"Van Cleef&Arpels" is a "Great and Complicated" (at the same time) Perfume House.
"Great" because produced great -really great- perfumes: "First" (1976), "Pour Homme" (1978), and "Gem" (1987), to name the most famous.
But it is "complicated", too, because there are some difficulties in recognizing date of production of perfumes, especially the older ones. Box and labels can be sometimes really hard to understand, batch numbers have 3,4,5 or even more digits. Sometimes there is no label on the bottle, and you can get some clues from boxes.
Here are some useful tips to date "Van Cleef&Arpels" perfumes.
List of notable Vintage Perfumes:
The Early Years:
1976: launch of "First"
1978: launch of "Pour Homme"
1987: launch of "Gem"
1989: launch of "Tsar".
Perfumes produced in these years are the most precious and rare ones. Almost no reformulations, and no IFRA restrictions.
Then, during following years:
1993: launch of "Van Cleef"
1994: launch of "Miss Arpels"
1998: launch of "Eau du Tsar"
1999: launch of "Birmane"
2001: launch of "Zanzibar".
Production: historical periods.
Since 1976 until 1999, Van Cleef & Arpels Perfumes was a "SANOFI" division.
From 1999 until 2007: the owner was PPR-GUCCI ("VanCleef&Arpels" and "Yves Saint Laurent" Perfumes share the same owner)
Since 2008: perfumes production is under the license of "InterParfums".
LABELS at a glance:
You will find some labels on box and/or bottle, but, during the early years (1976 1990) you could not find any label on the bottom of the bottle.
More, labels -as often happens- could be mixed during transition periods (for example: old boxes with new bottles and old or new labels, messed up together)
There are "generic" labels (common for all european perfumes):
during 1990-91 the Barcode appeared on the boxes.
during 1992 the GreenDot appeared on the boxes.
And there are "specific" labels for Van Cleef & Arpels" perfumes:
- until 1995 you could read on the boxes
"SANOFI BEAUTY PRODUCTS" (it was the US distributor)
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| "SANOFI BEAUTY" : this label was used until 1995 |
During early years, and until 1991, you could read on the boxes another label:
"OMNIUM DE LA PARFUMERIE DE LUXE"
and/or the following address:
62 Faubourg de St. Honorè, Paris
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| until 1991 " OMNIUM de la Parfumerie de Luxe" address "62 Faubourg de Saint Honorè" |
"OMNIUM DE LA PARFUMERIE DE LUXE"
but with a different address:
62 Avenue D'Iena Paris.
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| 1991-1994 NEW address: "62 Avenue d'Iena Paris" |
From 1995 until 2000 you could read:
"ADIPAR" (it was the American distributor)
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| 1995-2000 : ADIPAR (US distributor) |
From 1999 to 2007 you could read, on boxes or bottles:
Boulevard le Parc and/or NEUILLY CEDEX ( it's PPR-GUCCI )
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label NEUILLY CEDEX (PPR-GUCCI Era, years 1999-2007) |
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| 2000-2007 "Boulevard du Parc" + "Neuilly" (PPR-Gucci) |
Since 2000 you can find the VCA logo on the box.
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| since 2000: VCA logo |
Since 2005: you find on the boxes the mandatory
"LIST of 26 Ingredients"
 |
since 2005: long list of ingredients |
since 2007 you can read
"InterParfums" (got the new license for Perfumes)
and/or the address: Round Point Champs Elysèes
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label "InterParfums" = after year 2007. |
Since 2002 you can read:
"www.vca-parfums.com" (it was the old website, but the address still appears)
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| label "www.vca-parfums.com" used since 2002 |
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BATCH-NUMBERS TIPS
until circa 1994
3-4 digits: (the number = the year)
EXAMPLE: 1BB = year 1991
 |
| "Gem", launched in 1987, bottle with the barcode (since 1990) batch number 2GA = year 1992 |
from 1994 : 4or5 digits,
first a number, then a letter.
(the number = the year).
EXAMPLE: 7C01 = year 1997
 |
"Eau de Tsar", launched in 1998 batch code 9B026 = year 1999 |
After 2010: many digits batch numbers, you have to check the last letter in middle of numbers:
A= 2010, B=2011, C=2012, D= 2013.
 |
| batch number 01B14B056 last letter is "B" = year 2011 |
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The best thing to date perfumes is to obtain clues
both from batch-numbers, date of launch,
and labels on box and bottle.
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TUTORIAL PICS
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| "Gem", box with VCA logo = after year 1999. |
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| (from ebay) "TSAR", launched in 1989, label ADIPAR = years from 1995 until 2000 |
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| (from ebay) "Pour Homme", label ADIPAR (1995-2000), engraved batch code 7xxx = year 1997 |
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| "TSAR", launched in 1989, box with VCA logo = after year 1999. |
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| (from ebay) "Eau de TSAR", launched in 1998, label ADIPAR (1995-2000) = Years 1999 or 2000. |
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| (from ebay) "Pour Homme", VCA logo on the box = after year 1999. |
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| (from ebay) "TSAR", label "InterParfums" = since 2007. |
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| (from ebay) "First", long list of ingredients, batch with last letter "B" = year 2011 |
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| (from ebay) "Eau de Tsar", launched in 1998, label "ADIPAR" (1995-2000), batch code 9B026 = year 1999 |
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| "TSAR", label ADIPAR (1995-2000) label 6I12C = year 1996 |
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| "TSAR", label "OMNIUM" with old address "62 rue St. Honorè", no barcode, batch number 0BA = year 1990 |
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| "Gem", box with barcode (since 1990) US distributor SANOFI (until 1995) = after 1990, up to 1995 |
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| "Gem", new address 62 Avenue d'Iena, Paris = after 1991 up to 1995 |
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| "Gem", box with barcode batch number 2BA = year 1992 |
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| "Pour Homme", box with Barcode and Greendot (since 1992) distrib. ADIPAR (since 1995) = from 1995 up to 2000. |
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| "Pour Homme", label NEUILLY (from 1999 to 2007) batch number 1C01 = year 2001 |
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| "Birmane", launched in 1999, batch code 9C01 = year 1999 |
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| VCA logo = after 1999 |
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| "Zanzibar", launched in 2001, batch number 2I04 = year 2002 |
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| "Pour Homme", label NEUILLY (1999-2007) batch 4F02 = year 2004 |
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| "TSAR" , label ADIPAR (1995-2000) batch number 7J16 = year 1997 |
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| "Gem", launched in 1987 label OMNIUM with old address "62 Faubourg St.Honorè", no barcode (since 1990), batch number 9BU = year 1989 |
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| (from ebay) "First", label OMNIUM, new address 62 Avenue d'Iena (since 1991) with barcode, US distributor Sanofi (until 1995) = years 1991-1995 |
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| "First", label "www.vca-parfums.com" (since 2002) batch number 2K05 = year 2002 (warning: this is NOT the "long list of ingedients") |
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| (from Ebay) "First", ADIPAR label (1995-2000) = years 1995 up to 2000. |
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| (from ebay) "First", label "www.vca-parfums.com" (since 2002) with long list of ingredients (since 2005) batch nr. 9J111B = year 2009 |
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| (from ebay) "Van Cleef", launched in 1993, barcode, label SANOFI ( up to 1995) = years 1993 up to 1995 |
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| (From ebay) "Miss Arpels", launched in 1994, label SANOFI batch nr. 5A01 = year 1995 |
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| (from ebay) "Miss Arpels", label ADIPAR , years 1995 up to 2000. |
"The older, the Better".
Previously we considered :
-GUERLAIN perfumes ( here )
-YVES SAINT LAURENT perfumes ( here )
-CHRISTIAN DIOR perfumes ( here )
-ARMANI Perfumes ( here )
-CHANEL ( here )
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