Creed Love in White

Love in White is one of those fragrances with a wide split between people who love it and people who hate it. It’s Creed’s answer to the ultimate fresh fragrance. This stuff is so fresh and crisp it makes my eyes water. Billed as a women’s fragrance, Love in White comes in a cute, feminine white bottle that’s supposed to represent a woman, the sand, and the sea. I can dig it. Love in White

In Bottle: Sweetness, aqua, and something sharp. Like sugar water with broken bits of glass and twisted pieces of metal. Love in White is strong too. So strong that my first whiff of it went straight up my nose and exploded in the back of my head. The sharpness that I assume might be the zest is so strong in this that it went beyond fine fragrance and reminded me of household cleaner.

Applied: Not much dying down of that sharp note on application but I do get the rest of the fragrance now that it’s on my skin. It’s like somebody turned up the volume on the jasmine note here because it’s very high-pitched, almost shrill as it tries to out sing the sandalwood. Meanwhile, iris with its rather distinct brightness is adding to the fresh feel. There’s got to be some aqua note in this because I swear I can smell water. I suppose that’s where the ocean imagery comes from but so much of this fragrance is clean and fresh that it’s hard to move beyond those two concepts to something gentler. The dry down helps a bit, the sharpness fades and the florals have sore throats and are now just whispering. I can appreciate the quiet calm of the dry down here as the soft creaminess of that vanilla shows up to help tame the sandalwood a little.

Extra: Love in White kind of reminds me of household cleaners. Not in a bad way. I mean, household cleaners contain fragrances meant to offend the least amount of people. Love in White is that inoffensive. The thing I can fault it for is how close it has to stick to my skin so I have to get up really close and personal. And when I’m that close, the fragrance is incredibly strong.

Design: The white bottle for Love in White is supposed to represent the feminine, the ocean and the crisp ocean air. I’m not sure I’m really feeling the look of the bottle or the conceptualization of it but it is pleasant enough to look at.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Orange zest, rice husk, iris, jasmine, daffodil, magnolia, rose, vanilla, ambergris, Mysore sandalwood.

When it’s all said and done Love in White is a very fresh sort of shrill scent with a loud projection that also manages to stick relatively close to the skin. I have to get up close to really smell it but once I’m that close I also tend to get its entire assault up my nose.

Reviewed in This Post: Love in White, 2010, Sample vial.