Lightyears Collection
Émeraude
Coty
(1921)

Click on image to enlarge Emeraude

The amazing point about Coty's Émeraude is that it was introduced in 1921 and is still on the market. If fact, through the 1950's and 1960's, Émeraude was one of Coty's best selling fragrances.

Yes, it is true that Chanel's No. 5 has also been on the market since 1921 and continues to make sales today. But No. 5 was one of a handful of fragrances developed by Chanel perfumes. They had to sell it! But Émeraude is one of dozens of fragrances developed by Coty over the years and it had to compete with all the other Coty fragrances to survive.

François Coty, perfumer, creator of Émeraude and founder of the Coty perfume empire, has been called a genius, both for his ability to create great perfumes and for his business ability. But when the experts discuss Coty's greatest fragrances, the name Émeraude does not make the cut. It wasn't a revolutionary fragrance, it didn't use new perfumery materials, there was no special marketing attached to it, it didn't rely on a beautiful Rene Lalique bottle for its sales. It was simply a fragrance that was pleasing to women — and women were Coty's market.

Émeraude has gone through some reformulations over the years. Yet the Émeraude of our (cheap) Emeraude Spray Mist from the 1950's or 1960's is distinctly the same scent and has the same persistance as is found in the scent of the Émeraude shown here.

Coty launched his U.S. operation in 1913. To avoid customs duties, components were shipped to America separately and then assembled in his U.S. plant. Hence, no "Made In France" (although his boxes refer to the fragrance as having been created in his "Perfume City" outside of Paris). This bottle is a New York edition of Émeraude (in the U.S., it was simply Emeraude, without the acute accent mark) and appears to be an early one, as the bottle uses a glass stopper and glass stoppers were discontinued in the 1930's in favor of new, colorful, decorative — and cheaper — bakelite stoppers. The bottle itself once held .34 ounces of Émeraude. What is left in this bottle still has the classic Émeraude fragrance.

If you have any comments on Émeraude or Coty, please share them with us using the message sender below.

• Deborah Wilson, 01/13/2017. Emeraude was my mother's fragrance when I was growing up...my niece bought it for me at Christmas this year after I mentioned it.
  Spraying it on Christmas morning took me back in time...to when I was 8 years old (1968) and my mother smoothing my brow, or cleaning a scraped knee, hugging me when I cried, getting ready to greet my father at the end of his work day, so many memories with this fragrance and all good. She
  has been gone for 4 years now and I miss her so much. This fragrance is comforting to me in ways hard to explain. I have expensive perfumes that I use but this one is for the memories and for a comfort like no other
  comfort in the world - that of a mother's love. Thanks for keeping it on the market.