Signet
Avon

Avon Signet (1987) was the first true "powerhouse" style fragrance made by the brand since they rolled out Cordovan (1982) with the tag-line of it being a "long-lasting cologne". That fragrance wasn't truly a powerhouse in projection terms, just an eau de toilette under different nomenclature (as Avon avoided "eau de anything" with their concentrations). Signet was by all appearances, an animalic musky fougère sharing a common thread with stuff like Yves Saint Laurent Kouros (1981) and leather chypres like Chanel Antaeus (1981). In reality, it doesn't smell like either one all that much, outside of the bits of soapy orris and patchouli Signet borrows from the former, and castoreum from the latter, dropping in a bit of Bogart One Man Show (1980) with a touch of balsam fir to boot. Avon did their homework here, as they had little choice, since they were trying to play in the "big leagues" with designer ventures and celebrity scents. Most of that stuff would meet with glorious failure; and as they wound down their internal development, seemingly dumping everything they hadn't already released from decades before onto the market in the 80's, Avon starting sending briefs to the big oil firms like IFF to make their fragrances for them. Signet must have been one such early outsourced fragrance, whether or not it was orchestrated by Ann Gottleib (who also came on board around this time to direct the fragrances), since it really smells like nothing Avon could have done in-house.

The big reason I say this is Signet has no heavy-handed tonka or Avon patent amber base riff, isn't a simple top-to-base dry down, and is just too sophisticated to follow Avon's previous MO of making traditional wet-shaver fragrances or scents that followed very established conservative men's styles. In a nutshell, this was not for grandpa. The opening is a blast of bergamot, aldehydes, and muguet, rounded with other white floral elements that are noticeable right away. There is a smidge of lavender because what fougère hasn't it, but like with Kouros it is submerged in the rest. The heart is balsam fir and and geranium, with patchouli being handled more lightly than most other powerhouses. The castoreum replaces the civet of Kouros for the most part, which is an intriguing choice since it has the affect of letting the soapier ionone "orris" elements come through, whereas in Kouros they get reeled in by animalics. There's also no honeyed benzoin here but there is oakmoss aplenty and some tonka too for more fougère-ness. All told, you basically get an animalic fougère that's more rounded, softened, and easy-to-wear because Avon knows their target buyer doesn't want to unzip and whip, but still checks all the boxes to be appropriately in the moment. You can almost wear this to an office, but at bare minimum use it more casually than you would most vintage designer powerhouses from the era. Performance is about average in length despite the boost of projection due to style, and it feels weather neutral.

Signet was made available in a bespoke splash that came in two forms: a chrome-plate emblem bottle with chrome top, and a limited-edition gold plate emblem bottle marked as such. Avon also issued Signet in the standardized stickered "pill bottle" 88ml 3 oz spray bottle, but you get a nasty cheap plastic cap and terrible sprayer that gives you a big puff that forms a cloud more than a direct spray. Still, if you must have a sprayer, this is your option. Avon did this because they traditionally didn't put men's fragrances in spray bottles, but started doing so with these uniform "pill bottles" for their better sellers, then eventually used them for every release not given a unique spray bottle of its own, and instead released as a splash first. This practice thankfully stopped after 2004, but if you hate splashes, you're gonna have to deal with this and a lot of stuff from the 80's and 90's coming in these stickered cheap bottles. To me, Avon SIgnet is a nice fragrance but still a tad bit too mild for most serious 80's lovers who fawn over deep vintage bottles of their favorites, and a bit too strange for people with no point of reference from the 80's to actually "get" what's going on here. You have to distinctly like what is more or less Avon's easy-going nature with their men's releases given a swift kick in the ass from what was happening in French perfumery at the time, which is a pretty interesting mixture that was likely received with mixed results back then, and still would be now. If you have room for a kinder, gentler 80's powerhouse experience, Signet isn't a bad one to bring home. Thumbs up