animalics the stronger latter scents have. Very interesting and certainly worth a look, but I'd try to track down sample packets before committing to buying a NOS bottle, as it's quite rare and a bit more expensive than most vintage Avon. Odd yet aromatic fun that doesn't loan itself to categorization, and full of surprises, if not really a daily wear anymore. I'd say let somebody versed in 70's masculines try and identify it when wearing, I bet that they cannot!