Gala!! Another 80’s (although launched in 1990) animalic floriental, up there with the likes of Boucheron, Ysatis, Byzance..to some extent, also La Nuit by Rabanne. A gorgeous resinous and sticky floral that bathes in animalic secretions and then makes love to your skin all day and night long! What a pleasure to have something like this embrace you!! Review based on first release edt, sans barcode! What Gala reminds me of the most as soon as it touches my skin is Byzance; that same baroque sweetness from heady white flowers and resins. A sin for the senses. Dark and mysterious from the very beginning. I wouldn’t say the top notes are strong. They’re perfectly preserved, but Gala jumps straight to the point, aka, the heart. The carnation is in charge of spicing up every single note that comes; you have a red rose made even deeper. Jasmine that goes from virginal to night blooming and sweating honey tears. Isn’t there some tuberose and orange blossom? Because their heady sweetness is there. When the ylang ylang shows up, it’s when it reminds me vividly of Ysatis, with that buttery thickness of clotted cream. The dim lights of carnal pleasure aren’t far behind, and even though castor and civy are saying hi from the start, just like they do in Ysatis, they start menaging a dix with the rest of the notes. The drydown is long and very pleasurable. While the floral heart remains, it now allows my favorite animalic couple to take center stage, and all the while, while playing naughty games with the jasmine and carnation and honeyed (very!) orange blossom they start growing bigger and bigger, until all you’re left hours later, is a spicy and ambery cornucopia of lust. Gala remains very very dirty from this point on. The castoreum provides a leathery facet just like the leather in La Nuit. Civet brings forth a slight smoothness that becomes bigger and bigger and engulfs one and the same veil of perversion the above mentioned fragrances do. It might seem innocent at first but Gala is deep down dirty and carnal. It also shouts said carnality for everyone to hear before entering and after exiting a room. The rest of the hours it just seeps in your skin, making you feel and smell like mostly nobody does anymore. Gala won’t sit well with most people today. Bottles are scarce, and the only ones able to appreciate its beauty are us vintage lovers, former users, and perhaps someone who doesn’t want to fit in with the rest of the kids in the candy store. A real stunner! Silage and longevity worthy of a weekend Gala. Yes, the whole 48 hours!!