Creed Sublime Vanille

I managed to stumble upon a very tiny sample of Creed Sublime Vanille thanks to a friend who asked me the other day when I’ll get my nose out work and into perfumes again. I didn’t realize what kind of treasure she had dropped into my lap until I did some research and promptly exclaimed, “What? Are you insane?”

Sublime Vanille

Sublime Vanille

In Bottle: A really, really light vanilla and some slight green notes that almost feel sour in the back of the throat.

Applied:  I really doubt my friend supplied me with a faulty sample and I fully believe the weakness of this sauce is due to Creed’s mixing. Or maybe it’s me. Whatever it is, I hardly get anything out of this. It smells of barely there vanilla and kind of leaves me wanting a lot more, especially after finding out its price tag ($710.00 on Creed’s website, if you were so inclined). I get a little hint of green sourness that I want to attribute to some kind of citrus. The two actually go pretty well together in the kind of way that you wouldn’t expect. Like those Terry’s chocolate orange things. Except unlike the chocolate oranges, this lacks in flavor, being kind of a weak throw type of scent. I feel like I need to line the inside of my nostrils in order to smell it. I can’t say that I am a fan.

Extra: Creed’s Sublime Vanille is a part of a collection of exclusives from the house. The flacons are beautiful and the price tag matches the aesthetic.

Design: Gorgeous design. I love the bottle, it looks nice and weighty and absurdly expensive. If someone were to break in one day, this would likely be the thing I’d hurl at them first–then I would regret it later. What? It’s $710 for stuff that barely smells like anything. I can be snarky.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Vanilla, tonka bean, orchid, musk, bergamot, lemon.

Maybe it’s because I’m older now, but I’m so much more cynical towards these pricey scents than I used to be. And perhaps the fact that this stuff costs so much that I expected so much more from it.

Reviewed in This Post: Sublime Vanille, 2014, Eau de Toilette.


Katy Perry Killer Queen

So work is starting to pick up and I might have a little bit of cash to drop on some niche and vintage goodies. And I say this with all the love I can muster for dime a dozen, easily accessible department store celebuscents that tide me over when I don’t have a decant of a rare fume on hand. Unfortunately for me, most celebuscents have lost their luster since I’ve smelled so many of them and most have the unfortunate habit of being really, really, really generic.

Killer Queen

Killer Queen

In Bottle: Sugar and berries. Almost smells like a collection of liquified jelly berries. You know, these things: Haribo Gummy Candies. Don’t get me wrong, I love those gummy berries. I just expected more out of a fragrance that’s going to call itself Killer Queen.

Applied: Smells like sweet berries, rolled in vast amounts of sugar. Killer Queen is so sweet, I’m going to assume the killer part of it is from a sugar overdose. From what I’m smelling, there’s very little else other than the berry smell. I don’t get any jasmine, I can’t smell any patchouli or anything more sophisticated than really sweet berries. The midstage does get a little flowery. But it’s that sugary-sweet frangipani flower. The dry down is barely any different from the midstage. The sugar is still very prominent, the entire fragrance is quite one-dimensional and I mean, I guess I shouldn’t expect much from a celebuscent at this rate. But I will say I was pretty disappointed that they chose to name it something pretty awesome and then did something really lame with it.

Extra: Killer Queen was the title of a song by Queen, written by Freddie Mercury and released in 1974. The fragrance, Killer Queen by Katy Perry was released earlier in 2013. I’m going to have to throw it out there that someone else ought to take the name and make a more appropriate fragrance with it. I imagine something more powerful and unique. Maybe a number with leather, roses, a touch of sleazy civet, frankincense, tonka and amber. What about you?

Design: The bottle design isn’t that bad, though I’m noticing more bottles going for the “can’t stand it upright” design approach. Not sure how I feel about that particular choice yet, but the bottle itself is pretty attractive, if somewhat lacking in creativity.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Gourmand

Notes: Fruits, plum, bergamot, celosia, frangipani, jasmine, praline, cashmere, patchouli.

I will admit that I picked up Killer Queen and decided to give it a shot at the store because of its name. This, and I somehow managed to miss the large and very prominent poster of Katy Perry with the blasted thing on her scepter posted right above the bottle display. I’m not very observant apparently.

Reviewed in This Post: Killer Queen, 2013, Eau de Parfum.


Thierry Mugler A*Men

Lots of thanks to Undina from Undina’s Looking Glass for the sample of this fragrance. A*Men has been one of those scents that I kept hearing about but never got around to trying.

A*Men

A*Men

In Bottle: Sweet and a bit dusty, I get a lot of woods out of this but at the same time, I’m smelling the gourmand too.

Applied: Sweet upon application, lavender with a bit of milk and honey and lots of caramel. The fragrance introduces its woodsier side rather earlier as I get patchouli mixed with cedar that blends in with the caramel and milky notes. The mid-stage is marked with a noticeable addition of spices and woods, I swear I can smell cinnamon as the fragrance gets a bit more coffee like with this dusty coating of woods following it. The dry down is warm with a sandalwood base and a sweet toffee-like backdrop. I’ve seen people absolutely love A*Men and other people who can’t stand it. I was all ready for a gourmand but I was more surprised by the prominence of the woods in this. It makes the fragrance more oriental in style with a creamy, sweet caramel scent accented with a lot of woodsiness.

Extra: A*Men was introduced in 1996 and comes in two bottle styles. One metallic bottle and a rubber bottle.

Design: I’ve never been much of a fan of Thierry Mugler’s bottle designs. I often found them too chunk or too alien-looking and I can’t say I really like the bottle designs for A*Men either. It just doesn’t strike a chord with my sensibilities.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand Oriental Woodsy

Notes: Coriander, lavender, fruits, spices, mint, bergamot, honey, jasmine, milk, caramel, lily of the valley, cedar, patchouli, sandalwood, tonka, amber, musk, benzoin, coffee, vanilla.

I don’t think I’m that big of a fan of A*Men. I wasn’t sure whether or not I liked the gourmand bits of it, or the oriental bits, or the woodsy bits. It just all melded together into one big “blah” for me, though it does have really fantastic longevity.

Reviewed in This Post: A*Men, 2012, Eau de Toilette.


Holistic Body Therapy Celebration

I had the honor of participating in the Natural Perfumer’s Guild‘s Home for the Holidays event this year and was super excited to be paired up with Andrea Ashanti at Holistic Body Therapy. Today’s fragrance is a little different than the norm, it was formulated as a misting spray and can be used as a room spray or on yourself. I’ll be trying both.

Celebration

Celebration

In Bottle: Celebration gives me the distinct impression of Christmas trees and warm vanilla cocoa with a dash of cinnamon.

Applied: Celebration goes in the air and on my skin almost at the same time. In the air, it fills the room with a beautiful dense fir fragrance followed quickly by the warmth of a vanilla, cinnamon and yummy cocoa scent. The gourmand latter really strikes a happy note with me, reminding me of days spent decorating and then curling up under the Christmas tree and drinking hot cocoa while it snowed during the Holidays. The fragrance is light but leaves a fabulous lingering impression in the room for a few hours that seems to uplift the spirit. On my skin, I get a little more mileage as the fir needle note blends in with this rich cocoa fragrance. I get more vanilla and a little less cinnamon on my skin but I also get more frankincense presence near the end of the fragrance’s wear time as it joins the delicious vanilla cinnamon cocoa and helps to further warm the scent. I found myself unable to stop sniffing my wrist and looking forward to Christmas more and more.

Extra: Celebration has an impressive mix of ingredients from fir needle, cocoa, vanilla and cinnamon to the Mount Shasta spring water and flower essences that give it a beautiful crisp aroma for a scent that really embodies the idea of Celebration.

Design: Celebration is bottled in a green glass sprayer bottle with Holistic Body Therapy’s label affixed to it. It’s cute and functional and works great for its purposes.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand Woodsy

Notes: Fir, cocoa, cinnamon, vanilla, frankincense.

The closest thing to a Holiday scent I had before Celebration arrived was a cinnamon and clove candle that would fill the house with a huge dose of spice. My Husband admits he doesn’t like it much and neither do I. I leave it in the pantry with the lid closed and it still manages to scent our beans a little. Cinnamon and clove candle beans are about as delicious as you would think. I was ecstatic to discover Celebration and went crazy spraying it around the house one day near Halloween. The fragrance doesn’t overpower, it lingers but its light. When my Husband came home, his first impression was much like mine, memories of good childhood Christmases in a bottle.

You can get yourself a bottle of Celebration for this holiday season at Holistic Body Therapy’s website. At $25 for 2 oz, you’ll get more than enough holiday cheer.

Reviewed in This Post: Celebration, 2012, Misting Spray.

Disclaimer: The fragrance reviewed in this post was provided to me for free for the purposes of review. In no other way am I receiving pay or compensation for this review. This review was written based upon my personal experiences and opinions of the product.

If you want to check out the participants in the Home For the Holidays Project, try Holistic Body Therapy, Anya’s Garden, Happy Herb Soaps, Belly Flowers Perfumes, and JoAnne Basset Perfumes.


Jalaine Silk

Jalaine Silk was an impulse buy that I threw into my cart of samplers at the last minute when it caught my eye and tickled my nose. A white amber with vanilla? I had to know what that would smell like!

In Bottle: Sweet but soft aquatic vanilla. Reminds me of a marshmallow sitting in a dish of water.

Applied: Silk opens with a sweet, gentle vanilla scent that candies itself up a little with a bit of sweetness. The marine notes that are supposed to be in this give it an almost floral edge with a fresh kick. There’s a hint of warmth as the fragrance develops which is where I assume the amber comes in. If I had to give Silk one word to describe it, I think that word would be “pillowy”. Soft, yielding, comforting, not in your face, not demanding or extreme. It’s unobtrusive and pleasant and one of the easiest going vanillas I’ve smelled and it wears very close to your skin. There’s not a whole lot of complexity to Silk because it comes on smelling like soft sweet vanilla and it’ll generally stay that way for its wear life. But then I guess it doesn’t really need to be an attention grabber.

Extra: Jalaine Sommers is an independent perfumer that runs her own website at JalaineFragrances.com offering up some very interesting fragrances in perfume oil form. Of particular interest to me is the green tea fragrance.

Design: The bottles are pretty, a simple and effective shape that does well for the juice that it’s holding. Nothing garish or unnecessary in the design here. The bottles do remind me of some of the ultra sharp corners featured in Zaha Hadid‘s architectural work.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: White amber, vanilla, marine.

I think Silk is a very pretty fragrance and a great candidate if you need to wear something light and vanilla based to work. It’s not the kind of fragrance that will announce your presence. And when I said it was soft and sticks close to the skin, I really mean it.

Reviewed in This Post: Silk, 2012, Perfume Oil.


Victoria’s Secret Vanilla Lace

Vanilla Lace is one of those fragrances that was discontinued for hazy reasons and recently brought back to the glee of its fans. The name for this one was what drew me to it. It reminded me of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s discontinued, Antique Lace.

Vanilla Lace

Vanilla Lace

In Bottle: Soft, yielding and sweet vanilla.

Applied: There isn’t much to say about Vanilla Lace except that it smells like clean vanilla. It’s obviously a more synthetic vanilla that lacks in spices, but the note is a better build than most synthetic vanilla’s used in fragrances, if only slightly. It’s not overpowering, has a gentleness to it and that helps take away from the synthetic edge it has. When I say a vanilla is synthetic, I usually mean that to my nose, I get a bit of plastic scent with the vanilla. The note is very sweet, so it’s helpful to include it with a clean white musk to cut the sugar. In the end, Vanilla Lace is a nice clean and sweet fragrance. Good for everyday wear, but not what you want to look for if you want sophisticated vanilla.

Extra: Vanilla Lace has been discontinued and re-released a lot. It was recently brought back and is now available on the Victoria’s Secret website or in any Victoria’s Secret store that carries fragrances.

Design: Bottled rather simply in a plastic spray bottle. I’ve always been somewhat impressed by Victoria’s Secret’s plastic bottles. They’re thick, a pleasure to hold, and they have a bit of weight to them. But in the end, it’s still plastic and the body mist is obviously meant to be used up rather quickly.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Vanilla, white musk.

Vanilla Lace’s Body Mist also boasts some amount of chamomile and aloe vera for moisturizing and nourishing your skin. The two moisturizing ingredients are too lightly scented to really be picked up to my nose.

Reviewed in This Post: Vanilla Lace, 2012, Body Mist.


Thierry Mugler Innocent

While Thierry Mugler’s Angel didn’t hit it off with me, I was going to give Angel’s cousin, Innocent a try. I heard this stuff was lighter, easier to take, and lacked the patchouli that may have caused Angel to go foul on me.

Innocent

Innocent

In Bottle: Fruits and almond with a very smooth and very sweet personality.

Applied: Initial flare of sweet citrus. It’s a little reminiscent of juice on the initial application to me. Like a tall glass of freshly squeezed lemonade with a bit of orange added for more citrus flavor. The fragrance heads into its middle stages with a lovely almond note that plays nice with the sweet berry midstage and–I might be crazy–what smells like apricot. As things go, there’s a bit of caramel-like fragrance that seems to want to join the fray here and there. The dry down is also pleasant with a warm amber and clean nutty aroma.

Extra:  Innocent was released in 1998 and has been compared to Angel numerous times. I definitely see the connection there. Except, unlike Angel, Innocent is much easier to take. It’s all the pillowy softness and sweetness with none of the bite. So if you wanted to like Angel but thought she came on too strong with her patchouli note, then give Innocent a sniff.

Design: Bottled very nicely in a tall cylindrical shape, Innocent is one of the less oddly shaped designs from Thierry Mugler’s fragrance line. It looks slick, it looks less clunky that many of the other designs while still maintaining a unique and captivating look.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Gourmand

Notes: Bergamot, orange, blackcurrant, red berries, almond, praline, amber, white musk.

I was one of those people who just couldn’t like Angel as a fragrance. And I’m probably able to slot myself into some category of people who didn’t like Angel but like this. Innocent is basically a milder, easier-going version of Angel with a couple of tweaks, but the same base personality.

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


Christina Aguilera Royal Desire

Royal Desire was apparently designed for women who feel like royalty. Though it’s an interesting thought the fragrance itself is less interesting than hoped.

In Bottle: Sugar and marshmallows, a little dusty but mostly candy-like with a little echo of flowers.

Applied: Sugar high on application though Royal Desire is a very low sillage fragrance. It won’t go very far but you will smell like a fruity marshmallow at first before the fragrance introduces its equally light floral heart. I can get a bit of rose out of the mid-stage if I really wanted but Royal Design isn’t about the florals. It’s pretty obvious this stuff is capitalizing on its sweet mallowy goodness as there’s a tremendous amount of it along with a creeping vanilla. Though with how meek the fragrance is, you’ll have to concentrate to smell it. The dry down is pretty uninteresting, the marshmallow ends up smelling a bit more like sweet and powdery vanilla during the end game.

Extra: I should make a note to just stop reading the ads that go along with these fragrances. Royal Desire’s claim is that it’s for women who want to feel seductive. Marshmallows don’t make me think of seduction. They make me think of campfires and smores.

Design: I’m not wild about the bottle design but it could have been much worse. There’s a lace motif that seems to grace a lot of Christina Aguilera fragrances and this one isn’t much different. The shape is fine, the lace design is fine, the little charm is cute. Just something about the way it was all put together doesn’t inspire me.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Mandarin, blackberry, marshmallow, rose, honeysuckle, lily, cedar, musk, vanilla, sandalwood.

So another fragrance goes into the slush pile of celebuscents. Royal Desire would be great for a young woman or a teenager interested in smelling sweet, but don’t want something too overpowering.

Reviewed in This Post: Royal Desire,  2010, Eau de Parfum.


Prada Candy

Prada’s well-done and mostly well-received Infusions line was a big hit with me and its non-Infusions fragrances are fabulous too. So when Prada came out with Candy, I was a bit leery from the name on its own. But every fragrance gets a fair sniff.

Candy

Candy

In Bottle: Warm and musky with a sweet hit of benzoin and burnt caramel.

Applied: Sweet caramel and musk hello! The benzoin follows in afterward and the fragrance takes on a creamy, burnt quality. I hope you like that scent because the rest of the fragrance is pretty much that with a fading of the musk first, then the caramel, then the creamy vanilla for me. The caramel in Candy is a little bit better behaved than the burnt caramel notes in other fragrances like Flowerbomb or Pink Sugar. I still don’t know if I like it, but it isn’t too bad in this. What is too bad is how rather dull Prada Candy is. It wants to be a gourmand but the musk is holding it back. It wants to be an oriental but aside from being rich and deep and full of benzoin and warmth, I hesititate to give it that. In the end, it smells strong, it smells sweet, and while it’s not complex or interesting it does do caramel a lot better than any other caramel-based contender so far. Heck, at the very least, I’d pick Prada Candy over Flowerbomb despite Prada Candy being significantly simpler.

Extra: Prada Candy was released mid-year in 2011. It was composed by Daniela Andrier (Prada Infusion de Vetiver, Prada Infusion d’Homme).

Design: The bottle is a bit retro. Reminds a little of the 80s and I suppose that would be Prada Candy’s way of channeling the orientals of the 80s into its sweet caramel self. As for me, I’m not much of a fan of the bottle design. I don’t like the colors or the shape and would prefer something a little less retro.

Fragrance Family: Oriental Gourmand

Notes: Musk, benzoin, caramel.

As unimpressed as I was with this, I need to remind that this is a good fragrance. It’s several steps above Aquolina’s Pink Sugar and Viktor and Rolf’s Flowerbomb. If you want a high end fragrance with a focus on caramel and a little bit of grown-up personality (not much, just a little) then give Prada Candy a sniff.

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


Tokyo Milk Let Them Eat Cake

Tokyo Milk knows what I love and they better believe it. Stationary, soap, and fragrance rolled into one company? If they had a physical store nearby I’d probably never leave.

Let Them Eat Cake

Let Them Eat Cake

In Bottle: Let Them Eat Cake is a soft cake scent that isn’t overly sweet and doesn’t feature that dreaded burnt caramel note I usually get in gourmand fragrances that focus on baked treats or candy.

Applied: Smells like white cake, fluffy and buttery and very easy to wear and take. Lots of vanilla in this and a creaminess that adds some extra appeal to this already delicious gourmand. As stated, the lack of that horrendous burnt caramel note makes this infinitely better than the typical gourmands of this category. The one downside I see to this? The initial smell goes away all too soon. It doesn’t hold and the top notes with the fluffy white cake is replaced with this slightly less gourmand note when the fragrance hits its mid stage. I get a slight powdery floral in the middle stage and a clean but very synthetic note mingling with the cake scent the longer this wears on me. But the initial fragrance is still gorgeous and absolutely delicious.

Extra: “Let Them Eat Cake” is reportedly a famous quote from the ill-fated Mary Antoinette. The quote, actually, may never have been uttered by Antoinette at all and is actually a widely misquoted phrase. Still, it makes for some fine perfumery.

Design: Tokyo Milk bottles have this wonderful aesthetic about them that makes them cute, classic and functional at the same time. I love the designs, I love the feel of them, and I love the look of them lined up in a row. It’s distinctly Tokyo Milk but so very simple. In short, I just love the bottles!

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Coconut, vanilla, musk.

Let Them Eat Cake will make a great fragrance for anyone into Gourmand scents. If you thought Flowerbomb by Viktor and Rolf is good, you definitely have to smell some of this stuff. A lot of people report success with Let Them Eat Cake so you might not experience the weird progression into synthetic clean that I did. I didn’t even mind the progression that much, the fragrance just sort of veered in a surprising and strange direction for me. There’s no telling how you’ll react to it and it is a very well done gourmand.

Reviewed in This Post: Let Them Eat Cake, 2011, Eau de Toilette.