Kenzo Power

Posted on by

Kenzo Power was described as a spicy woodsy scent–a rather banal genre for men’s fragrances which wouldn’t turn very many heads. That is, if only Power kept to that spicy woodsy description. Instead, Power is less so a spicy wood fragrance and more like a spicy floral.

Power

Power

In Bottle: Powereded florals and spice, I get cardamom but I definitely get some florals in this with some woods as well.

Applied: Starts off with a citrus opening that fades in with the spices almost immediately. Power starts off strong with an opening befitting of a classic men’s fragrance. The scent heads into its midstage with an increasingly floral presence as it settles in with a powdered flowers, a bit of creaminess and residual spiciness from the opening. The dry down is a fairly generic woods fragrance with a hint of amber and lingering spices.

Extra: Power isn’t your average men’s fragrance–at least not the average that I’ve been smelling. It’s got the male progression in the strong citrus blast up top and the woody dry down but the mid-stage has a nice femininity to it that doesn’t overpower the masculine aspects of the scent. Sure, there’s florals in this but it is still a men’s fragrance at heart. It’s soft and sophisticated and definitely different from your average aquatic or spicy wood. Kenzo Power was composed by Olivier Polge (Burberry The Beat and Balenciaga Paris).

Design: Rather interesting design, reminiscent of Montale’s fragrance bottles except done much better. Shiny metal with a fantastic heft to it. Feels good to hold, has a masculinity to the aesthetic but is not over the top and still manages to look modern and a little different. At the very least, the metal helps balance out the flower logo that should hint that this ‘Power’ has a little bit of floral in it.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Woodsy Floral

Notes: Bergamot, coriander, cardamom, florals, amber, woods.

Kudos to Kenzo for making Power smell the way it does. It’s a new and interesting contender in the rather repetitive abstract that is the men’s fragrance industry. Check this one out if you want a more creative men’s fragrance and you aren’t too afraid of flowers in your cologne.

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

Kenzo Amour

Posted on by

Kenzo Amour was probably designed around romance, passion and love. The shape of the bottle is certainly interesting as is the bottle design but the fragrance itself, as usual, has little to do with its ad.

Amour

Amour

In Bottle: Like with all perfumes that use frangipani, I end up smelling that the most. It’s sweet little flowery self dominating the majority of this scent but there’s a bit of other stuff going on here too like this slightly powdery floral scent and an equally dominating vanilla note.

Applied: Initial flare up of frangipani with a warm, creamy center. The fragrance gets a bit more floral as you keep wearing it as I presume either the heliotrope or the cherry blossom in this is trying to peak through. I get a slight powderiness in the fragrance, maybe it’s the rice? Not entirely sure what that is but it’s not strong and easily ignorable if you’re not looking for it. As Amour ages, the vanilla note gets stronger and comes up, bathing the whole fragrance in this creamy, milky, flowery concoction. Very nicely done actually. Amour is a rather comforting scent, not sure if I would associate it with passion but comfort is definitely there. The dry down is marked with a clean and still creamy vanilla scent.

Extra: Kenzo Amour was composed by Daphne Bugey (Rose 31 for Le Labo, A Scent for Issey Miyake) and Olivier Cresp (Dune for Dior, Angel for Thierry Mugler, Elle for Yves Saint Laurent).

Design: Amour comes in three colored bottles. Each of the colors represents a different amount. I believe the pink one is 30ml, the white is 50ml, and the orange is 100ml. The shape of the bottle reminds me a bit of Cashmere Mist by Donna Karan in that it has that swan-like shape. The bottle is easy to hold and manipulate despite is funky shape and the spray nozzle works just fine.

Fragrance Family: Floral Oriental

Notes: Heliotrope, frangipani, tea, cherry blossom, rice, musk, vanilla.

Amour is a well composed bit of fun. Very feminine and a good choice for most people (it leans a bit closer to the feminine side) of any age. It’s actually a great fragrance. But if you’re looking for passion, I’m not sure you’ll find it in this sweet milky flowery substance.

Reviewed in This Post: Amour, 2009, Eau de Parfum.

Kenzo Flower

Posted on by

Kenzo Flower is the fragrance that spawned many flankers. Though it’s not quite at the excess of Shalimar, it can be a bit difficult to navigate the Flower maze. This review focuses on the original Flower, inspired by the concept of what a poppy would smell like and released in 2000. Flower

In Bottle: Bright and green. Smells fresh with a predominant sweet rose and violet fragrance. This smells a bit dewy and definitely smells clean.

Applied: The bright green of Flower is a fleeting little thing. Upon initial spray, you still detect it. You can even still smell it for a few seconds on the skin but as soon as it starts to dry, Flower loses that brightness and greenness and takes on a more floral and powdery scent. It still smells clean but it’s less of a screaming fresh scent now. It’s more of a classy, powdery, rose affair with a nice sprinkling of sweet violets to further write it into the floral powder category. Flower smells very familiar to me because of the predominant powder and violet. After mulling it over a bit, I realized why it smelled familiar and cracked open my tin of Guerlain’s Meteorites (the makeup not the fragrance). Instant familiarity. These two smell similar due to the powder and violets. They are not the same scent and Flower is obviously much more complex. As it dries down the powder takes the rose with it while the violets hang about and stay sweet until completely disappearing.

Extra: Kenzo is a fragrance, skincare and fashion brand founded by Kenzo Takada. It was bought out by LVMH in 1993.

Design: Flower’s bottle has a modern and rather recognizable look. It’s tall, curved, clear glass with a flower drawn on it. The stem of the flower runs up the middle of the bottle and the flower is drawn onto the cap. There are three different versions for the three sizes. Each of them represent the different life stages of the poppy. Very cute, rather chic, lovely bottle. A bit difficult to hold but I can sacrifice function for something that looks this good.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Bulgarian rose, wild hawthorn, cassie, violets, opopanax, white musk, hedione, cyclosal.

You may have seen hedione mentioned a couple of times. It is a fragrance enhancing component, usually coupled with jasmine but can be used with a wide variety of other notes too.

Reviewed in This Post: Flower, 2009, Eau de Parfum.