My Sin by Lanvin c1924

The design house of Lanvin was among the first to present a perfume as part of a collection. My Sin was created in 1924 and first sold and trademarked in Paris under the name Mon Péché by Lanvin.

"A perfume of enchantment - of enthrallment...My Sin holds enticing charm for the delights which are to come. Smart women are always fond of My Sin's complimentary chic..."

In 1926, Jeanne Lanvin recalled that My Sin was created by a collaboration between Firmenich and Madame Maria Zede , a "nose", an employee of Gabilla Perfumerie. Gabilla had introduced their perfume My Sin in 1920. The bottle was a round black glass flacon molded with flowers and richly gilded, with a matching gilt stopper. The design was by Julien Viard and manufactured by C. Depinoix, it was used for another Gabilla perfume, Minne in 1920.

Fashion designers of the early 1900s required the assistance of experienced perfume companies to blend their perfumes and to create and produce their presentations. Gabilla was one of the companies who specialized in assisting fashion designers, most notably Jeanne Lanvin. Gabilla had worked under condition of anonymity. The direct involvement of these two companies was evidenced in their choice of perfume names and bottle shapes.

According to the book Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, author Charles Panati states that "capitalizing on the American desire for French perfumes, Jeanne Lanvin took her creation Mon Péché, which had failed in Paris, and in 1925 turned it into an immediate and resounding success in America under the name My Sin."

Original Fragrance Composition:

So what does it smell like? It is classified as a floral fragrance for women with a dominant acacia note with aldehydic character. It begins with a fresh aldehydic top with additional notes of bergamot, heliotrope, acacia and mimosa, followed by a sweet floral heart of gardenia, rose, ylang ylang, hyacinths, violet, orange blossom, and lilac, layered over a sweet, balsamic, woody base with oakmoss, sandalwood, musk, vanilla, patchouli and civet.

• Top notes: saxifrage, aldehydes, lemon, clary sage, seringa, neroli, peony, dianthus, delphinium, carnation, bergamot, heliotrope, acacia, mimosa, white hyacinth, privet
• Middle notes: magnolia, elderberry, gardenia, white narcissus, clove, orris, orange blossom, lily, Grasse jasmine, violet, oriental rose, tuberose, lily of the valley, white lilac, iris, jonquil, ylang ylang
• Base notes: oakmoss, leather, vanilla, Virginia cedar, ambergris, vanilla, tolu balsam, styrax, patchouli, Tibetan musk, vetiver, civet and Mysore sandalwood

 , saxifrage, shore grasses, moss, heliotrope, magnolia,

Le Petit Parisien : journal quotidien du soir, 1941:

"More tender and personal, more intimate too is 'My Sin', where the discreet aromas of gardenia and heliotrope are combined with those more captivating of vanilla and tuberose."

L'Amour de l'art, 1950:

"My Sin by Lanvin: We love it, we hide it...because its tender and precise scents of gardenia and heliotrope, vanilla and tuberose mark the level of your personality."

Combat, 1955:

"Mon Péché Parfum by Lanvin - the scent of an innumerable bouquet adorns a teenage blonde with flowers. Sharp tufts of mock orange. Delicacy of white hyacinths. Warm smoothness of heliotropes, tuberoses and gardenias, mixed with the leafy freshness of ylang ylang and white lilac. The morning breeze tears the ecru lace of privet and elderberry. The 'debutante' pulls her ballet costume up on her chest. No need, for so much subtle freshness, for the dilution of eau de cologne."

Bath and Body Preparations:

In 1971, Lanvin expanded the bath and body preparations for two of their classic scents. The same preparations listed below for "My Sin" were also available in the "Arpege" line.

The "bath & body perfume" is somewhat mis-named. Actually it is a metered aerosol spray of what seems to be a non-alcoholic perfume, to be used on the skin, not in the tube. Its strength is undisclosed, but is estimated lower than regular perfume.

The Emollient Bath Salts claim to be water softening and leave a slight film of floating bath oil on the water surface. This fragrance is of medium strength. Foaming Milk Bath generates rich suds and carries the fragrance at a medium strength level, similar to the bath salts.

If your preference is a plain bath oil, Arpege and My Sin also come in Perfumed Bath Oil. For a traditionalist on the go, Lanvin offered Arpege and My Sin fragrances in spray dusting powder, handsomely contained in a sleek 4 oz cylinder, perfect for traveling.


In 1977, the newly introduced Foaming Fragranced Bath Concentrate in either My Sin or Arpege would put scented bubbles in your tub, while the Fragranced Body Moisturizer, provided a satiny self-indulgence.

Bottles:

Lanvin's My Sin/Mon Peche parfum extrait was sold in a round black glass bottle called La Boule, designed in 1923 by Armand Rateau and made in France by Cristal Romesnil. The bottle had two different gilded stoppers, one raspberry shaped, and the other was a round, ribbed ball. The gilded logo on the front of the bottle was designed by Paul Iribe and depicts a stylized portrait of Jeanne Lanvin and her daughter getting dressed for a masked ball. Rare versions of this bottle are to be found in clear glass with a gilded logo, an all over gilded glass bottle with logo in black, and even rarer versions are made from Sevres porcelain limited editions made in 1926, each was burgundy, turquoise or cobalt blue.

The black La Boule bottles were to become the standard flacon for all of Lanvin's parfum extraits. The labels are simply small strips of paper found on the base of the bottle which would note what perfume was inside. The boxes were generally covered in cream colored paper and trimmed with a different color for each perfume, My Sin had navy trim, Arpege had black, Scandale had red, Pretexte had black and Rumeur had brown.

There is even a hard to find early powder box made in the shape of La Boule, and made with papier mache.

Other bottles you will commonly find are the tall rectangular or shorter square shaped clear glass bottles that hold the colognes, eau de parfums and eau de toilettes. These bottles were made in France by Verreries Brosse. The earlier bottles have either a black glass or bakelite stopper, and later black plastic, impressed with the Lanvin logo. Some bottles have a simple gold foil label others can be found with either a red or black label.

It is also possible to find dusting powder, bath oil, perfume mist, talc, Eau de Lanvin My Sin, and soap online.

"My Sin..a most provocative perfume"

The New Yorker - Volume 23, 1947:

"Lanvin — "Rumeur," for a young vivacious person; a brunette perfume. "Arpege," for the young blonde. "Mon Peche," or "My Sin," for the very young. "Scandal," smells of sandalwood."

If your vintage box of My Sin is unopened and you need to know what's inside, use this handy guide I have compiled for you to decipher what the numbers mean (remember, Extrait means Parfum):

• No. 005 - 2/3 oz  Extrait
• No. 07 - 2 oz Eau de Lanvin (Toilet Water) Spray
• No. 28 - 1 oz - Extrait (carre flacon)
• No. 31 - 1/2 oz  Bath Oil
• No. 51 -  Bath Soap Trio
• No. 61 - 1 oz Extrait (boule noir/cristal)
• No. 62 - 2 oz - Extrait (boule noir/cristal)
• No. 68 - 1/4 oz Extrait (carre flacon)
• No. 69 - 1/2 oz Extrait (carre flacon)
• No. 70 - Extrait (carre flacon)
• No. 71 - Extrait (carre flacon)
• No. 77 - 1/8 oz Extrait
• No. 85 - 1/4 oz  Parfum Spray Mist
• No. 87 - 2.7 oz Extrait
• No. 13.011 - 4 oz Eau My Sin  Eau de Toilette
• 2 oz Eau de Lanvin
• 1/8 oz Extrait (Lanvinette golden purse flacon)
• 3.5 oz Talc de Lanvin

Fate of the Fragrance:

My Sin by Lanvin was discontinued in 1988.


The trademark and rights to the perfume name was bought out by Long Lost Perfumes by Irma Shorell, Inc., but they do not own the Lanvin formula. The sell their own "version" of the perfume that was recreated in 1995 and is sold on their website.

The recreated perfume composition:

• Top notes: aldehydes, lemon, bergamot, clary sage, neroli
• Middle notes: jasmine, rose, clove, orris, muguet, jonquil, ylang ylang, lilac
• Base notes: vetiver, vanilla, musk, styrax, civet, woods, tolu

My Sin was copied by other perfume companies like Lucia Deraine who made her version in 1945, and M by Jac de Paris who launched his version in the 1950s.

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