Estee Lauder Dazzling Silver

Posted on by

Dazzling Silver is a lovely metal floral etched like a clean straight line that was released in 1998. It’s strong, not surprising, given Estée Lauder’s often vocal fragrances. It’s a synthetic, a very proud one at that as it makes no attempts at trying to convince you otherwise. Dazzling Silver

In Bottle: Perhaps it’s the loud and proud synthetic smell of this but Dazzling Silver immediately reminds me of Clinique Happy. Another very proud, very daring synthetic scent that’s more well-known than this. Dazzling Silver has a metallic element to its soft but powerful  florals.

Applied: The florals are the main stars of the show here and it’s really no surprise. Florals are pretty much all that’s in Dazzling Silver and not a whole lot else. If you’re looking for a smooth gourmand or smoky incense note you aren’t going to find it here. Dazzling Silver does floral well as the fragrance goes on like a competent synthetic floral and ages like a competent synthetic floral. Your initial application will have an element of that sweet metallic note. I don’t know if I’m making up the metallic note but something in this reminds me of that cold, coolness that metals tend to have. It gets a bit greener as it ages, it remains clean and the florals remain strong. The best thing about this stuff is its longevity. You’ll find this floating around you for a good long while smelling relatively like the pretty floral it is right into the dry down.

Extra: Estée Lauder is a New York based cosmetics company founded in 1946 by Joseph and Estée Lauder. You’ve probably seen their makeup somewhere before. And if you haven’t, you’ve likely seen a subsidiary of their brand around. A few favorites of makeup afficionados include MAC, Clinique and Smashbox.

Design: Dazzling Silver is held in a clear glass bottle with a frosted glass cap that’s reminiscent of White Linen’s design with its soft, frosted glass look. There’s no fanfare beyond the cap but the bottle’s design is pleasant to look at and easy to hold. The sprayer is just fantastic.

Fragrance Family: Clean Floral

Notes: Lily, wild lotus, Japanese mountain orchid, purple vanilla orchid, sunset orchid, passion flower, rose, magnolia, sandalwood.

I’m not much of a fan of Estée Lauder’s fragrances. They are lovely, I’m sure but the brand often has this feel of being more sophisticated than I am. Every year I get older, Estée Lauder’s scents seem to age as well and thus remain out of reach.

Reviewed in This Post: Dazzling Silver, 2004, Eau de Parfum.

Britney Spears Fantasy

Posted on by

Watch a few perfume collection videos on YouTube and you’ll start to notice a pattern. Everyone owns relatively the same perfumes and one of the most commonly mentioned is Britney Spears Fantasy. That fragrance in the crazy rhinestone studded ball. So of course I went out to smell it. A scent this popular practically begs to be sniffed. Fantasy

In Bottle: Pink, sweet and candy-like. There’s a huge jolt of sugar. I’m thinking Couture Couture’s sugar mountain has a very likely adversary vying for first place in the tooth decay competition. This doesn’t mean that Fantasy smells bad. This stuff is sweet, but it’s not so sweet that it approaches the point of no return; cloying sweet.

Applied: Sweet fruits with a tiny bit of tartness on the opening. The tartness gives way to more sweetness as the gourmand notes come in for a jam. I don’t believe I could smell a big cupcake but I did smell vanilla and white chocolate that lends the fragrance a very nice creaminess. This is a pretty and edible smell that went from fruits to sugar and candy very quickly. The dry down takes a while as longevity in Fantasy was quite good for me. I get clean, sugary musk on dry down.

Extra: The advertising for this fragrance claims that it’s supposed to signify Britney’s more grown up personality. I don’t know what in Fantasy is supposed to represent that but I don’t have any of it. This stuff is extremely popular with young girls and younger women. I wouldn’t call it anything remotely approaching grown up. But it’s not a bad fragrance. It’s fun, it’s girly, it’s young. Just don’t try to take it seriously.

Design: The design, for me, is repellent. It looks like a number of things but none of those things are particularly attractive to me. I suppose the shape is sort of reminiscent of a fortune teller’s ball and the crystals…eh, I don’t know. Everything from the shape, to the crystals, to the detailing around the cap just isn’t doing it for me. Not me with my clean lines and ultra-minimalism. Interestingly enough the belted design around the sprayer featured in the picture above with the crystals is no longer being produced.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Red lychee, golden quince, kiwi, cupcake accord, jasmine petals, white chocolate orchid, creamy musk, enchanted orris root, and sensual woods.

Some of the verbs used for those notes are just silly. But it’s also fun and playful. I can’t take Fantasy seriously. This isn’t the kind of fragrance you wear to a board meeting. However, you could wear Fantasy to the beach, to a hoe down, or a cupcake festival. Basically, if it’s not whimsical and fun it’s not a place Fantasy would fit in.

Reviewed in This Post: Britney Spears, 2010, Eau de Parfum.

Fruits & Passion Orchid

Posted on by

Evidently, many of Fruits & Passion’s eau de toilettes remain largely undiscovered. I have a hard time finding a complete database of their outputted fragrances though perhaps some of my difficulty has to do more with ignorance rather than Fruits & Passion’s tiny footprint in fragrance territory. Orchid is a sweet, floral, ambery fragrance, simple and fruit and just plain fun. Orchid

In Bottle: Sweet florals. The florals are a bit drowned by the amber in this fragrance and the perfume itself reminds me of L’Instant de Guerlain. Notice that this is now two fragrances that remind of L’Instant. Orchid’s amber note is a strong one and the blending to get the florals and ambers to work together favored the latter and this treatment shows in the bottle and will probably be the same story on skin.

Applied: Big and floral with the flowers disappearing on me sooner than I’d like. This is less orchid and more amber and something is trying to convince me that I’m smelling peach. A ripe, pink, very sweet peach. This fragrance ages and drys down very fast as its mid stage is characterized by that fading peach note while the amber gets a bit stronger. The dry down at the end has amber and a slight powdery note hanging out until all that’s left is the amber base.

Extra: Orchid belongs in a floral eau de toilette collection from Fruits & Passion. There are two other fragrances in the collection as Fruits & Passion tend to like going in threes. The other two are Rose, which smells very much of roses and Jasmine which I have not yet smelled.

Design: Orchid comes in a tall, thin rectangular bottle with designs embossed onto the glass. There is a cap for this fragrance. A matching plastic rectangular shape that I found nearly impossible to take off. As a result my bottle of Orchid is lacking a cap. The sprayer can be a little flaky, sometimes distributing so much scent that it drools but I have only had that happen a handful of times. By and large the bottle and sprayer work fine. The cap for my bottle was just awful though and I have opted not to use it.

Fragrance Family: Soft Oriental

Notes: Orchid, amber, musk.

Orchid is a hard fragrance to keep on the skin. Amber, to me, is one of those ethereal meant to blend into the background notes. That’s partly the reason why it’s used so often as a base because its purpose is enhance the natural scent of the skin. Now, I hesitate to even lump this fragrance in with the orientals. I mean, it’s amber dominant but that’s pretty much all.

Reviewed in This Post: Orchid, 2010, Eau de Toilette.