The fragrance itself was described as cool, ferny, and delicately floral, an aromatic whisper that mirrors the notion of reflection through its interplay of brightness and shadow. This type of presentation suited the cultural moment in which it debuted. The early 1930s were defined by recovery after the upheaval of the stock market crash and the lingering challenges of the Great Depression. Yet this era, often referred to as part of the Interwar Period, also saw a determined return to elegance, buoyed by Hollywood glamour, streamlined Art Deco design, and a renewed appetite for accessible luxury. Fashion favored elongated, fluid lines, soft drapery, and the subtle sensuality of bias-cut gowns. Women sought fragrances that matched this mood—scents that were refined, confident, and quietly sophisticated.
Within this context, a perfume called Réflexions would have appealed to women who gravitated toward subtlety over ostentation. The name suggested composure, poise, and an inner life rich with nuance. It hinted at a woman who carried a cool, self-assured elegance—someone whose presence lingered not through bold statements but through a serene, atmospheric aura. Interpreted in scent, Réflexions translated into the structured crispness of a classic aromatic fougère, softened by aldehydes and feminine floral undertones. Its leafy-green coolness echoed mountain air, while its woodsy and mossy depths captured the quiet strength of the forest floor. A faint spiciness introduced energy, keeping the composition light, buoyant, and subtly modern.
In the wider landscape of 1930s perfumery, Réflexions occupied an intriguing position. While aldehydic florals were thriving in the wake of Chanel No. 5’s enormous influence, and rich orientals continued to hold their market share, a gender-flexible green fougère for women was far from commonplace. Aromatic fougères were traditionally associated with men’s perfumery, built around fern accords, lavender, moss, and woods. Introducing such a structure to women’s fragrance—cooler, drier, more herbal—carved out a distinctive niche. It aligned with the streamlined modernity of the era while offering something fresh, crisp, and introspective. Thus, Réflexions both participated in contemporary trends—such as the use of aldehydes and the move toward cooler, more abstract compositions—and simultaneously stood apart through its verdant, almost ascetic character.
In essence, Réflexions offered an olfactory quietude: a perfume that invited stillness and grace, mirroring the reflective surfaces and tranquil landscapes that inspired its name.
Fragrance Composition:
So what does it smell like? Réflexions is classified as a slightly aldehydic aromatic fougere fragrance for women, cool, leafy-green, very fernlike, woodsy and mossy, also said to be dry and spicy but buoyant.
- Top notes: aldehydes, leaf alcohol, bergamot, lemon, lavender, linalool, galbanum, violet leaf, hydroxycitronellal, linalyl acetate, anisaldehyde, spearmint
- Middle notes: iris, geranium, carnation, cassia, spices, iso eugenol, fern, orris, opoponax, jasmine, Bulgarian rose, ylang ylang
- Base notes: heliotropin, camphor, oakmoss, patchouli, vetiver, rosewood, cedar, Peru balsam, tolu balsam, sandalwood, tonka bean, coumarin, vanillin, benzoin, labdanum, ambergris, musk, civet
Scent Profile:
Réflexions begins with a sensation like stepping into a shadowed glade at dawn. The aldehydes strike first—those crisp, airy molecules that shimmer like cold light on water. Here they lend a glistening surface tension, brightening every natural material around them. Leaf alcohol (cis-3-hexenol), with its unmistakably fresh “crushed green leaf” aroma, follows with a jolt of verdancy that feels almost tactile.
Italian bergamot and Sicilian lemon contribute their own sparkling lift: bergamot with its refined, slightly floral citrus glow; lemon with a sharper, crystalline brightness that flashes briefly like sunlight on a blade. Lavender, likely French, anchors this brightness with its naturally aromatic duality—cool and herbal yet lightly sweet. Its relaxation of edges allows linalool and linalyl acetate—two of lavender’s main components—to thread through the composition. Linalool provides a sheer, wood-floral transparency, while linalyl acetate adds silkiness and polish, ensuring the opening remains elegant rather than acidic.
Galbanum resin introduces a deeper, more serious green note. Persian galbanum has a distinctive snap—bitter, resinous, and glossy—suggesting crushed stems and sap oozing from broken shoots. Violet leaf deepens this greenness with its distinctive watery-metallic coolness, like chilled green matter floating on the surface of a pond. Hydroxycitronellal slips in quietly, offering its signature soft, muguet-like glow that gently rounds the sharper vegetal edges.
Anisaldehyde adds a surprising whisper—sweet, powdery anise with a faint almond-like warmth—foreshadowing the spicier and floral heart to come. Finally, the opening is capped with a breath of spearmint. Cooler and softer than peppermint, spearmint lends a delicate herbal sweetness that keeps the entire top accord buoyant, never heavy.
As the top notes settle, the fragrance shifts into its characteristic ferny core. This fougère structure is woven from both florals and aromatic greenery, creating the impression of mist rising from shaded undergrowth. Orris and iris butter provide the central texture—earthy, powdered, slightly carroty, and regal. Their velvety dryness evokes the soft crumble of forest floor. Carnation, with its clove-like spice, introduces warmth and definition, while geranium adds its peppered, rosy-green character, brightening the blend. Cassia—spicy, hot, and slightly cinnamon-like—sharpens the edges, while the combination of spices and iso-eugenol (a key molecule responsible for clove-like warmth) adds a vintage piquancy typical of early 20th-century perfumery.
The “fern” accord emerges here fully. In classic perfumery, “fern” is not a literal ingredient but a carefully built illusion: coumarin, florals, aromatics, woods, and moss. Within Réflexions, this impression of cool fronds, shaded soil, and softly moving air is drawn from the interplay between green notes, gentle florals, powdery woods, and mossy bases. Opoponax lends a honeyed, resinous softness that diffuses through the florals, while jasmine sambac adds lushness and faint greenery. Bulgarian rose introduces depth—a dense, jammy, slightly peppered rose quality that grounds the airy elements. Ylang-ylang then contributes its creamy, banana-like floral warmth, shaping the heart into a more rounded and sensual form.
As the perfume settles into its long drydown, each material seems to echo the theme of reflection—depth, stillness, and layered nuance. Heliotropin introduces a soft cloud of almond, vanilla, and delicate floral sweetness, like pale violet powder drifting through air. Camphor cools the composition again, preserving the icy-mountain mood beneath the warmth of the base.
Oakmoss—particularly Balkan oakmoss of the era—brings the essential fougère character: deep forest, damp earth, and velvety bitterness. The result is profoundly mossy, shadowed, and quiet. Patchouli, dark and earthy with a subtle camphor edge, strengthens this feeling of shaded woodland. Vetiver, likely from Haiti or Java, contributes grassy dryness and smoky rootiness, sharpening the green element. Rosewood brings a rosy-luminous wood note that subtly bridges the florals and woods.
Peru balsam and tolu balsam introduce a resinous glow—vanillic, softly spicy, warm, and slightly leathery—while sandalwood (from pre-regulation Mysore) adds its unmistakable milky, incense-like smoothness. Tonka bean and coumarin build the classic fougère spine with sweet hay, dried grass, and an understated almond nuance. Vanillin and benzoin enhance the warmth further, providing creamy sweetness with a touch of powder.
Labdanum deepens the resinous warmth, giving a faint leathery undertow. Ambergris contributes a gentle, diffusive radiance—subtle saltiness, warmth, and soft animalic richness that helps the entire fragrance expand and linger. Musk and a trace of civet round out the base with sensuality: clean, warm, and animalic facets that deepen the naturalistic mood without ever overpowering the cool, green theme.
Together, these materials create a fragrance that feels both crisp and comforting, contemplative and alive. The aldehydic sparkle at the top evokes sunlight glancing off a secluded mountain pool. The green aromatics and fern accord draw you deep into a forest glade. The florals shimmer like small wild blooms catching the light, while the resinous, mossy base suggests stillness, earth, and a sense of inner quiet.
Réflexions becomes a sensory portrait of nature at its most introspective—cool, shaded, and quietly radiant—an aromatic meditation shaped from both the botanical world and the artistry of early modern perfumery.
Bottles:
The parfum version of Réflexions appeared in one of the most distinctive flacons ever created for Parfums Ciro—a striking, modernist crystal bottle crafted by Baccarat as model no. 746. Its architecture embodies the confident geometry of early 20th-century design. Carved from colorless Baccarat crystal, the bottle rises like a miniature skyscraper: a four-legged, cubic structure that flares into a sharply defined pyramid. Each surface is cut into crisp facets, allowing light to travel across the crystal as if sliding across the mirrored planes of a newly built tower. Even the stopper echoes this architectural vision. Shaped as a tapered cone that terminates in a finely faceted point, it completes the silhouette with the precision of a spire crowning a high-rise.
Legend has it that Parfums Ciro deliberately unveiled Réflexions shortly after two icons of the New York skyline were completed—the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. Both structures captured the spirit of modernity, elegance, and vertical ambition that defined the early 1930s. The flacon mirrors these qualities through its clean angularity, stepped forms, and interplay of shadow and brilliance. In this way, the bottle becomes a visual metaphor for its name: “Reflexion,” suggesting both reflection and contemplation, but also the literal reflectivity of glass, metal, and the city’s soaring new architecture.
Presented inside a pristine white Art Deco box, the bottle rested securely in place, held by two slender metal wire clips at the base. This simple but clever mechanism ensured that the heavy lead crystal remained stable while also elevating it slightly, giving it the appearance of floating within its satin-lined interior. Because Baccarat’s acid-etched signature was not applied systematically until after 1936, most early Réflexions bottles are unsigned; instead, they bear the traditional paired numerals lightly inscribed by hand on both the underside of the stopper and the base of the bottle, confirming that the two pieces were cut and finished as a matched pair.
Altogether, the Réflexions flacon stands as a small masterpiece of Art Deco design—angular, luminous, and evocative of the new architectural age. It perfectly complements the perfume it held: a fragrance built on clarity, coolness, and depth, much like the towering structures that inspired its crystalline form.
The 1933 St. Louis Globe-Democrat announcement for Parfums Ciro’s Réflexions captures the sense of ceremony that surrounded its debut. The advertisement described the perfume as “a glorious and totally different odeur,” promising an aura so refined it would create an “invisible halo of distinction” around the wearer. This language conveyed more than simple luxury—it suggested an atmosphere of quiet radiance, the kind of beauty one might sense rather than see, perfectly in keeping with the perfume’s cool, fernlike character.
Its presentation only amplified this mystique. The first-edition bottles of Réflexions arrived in a pristine, bridal-white case that opened to reveal the gleaming Baccarat-cut flacon elevated on a tiny mirrored pedestal. The effect was almost theatrical: the crystal bottle, already faceted like a miniature skyscraper, seemed to glow with amplified light as its angles reflected against the mirrored surface beneath it. This mirrored platform symbolized the idea of “reflexion” twice over—both the conceptual reflection implied by the perfume’s name and the literal play of light that danced across the cut glass.
To emphasize exclusivity, each bottle of this inaugural release was accompanied by a numbered “first edition” card. This detail made ownership of Réflexions feel akin to acquiring a limited work of art rather than a common vanity item. These early bottles were imported in limited quantities, adding to their rarity and desirability. After this initial edition sold through, later presentations no longer included the mirrored pedestal. Although the elegant white case remained, the change marked the end of that short-lived, especially jewel-like version of the perfume’s debut packaging.
For collectors today, these first-edition bottles—distinguished by their numbered cards and the original mirrored base—represent the most coveted and visually striking presentation of Réflexions. They capture a fleeting moment when Parfums Ciro, in the depths of the Art Deco era, fused perfume, architecture, and light into one unforgettable object.
The Réflexions bottles that followed the earliest Baccarat editions were distinguished by their delicate enameled serigraphy and a transparent front label. This label, printed directly onto the glass, had a gossamer quality—clear, elegant, and intentionally unobtrusive—allowing the architectural silhouette of the bottle to remain the focal point. Yet this very transparency made it vulnerable: with time, handling, or even gentle cleaning, the label could fade or disappear entirely. Many surviving bottles have lost it altogether, leaving collectors uncertain of the size of the original contents.
To help identify these bottles when the label has worn away, the following size guide provides reliable measurements. Each capacity corresponds to a distinct height, making identification straightforward:
- The petite 1/3 oz (9.8 ml) bottle stands at approximately 2.8 to 3 inches tall, a compact little prism that feels almost jewel-like in the hand.
- The slightly smaller 3/8 oz (11 ml) version measures 2.75 inches tall, close in stature to the 1/3 oz size but distinguishable by its subtly different proportions.
- A more substantial 0.81 oz (24 ml) bottle rises to 3.75 inches, offering more visual presence while retaining the clean, geometric Art Deco lines.
- The 1 1/3 oz (40 ml) size stands 4 inches tall, matching the height of the Baccarat edition but differing in weight and glass quality.
- The 1.5 oz (44.6 ml) Baccarat bottle is also 4 inches tall, though noticeably heavier, with superior clarity and sharper faceting—a quick giveaway when examining unlabeled examples.
- Finally, the largest standard presentation, 3 oz (90 ml), stands 5 inches tall, a commanding version of the modernist form with enough height to emphasize its vertical architectural inspiration.
These measurements allow one to confidently identify Réflexions bottles even when the fragile original label has vanished. They also highlight the thoughtful range Ciro offered—from small, intimate flacons intended for a dressing-table tray to larger, display-worthy bottles whose elegant geometry was designed to catch the light.
Introduced in 1953, Esscent – Image de Parfum represented Ciro’s attempt to reinterpret its classic fragrances for a postwar generation that favored convenience, modernity, and intensity of expression. Esscent was formulated as a concentrated perfume—essentially the equivalent of a modern eau de parfum—strong enough to linger beautifully on the skin yet fluid enough to be worn more generously than a traditional extrait. Ciro emphasized that Esscent offered the “image” of their perfumes: faithful to the originals in character, but reborn in a form that suited contemporary lifestyles.
All Esscent fragrances were presented in bottles deliberately modeled after Ciro’s earlier luxury designs. These replicas retained the familiar silhouette of the parfum flacons, with their elegant vertical lines and distinctive shoulders, but were crafted in pressed glass rather than hand-cut crystal. Instead of a ground-glass stopper, each bottle carried a gleaming gold-plated screw cap, making the perfume easier to use and better suited for repeated, liberal application. The caps themselves were a small marvel of mid-century industrial design—made of Durez phenolic plastic manufactured by the Plastics Division of the Terkelsen Machine Company, then gold-plated to echo the warmth of the amber liquid inside. The overall effect was glamorous yet practical, with a touch of the Space Age optimism of the 1950s.
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Esscent was sold in generous sizes—1 oz, 2 oz (4 inches tall), and 4 oz—reflecting Ciro’s intention that this fragrance be splashed on with abandon, not reserved for rare moments. The same bottle design was adapted for the 0.5 oz size and a diminutive 1.25-dram miniature that stood only 1.5 inches tall, a perfect little echo of its larger counterparts. These pieces, though simpler than the earlier parfums, carried a quiet elegance that harmonized well with the sleek, modern aesthetic of the decade.
To complement these offerings, Ciro also released a refillable purse perfume designed for women who wanted their favorite scent always within reach. This little bottle held 1.25 drams of parfum, its clear glass body topped with a golden screw cap adorned with a small jewel. It had the feel of a treasured accessory—compact, decorative, and infused with the femininity and sophistication that defined Ciro’s style.
Together, the Esscent bottles and accessories captured the spirit of early 1950s beauty culture: refined but forward-looking, luxurious but accessible, echoing the heritage of Ciro’s renowned presentations while embracing the convenience and aesthetic clarity of modern design.
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Fate of the Fragrance:
Launched in 1933, Réflexions entered the American and European perfume markets with an aura of rarity and sophistication that few fragrances of the period could match. Early advertisements emphasized its exclusivity: the Omaha Sunday Bee-News announced that only a small shipment had arrived from Paris in time for Christmas, each bottle accompanied by a numbered card signifying its place among the limited first editions. In the world of 1930s luxury retail, numbering a perfume presentation was as bold as it was clever—it transformed the fragrance into a collectible object, a true connoisseur’s gift. The price—$35 in 1933—placed it among the most elite perfumes available, a level of luxury intended to captivate women who prized rarity as much as beauty. The press raved that “to see it is to want it,” calling out its “daringly bridal-white” presentation and the gleaming crystal bottle within.
By 1936, interest in Réflexions had grown enough that Ciro introduced more accessible five-dollar sizes in bottles that were exact miniature replicas of the original cut-crystal flacons. These smaller editions broadened the fragrance’s audience, allowing modern, style-conscious women to own a piece of high French perfumery at a gentler price point. Throughout the 1940s, Réflexions maintained its place as one of Ciro’s “grand manner” perfumes. Theatergoers and society readers saw it praised as “woodsy and ethereal”—a fragrance that felt both cooling and elevated, something worn for serenity rather than seduction. Gift guides recommended it alongside sachets and auxiliary items, embedding it in the rituals of feminine refinement.
Its reach expanded internationally after the war; by 1947, Canadian consumers could finally purchase Ciro’s French perfumes, distributed by Richard Hudnut. The poetic L’Amour de l’art review from 1950 elevated Réflexions further, comparing its atmosphere to the air breathed by Phidylé—fresh, near-forest air lightly touched by moss and wildflowers, water gliding through meadows before vanishing beneath shaded thickets. This imagery aligned perfectly with the fragrance’s character: cool, green, reflective, and deeply tied to the natural world.
In the 1950s, as perfumery embraced convenience and modern packaging, Réflexions adapted gracefully. Ciro’s Esscent line offered the fragrance in concentrated splash bottles, and later, the Esscent Spray Mist translated its airy, buoyant character into the new language of mid-century aerosols. Glamour magazine advised selecting Réflexions for moments of quiet poise—“when you’re feeling regal and serene”—a fitting tribute to its character.
Despite its prestige, Réflexions began to fade from the market by the mid-1960s. Official discontinuation occurred around 1965, yet remnants of old stock lingered on store shelves through the end of the decade. Even in its twilight years, the fragrance retained a reputation for refinement: a perfume remembered for its crystalline presentation, its poised and cooling scent profile, and its ability to conjure the image of a still, mirrored pond high in the mountains—quiet, luminous, and eternally evocative.