For young people who may not be aware, we note that the Soviet Union was very fond of dividing the world into " friends "and" strangers", and it was customary to have very minimal contact with" strangers " – there was no special trade with them. In view of this, French perfumery, which was considered exemplary at all times, could only remain a dream for domestic beauties – it was impossible to get perfume from Paris at that time. This situation applied to almost any Western products – if they entered the territory of the USSR, it was only sporadically, briefly and in small batches.
In addition, in the first years of the country's existence, even with women's perfumes, there was a huge strain – the typical proletarian was not yet accustomed to their use, they were considered a luxury item, which, as you know, the communist regime was not to face. The country had, of course, its own perfume factories that have been producing products since pre-revolutionary times, but against the background of the break in trade relations with foreign suppliers, many of the necessary ingredients simply did not exist, so the range was greatly reduced, significantly affecting the quality. Later, of course, the situation with the import of such personal goods improved a little, but even then the import was quite peculiar-today few people know about Polish or Syrian perfumes, and then they were chic at least due to their uniqueness.