What Is Samouraï Perfume?

Samouraï is a French fragrance line created for the actor Alain Delon, named after his most famous film, Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï (1967). The house grew out of the Alain Delon perfume brand that emerged around 1980 and released men's and women's scents steadily from the early 1980s into the early 2000s — first as Parfums Alain Delon, later as the standalone label Samouraï. Today the name survives inside the Lalique Group perfume portfolio, and Japanese distribution has kept the scent alive long after European shelves emptied. For collectors, that makes vintage Samouraï bottles a strange and appealing hybrid: French perfumery, French cinema, and a fan base that never let go.

From Le Samouraï to Parfums Samouraï

Alain Delon (8 November 1935 – 18 August 2024) was one of the defining European screen actors of the twentieth century and an international sex symbol from the late 1950s through the late 1980s. In Melville's Le Samouraï he played Jef Costello, a hitman in a trench coat whose entire code of conduct is silence — and that film gave the fragrance line both its name and its mood of disciplined, understated masculinity.

The perfume business followed the film career. Fragrantica's database traces the Alain Delon fragrance house back to 1979 (its first entry, Alain Delon Pour Homme) and counts a dozen Alain Delon releases, the newest from 2001; the brand itself is usually dated to 1980, coinciding with the signature men's scent simply called Alain Delon, or AD. Over four decades the house worked with perfumers including Mark Buxton, Gerard Anthony, Lucien Schenck, Christine Nagel and Maurice Roucel.

The Samouraï sub-line launched its own masculine eau de toilette in 1995, a woody-aromatic built on pink pepper and cedar, a floral heart of jasmine, rose, bergamot and lemon, and a base of sandalwood and vetiver. The women's pillar, Samouraï Woman, arrived in 2001. What followed was an unusually long chain of flankers — Samouraï Air (2000), Samouraï 47 (2002), Samouraï Silver (2004), Samouraï Light (2005), Samouraï Blue (2006) — and on the feminine side Samouraï Woman Glitter (2003), Woman Love (2004), Love Aqua (2007) and the Vanity series.

That Vanity series is the late chapter worth knowing. Vanity Rouge is documented as the last of three fragrances developed with the Japanese singer Miliyah Katō, and those bottles were also sold under the Alain Delon name — a crossover between French perfume and Japanese pop culture that explains why so much of the surviving stock today carries Japanese retail labels.

Which brings us to the modern shape of the brand: Parfums Samouraï is now one of the perfume labels of the Lalique Group, alongside Lalique Perfumes, Jaguar Fragrances, Bentley Fragrances, Parfums Grès and Brioni. And on the Japanese market the authorised distributor for both Alain Delon and Samouraï remains SPR Japan — the line's true last stronghold.

The Samouraï Bottles Currently in Our Vault

We keep a small, carefully checked stock of Samouraï. Every bottle below is in hand, photographed, and listed from the actual item — including the odd, useful details that prove an authentic bottle.

• Samouraï Eau de Toilette 100ml (3.4 oz) — $79. Thick rectangular glass, silver cap, and the unmistakable cyan-turquoise juice — the colour comes from the dyed concentrate (Blue 1 and Red 227 are both declared on the retail label). Our bottle carries its Japanese retail label: サムライ オーデトワレ / ナチュラルスプレー / 100ml, with フランス製 (Made in France), 発売元 SPR Japan and 製造販売元 リエ工貿. View the 100ml bottle →
• Samouraï Woman Vanity Rouge Eau de Toilette 50ml (1.7 oz) — $49. The Miliyah Katō-era flanker, in the deep red faceted flacon with the lipstick-kiss print. Box front reads SAMOURAI WOMAN / Vanity Rouge / EAU DE TOILETTE NATURAL SPRAY / 76% VOL. e50ML 1.7 FL.OZ, with PARFUMS ALAIN DELON on the red base band. View Vanity Rouge 50ml →
• Samouraï Woman Eau de Toilette 75ml (2.5 oz) — $29. The 2001 women's pillar in its cream box with the purple dotted spray and the PARFUMS ALAIN DELON base band, marked 76% VOL. e 75 ML - 2.5 FL.OZ and Réf. 35.03.75, Made in France. View woman 75ml →
• Samouraï travel sprays, 2ml / 5ml / 10ml — from $2.50. For anyone who wants to try the juice before committing to a full bottle.

Top 5 Samouraï Releases Every Collector Should Know

1. Samouraï Eau de Toilette (1995) — the masculine pillar. Woody aromatic: pink pepper and cedar up top, a jasmine-rose-bergamot-lemon heart, sandalwood and vetiver underneath. It is the reference point for the whole line, and the bottle whose blue juice most people picture when they hear the name.
2. Samouraï Woman (2001) — the feminine pillar. A lush floral: black currant, nutmeg, yuzu, nectarine, bergamot and cardamom; peony, magnolia, rose, camellia, mimosa and ylang-ylang through the middle; tagetes, spices, incense and amber at the base.
3. Samouraï Woman Vanity Rouge (~2010) — the J-pop crossover. Documented as the last of three fragrances made with Miliyah Katō, and sold under both the Samouraï and Alain Delon names. Blackcurrant and peony open it; lily of the valley, apricot and rose follow. Its red faceted bottle and lipstick print make it the most photogenic Samouraï on any shelf.
4. Samouraï Woman Vanity Rosa. The first of the Vanity trio, dated to 2009 by Fragrantica (later by some databases) — a bright fruit opening of grapefruit, lemon, tangerine, mango and passion fruit over peony, rose, violet, raspberry, red berries and pink pepper.
5. Samouraï Gold 2000 — the limited edition. A numbered-year masculine issued for the millennium, with top notes of jasmine, rose and hesperidic accents, a heart of red pepper, tarragon and cedar, and a sandalwood, vetiver, vanilla and musk base. Limited editions in this line are the hardest to replace.

Beyond those five, the collector's map includes Samouraï Air (2000), Samouraï 47 (2002), Samouraï Silver (2004), Samouraï Light (2005), Samouraï Blue (2006), and the feminine Woman Glitter (2003), Woman Love (2004) and Love Aqua (2007). Because so many flankers were produced in limited runs, dating a bottle matters more here than with most houses.

How to Authenticate a Vintage Samouraï Bottle

• Read the volume and strength line on the box. Genuine Alain Delon cartons print a precise alcohol percentage — our bottles read 76% VOL. — followed by the metric and imperial volume (e50ML 1.7 FL.OZ, or e 75 ML - 2.5 FL.OZ). Sloppy or missing percentages are a red flag.
• Look for PARFUMS ALAIN DELON on the base band of the carton. That house signature is printed on the packaging across the line, including the Samouraï Woman boxes.
• Check the reference number. French-made cartons carry a Réf. number (ours is Réf. 35.03.75 on the 75ml) and a separate made-in-France statement, sometimes embossed rather than printed.
• Expect Japanese retail labels on later stock. As European distribution wound down, SPR Japan and its suppliers kept the brand on shelves, adding Japanese ingredient and distributor labels. On our 100ml these read サムライ オーデトワレ with フランス製, 発売元 株式会社SPRジャパン and 製造販売元 株式会社リエ工貿 — an authentic, and rather handsome, part of the bottle's history.
• Confirm the juice colour against the fragrance. Dye was declared openly on these labels (Blue 1 and Red 227 on the 100ml), so a turquoise men's bottle and a deep red Vanity Rouge are both correct; a colourless version of the same SKU is not.

Samouraï in Context: How It Compares

Fragrance	Year	Family	Status
Alain Delon Pour Homme	1979	Aromatic	Discontinued
Samouraï EDT	1995	Woody aromatic	Discontinued / JP import
Samouraï Gold 2000	2000	Woody oriental	Limited edition
Samouraï Woman	2001	Floral	Discontinued
Samouraï Woman Vanity Rouge	~2010	Fruity floral	Discontinued

Frequently Asked Questions About Samouraï Perfume

Is Samouraï still made?

The Samouraï name still exists — Parfums Samouraï is part of the Lalique Group's perfume portfolio today — but the classic Alain Delon-era bottles are discontinued, and outside Japan the brand is essentially no longer on mainstream retail shelves. The authorised distributor for Alain Delon and Samouraï in Japan is SPR Japan, which is why so much surviving stock carries Japanese retail labelling. The specific bottles in our vault are old-stock/discontinued stock, not current production.

Why is the Samouraï bottle blue?

The men's eau de toilette was dyed deliberately; the retail label declares the colourants (in our 100ml bottle, Blue 1 and Red 227). The turquoise juice is one of the easiest ways to spot a correct men's bottle at a glance.

Who was Samouraï perfume named after?

The actor Alain Delon (1935–2024) and specifically his role in Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï (1967), the film that gave the line its name and its masculine, disciplined image. Delon's wider fragrance house dates back to 1979–1980.

What does Samouraï Woman smell like?

The 2001 women's pillar is a full floral: black currant, nutmeg, yuzu, nectarine, bergamot and cardamom at the top; peony, magnolia, rose, camellia, mimosa and ylang-ylang in the heart; tagetes, spices, incense and amber in the base. The later Vanity flankers move fruitier — Vanity Rouge opens with blackcurrant and peony before lily of the valley, apricot and rose.

Where can I buy discontinued Samouraï perfume?

Vintage and discontinued bottles turn up at specialist sellers rather than department stores. You can browse our checked, in-hand stock of Samouraï at trendyground.com/collections/samourai — each bottle is photographed from the actual item, so you can verify the label, volume and juice colour before you buy.