I think this is where I got my love for chypre's came from. Someone in their infinite wisdom gave me a bottle of this when I was in 6th grade.. Yikes! It was super strong and WAY too strong for me then. I think I probably killed my poor classmates sense of smell with this. (sorry guys) It was so bad my Mom took it away from me and I got a lesson on how to properly wear perfume from my Grandmother. Just one whiff and I fall in love all over again.

The bottle is so classic, so reminiscent of Studio 54 and the heyday of disco what with Halston himself holding court at the bar of the original New York discotheque. That said, I always remember my mom had this bottle on her dresser and it just screamed 1970s! It's very powdery on the top notes and is ultra sexy and made for the confident woman!!!! LOVE THIS classic fragrance.

Well, this is really two reviews: maybe three years ago I came across a bottle at Marshall's and tried it. At the time, it felt too adult and too heavy for Southern California, and I discarded it.
Last year I was seized with curiosity and got a travel size bottle at the fancy Rite Aid. And... yikes. I don't know if the first bottle I bought was older stock or whether they rolled out a cheaper reformulation for the mini bottles, but it was an unbelievably harsh blast of artificial rose warring with Chlorox, with no base notes. I hope it was a fluke.

I read a lot of reviews about the evils of perfume reformulation here on MUA. I too, have contributed one or two but it would appear by the reviews I am reading lately that every second review of any fragrance that has been around at least 10 years dismisses all that is not the original production year as REFORMULATED. And to perfumistas, reformulated = the devil. Just like food and wine, even if you follow the same recipe to the letter every time, there is always the occasional "not so good/bad batch" as well as the superlatively good batch, no? Sometimes when you're cooking, you may be missing an ingredient and need to substitute.... often, it comes out tasting the same, no? Back to this review: I am a self-proclaimed '70s fragrance freak. All my favourite fragrances were produced and first released within the years 1970 and 1979.


I mourned the day I finished my original bottle of Halston from the late '70s. The reviews here on MUA and fragrance boards/blogs throughout the internet had me convinced that the current Halston "formulation" was nowhere near the original. So much so that I didn't bother replacing my bottle for years. Then last week, I broke down and bought a bottle at the cheapest price I could find.


This brings me to my review of Halston. I received my little bottle of Halston with the Halston printed on the bottle which, according to noses who know is not worth the bother. I opened the box with mixed feelings of impending disappointment and cautious optimism, I sprayed it in the air. Oh my how wrong they were! My little bottle of Halston is pure oakmoss-y, green, incense, musky chypre goodness!!!


This makes me think that perhaps we sometimes "remember" the fragrances of our past/youth... wrong? Also, our body chemistry changes too. Hormones, diet, smoking, medication, etc, these things and more all affect how a fragrance develops on our skin every time we wear it.


If you have loved Halston since the seventies like I have or, if you've never even sniffed it. I recommend you do. This baby is a little powdery and very, very, sultry. This is ultra femme with a capital confidence. This is not the fragrance of a woman who needs to smell like fruity florals or dessert to feel attractive. Halston is the fragrance of women who feel good in their skin no matter how old/young they are. I'm happy to have my Halston back. Will definitely repurchase. The bottle design is legendary. continued >>

Halston, where have you been all my life?
Love the feminine softly curved bottle, and love the juice even more.
It's the perfect green, mossy, oakmoss, incense musky perfumey scent. It sprays on nice but dries down even nicer. I actually find it calming when I smell it - as if it has aromatherapeutic effect.
The lotion is nice too, a bit more mildly green in scent, will go well with the cologne.
Both are highly recommended!

This review is for Halston **before** it was acquired (and reformulated, and cheapened) by EA Fragrances. I tried some of the Halston now being sold in drugstores and discount stores, and while it retains some of its original character, it falls absolutely flat in comparison to the original. My advice is to get this on eBay-- someone is always selling vintage stock.

SO, to return to my point: Original 1975 formulation of Halston is a magical chypre on my skin. Warm, woodsy, and clean, it has some of the best sillage I've ever experienced in a fragrance. Elegant, yet subtly sexy... it reminds me in the drydown of more assertive chypres like Aromatics Elixir and Paloma Picasso, but where those scents can be aggressive and difficult, Halston is just plain lovely. At first spray, it does smell a bit "dated," if only because it employs real oakmoss and is not the faintest bit sweet. But give it 10 minutes, and it will steal your heart with its gorgeous unfolding. I can see why previous reviewers have equated Halston with the glamour and excitement of the disco era. Still, it is timeless.

For all you sweet young naive things out there who think that anything made in the 70's or 80's is granny or old lady, have I got news for YOUZE: this fragrance is a man slayer. Period. Doesn't matter if the guy is 19 or 90. This is the fragrance that wins them all - hands down! I hadn't worn it in years, but recently wore it to the bank, and a 20 year old teller was fawning all over the scent. "I don't know what you're wearing, but you smell really great!" I hated to tell him that not only was he not even born when the fragrance was in its first heydey, but that his parents were both probably still in grade school and hadn't even met yet... And yet, the kid knows what he likes! CIndy Crawford in her Halston: enough said. If you're bold enough to try it, do so.

I haven't worn this scent for years but recently got a bottle while feeling nostalgic.
I think the scent has changed. While I used to think of this as a pleasant mossy-woodsy scent, it now smells chypre but with a cloyingly sweet undertone (that I don't remember it having before). Somehow I think that it is less oakmoss and more something(?) else, more of a cloyingly sweet scent.
This REALLY has sillage....tremendous lasting power and a little goes a long way...so use lightly.
And, while it's recommended for daytime use, I find a scent this heavy more appropriate to evening wear.
Overall, I still like the scent but not as much as I did when I was in college back in the 80s. I really think that is because the scent has been reformulated. I STILL just love the bottle though.

I loev the deep satisfaction of something living up to - and surpassing - your expectations. As a chypre-lover I was holding out for Winners (equivalent to TJ Maxx in Canada) to get some Halston in before buying it on ebay. Sure enough, this week $7 got me a sweet ounce of a gorgeous, smoky, grownup scent in the fab Peretti bottle that is a happy companion to my Cabochard and Cristalle. Halston has a fascinating minty edge that lightens the whole composition. For an EDC it is remarkably long-lasting. Better get me some more!

like a reviewer said below, this seems a little changed from my h.s days, and as she said, "stronger, not as pretty." but that could simply be my memories telling me it was great then and now i just like it less. i knew someone who wore it and i loved it right away. its not subtle, but when it wears down over the day, i think it really does get soft and imo smells better. it's got to be one of the most long lasting scents i have ever tried. if you are unsure you like this, do not sample this if you have somewhere to go cause its not gonna be gone anytime soon.

i don't love it the way i once did though i found myself sniffing my wrist all day when i sampled it again last week (walgreens had it on sale recently). it really must be worn slightly, do not full on spray, do not douse head to toe. its true what others have said, this is not a case of, "well if a little is good then a lot will be better!" it smells a lot more mature than i recalled and cannot imagine a bunch of h.s girls today running around wearing this as we did in the 80's. Instead it has more of sexy/glamorous vibe to me. i'm not good at describing scent notes (unless they''re obvious) so i cannot say more about that. funny enough instead of growing more attracted to stronger scents as time goes by i instead gravitate to the sweeter, softer, more powdery fragrances. If not for that i'd go buy a bottle of this today.

Edit, I think I will try this again. Whenever I see a new review it makes me want some!