Honeysuckle
Avon (1963)

Avon began life in 1886 as the California Perfume Company, selling simple soliflores in their 3-piece "Little Dot Perfume" sets, so it makes perfect sense that they would continue with an array of various single flower or themed floral bouquets throughout their history. From carnation to hyacinth, rose and lilac, Avon covered most of the usual bases between the 19th and 20th centuries, turning to more unusual choices like honeysuckle for the simply-named Avon Honeysuckle (1963). My mom was particularly fond of this perfume, and always wanted to have some on hand whenever Avon periodically returned it to the catalogs, so I grew up smelling it throughout the house as an young child. Back then I never really put much thought into how much like actual honeysuckle it really smelled and I doubt she did either, because when going outside to play and smelling the honeysuckles growing wild near my home, I never thought to compare them side-by-side with my mom's perfume. While I haven't really had the luxury of doing that either as an adult, I can say that at least from my mind's eye of what honeysuckle smells like, this stuff gets the job done. There isn't much more that can be asked of an inexpensive perfume than to smell like what it claims to smell like, so I'll just leave it at that.

The opening of Honeysuckle right away recalls the smell of the wild flower, with a sweet aldehyde and indole mixture that leads straight away into an impression of honeysuckle, mixed with some orange blossom and muguet for body. This becomes the bulk of the perfume and I can't say there is really much transition here, nor really an actual heart to the perfume, as you slowly settle into more indolic musk both creamy and slightly fatty/animalic like the residue of real honeysuckle (or even the similar-smelling but unrelated jasmine). A bit of benzoin honey note and that soft creamy musk float up with some oakmoss and probably just a pinch of what feels like sandalwood (back when you could afford placing it in a cheap perfume), but that's it. You smell like honeysuckle, or at least the closest approximation of honeysuckle I can reasonably tell without having a side-by-side (honeysuckle doesn't grow where I live now), and it's pleasant. I can see why my mom liked this, as it's happy and clean, innocent and easy to wear, unlike some of the big shoulderpads and perms type stuff she wore out in the those days (the 80's). This is from a vintage 60's sample, but I don't recall her 80's-bought bottles smelling any different. Wear time is eight hours, and performance is on the mild side of moderate, as expected.

If it wasn't implied, a fragrance like Honeysuckle is made for spring or summer use, casual use, outdoor use, or after a shower. The smell of honeysuckle can be relaxing much like jasmine, especially if it's not paired up with rose or spices to make it more of a "sultry red light" kind of shindig that many jasmine perfumes turned into after the initial opening. This definitely isn't that kind of experience, but the bright yellow-capped bottles and floral pattern boxes they came in more or less communicated that right away. I'd call this unisex because soliflores to me are academic perfume subjects devoid of gender assignment, but my better angels tell me that isn't what the conventionally-minded CIS hetero folks reading this review will think, so I'll say that if you side with societal norms, Avon Honeysuckle will read extremely feminine. I think anyone who enjoys the smell of flowers, and particularly honeysuckle, needs to smell some of this. Avon Honeysuckle sells at varying prices for varying vintages but overall is inexpensive if you're not picky about form or format, so grabbing a small bottle for burger cash is very much possible at least until supply dries up or they re-issue it again. There's not much else to say, and I like honeysuckle, so I like this. Thumbs up.

Found an old bottle of cologne at a thrift store. I decanted it into a spray bottle to get the full effect. I get honeysuckle mixed with an aldehyde-like blast. Maybe it was an old alcohol smell. Anyway... Seconds later, I smelled just the honeysuckle. When it mellowed down a bit I got a bees-waxy, honey vibe. I swear I get a mimosa note here, too. A couple of hours later the base was woody.

This, is an Avon scent I don't remember owning before. I have nothing to compare it with. My old formula is pleasant, light, and breezy. I confess -- I purchased this because of the cute, little beehive bottle it came in.

On me, Honeysuckle started off a little funky, with a very animalic honey smell that was quickly joined by what seemed to me like orange blossom and some soapy musk. Given time to settle, I ended up with a standard powdery white flowers accord mixing with the orange blossom over a soapy musky honey smell. This mix stayed fairly linear for hours, doing a great job simulating a flower that smelled pretty but with an animalic growl underneath. For the record, the bottle I sampled from was copyright 1990 and had a linear flowery strongness that felt quite 80's (think Pleasures). While nothing exceptionally special, Honeysuckle is proof that old cheap perfumes smelled a lot better and more interesting than new cheap perfumes...