Aftelier Honey Blossom

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Aftelier is one of the oldest and one of the most respected natural perfumers. Their fragrances run the gamut of light and pretty to dark and sensual. But no matter what side of perfumery you swing on, you cannot deny that undeniable quality and complex beauty that a natural perfume possesses.

In Bottle: Warmed up honey and a dollop of sweet florals. This makes me think of sweltering summer days spent under an umbrella and gardens full of sweet flowers.

Applied: Beautiful honeyed fragrance that’s supposed to come from the honeysuckle. I’m always very impressed with full-natural fragrances and how incredibly genuine and gorgeous they are. There’s a layer of complexity in this fragrance that you won’t find in a synthetic and this is why I think naturals are so well-respected. I smell honeyed florals, but I can feel the warmth. I can detect the little hints of other ingredients, blending and mixing into the sweetness to make this utterly appealing mix that simply defies description and can be left at, “Awesome!” Wearing Honey Blossom is like taking on a personal scent. It doesn’t sit on my skin and give away that I’m wearing a perfume. It blends in and makes me feel like I could smell like this naturally. There’s something so personal and lovable about this that I can’t do much else but gush about how awesome I smell. The long and short of it? Sweet, warm, honey, floral, and complex. Definitely worth a try.

Extra: Aftelier, the company, was established in 1997 by Mandy Aftel. Aftel has written books about natural perfumery. I have a copy of her Essence and Alchemy but haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.

Design: I have a sample of this as the full on bottle is a bit too steep for my wallet. From what I can see, it’s a squat glass container with a stopper. The sample bottle I’ve got is a cute little glass cylinder with a plastic cap. I see these in supply stores and they never stop being cute.

Fragrance Family: Floral Oriental

Notes: Mimosa, linden blossom, orange blossom, honeysuckle, ambergris, benzoin.

At $150 USD for a 1/4 oz of perfume, your eyes may be bugging out right now. But also put this into perspective considering the quality of the ingredients and how long a 1/4 oz bit of concentrated parfum will last you compared to a 3.4 oz of eau de parfum. And of course, the joy of natural fragrances. After all, natural ingredients are not cheap or easy to come by.

Reviewed in This Post: Honey Blossom, ~2010, Parfum.

Burberry Sport for Women

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Rounding off this dual of Burberry Sports is the counterpart for Burberry Sport for Men. The women’s version is also a sporty fragrance that lacks originality and depth. But hey, it smells okay. Burberry Sport for Women

In Bottle: Florals layered on sharp citrus and a much lighter ginger treatment than the men’s version. The florals are a bit sweet and fruity. The citrus is awfully strong which is where I guess the sport part of this fragrance is from.

Applied: Nicely vibrant sweet floral citrus with that initial sharpness from the ginger. The ginger is rather fleeting in this but it does hang around and give the fragrance a bit of spiciness as the florals deepen and sweeten the longer you wear it. Burberry Sport for Women takes a turn for the sweet, creamy floral side in its mid-stage as the magnolia note amps up and makes itself quite well known. This smells sharp and clean but still very feminine. It’s a nice sporty equivalent to the men’s fragrance as the two share some similarities but are adequately unique from one another. The final dry down is a pleasant sun-warmed woodsiness with a pretty sweet and creamy floral backing.

Extra: I actually like, by and large, Burberry’s fragrances. Brit was nice, The Beat is nice, Burberry London is good. And these, while unspectacular, are also good fragrances with a nice tempered sporty scent. I just think their bottle designs are rather hit or miss and so far they’ve been missing a lot.

Design: Pretty much the exact same design as Burberry Sport for men only the outer casing is white instead of black. The glass bottle held within the casing is the same red as the men’s version. I still don’t like the bottle design.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: mandarin, ginger, marine accord, fresh magnolia, honeysuckle, petit grain, solar notes, cedar wood, musk.

Again, it’s a sporty fragrance. This stuff is meant to be easily worn and meant to smell like this. I do like these two fragrances that Burberry has released though. They smell good. Not fantastic, not unique, but they are good smells that won’t be offending anyone any time soon.

Reviewed in This Post: Burberry Sport for Women, 2010, Eau de Toilette.

Juicy Couture Viva la Juicy

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Rounding out the Juicy Couture fragrance for women family is Viva la Juicy. By far, their most popular fragrance. So popular, in fact, that I smell this everywhere I go. On everybody. People love their Juicy, I guess. Viva la Juicy

In Bottle: Reminds me a lot of other fruity floral fragrances but I have to keep in mind that Viva la Juicy is the fruity floral that everyone wears. Funny enough the sugary sweet notes that are supposed to be at the bottom are also mingling at the top making Viva la Juicy smell like a fruit-flavored candy.

Applied: Okay, you can laugh me out of the ballpark, I like Viva la Juicy. I think it smells great. It’s a better treatment of a sweet fragrance than Couture Couture. Going on, it smells of creamy fruits and vanilla. Very reminiscent of sweet fruity florals everywhere, like I said. It’s got a strong resemblance to Love Etc. by The Body Shop, only done with more sugar and less tartness. As you let this age on you, the fruits go away and there’s a faint hint of flowers in the mid-stage that’s mixed with all the silly candy-like notes like caramel, vanilla and praline. The dessert factor only amps up as you keep wearing this as the florals in the middle give way to a lush full-on dessert course that smells mostly like soft vanilla tempered with a touch of sandalwood and gooey caramel. The caramel note in Viva la Juicy is actually used well as it isn’t cloying. This is a strong, sweet, fragrance and if you are afraid of cloying scents, be wary of Viva la Juicy as it is potently sweet and very young.

Extra: Juicy Couture has one well-known fragrance for men known as Dirty English. It is a scent that’s often been toted as being better than the series of women’s fragrances. I’ve had more than one opportunity to sniff it for myself but always manage to miss for some reason. There is also a fragrance for your dog called Juicy Crittoure which I have yet to see.

Design: Viva la Juicy is bottled in the same way as Juicy Couture. The accents and details are different with Viva la Juicy rocking a bright pink bow and a different seal. The bow can be taken off and used as a hair tie, whereas Juicy Couture’s wrap-around rope thing could be worn as a necklace. I don’t use either of these things but it’s pretty cute nonetheless.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Wild berries, mandarin, honeysuckle, gardenia, jasmine, amber, caramel, vanilla, sandalwood, praline.

Out of all the Juicy Couture fragrances I’m going to have to give it to Viva la Juicy. It’s a very good fruity floral. Good enough to smell it on everyone anyway.

Reviewed in This Post: Viva la Juicy, 2009, Eau de Parfum.

Peace, Love and Juicy Couture

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Peace, Love and Juicy Couture is the brand new Juicy perfume released this year. It’s got a hippie flare to it that makes it as cute as original Juicy Couture and Viva la Juicy. But that could just be the bottles talking. Did I mention I’m coming around to loving those bottles? Peace, Love and Juicy Couture

In Bottle: Green with a capital G. Peace, Love and Juicy Couture smells like the rind of a lemon mixed with various green notes and what I swear is a beautifully done iris.

Applied: Initial greenness leads the way with that nice lemon lime scent. This isn’t juice, it’s rind we’re talking about here. Sharp, green, fresh, crisp rind that envelops the opening and slowly fades into the mid-stage where Peace, Love and Juicy Couture turns to a bright, happy green floral with more emphasis on the hyacinth with a little punctuation on the iris. The lindem blossoms give this fragrance a nice, feathery softness to it. The green floral quality of this fragrance reminds me of Chanel Cristalle. That crisp, spring-like scent that lifts spirits. After having spring in autumn, Peace, Love and Juicy Couture splashes up the soft linden blossoms and dries into a very slightly earthy and woodsy patchouli.

Extra: I don’t think I give Juicy Couture enough of a chance when it comes to some of their fragrances. I’m not a fan of their apparel but Juicy Couture, Peace, Love and Juicy Couture, as well as Viva la Juicy are very well done scents.

Design: Bottled in a similar fashion as Juicy Couture and Viva la Juicy. Peace, Love and Juicy Couture features different decorative elements while keeping the same basic bottle concept. Dangling from the neck of this perfume bottle are two cute and colorful tassels.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Earthy

Notes: Lemon tree blossom, hyacinth, apple accord, black currant , sambac jasmine absolute, star magnolia, Malibu poppy, honeysuckle, linden blossom, orris extract, patchouli flower, musk.

This fragrance is clearly inspired by the 60s but I don’t  smell the 60s in this scent aside from that slightly earthy patchouli. The lasting power in this fragrance is unremarkable as it is quite a quick fader.

Reviewed in This Post: Peace, Love and Juicy Couture, 2010, Eau de Parfum.

Paris Hilton Siren

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So I went and smelled a Paris Hilton perfume today and aside from the looks at the drugstore some people were giving  me, it went all right. A lot of people swear by Paris’ perfumes, if they can’t swear by her personality so I was curious.  Siren

In Bottle: Smells fruity in the bottle with a hint of citrus as is per usual for a celebrity perfume. It smells a little bit like a slicked back coconut resting on a bed of fruit salad ringed with flowers. Pleasant but uninspired.

Applied: Fruity flare-up immediately followed by sweet florals where the frangipani makes itself most known. Siren’s a surprisingly pleasant and more successful beachy, tropical fragrance than Dare Me by Baby Phat but I’m still not sure I’m entirely on board with this situation because while it smells pleasant enough, it smells pretty generic and rather dull. As the fragrance ages, its mid-stage is a decked out sweet floral with a predominant splash of vanilla that reminds me quite vividly of Viva la Juicy by Juicy Couture. The florals get a bit weaker as the fragrance wears on though and you’re ultimately left with the hallmark of the modern perfume’s drydown; soft sandalwood and vanilla.

Extra: Paris Hilton has lent her name to the fragrance game for a number of years now and her perfume are quite popular. Maybe, and I hazard to say this, as popular as Britney Spears fragrances. The ad campaign for Siren had a golden mermaid Paris shopped onto a rock with crashing waves. It was a little ridiculous.

Design: Siren’s bottle reminds me a little bit of Guerlain’s Champs Elysees. It’s just in the shape really. It’s got a weird, twisted art deco type thing going on as well that I’m not 100% on board with but the bottling is not bad. You can tell they were going for the whole mermaid tail motif with the myth of the sirens and whatnot. It accomplishes what it needs to accomplish if the imagery is a little bit heavy-handed.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Apricot, mandarin, frangipani, honeysuckle, orchid, lotus, lily, sandalwood, vanilla, musk.

I know a lot of people are put off by celebrity perfume but there’s no shame in owning or liking celebuscents. It’s a bit of a funny misconception that people think Paris actually comes up with her own perfumes. Rest assured, she did not don gloves and goggles and spend years or months mixing fragrances together into a coherent mix. I’m pretty sure perfumer, Honorine Blanc had something of a hand in formulating this stuff.

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

Baby Phat Dare Me

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So I sprayed this on a tester card and decided to rub a little on myself to see how things go from there. How it smells on a tester card and on me is wildly different. Interesting, though not unheard of. Baby Phat Dare Me is a tropical blend of fruits and florals. Emphasis is on the coconut. Though on the card you really couldn’t tell just what it was trying to do. Dare Me

In Bottle: What the? All I get is tuberose. I swear this smells like a creamy tuberose which makes me think this is one of the more pleasant tuberose soliflores I’ve ever encountered. Upon reading the fragrance notes and looking at what everyone else says I am perplexed as I realize this was the result of a coconut note on astray. Hey, when you’re wrong, you’re wrong!

Applied: Actually, I refuse to believe I’m wrong as this smells like creamy tuberose. Big pink and smooth, with a bit of sweetness. That is what I get for the first few minutes and I’m sticking with my story. After things settle down a little and I regain my senses, I start to see where the coconut is coming from. It’s one of those sour coconut notes, not the creamy, lush kind that’s usually treated with vanilla and sugar to make it more gourmand. The coconut in this one is rather prevalent as it blends in with some tropic flowers and turns a bit green on me. As it settles down into the dry down stage, that sour coconut note is still lingering about until it dissolves into a slightly tart strange and a little bit musky.

Extra: I hold firm that I smell tuberose in this. I swear I’m not crazy. My nose might adore tuberose and smell it in everything though. So uh–as for this fragrance, it was supposed to be billed as a pleasant lush tropical, summery scent. They really outdid the tropical summery part of it and as much as I love coconut, that note in this fragrance was entirely too predominant and it wasn’t the sweet coconut variety either.

Design: Dare Me is bottled in a pink glass flacon with gold detailing and a plastic cap designed to look like a jewel. It looks a bit more like cauliflower to me though. I don’t find the design of the bottle aesthetically pleasing but I also think the look is a little over the top. However, I believe Dare Me is in line with the look of other Baby Phat bottles so if you are into that kind of look then you’ll like this.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Magnolia, island coconut, audacious southern honeysuckle, African white milkwood, confident crème de musk, sandalwood.

I’m not feeling the coconut note in this. What I’ve noticed with coconut notes is that there’s a couple kinds. The sweet type and the sour type. I encounter the sour type more often. Sometimes it’s loaded with sugar or vanilla which helps masks the sour. Case in point: Dare Me and Victoria’s Secret Coconut Craze. Then there’s the sweet coconut that isn’t as sour and has a nice sweet, wateriness to it. That one I swear I smelled in Creed’s Virgin Island Water. But then, it could all be the same coconut note for all I know and it’s just coming up strange in some fragrances but not in others.

Reviewed in This Post: Dare Me, 2010, Eau de Toilette.