Naomi by Naomi Sims was launched in 1979, but its story begins with the extraordinary life of Naomi Sims, one of the first Black supermodels to achieve international prominence. Rising to fame in the late 1960s, Sims broke racial barriers in the fashion industry, appearing on major magazine covers and walking prestigious runways at a time when opportunities for Black models were extremely limited. Beyond modeling, she became a successful entrepreneur and author, building a beauty empire that catered specifically to women of color. Her entry into perfumery was not merely a commercial venture—it was an intensely personal creative pursuit born from her dissatisfaction with the fragrances available at the time.
Sims often explained that she had never been fond of “store-bought fragrances,” describing them as too sweet, too strong, or too pungent for her taste. When she moved to New York, she began collecting individual fragrant oils instead, seeking the purest materials she could find. During her modeling career she traveled widely, encountering aromatic treasures from around the world—sandalwood from India, prized for its creamy, meditative warmth; jasmine from Egypt, one of the richest and most intoxicating floral oils in perfumery; and rose, especially the renowned Bulgarian variety known for its deep, honeyed elegance. Rather than wearing these oils separately, she blended them herself, experimenting instinctively until she discovered harmonies that felt refined and personal.
Encouraged by her husband, Sims began a serious quest to create her own fragrance. What started as small experiments in her kitchen gradually evolved into a meticulous six-year process of blending and testing hundreds of variations. Two notes remained constant in her imagination: Egyptian jasmine and Bulgarian rose, a pairing she considered the soul of the perfume. Egyptian jasmine is famous for its intensely narcotic floral richness—lush, creamy, and slightly indolic—while Bulgarian rose oil from the Rose Valley possesses a remarkable balance of freshness and depth. Together they form a classic yet opulent floral heart that feels both romantic and dignified. After years of testing samples and rejecting countless formulas, Sims eventually partnered with the respected French fragrance house Roure Bertrand Dupont to manufacture and market the finished perfume.
She knew she had achieved the right balance when strangers noticed it—New York taxi drivers reportedly told her, “You smell so fantastic.” For Sims, that spontaneous compliment confirmed what she had been seeking: a fragrance that felt clean, crisp, and elegant, one that interacted with the wearer’s skin rather than overpowering it. She often emphasized that perfume changes subtly from person to person, evolving into something uniquely individual.
image created by Grace Hummel/Cleopatra's Boudoir.
The name “Naomi” carries its own poetic significance. The word comes from Hebrew, where it means “pleasant,” “gracious,” or “delightful.” It is pronounced simply as nay-OH-mee. The name evokes warmth, kindness, and quiet elegance—qualities that mirror the character Sims wanted her fragrance to express. In a sensory sense, the name itself almost suggests softness and grace: a scent that feels welcoming, luminous, and gently radiant rather than dramatic or overwhelming. Naming the perfume after herself was also a statement of identity and confidence. It connected the fragrance directly to her personal story and vision.
The year 1979 placed the perfume at the end of a vibrant cultural decade often called the late 1970s era, when fashion and beauty were shifting between the glamour of disco and the emerging sophistication of early 1980s style. Women’s fashion included flowing silhouettes, bold colors, luxurious fabrics, and statement accessories. The beauty industry was expanding rapidly, and fragrance houses were releasing powerful new scents designed to leave an impression in crowded urban spaces and glamorous nightlife settings.
In perfumery, this period favored rich floral orientals and bold compositions layered with aldehydes, woods, and mosses. Naomi fits squarely within that landscape while still expressing Sims’ personal refinement. The fragrance opens with geranium, which lends a green, rosy brightness, accompanied by sparkling aldehydes—effervescent molecules that give perfumes a luminous, almost champagne-like lift. A gentle hint of mimosa softens the opening with a powdery sweetness reminiscent of golden pollen.
The heart unfolds into a lavish bouquet of rose, jasmine, and gardenia. These white and rosy florals form a lush, opulent center typical of late-1970s perfumery, enriched with subtle warm spices that add depth and sensuality. Beneath the flowers lies a grounding base of oakmoss, sandalwood, and ambergris. Oakmoss contributes a cool, forest-like earthiness, sandalwood adds creamy wood warmth, and ambergris introduces a mineral, slightly animalic glow that helps the scent linger on the skin.
When Naomi Sims described her fragrance as “clean, crisp, and elegant,” she was expressing a philosophy about perfume as something personal rather than overpowering. Her intention was to create a scent that felt refined and luminous on the skin—never heavy or intrusive, but polished and graceful. Sims also recognized an essential truth of perfumery: fragrance interacts with each person’s natural skin chemistry, warmth, and body oils. Because of this, the same perfume can evolve differently from one wearer to another, subtly shifting its floral warmth or woody softness. In her view, this transformation was part of the magic of perfume—allowing Naomi to become not just a fragrance, but a scent that adapts and becomes uniquely the wearer’s own.
Within the context of other fragrances of the era, Naomi was both familiar and distinctive. It followed the prevailing trend toward rich, sophisticated floral orientals, yet its emphasis on balanced florals—especially the interplay of Egyptian jasmine and Bulgarian rose—gave it a refined elegance rather than sheer intensity. More importantly, the perfume carried the personal signature of Naomi Sims herself. For women of the time, wearing a fragrance called Naomi could symbolize confidence, individuality, and modern femininity. It suggested a woman who defined beauty on her own terms—much like the trailblazing model who created it.
Fragrance Composition:
So what does it smell like? Naomi is classified as a floral oriental fragrance for women. It begins with the bright note of geranium, sparkling aldehydes and a soft note of mimosa, followed by an opulent white floral heart of roses, jasmine and gardenia accented with warm spices, resting over an earthy base of oakmoss, sandalwood and ambergris.
- Top notes: aldehydes, African geranium, French narcissus, French mimosa, bergamot
- Middle notes: Egyptian jasmine, Bulgarian rose, ylang ylang, gardenia, spices
- Base notes: Indian sandalwood, oakmoss, musk, ambergris, tonka bean, labdanum, patchouli, vetiver
Scent Profile:
Naomi unfolds with the luminous sparkle typical of late-1970s perfumery, beginning with an airy shimmer of aldehydes that feel like the first glint of light on polished glass. Aldehydes are not botanical extracts but aroma molecules synthesized in laboratories, famous since early twentieth-century perfumery for their effervescent brilliance. Their scent can evoke the fizz of champagne, clean linen, or cool metallic air. In this fragrance they create lift and clarity, brightening the opening so that the natural notes that follow feel more radiant.
Beneath that sparkle blooms African geranium, a material distilled from the leaves of Pelargonium plants grown primarily in countries such as Egypt, Morocco, and Réunion. African geranium oil is especially prized for its fresh, green rosiness—somewhere between rose petals and crushed leaves—with a lightly minty brightness that distinguishes it from sweeter floral oils. The citrus glow of bergamot, traditionally cultivated in Calabria in southern Italy, adds another dimension. Calabrian bergamot oil is renowned for its clarity and delicate bitterness; it smells like the zest of a fresh green orange, sparkling and uplifting. Together these notes create a vivid opening that feels brisk and elegant, as if the fragrance begins in a burst of morning light.
Softening the brightness is the powdery sweetness of French mimosa and French narcissus, two flowers historically cultivated in the perfumery fields of Grasse. Mimosa absolute is extracted from delicate yellow blossoms that bloom briefly each winter along the Mediterranean coast. Its scent is gentle and velvety—like honeyed pollen dusting warm petals—adding a soft golden haze to the opening. Narcissus, by contrast, is deeper and more mysterious. The absolute derived from the small white flowers grown in the hills of southern France carries a scent that is green, hay-like, and faintly animalic, reminiscent of sun-warmed fields and damp spring air. This complex floral greenness enriches the fragrance’s top notes, bridging the crisp aldehydes with the lush heart that follows.
The fragrance then blossoms into a lavish floral heart centered around Egyptian jasmine and Bulgarian rose, two of the most celebrated raw materials in classical perfumery. Egyptian jasmine—typically Jasminum grandiflorum grown along the Nile—produces an absolute of remarkable richness. Its aroma is creamy, sweet, and slightly indolic, suggesting warm skin and night-blooming flowers. Few jasmine oils from other regions possess quite the same narcotic fullness. Alongside it blooms Bulgarian rose, distilled from the petals of Rosa damascena grown in Bulgaria’s famous Rose Valley. The climate there—cool nights, warm days, and mineral-rich soil—creates rose oil of extraordinary depth. Bulgarian rose smells lush and honeyed with a subtle citrus brightness, a balance that distinguishes it from sharper Turkish roses or sweeter Moroccan varieties.
Supporting these two pillars is ylang-ylang, the exotic flower from the tropical trees of the Comoros and Madagascar. The oil is distilled from the long, curling yellow petals and carries a rich, creamy scent reminiscent of banana, custard, and white flowers warmed by the sun. In the composition it adds a voluptuous, tropical softness. Gardenia, another note in the heart, presents a unique challenge in perfumery because the flower itself cannot be distilled into an essential oil. Its scent must be recreated through carefully blended aroma molecules and natural absolutes that capture its creamy, slightly coconut-like floral richness. These reconstructed gardenia accords allow perfumers to evoke the lush, buttery scent of the flower in a way nature alone cannot provide. Subtle warm spices—likely touches of clove, cinnamon, or nutmeg—thread through the florals, adding warmth and a hint of golden heat that deepens the perfume’s oriental character.
As the fragrance settles, it reveals a deep and textured base of woods, resins, and musks. Indian sandalwood, historically sourced from Santalum album trees in Mysore, India, contributes one of the most luxurious woody notes in perfumery. True Mysore sandalwood is creamy, smooth, and softly milky, with a meditative warmth that sets it apart from the drier Australian varieties used today. Earthy oakmoss, once harvested from the forests of the Balkans, adds a cool forest floor aroma—damp, mossy, and slightly leathery. Oakmoss was a defining element of classic perfumes, lending depth and elegance, though today it is often used in modified forms due to modern regulations.
The base grows richer still with labdanum, a dark resin obtained from the rockrose shrub that grows in Spain and the Mediterranean. Labdanum smells warm and ambery, with hints of leather, honey, and sun-warmed resin. Combined with tonka bean—whose coumarin molecules smell like vanilla, almond, and fresh hay—it creates a soft, velvety sweetness. Patchouli, distilled from the leaves of the tropical Pogostemon plant grown in Indonesia, introduces a deep earthy note reminiscent of damp soil and dark woods, while vetiver, distilled from the roots of grasses grown in regions like Haiti or India, adds a smoky, dry earthiness that anchors the fragrance firmly to the ground.
Finally, the scent lingers in the soft glow of ambergris and musk. Historically ambergris was a rare oceanic substance produced by sperm whales, prized for its unique ability to amplify and fix other scents. Because natural ambergris is extremely rare, modern perfumery often recreates its effect with molecules such as ambroxan, which smell warm, slightly mineralic, and subtly sweet. Musk, once derived from the musk deer but now almost entirely synthetic, provides a clean, skin-like warmth that gently diffuses the entire composition. These synthetic musks are crucial in modern perfumery—they enhance longevity and create the intimate sensation that the fragrance is part of the wearer’s own skin.
Together these elements create a fragrance that feels opulent yet refined: a radiant floral oriental where sparkling aldehydes lead into lush white blossoms and roses, all resting upon a deep, sensual foundation of woods, moss, and resins. Each ingredient contributes its own texture and atmosphere, from the bright citrus air of bergamot to the creamy warmth of sandalwood and the velvety glow of tonka and ambergris. The result is a perfume that unfolds slowly and elegantly, revealing new nuances with every breath, much like the layered personality of the woman whose name it bears.
Bottles:
The presentation of Naomi by Naomi Sims reflected the elegance and cosmopolitan sensibility of its creator. The perfume was housed in clear glass bottles, allowing the rich amber tone of the fragrance to glow through the transparent walls like liquid gold. The clarity of the glass emphasized purity and refinement, while the bottle’s polished surfaces caught the light, creating gentle reflections that hinted at luxury without excess. Surrounding the bottle was packaging in blue, gold, and aqua, colors that evoke both sophistication and serenity. Blue suggests depth and calm, aqua hints at freshness and clarity, and gold provides the warmth and glamour associated with fine perfumery. The abstract Egyptian lotus flower motif added symbolic depth: the lotus is a powerful emblem in Egyptian culture representing beauty, rebirth, and purity rising from water. It also subtly references the perfume’s floral heart—especially Egyptian jasmine—connecting the visual identity of the fragrance with its aromatic inspiration.
The ½-ounce and 1-ounce Parfum versions would have represented the most concentrated and luxurious expression of the scent. In this form, the fragrance oils are richest, often containing the highest proportion of aromatic compounds. When applied to the skin, the parfum would unfold slowly and with remarkable depth. The aldehydes at the opening would feel soft and luminous rather than sharp, immediately blending with the powdery warmth of mimosa and narcissus. As the scent warms on the skin, the heart of Egyptian jasmine and Bulgarian rose would bloom richly, surrounded by creamy gardenia and the subtle spice accents. Because of the high concentration, the base notes—Indian sandalwood, oakmoss, ambergris, and musk—would appear velvety and intimate, lingering for hours as a warm, elegant aura close to the body. The parfum would smell dense, smooth, and luxurious, revealing every nuance of the composition.
The ⅓-ounce Parfum spray mist would deliver the same rich concentration but with a slightly lighter application due to the atomized spray. The fragrance would disperse in a delicate cloud rather than a concentrated drop. This would allow the aldehydes and citrusy bergamot to sparkle a bit more in the opening, giving a fleeting brightness before settling into the lush floral heart. The spray format would make the fragrance feel more radiant and airy while still retaining the deep warmth of the parfum base.
The 1-ounce Bath Oil would offer an entirely different sensory experience. Bath oils are designed to disperse in warm water, releasing fragrance gently through steam and skin contact. As the oil spreads across the bath’s surface, the scent would bloom softly, allowing the floral elements—rose, jasmine, and gardenia—to float lightly in the air while the creamy sandalwood and ambergris remain subtle. On the skin after bathing, the fragrance would be delicate and silky, more like a faint veil than a fully developed perfume, leaving the skin lightly scented and moisturized.
The 4-ounce Cologne Splash would present the fragrance in a lighter and more refreshing concentration. Cologne typically contains far less aromatic oil than parfum, meaning the brighter top notes dominate the experience. When splashed generously on the skin, the aldehydes, bergamot, and green geranium would feel brisk and invigorating. The mimosa and narcissus would provide a soft floral cushion, but the deeper woods and resins would remain understated. The overall impression would be fresh, luminous, and clean—perfect for daytime wear or warm weather, with the scent fading gracefully after a few hours.
The 4-ounce Cologne Spray would deliver the same lighter formula but in a more diffused mist. Spraying allows the fragrance to form a cloud around the wearer, making the aldehydes and citrus sparkle vividly at first contact with the air. The floral heart would appear more translucent in this form, with the jasmine and rose acting like delicate brushstrokes rather than a dense bouquet. The sandalwood, musk, and ambergris would remain soft and subtle, providing just enough warmth to prevent the fragrance from feeling fleeting.
Finally, the 2-ounce Cologne Spray would offer the same airy interpretation of the fragrance in a smaller, more portable format. The scent would feel bright, elegant, and effortless—opening with a crisp aldehydic shimmer before revealing a gentle floral sweetness and a whisper of woods. In this concentration, Naomi would smell especially clean and graceful, emphasizing the crisp freshness Naomi Sims herself described while still hinting at the deeper floral-oriental character of the original perfume.
Fate of the Fragrance:
The fragrance Naomi by Naomi Sims has been discontinued for a few decades, though the exact date when production ceased is not clearly documented. Like many perfumes created by smaller or independent fragrance ventures, Naomi did not remain continuously in production for decades as some major designer perfumes have. Changes in ownership, distribution, market trends, and the evolving perfume industry of the 1980s and 1990s likely contributed to its quiet disappearance from store shelves. As time passed, remaining bottles gradually vanished from retail circulation, leaving only scattered vintage examples preserved by collectors.
Today the perfume is extremely difficult to find, making it something of a hidden treasure among vintage fragrance enthusiasts. Occasionally, sealed bottles or partially used examples surface in private collections, estate sales, or specialty vintage perfume dealers. Because the fragrance was produced in limited quantities compared with major international brands, surviving bottles are relatively scarce. For collectors, the appeal lies not only in the scent itself but also in the story behind it—a fragrance personally developed over years by Naomi Sims, a pioneering figure in fashion and beauty.
The rarity of Naomi has given it a quiet mystique. Vintage perfume lovers often seek it out not only for its floral-oriental composition but also as a piece of beauty history connected to Sims’ legacy as a trailblazing model and entrepreneur. Finding a bottle today can feel a bit like discovering a time capsule from the late 1970s—a reminder of an era when fragrance creation was sometimes driven by personal vision rather than mass-market strategy.