Cabotine By Gres- Eau De Toilette Review

How lovely it is to spend part of a weekend morning reviewing one of the perfume classics; Cabotine by Gres. I can't recall exactly when or where I picked up my 1 oz. spray bottle, but it has had a home in my collection for a few seasons now. I became curious about Cabotine when I stumbled on reviews and the history of this particular fragrance.

Although I didn't discover it until 2013 or so, it has been on the market since 1990. I knew going in that this was some type of floral and that it has a cult following of women that absolutely love it. That, and the great price made me decide to go ahead and try it.


The Cabotine Perfume Bottle

Cabotine by Gres-1oz. Eau de Toilette

Sadly, the picture I have posted here doesn't do the bottle much justice. With the leafy, broccoli-like cap and well-balanced body, the Cabotine bottle is pretty, pretty, pretty. The lettering on the bottle matches the green of the cap.

Cabotine Notes
Cabotine is listed as a Floral-Adelhyde scent that revolves around the very rare Ginger Lily flower. Other notes include:

• Top Notes-Plum, pear, blackcurrant, coriander
• Middle Notes-Ginger lily, rose, violet, tuberose
• Base Notes-Musk, amber, vanilla, cedar wood

Spraying On Cabotine In Real Time 

• The bottle cap sniff test- Soapy-fresh notes that smell like baby shampoo with a bit of musk added in; not the most thrilling sniff test in the world.
• On First Spray-A gorgeous burst of rose, pear and plum notes. The first spray smells beautiful. I can really get the violets and the hyacinths too. Spring is in the air!
• After 10 Minutes-At this stage, something sharp and bitter emerges. The tuberose? Perhaps that ginger lily? Here, the scent becomes weird to me. It reeks of sour flowers.
• After 30 Minutes-I search desperately for any notes of musk, amber or cedar wood contained in the base notes. None. Vanilla? No. What I do get, however, is that original bottle cap smell of soap and shampoo. My wrist smells like carnation-scented Ivory liquid.
• Complete Dry down-This is it. Cabotine smells like weak Yardley English Rose soap on me. Considering Cabotine means a dramatic, theatrical poser and ham, I am saddened by the undramatic qualities of smelling like soft floral soap.

What I Like About It
What I like is the adorable bottle. It could sit there for ages and just look pretty if I were to never use it again. The best thing that Cabotine has going for it is an affordable price point. This is not a wildly expensive perfume to buy.

Things I Don't Like
Other than the un-theatrical dry down, the bottle cap is a major dust magnet. All those nooks and crannies means a regular rinse under water, sometimes using an old toothbrush to make it shiny and clean again. Although the bottle cap is supposed to represent a flower, I still feel as though I am washing a broccoli top.

My Recommendations
Who do I think might like this fragrance? If you love those "clean" scents that remind you of fresh laundry and you happen to like multiple floral notes with a tad of sharpness, you might like this one. I am sure this is why so many women like it; it becomes a very soft, fresh-out-of-the-shower perfume that you could be okay wearing to work.


Cabotine by Gres Eau de Toilette