Madeleine de Madeleine: A Powdery Tuberose Perfume

At a glance

Madeleine de Madeleine is the 1978 signature perfume of Madeleine Mono, the London-born makeup entrepreneur whose glittering cosmetics WWD called “one of the exclamation points of the Seventies.” It is a big, rich white floral built around tuberose.

Unlike many perfumes of its era, it is still made and sold today under the Madeleine Mono name, through the brand’s own shop.

Creation and context

Madeleine Mono came to the United States from England in 1974, according to both the Deseret News and the brand’s own history. She had trained as an actress, lined her eyes with dark kajal, and turned the look into a product, Indian Eyes, first sold at Henri Bendel. Counters at Bloomingdale’s and other department stores followed.

The fragrance followed in 1978, a date the brand, the Deseret News and Fragrantica all give. At its launch, the brand says, she told the press: “Sure the world has many fragrances, but it doesn’t have mine.” The Deseret News describes the extrait in a French-style quarter-ounce bottle, with an eau de toilette in a diamond-shaped bottle.

WWD reports that the cosmetics and Madeleine de Madeleine together reached about $3 million in sales at their 1980 peak. Overexpansion and the recession pushed the company into Chapter 11 in 1985, a date WWD and the Deseret News both report. Mono then repositioned the makeup for the mass market while keeping the perfume at its original price, according to the Deseret News.

The composition

No perfumer has been credited, and the published note lists differ. The brand lists tuberose, mimosa and narcissus (jonquil) at the top, rose, jasmine and chamomile in the heart, and oakmoss and orange flower in the drydown. Fragrantica’s pyramid is longer and fruitier. The materials both sources name are these:

Fragrantica’s accords rank white floral and tuberose first, with powdery, aromatic and woody facets. The brand describes a “lush floral” that turns “woody-oriental” as it dries down.

Why it matters

Madeleine de Madeleine is a good example of a personality fragrance from before the celebrity-scent era: a perfume sold on the strength of its founder’s look and her personal appearances. The Deseret News describes Mono touring stores into the 1990s to introduce it.

It arrived in the same year as Cacharel’s Anaïs Anaïs, but went the opposite way. Where Anaïs Anaïs was a soft, youthful floral, Madeleine de Madeleine was built to be noticed.

Reformulation and editions

The Deseret News lists the original range as perfume, eau de toilette, an eau de cologne spray and matching body products. Today the brand’s shop sells an eau de parfum, a perfume-oil rollerball, a perfumed body cream and a hair oil.

The line is now run alongside Jeffrey Dame’s Dame Perfumery, whose links appear on the Madeleine Mono shop. One Fragrantica reviewer reports that Dame acquired the house in 2001 and makes the perfume to its original formula; that has not been confirmed elsewhere. No reformulation has been documented.

Wearing it today

This is an evening fragrance with real projection. Apply lightly: one or two sprays of the eau de parfum, or a touch of the oil, will carry.

If you like tuberose but find modern tuberoses sharp, the mossy base and orange blossom make this one rounder and more old-fashioned. Brooke Shields is among the names in Fragrance Help’s Fragrance Favorites archive linked to it.

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Sources