Juicy Couture Dirty English

All right, so I owe lemon a bit of an apology. It’s not the sole destroyer of scents for me. No, that prize goes to cedar. And when you add lemon into the mix, it’s like a mastermind and his nefarious sidekick getting together for an evil soiree. Oh yeah, Dirty English. Dirty English lacks the sharp lemon that would destroy worlds if it were also present in this stuff but it has plenty of cedar. Oh yes. Plenty of cedar indeed. Dirty English

In Bottle: Smells a little leather, a little woodsy, with a nice citrus kick at the start to wash things up. There’s a nice density to this fragrance that gives it a good smooth scent.

Applied: The leather is a very pleasant thing for about two seconds before Dirty English dissolves into its mid-stage where I end up losing everything but cedar. There is  a lot of cedar in this fragrance, and a lot of perfumes can overdo cedar and end up with something highly unpleasant. Bonus points taken off for including lemon with cedar thus making the concoction a sharp, chemical, and highly unpleasant mix to my nose. But Dirty English only tangos with cedar. And the dancing must be quite good because cedar is the predominant note for hours and hours on end until Dirty English decides its had enough and shifts into a more pleasant, slightly less obnoxious cedar with a bit of bitter, musty mossiness that I can assume is the agarwood at work. The agarwood is done quite well but is tempered by a sweet, warm ambery note and a dash of spice. Overall, Dirty English is a good masculine scent that’s had a lot of good press over the years. I only wish I could smell something other than cedar because there’s really a lot of it in this concoction.

Extra: Well, I finally tracked down and smelled Dirty English. I think that would be that for the readily available Juicy Couture line (not counting the pet fragrances).

Design: Dirty English shares a similar bottle shape with Juicy Couture and Viva la Juicy. It’s missing the big plastic crystal that the feminine perfume bottles tend to sport with a metal cap embellished with a chain instead. I do like the shape and nice weighty feel of the Juicy Couture bottles and the dual-purpose of the embellishments are a nice touch.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Woodsy

Notes: Pepper, mandarin, blue cypress, bergamot, cumin, cardamom, marjoram, leather accord, sandalwood, Atlas cedar, vetiver, agarwood, moss, amber, musk.

I really Dirty English had been a little less loud with the cedar as it sounds like it would have been a really nice fragrance that at least tries its best to shift itself a little further away from the standard men’s scent.

Reviewed in This Post: Dirty English, 2009, Eau de Toilette.


Aquolina Blue Sugar

Blue Sugar, as you may have already guessed by now is Aquolina’s male version of their female fragrance, Pink Sugar. The basic gist of this stuff is Pink Sugar with a slap of woods thrown in.  Blue Sugar

In Bottle: Most people who enjoy Blue Sugar like the woodsy notes added in. I have to disagree as the mixture of candy and wood is a bizarre blend for me.

Applied: I smell the embodiment of Pink Sugar’s caramel and candy on initial application but give Blue Sugar a few seconds and you’ll start to notice the woods coming in to play. The opening is a slightly fresher interpretation of Pink Sugar as the bergamot gives the fragrance a slight hint of sophistication. Only a very slight hint, mind you. Now, I’m not a big fan of sweet, woody scents as it makes me think of medicinal herbs steeping over a fire. A nice visual but a pretty scary olfactory experience that makes me think of wilted plants, bark, and trees covered in caramel. There’s a slick sweetness to this that, I admit, does great when toned down and it makes me wish Pink Sugar smelled more like the lighter sweetness. AS it is, I can’t get on board with the sweet woody fragrance. The dry down is a fairly easy story of sweet wood with the woods coming up a bit more. I like the dry down, it strikes a more fair balance between sugar and tree rather than the slugfest the middle stage was advertisting.

Extra: Aquolina is most famous for their Pink Sugar fragrance but in addition to Blue Sugar they have a gourmand fragrance called Chocolovers which, you guessed it, smells like chocolate.

Design: Bottled in a similar fashion as Pink Sugar. Blue Sugar boasts a tall blue cylinder of scent and like the Pink Sugar bottle, it reminds me of packaging for a shampoo or a body mist rather than a perfume.

Fragrance Family: Sweet Woods

Notes: Bergamot, tangerine, star anise, ginger, licorice, patchouli, lavender, heliotrope, coriander, cedar, tonka bean.

Not much to be expected of this fragrance and sometimes I wonder if it was truly necessary to have a men’s and women’s version of a perfume that was largely straightforward in the first place. Between the two, I will stick (or stink!) with the pink girly version.

Reviewed in This Post: Aquolina Blue Sugar, 2009, Eau de Toilette.


Juicy Couture Viva la Juicy

Rounding out the Juicy Couture fragrance for women family is Viva la Juicy. By far, their most popular fragrance. So popular, in fact, that I smell this everywhere I go. On everybody. People love their Juicy, I guess. Viva la Juicy

In Bottle: Reminds me a lot of other fruity floral fragrances but I have to keep in mind that Viva la Juicy is the fruity floral that everyone wears. Funny enough the sugary sweet notes that are supposed to be at the bottom are also mingling at the top making Viva la Juicy smell like a fruit-flavored candy.

Applied: Okay, you can laugh me out of the ballpark, I like Viva la Juicy. I think it smells great. It’s a better treatment of a sweet fragrance than Couture Couture. Going on, it smells of creamy fruits and vanilla. Very reminiscent of sweet fruity florals everywhere, like I said. It’s got a strong resemblance to Love Etc. by The Body Shop, only done with more sugar and less tartness. As you let this age on you, the fruits go away and there’s a faint hint of flowers in the mid-stage that’s mixed with all the silly candy-like notes like caramel, vanilla and praline. The dessert factor only amps up as you keep wearing this as the florals in the middle give way to a lush full-on dessert course that smells mostly like soft vanilla tempered with a touch of sandalwood and gooey caramel. The caramel note in Viva la Juicy is actually used well as it isn’t cloying. This is a strong, sweet, fragrance and if you are afraid of cloying scents, be wary of Viva la Juicy as it is potently sweet and very young.

Extra: Juicy Couture has one well-known fragrance for men known as Dirty English. It is a scent that’s often been toted as being better than the series of women’s fragrances. I’ve had more than one opportunity to sniff it for myself but always manage to miss for some reason. There is also a fragrance for your dog called Juicy Crittoure which I have yet to see.

Design: Viva la Juicy is bottled in the same way as Juicy Couture. The accents and details are different with Viva la Juicy rocking a bright pink bow and a different seal. The bow can be taken off and used as a hair tie, whereas Juicy Couture’s wrap-around rope thing could be worn as a necklace. I don’t use either of these things but it’s pretty cute nonetheless.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Wild berries, mandarin, honeysuckle, gardenia, jasmine, amber, caramel, vanilla, sandalwood, praline.

Out of all the Juicy Couture fragrances I’m going to have to give it to Viva la Juicy. It’s a very good fruity floral. Good enough to smell it on everyone anyway.

Reviewed in This Post: Viva la Juicy, 2009, Eau de Parfum.