Alfred Sung Jewel

With all the heady, classic fragrances I had been trying and wearing lately and with the weather doing all sorts of strange things, I had a hankering for a springtime perfume and Jewel caught my attention.

Jewel

Jewel

In Bottle: Sweet, dewy and slightly fruity jasmine with a bit of orange blossom.

Applied: I primarily get a nice dewy jasmine scent out of this with a fruity pear and a strong neroli note in the front. The jasmine is sweet and clean and fresh as it rolls into a fairly benign mid-stage with hints of creamy coconut in the background. So far, Jewel is nothing to really write home about. It’s very nice, but not unique. It reminds me a bit of springtime, and its use of fruits and jasmine together are not unappealing, nor is it too overdone to be enjoyable. The dry down is not too special either, as the sweet jasmine rolls into a clean floral finish.

Extra: Jewel was released in 2005 and if you didn’t get enough of it in fragrance form, you can choose between its wide range of body care products like the lotion. Jewel isn’t difficult to find either, and is available from discounters online though I haven’t seen it in a department store myself.

Design: Reminds me of Ange ou Demon by Givenchy, but I suppose it’s just the shape that makes me draw the similarities between the two. Has a pleasant shape overall, interesting to look at.

Fragrance Family: Sweet Floral

Notes: Blackcurrant, pear, neroli, orange blossom, jasmine, frangipani, coconut, plum.

Overall, a pleasant experience if somewhat uninteresting. It is a nice springtime perfume, and hit the spot when I wanted to smell spring-like, but there are more interesting spring offerings out there. Still Jewel is pretty good for what it is, has a pleasant clean, fresh jasmine sweetness to it and doesn’t lay it on very thick.

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


Keiko Mecheri Damascena

Damascena was included in a very nice set of samples sent to me from Steve over at The Scented Hound. It struck me as a light, delicate scent with excellent projection and I was surprised when I looked up its notes and House Keiko Mecheri only listed three.

Damascena

Damascena

In Bottle: Bright, vibrant rose with a nice blackcurrant starting note.

Applied: Sweet with a nice blackcurrant to start, the rose is rather quick to roll in taking the fragrance into a nice, deep, rich rose scent. This isn’t cleaned-up, barely-any-personality rose. It smells natural, expensive, and adds a touch of sophistication to this fruity floral. This is almost a soliflore, were it not for the blackcurrant that keeps the fragrance from being entirely about rose. There’s a very nice mix of the two, pleasant, decently strong, good projection. This could be a very nice transition fragrance for those looking to graduate from the school of Viva La Juicy into something a little more grown-up.

Extra: Keiko Mecheri started out as a bath and body company selling luxury body care products and pretty candles. They’ve since moved into the niche perfumery scene with some excellent products to show for it.

Design: Fairly simple looking bottle with an attention-grabbing cap. Simple, but bold. Nice and easy to hold. Good weight and not a garish bone on its body. This gets me just right.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Blackcurrant, rose, musk.

I wasn’t expecting to like this quite as much as I did, but the rose note is very much the star and quite pleasant to boot.

Reviewed in This Post: Damascena, 2012, Eau de Parfum.


Illuminum Tahitian Yuzu

Tahitian Yuzu promised me something clean and fresh with a bit of the tropics. I certainly wasn’t let down.

Tahitian Yuzu

Tahitian Yuzu

In Bottle: Clear, clean and crisp. The yuzu is present, as are the florals and the sweet pineapple at the start.

Applied: Tahitian Yuzu is a pretty simple composition. It comes in with a sweet, tropical feel. The pineapple lends a lot to the tropics in this scent and makes me wish it was still summer and I had spent more time at the beach. The blackcurrant helps carry the pineapple into the floral midstage where Tahitian Yuzu takes on a slight hit of citrus and delves into the jasmine. It is primarily jasmine to my nose, with very small dashes of violets that mingle rather safely with the white musk at the bottom of the fragrance. Tahitian Yuzu doesn’t develop too much further from its midstage, its base is marked with a soft floral layered over clean musk. Smells simple, very wearable, if you were looking to smell fresh out of a shower and wanted something less soapy and more fruity than Cashmere Musk then Tahitian Yuzu would be a great candidate.

Extra: I frequently wondered when I was first really getting into perfumes just what on earth a yuzu was and why it was any different than a grapefruit. It took years to finally differentiate the two in my mind. To me, the yuzu is a bit stronger, a little more tart, and with a hint of smoothness that reminds me of a ripe orange. It’s difficult to describe how yuzu smells more complex to me than grapefruit because it took me years just to get to the point where I can even tell the difference–and even now, I’m pretty sloppy about it.

Design: All of Illuminum’s branding looks similar. Bottled in frosted glass, rectangular or square in appearance. Looks good lined up in a row, but not really my cup of tea in terms of design.

Fragrance Family: Clean Floral

Notes: Pineapple, blackcurrant, yuzu, jasmine, violet, white musk.

I like Tahitian Yuzu. I like that it’s clean and crisp and easy to wear and that little bite of the tropics at the start was a nice hook. But then, I didn’t think I would have much trouble with Illuminum’s offerings. Many of their scents were simple, clean and echoed a lot of Boadi’s work on the Boadicea the Victorious line. If you want to snag a bottle of Tahitian Yuzu, it is available in 50ml or 100ml and you can get one at Luckyscent or Illuminum’s website.

Reviewed in This Post: Tahitian Yuzu, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Disclaimer: The fragrance sampler spray 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.


M. Micallef Vanille Marine

I’m delighted to be wearing a vanilla fragrance on any day. As much as I love Jasmine and honey, the vanillas keep me coming back. Up today is M. Micallef‘s Vanille Marine, a pretty aquatic with a bite of citrus and a smooth vanilla personality. 

In Bottle: Sharp citrus and marine with a tempering of flowering vanilla. It’s quite an interesting mix of sharp and soft that forms to make a fairly nice fragrance.

Applied: I get an initial spear of citrus and sharp marine notes. It makes the scent smell quite strong and reminds me a lot of soap. While the opening might be harsh, Vanille Marine settles down quickly into a softer interpretation lending much of this progression to the florals and that awesome vanilla. I had my reservations about an aquatic vanilla fragrance. I hadn’t tried any before that I thought worked out very well, but Vanille Marine makes the concept very appealing. There’s a clean edge to this from the marine that mixes well with the soft floral vanilla. It makes me think of delicate vanilla flowers floating in the ocean. This is clean, fresh and warm all at the same time as you settle into its mid-stage. Where Vanille Marine gets really good is near the end where the marine notes have time to settle into the skin and work with the vanilla to give off this beautiful smooth vanilla and aqua fragrance.

Extra: M. Micallef’s vanilla collection showcases the many faces that vanilla can take. I’m extremely happy that fragrance houses are using vanilla in different ways than the standard recipe of throwing it into a gourmand or spraying it all over the base notes of some fruit floral and hoping for the best. I never thought an aquatic vanilla could work out this well, and I’m happy to be proven wrong.

Design: Vanille Marine is packaged and presented in much the same way as Vanille Orient. I’m still not a big fan of the aesthetics and think Micallef’s other work is more attractive. Still, the bottles and the design are nice interpretations of fun, natural and organic aesthetic.

Fragrance Family: Sweet Aquatic

Notes: Lemon, blackcurrant, marine, vanilla, white florals, benzoin, musk, woods.

I though Vanille Orient would be my favorite from this batch of vanillas, but I’m thinking Vanille Marine might have it beat. I’ve smelled a lot of good oriental vanillas and while Vanille Orient is up there on the list, Vanille Marine was a pleasant surprise.

Reviewed in This Post: Vanille Marine, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Disclaimer: The fragrance sampler spray 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.


Heidi Klum Me

If I were ever in the position to have a fragrance made for me, I’d probably be unimaginative enough to just call it, “Me”. It’s really too bad Heidi Klum already beat me to it.

Me

Me

In Bottle: Fresh is probably the one and only word I’ve got for Me. The melon is pretty prominent to my nose along with the clean florals in the middle.

Applied: It’s got a nice blast of fruitiness that mellows into this juicy, clean melon scent which does a nice job eventually moving into an also pleasant and clean floral mid-stage that’s marked with a bit of sparkle and shine. There’s nothing so bold as an aldehyde in this, but the musk couldn’t be anything but white and the woods and vanilla couldn’t be anything but scrubbed with all impurities removed before being bottled. Me is quintessentially young, clean, and fresh. It’s a nice, mild-mannered scent for everyday wear.

Extra: Me was released in 2006 and hasn’t really garnered as much success as some celebrity perfumes. It seems to occupy that dark corner of celebrity fragrances where the lesser known perfumes with celebrity names hang out.

Design: Me isn’t very pretty. It’s actually rather bland in aesthetic and a little bit clunky too. It’s bottled in this roundish container with a standard baby pink cap that doesn’t do much for it’s appeal. It’s not ugly, not pretty, and ultimately not very memorable.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Fruity

Notes: Blackcurrant, apple, melon, pepper, violet, water lily, jasmine, plum, woods, sandalwood, vanilla, musk.

If you want a well done fresh melon and floral scent, then Me is your stuff. You can actually buy this stuff on the Heidi Klum website. Enjoy.

Reviewed in This Post: Me, 2006, Eau de Parfum.


Ed Hardy Love and Luck for Women

Hearts and Daggers was something of a flop on me, but I also had a little bit of Love and Luck for Women by Ed Hardy. And while I haven’t grown to like the packaging in any capacity, I will admit that Love and Luck for Women was a bit of a surprise.

Love and Luck for Women

Love and Luck for Women

In Bottle: Citrus and fruity, quite nice in a fruit bowl sort of way. If you want fruity and fresh then this is the stuff for you.

Applied: Initial flare of citrus followed by a peppery kick thanks to the pink pepper present in thsi fragrance. The scent has a nice clean edge on opening that does rather well when it starts to move into it’s fruit bowl stage. I smell the currants and the nectarine with a mild creamy plum in the middle. The scent is rather pleasant. Not too strong and while it’s generic, it does the fruity genre of fragrances rather well. Love and Luck is a decently blended fragrance and while it won’t win any awards any time soon, it’s one of the better fruity scents I’ve smelled as of late. The dry down gets a bit woodsy but not too much that you would mistake this for anything else but a fruity perfume. Overall, nicely done and extremely wearable with decent longevity.

Extra: I’ll admit, I had initially been interested in reviewing this fragrance once I saw the proposed design for the new Ed Hardy fragrance, Skulls and Roses. Mostly I was inspired because the proposed design was so bad. You can view it for yourself at Fragrantica. Keep in mind that the image is currently a composite of a 3D model and a 2D rose so if the image looks a bit odd, that’s why. Hopefully someone at Christian Audigier realizes that the design looks kind of funny and tones it down a little.

Design: Love and Luck features the tattoo inspired artwork indicative of most Ed Hardy products. I’m not a fan of the design and I find the plastic cap that covers the glass bottle thing kind of annoying to use.

Fragrance Family: Fruity

Notes: Bergamot, blood orange, pink pepper, blackcurrant, nectarine, plum, jasmine, sandalwood, cedar, musk, patchouli.

Love and Luck for Women has a male counterpart that I haven’t tried yet. I rather like this version and think it’s a competent fruity fragrance. Granted there are a lot of competent fruity fragrances out there. So if you’re shopping for a fruity perfume give Love and Luck a sniff, but don’t worry if you don’t fall in love with it. There are many more fish in the sea.

Reviewed in This Post: Love and Luck for Women, 2010, Eau de Parfum.


Estee Lauder Beautiful

A pleasant surprise arrived for Christmas 2011–a book of perfume samples. Many of the fragrances were new and I was just thrilled. Estée Lauder’s Beautiful was one of the first I pulled out and giddily peeled back the flap to smell.

Beautiful

Beautiful

In Bottle: Extremely floral and a bit powdery. There’s no floral standing out, it’s just a big homogenous bouquet at the moment.

Applied: Initial hit of citrus then the floral bouquet rolls into town and takes over the whole operation. From then on, it’s all flowers all the time. Now, I love a good floral fragrance. But the key is balance and moderation. It seems like those are the two things missing from this iteration of Estée Lauder’s Beautiful. I heard the original Beautiful is a far different animal. So don’t turn yourself off from the classic based on what I say about this contemporary version. The florals in Beautiful really do smell like a confused mish mash that doesn’t quite know what it wants to do with itself. The scent seems to suffer a bit from over composition where there are too many ingredients vying for space and there just isn’t enough space to go around. The result is a fragrance that people can distinguish as “flowery”, but no one can truly say what kind of flower. I’m not the kind of person who just likes smelling like a bunch of flowers. I wanted more depth to it than this, but Beautiful settles into it’s explosion of florals in the midstage then ends it all with a bit of cedar at the end as my nostrils continue to burn from the florals thrown at me earlier.

Extra: The first iteration of Beautiful was released in 1985. It has since gone through a few cosmetic changes and some formula changes. I do not have any access to classic Beautiful, which is a real shame as I’d love to see how it compares to this.

Design: The bottle is reminiscent of Calvin Klein’s designs. I want to say Obsession for Women comes to mind when I look at this, but Beautiful is a little easier on the eyes. It’s metallic cap really helps pull it together a little more.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Bergamot, lemon, cassia, fruit, blackcurrant, galbanum, mimosa, magnolia, carnation, chamomile, tuberose, orange blossom, freesia, lilac, narcissus, jasmine, neroli, clary sage, violet, iris, lily of the valley, ylang ylang, marigold, geranium, sandalwood, myrrh, vanilla, vetiver, cedar.

As I looked up the notes list for this one, I found every single source listed an enormous amount of stuff. I just ended up picking out what I thought I could get out of this. In the end, I’m sorry, Beautiful, but you really just smell like flower stuff.

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


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.


Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady

Portrait of a Lady was the talk of Niche Town when it was first released. It took me a while to get my sample of this fragrance but I’m glad that I did.

Portrait of a Lady

Portrait of a Lady

In Bottle: Sour to my nose thanks to the currants with a spicy kick from the cinnamon and clove.

Applied: Sour currants that give way to spicy cinnamon and clove that mixes in with the incense in the midstage. I get mostly smoke from Portrait of a Lady until she keeps aging on my skin and there’s a bit of earthiness that comes up from the patchouli as the scent keeps aging the amber and its warmness rushes up to mingle with the smoke and spice. The rose in this scent doesn’t come up until later in the fragrance where the spicy notes settle down a bit to leave us with a soft, warmed, rose with a hint of spice.

Extra: Portrait of a Lady was created by Dominique Ropion who also created fragrances such as Burberry The Beat, Cacharel Amor Amor, and Armani Code for Women.

Design: Bottled in much the same way as other Frederic Malle scents, in a cylindrical glass bottle. It has a nice weight to it and the simple design makes you focus more on the scent inside the bottle than the flashy exterior. It’s simple and functional for what it is.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: Raspberry, blackcurrant, clove, cinnamon, rose, sandalwood, patchouli, incense, musk, amber, benzoin.

Portrait of a Lady is a really well done oriental, it smells a bit like an oriental powerhouse but also has elements of a sophisticated modern scent. I especially like the spicy rose present in this fragrance.

Reviewed in This Post: Portrait of a Lady, 2011, Eau de Parfum.


Creed Aventus

Creed’s gone tropical with Aventus but doesn’t dive in immediately into the fruity tropical pool. There are elements of sophistication still associated with Aventus.

Aventus

Aventus

In Bottle: Fruity opening with a smoky leather background that has a certain earthiness to it too.

Applied: Fruity, almost tropical and probably helped along in that direction thanks to the pineapple note. The opening smells rather familiar to a women’s fragrance actually with a deeper masculinity that comes up smelling mostly like fresh fruits and a bit of tar. Tar being that smoky–sometimes plastic–smell that I don’t particularly find enticing if not mixed well enough. Aventus does a good enough job of keeping it in check so that it enhances the fragrance for me instead of takes away from it. As the midstage wears on, there’s a little bit of floral but what I mostly get is this sharp earthy  scent that dwells on in the fragrance way into the end where it fades with a bit of sweet vanilla.

Extra: If you were afraid of other Creeds and those smelling a little too classic for you then Aventus is probably a good Creed starter. It’s got excellent projection and power but is an easy to wear fragrance. It is, however, a bit of a departure from how Creeds used to be. It is, nevertheless, still a competent fragrance.

Design: Bottle design is similar to other Creed bottles. The niche houses tend to keep their designs fairly uniform and Creed’s not much different in practice. The bottle has a nice weight and is easy to hold and use. It also looks quite sharp with its clear glass elements combined with the black and metal treatments.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Modern Chypre

Notes: Bergamot, blackcurrant, apple, pineapple, jasmine, rose, birch, patchouli, musk, oak moss, amber, vanilla.

I’m not that big of a fan of Aventus on my own skin but it is a funny fragrance that starts off a bit feminine then nosedives right into a masculine scent. It’s playful then sophisticated at the same time.

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