Escada Magnetism for Women

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Magnetism by Escada is an easy to like and easy to wear sweet floral oriental with a stroke of pure fun.

Magnetism

Magnetism

In Bottle: Sweet vanilla blended with a fun fruity and juicy opening coated with flowers.

Applied: Sweet and green rather crisp and juicy up top with a distinct fruitiness that blends well with the fragrance. The scent delves into this floral mish-mash that comes out smelling distinctly flowery but keeps a rein on its strength. There is a sweetness throughout this fragrance that doesn’t take away from the fragrance’s purpose. In the end, it is a sweet sandalwood with an earthy vibe and a strong sweet vanilla finish.

Extra: Magnetism for Women was introduced in 2003. It’s a fairly decent fragrance though it’s not in any way groundbreaking. It does smell good and does the Escada brand some fine justice.

Design: Not too wild about the design of the bottle but then Escada’s bottle designs have always seemed a bit off to me. Magnetism is a hot pink curved glass bottle. It’s vaguely unpleasant and looks a bit too suggestive for me to take it seriously.

Fragrance Family: Sweet Floral Oriental

Notes: Pineapple, black currant, melon, berries, cassia, litchi, magnolia, orris, green leaves, freesia, basil, jasmine, caraway, heliotrope, lily of the valley, rose, sandalwood, amber, patchouli, musk, benzoin, caramel, vetiver, vanilla.

So in the end, Magnetism isn’t attracting me, but it is doing a good job of trying. If you want a nice, wearable floral oriental with a dollop of sweet then this might be good. As a bonus, Magnetism can be purchased from several discounters for a rather fair price.

Reviewed in This Post: Magnetism for Women,  2010, Eau de Parfum.

Karl Lagerfield Sun Moon Stars

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I saw the bottle, said, ‘No way!’ and decided it had to be tried. I don’t actually have a bottle or held a bottle of this but I do have a somewhat aged sampler vial.

Sun Moon Stars

Sun Moon Stars

In Bottle: Strong fruitiness up top. That’s pretty much all I get.

Applied: Very strong and sweet fruits up top in this fragrance. It’s the candy version of fruit and it’s a bit nauseating. I read some of the reviews on this one before I tried it and many people report a synthetic quality to the fragrance. I almost want to explain that particular problem on the over eager fruit opening. The sweetness does settle down in the mid-stage where the soft florals roll in with a spicy carnation making a pretty big impression to me. The  fragrance ends on a very nicely done vanilla with sandalwood. Normally I’d loathe the standard sandalwood vanilla mixture but the fragrance does it so well that I can’t fault it for taking a trope and doing it justice.

Extra: Sun Moon Stars was released in 1994 as a fabulous floral oriental. The Karl Lagerfield brand is primarily focused on fashion and headed by the iconic man of the same name. Presently the brand is owned by the parent company, Tommy Hilfiger.

Design: I saw the bottle and immediately thought of the Britney Spears Fantasy line. The shapes are so familiar that I couldn’t help but seek this one out. The bottle reportedly contains designs of a sun, a star and a moon as per its name. While I still think the shape is unappealing the blue glass used in the design is quite nice. At the very least, the design is much better put together than anything in the Fantasy line. It’s quite a bit more elegant, actually.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral Oriental

Notes: Bergamot, pineapple, orange blossom, lotus, rice, peach, heliotrope, freesia, jasmine, orange blossom, daffodil, lily of the valley, orchid, carnation, iris, sandalwood, cedar, amber, musk, vanilla.

Apparently there was a reformulation of this fragrance at some point. I’m not sure which version of the fragrance I have, but judging from the general disappointment in the reformulation, perhaps I have the old formula.

Reviewed in This Post: Sun Moon Stars,  ~1998 Eau de Toilette.

Prada Candy

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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.

Chloe Love Eau Intense

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Love Eau Intense is the ‘intense’ version of 2010’s very beautiful Chloe Love fragrance.

Love Eau Intense

Love Eau Intense

In Bottle: Hint of florals a bit of powderiness and a lot of warm amber and vanilla.

Applied: Florals on the opening, a bit of bitterness and powder from what I think might be the iris note. Don’t be scared by that description, the powder and bitterness was barely detectible to me. It enhances the fragrance, giving it a bit of sophistication. As the fragrance progresses, I get the sweet warm amber vanilla fragrance with what I think is a little touch of honey. Love Eau Intense is a very well-blended and well rounded scent. It fades into its end stage with a nice floral dusting on a warm oriental base. It’s very nice, grownup, but also very loud so go easy on the sprayer.

Extra: Love Eau Intense was composed by Louise Turner (JLo Glow, Fahrenheit 32) and Nathalie Gracia-Cetto (Burberry Brit, Escada Sentiment).

Design: I love the design of Chloe’s Love fragrance line. The shape itself is reminiscent of a hip flask made of glass with a metal band at the bottom. I love the cap with the chain and the overall simplicity but elegant aesthetic.

Fragrance Family: Floral Oriental

Notes: Iris, heliotrope, hyacinth, lilac, wisteria, balsam, musk, vanilla.

Love Intense is fantastic and a great progression from Chloe Love. The original Love was already well done and Love Eau Intense improved upon it, in my opinion.

Reviewed in This Post: Love Eau Intense, 2011, Eau de Parfum.

Vera Wang Preppy Princess

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Am I alone in asking myself, “What? Another one?” when I saw Preppy Princess on the shelves? How many princesses does the Vera Wang line have now? I think we get the theme, especially seeing as most of the Princess fragrances tended to smell really similar so that if you owned the original Princess, there really wasn’t much point in owning most of the others. But hey, Preppy Princess is another smelly adventure.

Preppy Princess

Preppy Princess

In Bottle: Sweet red berry-like scent. There seems to be a lot of berry openings in my reviews lately, what is up with that? In either case, the fact that Preppy Princess opened with a sweet berry scent doesn’t set it apart from the other berry scents I’ve reviewed lately.

Applied: Berries with a splash of citrus up top. Everything is sweet and girly and rather dull at the moment. Not exactly a good first impressions of Preppy Princess but it isn’t an unpleasant experience. I just feel like I’ve done this a hundred times already. So as the fragrances ages further and heads toward its midstage, I get a little bit of a floral kick only there’s jasmine in this and some equally non-descript florals. So all I get in the end is a generic flowery smell that doesn’t help Preppy either. The dry down smells like a mild coconut note mixed with sandalwood and amber  or something.

Extra: So we’ve got five princesses now, I think. I can only hope things stop here. I can’t imagine what other princesses there could be that would inspire someone to compose another generic fragrance and slap it into a heart-shaped bottle.

Design: Preppy Princess, aside from the stripey lines on the glass and blue cap, is pretty much the same design as the other Princess fragrances from Vera Wang. It’s, once again, aimed at a younger audience than me and I can’t see the aesthetic appeal of the bottle. But at least you can use the cap as a very pointy ring.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Tangerine, apple, berries, jasmine, honeysuckle, woods, coconut.

Hooray, I survived another Princess fragrance. It’s as generic as it can get. The opening smelled generic. The midstage smelled generic, and even the coconut in the base couldn’t help this one out. If you already own one of the other Princess fragrances–and unless you just love collecting the bottles–then I’d say skip this one. There’s far better fragrances out there.

Reviewed in This Post: Preppy Princess, 2011, Eau de Toilette.

Kenzo Power

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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.

Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male

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Le Male’s something of a classic for men’s fragrance, I guess. Well, maybe classic is putting it a bit too high on the totem pole. What Le Male is, however, is a very successful, very nice oriental fragrance that many men who prefer something outside of Acqua di Gio tend to enjoy.

Le Male

Le Male

In Bottle: Initial whiff of lavender and spices in Le Male. It’s at once familiar and unique.

Applied: Spicy lavender up top. Le Male’s reminiscent of a fougere fragrance with a major spicy kick. The cardamom, to my nose is particularly strong along with the cinnamon note. It reminds me a bit of this awesome chai tea that I really like that features cinnamon and caraway rather heavily. The lavender helps pull the fragrance together from the get go, as its little whiffs of mint and bergamot that were in the initial spray make way for a warm, dry midstage that sees an introduction of a slight floral sandalwood scent. The dry down is very dry with lavender hints hanging on and its spicy cinnamon making a very good run as the sweet, dry, woods scent of the base takes the rest of the show.

Extra: Le Male is strong and has excellent projection, so watch how much of this you spray on yourself. Especially you guys who wear this almost every day. Your nose may have adapted to the scent from prolonged use and you might be overdoing it a bit. I’ve stood close to a man who overdid the Le Male and it turns this brilliant spicy fougere into a powerful mess. Easy on the trigger and you’ll smell awesome though.

Design: Iconic design from Jean Paul Gaultier of the “torso bottles”. Le Male is packaged in a blue torso bottle resemble a man’s chest and hips. The fragrance itself comes in a tin can. Great for keeping out light and helping the fragrance keep a little cooler, but I can’t say I like having a tin can sitting on a fragrance shelf. Still, the torso bottle is a classic piece of design to some people, but for me, it kind of freaks me out to be honest. Still,as soon as you see these torso designs, you probably instantly think, “Oh, it’s Jean Paul Gaultier doing his thing again”. So if nothing else, it is memorable.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Oriental Fougere

Notes: Artemisia, lavender, mint, bergamot, cardamom, caraway, orange blossom, cinnamon, sandalwood, tonka bean, amber, vanilla, cedar.

On myself, Le Male smells too iconically male. Though it’s a great scent that I really like. It smells like it belongs on a man though and that is probably because of the prevalence of the gender that often wears it. Still, it’s like I always say, if you like this enough then who cares what gender it was made for? Just wear it and rock it.

Reviewed in This Post: Le Male, 2001, Eau de Toilette.

Prada Infusion de Rose

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Ah, Prada and their infusions. Simple, light and usually easy to wear. Infusion d’Iris is still one of my favorite scents. And I absolutely love rose–if done right. So I gave her a try.

Infusion de Rose

Infusion de Rose

In Bottle: Big old Bulgarian rose right in my face with a splash of refreshing mint.

Applied: This smells like Bulgarian rose with a little squirt of mandarin. I don’t really detect much else aside from that until the mint comes up in the initial stages and gives Infusion de Rose this sort of crisp, watery quality to it. The fragrance keeps aging with the rose taking a dominant role and continuing to play a dominant role until the endstage. I get no wax or holly and have no idea how to detect the smell of beeswax anyway. All I know is, this is a very simple, very crisp and refreshing rose fragrance. Far from interesting or unique but still does a good job.

Extra: Infusion de Rose is a member of the Prada’s infusion series. There’s an entire series of this stuff where Prada takes a fragrance concept and runs with it. They’ve done Iris, Tuberose, Vetiver, and more.

Design: Infusion de Rose is designed in the same way as the other Infusion fragrances except it’s main color is a very girly pink. If lined up in a row, these bottles look absolutely beautiful. I’d love to collect them just to put them on display. The glass is clear, the bottles have a nice weight to them. The design is classic and simple but still very functional.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Mandarin, beeswax, holly, rose, mint.

I would buy this only so I can say I’ve got it for my collection. But as a fragrance, Infusion de Rose isn’t very interesting or new. You could get dewy modern rose in almost any modern rose-based fragrance. It’s just not unique but it does follow the style of Prada’s infusion series rather well.

Reviewed in This Post: Infusion de Rose, 2011, Eau de Toilette.

Elie Saab Le Parfum

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Elie Saab is a famous Lebanese fashion designer so of course the man would have a pretty perfume too.

Le Parfum

Elie Saab Le Parfum

In Bottle: Orange flower, clear and feminine and very beautiful with a floral backdrop that adds rather than overpowers.

Applied: Orange flower up top with a warm, sweet honeyed fragrance that leaps up almost immediately too. I get a bit more florals was I wear this further, getting a rose and jasmine mixture in the middle that mingle with the orange flower. Normally a jasmine and rose thing would be pretty banal but the honey really helps to deepen this fragrance and make it a bit more unique. I really like it with that one extra element that managed to make all the difference. The dry down is marked with a faded florals and honey affair and a slight powdery woodsiness. Very nicely done.

Extra: There’s a type of honey I have that’s purportedly infused with a more floral fragrance from the honey bees that collected the stuff favoring certain types of flowers. I think the science of bees and honey making is fascinating. And the taste of the honey is a bit different than what I normally get. There was a hint of cleaner florals in there. That honey is what Le Parfum reminds me of, except instead of florals inspiring honey. This one florals inspired by honey.

Design: The bottle design is rather simple, it’s easy to hold, it’s not garish in anyway but also does not particularly stand out either. It’s just a simple, easy to like design. It reminds me a bit of Hilary Duff’s With Love bottle and–dare I say–Victoria’s Secret Bombshell, except done in a more subdued fashion. It’s nice. Period.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Orange flower, jasmine, rose, patchouli, cedar, honey.

Fairly nice entry into the fragrance market. Easy to wear, good for a debut, nothing classic but is very enjoyable and good for women who are looking for a subdued floral.

Reviewed in This Post: Elie Saab Le Parfum, 2011, Eau de Parfum.

Victoria’s Secret Vixen

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Vixen was released earlier in 2011. I’m not sure if there was much fanfare over this one because I had no idea it even existed until I happened upon it in the store.

Vixen

Vixen

In Bottle: Really sweet, very syrupy apple fragrance mixed with an equally sweet floral scent and a lot of vanilla. It’s already cloying.

Applied: Extremely sweet apple note on the opening that’s also trying to be a bit sour at the same time. It’s not coming through very well as an apple fragrance because it just smells like that synthetic apple stuff that I usually get in fragrances like this. The sweetness only amps up as the florals and the vanilla roll in to give the fragrance a bit of a flowery gourmand personality that does nothing to make this seem less generic. The fragrance was already cloying from the first get go and it doesn’t get any better when it reaches the base either. All that’s at the base is a sweet vanilla bean fragrance.

Extra: So Vixen’s not very original or unique. She smells like any other apple-based fragrance out there. If you want an apple scent, this is good. You can also try DKNY Be Delicious, CB I Hate Perfume Gathering Apples, and Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Delirium. Heck, if you want an even simpler apple scent that focuses more on the note, get the double body mist from Victoria’s Secret called Appletini.

Design: Vixen comes with a balloon pump to add a sense of vintage to the fragrance. The one thing I noticed is the familiar shape. Reminds me a lot of a classic Guerlain Shalimar bottle except with a bit of a garish color scheme. The balloon pump does give the bottle a classic sort of look. But I can’t get over how much the shape of the bottle echos classic Shalimar.

Fragrance Family: Fruity

Notes: Apple blossom, freesia, vanilla.

Not very interested in this. Mostly because it smells like so much that’s already out there. It’s a very sweet apple scent, and that’s about all I can really say about this one. I mean, it does smell good but it’s way too sugary for me.

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