Guerlain AA Jasminora

It’s been a while since I’ve been to the Guerlains. I figured a few months worth of a break is a decent time period so I’m heading back slowly with Guerlain’s newest Aqua Allegoria; Jasminora.

Jasminora

In Bottle: Clean citrus with a jasmine and soft floral heart.

Applied: Sharp green citrus up front that quickly fades into a scrubby clean floral scent. The jasmine is easy to distinguish from the other florals although it is struggling a bit due to the amount of clean white musk that was dumped into this fragrance. The mid-stage is a lovely floral and airy thing. A bit of a wilting daisy when it comes to fragrances but this is an Aqua Allegoria after all. Guerlain’s done jasmine better in some of their other fragrances but this one is a nice departure from their usual. It’s a lighter, more youthful interpretation. I just wish there was more to it than jasmine and clean. The dry down is not too much more complex as the jasmine and florals fade away leaving you with this generic clean smell on your skin.

Extra: I’m not overly impressed with Jasminora. It suffers from that “Doesn’t smell like a Guerlain” syndrome. But one could argue that most Aqua Allegorias suffer from that. Still, Jasminora is easy to wear and easy to like. She’s not interesting at all and she’s a bit of a disappointment from one of my favorite fragrance houses.

Design: Bottled in a similar way as other Aqua Allegorias, in a pseudo-bee bottle flacon with a hive cage over the top half. Although these aren’t quite the full deal bee bottles, I bet they’d look beautiful all lined up in a row.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Bergamot, cyclamen, galbanum, lily of the valley, freesia, jasmine, musk, amber.

Ultimately, I looked at Jasminora and compared it to Thierry Mugler’s Alien. And I know, it’s a bit unfair. Alien is a powerhouse jasmine and Jasminora is an approachable jasmine. There’s just something weak about Jasminora that makes me say you’re better off going light with Alien.

Reviewed in This Post: Jasminora, 2011, Eau de Toilette.


Demeter Thunderstorm

Whenever I hear about Demeter, I end up hearing about a few select pieces from their collection. A few that always tend to come up include Playdoh, Dirt, and Thunderstorm.

Thunderstorm

Thunderstorm

In Bottle: Ozone and dirt. I don’t think I can expect to get anything else out of it than that.

Applied: To be honest, I always feel a little silly reviewing Demeter fragrances. Because aside from noting whether or not they smell like the thing they were named after, I can’t elevate it beyond that. Thunderstorm is a very convincing composition of ozone with a layer of wet earth. You’ll get blasted with the ozone first, making it feel like someone turned the dial up on the humidity. Then you get the wet dirt. This stuff could be convincing even on a bright, sunny day like today. Thunderstorm reminds me of how much I used to love stormy weather when I was younger. When life was a little more vibrant and time wasn’t such a precious commodity. So in terms of stirring up a scent memory then congratulations to you, Thunderstorm, you did it.

Extra: Poor projection and longevity but Demeter’s fragrances weren’t composed to last on the skin or evolve. They were meant to be fun trysts that you could enjoy in under an hour. I can’t justify owning a big bottle of any of these fragrances, but imagine the amount of business they could drum up if they sold this stuff in smaller containers and marketed it as a collectable. Heck, they’d have me hooked.

Design: Bottle in the same way as other Demeter fragrances. You can either get a small rectangular bottle of this stuff or a large cylindrical bottle. Both designs are pretty utilitarian but they, they work.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Ozone, dirt.

There, knocking off another Demeter fragrance from the wall of scent. Though I really did like Thunderstorm because as a scent memory, it actually worked. I wonder what Playdoh will remind me of?

Reviewed in This Post: Thunderstorm, 2010, Cologne Spray.


Moschino Glamour

The bottle for this fragrance reminded me of Nina by Nina Ricci so as I was drawn to the bottle, I also had to see what this stuff smelled like on me. Having little to no luck with Moschino’s I Love Love, I discovered Glamour was actually quite nice.

Glamour

Glamour

In Bottle: Very light but rather nice. It’s a clean, sweet floral fragrance. like fresh laundry or hand soap and something just a tad salty.

Applied: Okay, I’ve got it. This is what washing your hands smells like. At least it’s what Glamour will smell like on the top performance. The saltiness does stick around but as it mingles with the rest of the fragrance it becomes less pronounced. The scent goes into its mid-stage in a soft, gentle, clean floral with a woody cedar note trying to break through and ruin my day. But thankfully the cedar never gets very far as this fragrance can pretty much be defined in one word; weak. Not weak in a bad way but Glamour’s not very interesting, unique, or new. It’s a staid and safe clean floral that’s very soft and very fleeting. The dry down is a pretty dull affair of warmed amber and vanilla with the lingering floral notes from the mid-stage. I can’t quite pick out the florals but they blend together to smell like soap instead of the very dreaded “perfumey” smell where the florals are mixed so haphazardly that the fragrance just smells cheap and bad. Glamour doesn’t smell cheap and bad, it’s just incredibly light and rather boring.

Extra: Glamour’s longevity kind of sucks as she faded on me after about two hours and there was almost no projection. At times it was like I had actually washed my hands instead of sprayed a fragrance on.

Design: I like the bottle and the shape. Like I said, I was drawn to this initially because it looked so similar to my believed Nina by Nina Ricci. There’s a slight hint of burlesque to the design which could be entirely me speaking as there’s nothing remotely burlesque about the fragrance itself.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Floral

Notes: Salt, artemesia, tangerine blossom, pear, rose, lotus, petit grain, hibiscus, orchid, vanilla, amber, cedar, musk.

Me being the clean floral lover, I could see myself rocking out with Glamour. Though rocking out is probably a bad term to refer to this. Glamour’s more of a stay in and have a tea party kind of girl.

Reviewed in This Post: Glamour, 2008, Eau de Parfum.


Thierry Mugler Womanity

I put off reviewing Womanity for a while so I could get used to her and how she smells and hopefully come to understand where it is she’s coming from and she’s still confusing the living daylights out of me.

Womanity

Womanity

In Bottle: Okay, this is just going to sound silly but I’m going to come out and say it because it’s the honest truth. Womanity reminds me of lobster. A big old dish of lobster with that slightly salty, slightly fishy, slightly sweet and buttery smell to it. There. My opinion is out. It’s lobster.

Applied: I’m hit with a strange mixture of woods and spices with a mingling hint of sweetness all layered over this tangible saltiness in the fragrance. It’s strange because you can almost taste the salt. The caviar might be what I’m attributing to the saltiness in this and I think it might be messing with my image of the fragrance because, once again, Womanity makes me think of lobster. There’s a slight fishiness to the fragrance upon first application that does eventually go away as you continue to wear it. The fragrance digs into this sweeter and fresher territory as it ages into a lovely mixture of scent that I can only describe as clean and briny. I know how bizarre my description of Womanity is right now. I’m all sorts of confused at this point which is when Womanity heads into its base with a slight amp to its spiciness to add to that clean brine smell. If I had to make this as simple as possible, I’d say the opening is salty and reminds me of lobster. The midstage is a fresh and slightly salty fragrance with a hint of spice settled with a sweet figgy note. The base is spice, fading fig and brine. It’s weird, but it doesn’t smell bad. I wouldn’t stretch it and say I like how it smells either. It’s certainly unique but I don’t know if I could wear it.

Extra: So Womanity’s given me a run for my money. I still don’t know if I could classify it as okay, all I know is that I appreciate it’s bizarreness but I wouldn’t wear it as a fragrance. It’s fun just to sniff now and then though, just to give my mind something to think about.

Design: I do like the design. It reminds me a bit of punk rock meets cyberpunk meets Barbie. The pink juice is clearly the Barbie part. One of the better designed Thierry Mugler bottles, in my opinion. I love just holding this thing too. It’s like holding a weird alien artifact. The bottle has a nice weight to it. I love the feel of it and the sprayer is fantastic.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Citrus, caviar, fig, woods.

Am I the only one who doesn’t like the smell that money leaves in my hand after I’ve handled a bunch of coins but I always end up going back and smelling it just for the sole purpose of confusing myself and reaffirming my dislike for how it smells? It kind of feels like that with Womanity. In that I’m pretty sure I don’t like how it smells but I keep going back and smelling it anyway.

Reviewed in This Post: Womanity, 2010, Eau de Parfum.


Justin Bieber Someday

Okay, let’s get a few ground rules down before I get into the meat of this fragrance review. 1) Justin Bieber does not know how to compose a fragrance and did not personally compose this fragrance. He may have been given some samplers and told to pick his favorite. 2) Justin Bieber is probably the last person who would know what a woman wants to smell like anyway. 3) This stuff doesn’t smell bad, it just smells like generic celebrity perfume chaff.

Someday

Someday

In Bottle: Sweet fruity floral. It’s very light and easy to wear, but also smells really generic because there’s nothing that sets this fruity floral sweet and clean deal apart from any other fragrance like it.

Applied: Soft, slightly sweet, and clean fruity opening with a clear floral heart. There’s jasmine in this for sure, a little bit of lily of the valley I think and probably some sweet and unassuming little flower like heliotrope or freesia. As the fragrance ages, the florals come up a bit more but the scent never really goes anywhere exciting nor does it get any stronger. I don’t think I should even go into complexity because there’s not a whole lot of that going on in this fragrance either. This stuff is light and you may find yourself having to apply a lot of it. I can’t say much for it aside from the fact that it’s got a focus on light and clean florals. The dry down is unexciting with a very sheer blend of white musk and light vanilla flowers.

Extra: You’ve probably heard by now how similar the bottle design for Someday is compared to Marc Jacobs Lola. Well, the similarities are there but at the very least the bottle for Someday isn’t an almost identical rip-off of Lola like a certain other perfume.

Design: I’m not wild about the design of the bottle. Even the commercial for this fragrance couldn’t really make it look good. The design is amateurish to be honest and comparing it to Lola seems a little insulting. Lola’s a well-balanced, if a little bit loud, of a design. Someday looks like a wobbly child’s art experiment. Maybe I just don’t see the appeal of the bulbous bottle design and the weird flower/heart cap thing. Maybe I’m just too old to think this looks good? Who knows. I just don’t like it.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Mandarin, pear, wild berries, jasmine, creamy flowers, vanilla, musk.

So bottom line is Someday is an easy to wear, easygoing light floral scent and you aren’t going to stink if you decide to go out and throw down some cash for this stuff. It’s not special, it’s not unique, but it isn’t bad either.

Reviewed in This Post: Someday, 2011, Eau de Parfum.


Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Bahiana

We’re stuck in the middle of summer and what better way to celebrate the excruciating heat than to load up on the tropical scents and pretend we’re lounging on a well-groomed beach instead of sweating out our livelihoods in an office with poor air circulation?

Bahiana

Bahiana

In Bottle: Bahiana smells like a little touch of tropical inspired paradise. It’s not really unique in that it smells largely like many tropical inspired fragrances. But it does come up smelling very well made.

Applied: A nice hit of sweet citrus up front to introduce the refreshing feel of this fragrance, followed by a nice little dose of green woodsiness. Refreshing is the word, with a hint of sophistication as Bahiana sends in the tropical duo of coconut and pineapple. What I’m left with is a very rapidly aging fragrance that settles into a comfortable niche of woodsy coconut, pineapple, and a soft breeze. I really like it. But is it really special? Eh, not so much. What Bahiana is, however, is a very well made fragrance. I can smell the clean coconut in this. It isn’t that sour, weird coconut that goes into some cheaper fragrances. This stuff is on par with the coconut note in Virgin Island Water. Cool, refreshing, and just a tad more authentic. Nicely done, Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier!

Extra: My one complaint with Bahiana is its lasting power. It’s quick to go on and go through its motions and then disappear. There’s very little left by the end except a faint waft of woodsiness, which is more than I can say about Virgin Island Water’s complete disappearing act.

Design: Due to the lack of stores available nearby that carry Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier, I have yet to hold this bottle. From the images of it, however, it looks absolutely fantastic. An awesome marriage of perfume and whimsy with those feathers attached to the bottle.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Fruity

Notes: Orange, caipirinha limon, mandarin, tagette, green leaf, rosewood, gaiac wood, elemi, amber, musk, coconut.

So is the fact that Bahiana smells well-made compared to other tropical-like scents worth the money? To me, probably. There’s a big difference to me when it comes to using the right amount or right type of coconut in a fragrance and the synthetic-smelling, sour coconut that shows up in many tropical scents is distracting for me. So distracting that I’d probably pay the premium for a niche house that houses the right note.

Reviewed in This Post: Bahiana, 2009, Eau de Toilette.


Thierry Mugler Mugler Cologne

Mugler Cologne is one of the easiest to wear fragrances for a very good reason. It smells clean, smells like good soap, and when it comes down to it, Mugler Cologne just smells good.

Mugler Cologne

In Bottle: Clean soap. Like you just stepped into the shower and grabbed a bar of soap. It’s comforting, it’s classy, and it’s definitely easy to wear.

Applied: I love my clean fragrances. I love smelling like soap and smelling fresh so Mugler Cologne is right up my alley. It’s strange that a fragrance that would otherwise be slotted in the ‘boring’ category can pull itself out of that arena and into a more sophisticated area. Mugler Cologne isn’t just ‘smells like soap’ to me. It’s a rich, complex soap scent that does very well on my skin. It’s like holding onto that freshly showered feeling for a little while longer. There’s not a whole lot I can say to separate the notes of this into a traditional fragrance pyramid. Mugler Cologne simply smells good and I’ll happily slather it on for that clean feeling. The longevity of this stuff is a bit lackluster but I expected that from a fragrance like this. I love this stuff though and even if the longevity leaves something to be desired I’ll still love this because it just smells good.

Extra: Thierry Mugler apparently based this fragrance on a soap that he purchased once. I’m not sure what soap he bought but he definitely captured the essence of what soap smells like.

Design: I’m just not a fan of most of Thierry Mugler bottle designs. Cologne’s bottle reminds me of a Dawn dish soap bottle. It comes with a sprayer that you can install yourself and for all intents and purposes, the bottle is easy to hold and the sprayer works fine.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Bergamot, petit grain, neroli, orange flower, white musk.

This stuff the middle road between Prada’s Infusion de Homme and Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs’ Wensleydale. It’s soapy but not too weak and not too strong. I just wish the longevity was better.

Reviewed in This Post: Mugler Cologne, 2009, Eau de Toilette.


Estee Lauder Pleasures

When I first smelled Pleasures, the only Estee Lauder perfumes I was aware of were White Linen and Youth Dew. I was afraid of Pleasures and other Estee Lauder perfumes because of the iconic status of some of their fragrances.

Pleasures

In Bottle: Pleasures is actually a very approachable modern fragrance set as a dewy floral. It’s light and gentle and highly wearable without the need to understand it first.

Applied: Starts off a sweet little kick from the pink pepper and the violets. Freesia adds a jolt of clean and sweet to the opening too. I can barely smell any tuberose in this. In fact, aside from a slick, creamy quality that settles close to the background on the opening I can’t even get tuberose. Pleasures evolves into peony and rose. The rose is a modern interpretation, clean and fresh and coupled with a crisp set of lily and lily-of-the-valley. The fragrance is such a benign blend of florals. The dry down doesn’t move too different, introducing a soft sandalwood mingling with cedar while clean musk keeps everything lumped together.

Extra: Pleasures and the Pleasures line of flankers is like Estee Lauder’s modern floral attempts. And they succeeded. Pleasures is a great clean, fresh floral. There’s not a whole lot of personality to this but it is successful for what Estee Lauder tried to make of it.

Design: I’m always underwhelmed by Estee Lauder’s bottle designs. They tend to be simple, which I like. But for some reason, the designs also remind me of the 80s. And not just the 80s in general but shoulder pads in floral print dresses. Pleasures is no exception to this. The bottle is simple, easy to hold and easy to spray. It just isn’t really imaginative.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Floral

Notes: Pink pepper, violet, freesia, tuberose, berries, poeny, rose, lily, lilac, jasmine, lily-of-the-valley, geranium, patchouli, sandalwood, cedar, musk.

I’m all right with Pleasures. I think it’s a very well done floral that could be a good contender in the modern fragrance arena. I just don’t find it interesting at all.

Reviewed in This Post: Pleasures, 2010, Eau de Parfum.


Narciso Rodriguez For Her

For Her’s note list might look a little intimidating. I mean, it’s got this thing called Egyptian Musk and some fragrance buyers see the very mention of the word ‘musk’ and are turned off by the prospect of smelling ‘dirty’. But that’s just not what For Her is about.

For Her

In Bottle: Fresh and clean. Also very light. Like catching the scent of soap in a light breeze.

Applied: Clean and citrus like citrus scented soap on the opening with the citrus and soapiness giving way to a warm, very sheer musky scent in the middle. For Her is a light-wearing clean musk so far as the fragrance takes some steps to develop the florals that are supposed to be in the composition. Most of what I smell is the unique quality of the Egyptian Musk and if you’re afraid of it being ‘dirty smelling’ because of the presence of musk then keep in mind that the opening is very clean and the musk is treated in a muted way in this fragrance. It might be the majority of what you smell in the mid-stage but it by no means broadcasts muskiness. I think a lot of people who would normally shy away from musk should try For Her. The dry down approaches with a warming of the musk and a little drop of vanilla to round things off.

Extra: For Her comes in two versions. An EDT and an EDP. I’ve only smelled the EDP and that’s what this review is for. Word on the perfume street has it that the EDT and EDP are different monsters and that the EDP goes on much lighter and is a skin close fragrance while the EDT is louder and has more longevity. Something interesting to keep in mind as you’re trying to decide which to go for.

Design: For Her’s two concentrations come in the same bottle shape. A tall glass cylinder in black or pink depending on the concentration you want. The EDT is a black bottle, whereas the EDP is a pink bottle. These colors are reversed on the boxes so make sure you read which one you’re getting instead of relying on the colors.

Fragrance Family: Clean

Notes: Bergamot, orange blossom, coriander, musk, osmanthus, amber, vetiver, vanilla.

For Her is a very nicely done skin close scent. It’s clean and works the musk in rather well. I actually like this a whole lot more than I thought I would. The EDP is, definitely, worth a considering sniff.

Reviewed in This Post: Narciso Rodriguez For Her, 2009, Eau de Parfum.


Calvin Klein CK One

CK One brings back memories of the early 90s. Where people these days love their Viva la Juicys, the early 90s seemed to be marked with the citrus-y smell of CK One.

CK One

In Bottle: Opens on a rather tart but very crisp and dewy fruity citrus note. There’s a pineapple in there but it’s not your  run-of-the-mill fruity sweet and tropical pineapple. This is tart pineapple and I quite like it.

Applied: That clean, green and crisp opening with the tart pineapple and the citrus. CK One takes its citrus and leads into a clean floral mid-stage dominated by lily of the valley, iris and a very potent lemon note that works well to keep this fragrance fresh and clean. The best part of CK One for me is the dry down where the citrus is gone and whats left are florals clinging to clean and diving into a base of tame cedar and sandalwood. I don’t so much smell the oakmoss in this than I smell the green notes that were in the opening. The closer is a green, floral woods.

Extra: I remember being a little girl and first smelling CK One. It was at a department store and we had little money at that time for things like this. But I always tried to sneak a smell. I don’t remember if I liked it or not, I only knew that Calvin Klein–at the time–was some fancy brand and one of the girls in my class bragged about wearing this perfume.

Design: Very simple bottle. Flat and rectangular with frosted glass. The sprayer is quite uniform-looking too but it’s still an extremely recognizable design. There’s something very utilitarian about this that I love. Maybe it’s the lack of fanciful shapes and colors. I actually like the design, but I think it might be a bit on the plain side.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Pineapple, green notes, mandarin orange, papaya, bergamot, cardamom, lemon, nutmeg, violet, orris root, jasmine, lily-of-the-valley, rose, sandalwood, amber, musk, cedar, oakmoss.

CK One isn’t anywhere near as big a deal for me now as it was back then. Still, there’s moments when I smell this and remember sneaking sprays at the makeup counter while my mother and the sales associate gabbed about sunblock.

Reviewed in This Post: CK One, 2002, Eau de Toilette.