Danielle Steel Danielle

Yeah, go ahead and laugh. I saw a bottle of this sitting on a counter today next to some mangled looking boxes of Britney Spears Fantasy and J-Lo Glow. Having heard of Danielle Steel and seeing the literal wall of romance novels all with her name on them at the used bookstore, I decided to put my pledge–to smell all there is to smell–where my money is. Danielle

In Bottle: Powerful alcohol in this one, it’s hard for me to get past it. Though I do wonder if that’s a fault of this particular bottle having gone off or what. Still the opener is a citrus–mandarin, I think–bright and green and fresh. There’s rose in this too and something very sweet. Like toffee or apple. Maybe it’s candy apple. It’s hovering around the sticky, syrupy section where a fragrance goes from pleasantly sweet to cloying.

Applied: Rose and citrus up front, very nice on spray and initial application. It’s a bit reminiscent of Nina by Nina Ricci at first but then the apple and the rose wear off, leaving citrus to do the rest of the work. And the citrus mixes with that strange candy scent I mentioned earlier. The two of them end up battling back and forth creating this sharp green fragrance before Danielle goes from bearably bright to burnt sugar with a heavy dose of miscellaneous florals. And that burnt sugary floral is what I get for the next million years as Danielle has some of the most impressive longevity I’ve ever witnessed in a perfume. Really, I don’t think that spot of skin on the back of my right hand will ever smell normal again. After several scrubbings, it is still there, except the burnt sugar is just burnt now and the florals are shadows of their former selves swimming in a sharp green note that just won’t go away.

Extra: Danielle Steel is the quintessential romance novel writer. I’ve never read any of her books but I’ve held a couple and wasn’t really compelled to read any. It is impressive, though, to see an entire wall’s worth of books, all with her name on the spine. Danielle, the fragrance, falls under Elizabeth Arden Inc.’s massive umbrella. other fragrances by Elizabeth Arden attributed to celebrities include the Britney Spears line and the Hilary Duff line.

Design: Tame design. Squarish glass or crystal bottle with a plastic cap that covers the sprayer. Sprayer distributes an even and fine mist. There’s some production value put into this but the design isn’t really inspiring or new. I mean, it’s a Danielle Steel inspired perfume, I shouldn’t really expect anything postmodern.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Mandarin, jasmine, orchid, rose, amber, vetiver, musk.

Danielle Steel herself admitted that she had nothing to do with the creation of the fragrance. At least the woman is honest about it. I still don’t like this perfume though. It’s like a mixture of everything I don’t like. Too strong florals. Too sharp citrus. Too cloying base note that won’t go away. The syrupy sweetness in this reminds me of Miss Dior Cherie but with apple and rose instead of strawberry.

Reviewed in This Post: Danielle, 2007, Eau de Parfum.