Victoria’s Secret Dream Angels Heavenly

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Dream Angels Heavenly is one of the staples of the mass market perfume industry aimed at younger women and teenagers. It’s a painfully easy to love and simple fragrance.

Dream Angels Heavenly

In Bottle: Cleaned up florals with a hint of scrubbed vanilla settling in the background.

Applied: I’ll commend Dream Angels Heavenly for introducing the powdery element that seems to mingle in with the sandalwood. It gives this fragrance a bit of a boost in terms of sophistication. The fragrance itself is a clean floral opener with a sweet streak. The scent heads into powder territory shortly after the top notes as it settles into a clean flowering mid-stage that isn’t complex, unique or special. But it works for how simple it is. There’s wafts of that crazy little vanilla to my nose, an the vanilla becomes more evident when the scent starts to dry down as sandalwood and vanilla take over the show and Dream Angels Heavenly ends up drying down like most fragrances geared toward the young women fragrance lovers of the world.

Extra: Settling itself into the very comfortable demographic that it did, Dream Angels Heavenly carves a nice spot for itself in the market. It’s a mid to low-range fragrance with a 1 oz. bottle running you for $42 USD. Not bad for generic-smelling stuff.

Design: The bottle I’m not a fan of. It’s just a glass bottle with a feminine silhouette. I see the bottle for this stuff and the first thing I think of is shampoo. It’s a well-designed bottle that’s easy to hold and use but I just can’t convince myself that this looks good or interesting.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Peony, sandalwood, vanilla, white musk.

It should be noted that if you don’t like this version of Dream Angels, Victoria’s Secret has several iterations that come out every year with many being discontinued. So if you find a Dream Angels you like, snap it up with the knowledge that it may get discontinued.

Reviewed in This Post: Dream Angels Heavenly, 2010, Eau de Parfum.

Givenchy Organza

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My mother owns a bottle of Organza that she’s been slowly whittling down for a number of years. I wouldn’t be surprised if her bottle was approaching its tenth birthday she’s had this for a while. Organza is sensual, classic-smelling, and a bit difficult to like at times for me. But it is beautiful.

Organza

In Bottle: Amber-like. Warm and sensual with a little bit of dirtiness in there. Organza is spicy, sophisticated, and a touch sweet layered with woods.

Applied: Citrus on the opening with a rather sudden dirty note showing up earlier in the fragrance. This smells rather personable while at the same time it projects the fact that it’s a fragrance as put on as anything else. The citrus dries off rather quickly leaving me a spicy amber coating a bouquet of jasmine, tuberose, and earthy iris. The mid-stage is where Organza’s dirty note amps up a bit more, taking this fragrance away from what normally would be a simple clean perfume to a dense, rich amber-like fragrance with florals to temper the warmth a bit. The dry down is an interesting affair. Amber is the star of the show here and the drydown is no different. It play on the amber is a powdery woodsy scent, a bit like wood dust in a way.

Extra: Sometimes I associate my mother with this fragrance but she wore No.5 before she ever knew about Organza.

Design: It’s pretty obvious what the bottle is trying to reflect here. The curve of a woman wearing a dress. There’s elements of column structure here too. I rather like Organza’s design. It’s elegant and like the fragrance itself. The soft, gentle curves and line work on the bottle remind me of Art Nouveau.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: Bergamot, orange flower, gardenia, nutmeg, tuberose, honeysuckle, jasmine, iris, peony, walnut, cedar, amber, vanilla, guaiac wood.

It’s funny how tastes change over the years. When my mother first got this perfume I couldn’t stand it. It was too strong. Smelled weird. Now I can see why she liked this.

Reviewed in This Post: Organza, ~2003, Eau de Parfum.

Bond No.9 Chinatown

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While most people might think of a fragrance named Chinatown being something like a spicy incense–this is actually a fruity floral. And it’s a beautiful fruity floral at that.

Chinatown

In Bottle: Sweet peach and tuberose with a bit of cardamom spice added in.

Applied: One of the few fragrances, in my books, that does a sweet peach note well. It’s sweet but not to the point of candy. It settles the peach in fruity territory and dishes into the mid-stage rather quickly. There’s supposed to be bergamot up top but I got very little of it in the opening. Maybe a dash, a couple of dewy drops. Not a whole lot of citrus in this one to go around as there’s more cardamom with its spicy–call me crazy–slightly earthy quality in this fragrance. The mid-stage is marked with my friend tuberose and the lingering cardamom. A bit tame and sweet and heady, the tuberose drowns out whatever other flowers might be in this mid-stage. Lucky for me, I love tuberose and despite her being the dominant floral, she isn’t as loud here as she is in Fracas, for instance. Now my favorite white flower with the  big personality does settle down a bit, letting hints of orange blossom and honeyed vanilla seep through with a rather pleasant drydown of warm spicy cardamom and woods.

Extra: Chinatown was composed by Aurelien Guichard. It’s one of my favorite fruity floral fragrances for its marriage of fruits, florals with an added kick of spice. There’s different versions of it too, including one limited edition bottle that’s $650USD.

Design: Chinatown’s bottle shape is similar to that of other Bond No.9 bottles. The star shape is growing on me, though I still think it looks a little silly. I do love Chinatown’s design of a pink background splashed with a white be-flowered branch.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Bergamot, peach blossom, gardenia, honey, tuberose, peony, orange blossom, patchouli, cedar, vanilla, sandalwood, cardamom, Guiac wood.

I had the same problem opening my sample vial of Chinatown as I did with other Bond No.9 sample vials. They do something amazing to vacuum seal this stuff in or something because I just can’t get a grip. Regardless, Chinatown is a beautiful fruity floral and one of the more lovely renditions of the fragrance genre. If you’re looking high-end and not finding the fruity florals that you love, then give this stuff a whiff–if you can get the sample vial open, that is.

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

Britney Spears Circus Fantasy

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So I dragged my heels on this one a little bit. I’m fatigued with the whole Britney Spears Fantasy line, to be honest. Fantasy, itself, is an icon of celebrity fragrances and its flankers are nothing to be sniffed at either. Though they aren’t so unique  that if you passed on them, you’d miss out.

Circus Fantasy

In Bottle: Circus Fantasy does clean! That’s a nice mix up from the fruitiness of the other two Fantasy scents I’ve tried. It smells like a very sweet glass of lemonade.

Applied: Sweet citrus up front and the citrus is a quick fader so we get down to business rather quick. Heading into the rest of the opening, Circus Fantasy hits up a sweet berry note and falls into a pile of pretty little violets right away. The mid-stage is a more floral fragrance, doing a mixture of sweet and clean florals rather well as the scent hits up peony and orchid. It smells really similar to a bunch of other celebrity fragrances in the mid-stage with that sweet floral heart that’s so recognizable. At least it’s easy to accept and wear! The dry down is an uninspired array of vanilla and sugar with a jolt of clean dashed in there for good measure. Overall, Circus Fantasy does clean and refreshing rather well. The mid-stage bores me a bit along with the end stage but the opening was pretty good. I liked the lemonade smell and wished we had gotten more of that.

Extra: Now the only fragrance in the Fantasy line that I haven’t gotten my nose on yet is Hidden Fantasy. That’s the red one. I can’t seem to find it anywhere but online and I would like to avoid getting more than a decant or sampler spray of it so until I track it down, I’m sure Britney’s perfume line will come out with another Fantasy flanker.

Design: Still hate the bottle. Sorry guys. It will probably never look any better no matter what they do with it. Circus Fantasy is an appealing shade of blue at least, with red rhinestones set into the bottle’s glass.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Raspberry, apricot, lotus, orchid, peony, vanilla, sugar, musk.

Move over Midnight Fantasy, Circus Fantasy’s got you beat. I really do like that lemonade opening and wish they could have just bottled that for all three stages.

Reviewed in This Post: Circus Fantasy, 2009, Eau de Parfum.

Victoria’s Secret Pink

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Point your nose anywhere and you’ll probably catch a whiff of this. Anywhere that a Victoria’s Secret store can be found anyway. Pink is one of those extremely lovable, innocent fragrances that’s so easy to like that it seems like you can smell it everywhere.

Victoria's Secret Pink

In Bottle: Bright and fruity floral. Sweet, obviously, and very easy to like. This isn’t too heavy, not too sweet, not to overbearing, just a really jovial blend that casts a little ray of sunshine on your nose.

Applied: So I was a little vague on the opener, that was because there’s nothing much about Pink that  really sets it aside from other fruity florals. The one thing I can say for it is how optimistic this smells. Like if you were to bottle the feeling of optimism, this is probably what it smells like to me. It’s a big flare of sweet citrus, crisp grapefruit layered sweet berries and soft violets and a pretty mix of freesia and peony in the middle. If you’ve smelled a fruity floral, Pink is a good reminder of that. The fragrance dries down to a very familiar sandalwood vanilla with a hint of clean vetiver in there to give the scent a really minor dot of sweet hay.

Extra: Pink has a lot of flankers named after it including Pink Sweet & Flirty, Pink Fresh & Clean, Pink Pretty & Pure, and Pink Soft & Dreamy. If you need it, there’s probably a flanker for it.

Design: Pink’s design reminds me of cheerleaders. Big bold letters, white on pink. Even the smell is something I’d imagine a high school cheerleader would favor. The design is a functional, if somewhat uninspired, shape.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Artemisia, bergamot, green leaves, mandarin, violet leaves, juniper berry, lily of the valley, freesia, peony, neroli, musk, vetiver, sandalwood, vanilla.

I’m not a big fan of Pink myself. The scent is just fine, of course, very nice actually. It’s just so generic. Though I suppose that might be part of its charm.

Reviewed in This Post: Pink, 2009, Eau de Toilette.

Il Profumo Macadam

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Macadam is like one of those orientals you can’t believe is an oriental. It’s a lighter, airier version than the likes of CK Obsession or Opium. It works so well on the skin in such a subtle way.

Macadam

In Bottle: A play up of light jasmine with a background of something deep and sweet and sensual.

Applied: The opener is a fantastic little floral bit that hits on green but doesn’t ever reach the point where you might classify it as clean or fresh. It’s a dewy green that complements the jasmine in this fragrance very well as the scent ages with a light floral heart mixed with a sweet coat of light amber and deep myrrh. Now, my description probably makes this sound like it’s quite a trip back to the 80s with the oriental explosion but the fragrance is actually rather subtle, it’s personal and one of the easiest to wear orientals I’ve encountered. The dry down is a hit of warm amber, patchouli that reminds me a bit of moss for some reason, and sandalwood.

Extra: Il Profumo is headed  by Silvana Casoli. The company has a boutique in Italy and online.

Design: Very simple bottle and design. Rectangular glass, silver cap with a slight lip for visual interest and grip. Nothing special about the design which helps when you’re trying to just focus on the perfume.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: Jasmine, peony, pitaya, white rose, amber, myrrh, patchouli, sandalwood.

I really like Macadam and and it’s light, interesting oriental personality. It’s extremely well blended and plays well on the skin. If you want a different oriental than the mainstream offerings, check this one out.

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

Versace Bright Crystal

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Bright Crystal’s one of those designer fragrances geared toward younger consumers. It hits that purchaser’s sweet spot that’s totally into easy to wear, light and floral, and most importantly young and approachable.

Bright Crystal

In Bottle: Rather strong presence of sharp green grapefruit and tart pomegranate. The florals try hard to make an appearance in the opening but the top of this scent is rather two-dimensional.

Applied: The big fruity opening nets you in if you like fruity fragrances and the light floral heart will keep you around. This opens as a sharp yuzu/grapefruit with a strong flare of pomegranate before it digs into the mid-stage where a mixture of sheer clean florals awaits. The magnolia in this is particularly well done, it’s lush and pretty but not overpowering. There’s just enough of it to make you smell clean and flowery. That mixed with the cleaned-up girly lotus and the always girly and cleaned up peony and you get a mixture of some of the easiest to love florals in perfumery. The dry down is a cool green amber, kind of reminds me of sap, and a rather nice gentle waft of woods and clean musk.

Extra: I think the word of the day here is “clean”. Bright Crystal is highly approachable, highly likable, and will not make people clear a circle around you. It’s really easy to love, and I do like it quite a bit. It’s not the most interesting composition in the world, but you have to hand it to Versace if you’re looking for a youthful and clean scent.

Design: All right, I’m not a fan of the bottle. The color is pleasing, the shape of the bottle itself is simple and easy to like. But that giant, jewel-shaped cap is a bit too much for me. It does make the bottle stand out rather well, but it’s a tad too flashy in my opinion.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Pomegranate, yuzu, iced accord, magnolia, lotus, peony, plant amber, musk, mahogany.

Bright Crystal is a good choice for office wear or elevator wear. It’s just one of those fragrances that I have to lump into inoffensive and not much else. It’s one of the better inoffensive and not much else perfumes out there though.

Reviewed in This Post: Bright Crystal, 2010, Eau de Toilette.

Bath and Body Works Cotton Blossom

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I was surprised to find how many people wanted to smell like laundry. Can you really blame them? Laundry scents are among some of the most finely tailored fragrances out there. While perfumes are an artistic canvas where the lives of the abstract smells dwell, laundry detergent and other household cleaning or hygiene products is the world of the wildly successful but ultimately uniform. And then there’s Cotton Blossom.

Cotton Blossom

In Bottle: Sharp and floral. This smells so benign. And benign in this case is a compliment because what else is Cotton Blossom really trying to achieve but that ultimate laundry smell?

Applied: Goes on sharp and clean. Clean in all caps even as Cotton Blossom wastes no time at all telling you what it’s going to be about. And what it’s about is laundry and soap. This smells like any number of laundry smells you may have enjoyed. It’s slightly flowery, it’s powdery, it’s huge on the soap, it’s sharp and clean white musk and it’ll make you feel fresh and neat and there’s nothing else to it. The opening stage is a bit sharp and this stuff goes on strong. It mellows out a bit in the mid-stage where the sharpness is rounded out a little and the powder becomes more noticeable. Cotton Blossom, strangely enough, smells a bit watery on me in the dry down but maintains its powdery floral personality. Experiencing this was like smelling laundry detergent, pouring it into the machine, then turning it on. Sharp initial blast, mellowed pour, mixed with water. Kudos to Bath and Body Works for this one. If you want to smell like laundry, Cotton Blossom’s your gal.

Extra: For what it is, Cotton Blossom has surprisingly awesome longevity. So while this doesn’t come in eau de toilette or eau de parfum, I don’t think this fragrance needs to be any more potent.

Design: Cotton Blossom is presently available in a body mist form in Bath and Body Works’ older design. So you don’t get anything special. Just a tall bottle that’s entirely plastic with a semi-transparent label bearing the fragrance’s name and theme. The best thing about the body mist at Bath and Body Works is you get a ton of fragrance for very little money. There’s 236ml in a full size.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Sun dried linen accord, grass, mandarin blossom, jeans accord, peony, cotton, musk, baby powder.

I will never be able to take that notes list seriously. Never. I love how playful the list is though. Anyway, Demeter also has a fragrance that’s supposed to smell like laundry in Laundromat. I vastly prefer Cotton Blossom as it lasts longer and is far cheaper.

Reviewed in This Post: Cotton Blossom, 2010, Body Mist.

Dolce & Gabbana Rose The One

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Last The One flanker I’m going to do in a while. Rose The One is a member of Dolce & Gabbana’s The One line. This time there’s an obvious relationship to the rose note.

Rose The One

In Bottle: Rather bit of citrus to open it up. The pink grapefruit is rather detectable, almost all I smell with a sweet lingering modern rose in the background. Rose The One is sweet and clean, with a nice use of pink grapefruit up front.

Applied: Clean pink grapefruit opening the fragrance with a slight tartness borrowed from the black currant. The rose note in this fragrance comes up rather quickly in the opening but isn’t very strong and doesn’t do much to overpower the grapefruit. Don’t get me wrong, I love the grapefruit but for a fragrance that tries to capitalize on rose, I would have expected the rose to be stronger. Still, the rose note hangs out rather admirably and I catch whiffs of it along the way. The fragrance settles into the mid-stage with a nice modern rose and lily interpretation with lingering bites of pink grapefruit. I smell sweet peony intermingled with the floral-dominant mid-stage too as warmness washes over the mid-stage and helps to ease that grapefruit out of the way. The dry down is what you would expect of a fragrance ending with the sandalwood and vanilla duo.

Extra: Rose  The One had a fantastic little ad campaign featuring Scarlett Johansson in a rose-dominant commercial. The entire campaign was very soft and obviously trying to capitalize on the modern rose note that’s the namesake for this fragrance.

Design: Once again, Rose The One is designed similarly to other The One bottles with a squat classic shape. Rose The One hammers home that it’s a romantic rose note based thing by being a lovely shade of pink. There’s rose gold as the cap. A rosy pink liquid. Even the lettering is in a deep rosy color. It’s all very lovely and very feminine.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Black currant, pink grapefruit, mandarin, lily of the valley, rose, litchi, peony, Madonna lily, ambrette seed, sandalwood, musk, vanilla.

I’m going to keep going with L’eau as my favorite iteration of The One for now. Rose The One is pleasant enough but at times it’s a strange battle between the grapefruit opener and the floral mid-stage.

Reviewed in This Post: Rose The One, 2010, Eau de Parfum.

Escada Marine Groove

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Marine Groove

Marine Groove

Ah, Escada, the masters of the simple fruity florals. Their fragrances are generally nice. The perfumes are certainly easy to wear, but I can’t help but notice how almost everything from Escada smells like the same fruity-floral dollop, up to and including Marine Groove.

In Bottle: Big pineapple opening. There’s a lot of pineapple in this. It’s sweet and fruity, very tropical. I’m trying to find the passionfruit that’s supposed to be here but all I get is pineapple.

Applied: Yeah, I don’t know who the notes list is trying to kid but there’s definitely pineapple in this and it’s very big. Marine Groove hits a tropical feel right away with its sweet, fruity opening. I’m not really seeing any other fruits but pineapple here and if there are other fruits, the pineapple’s pretty much got the top tier of the notes pyramid on this cornered. As Marine Groove ages into its mid-stage the pineapple settles down a bit and lets a benign set of jasmine and peony up. The mid-stage is marked with a light and airy floral quality with a coating of sweetness. This isn’t too sweet, just sweet enough to let you know you’re not supposed to take Marine Groove seriously. The dry down is a dull thud of clean, white musk. There’s not a long of longevity with this, or a lot of complexity. The projection on me was fantastic in the opening and then it just dissolves starting from the mid-stage and onward.

Extra: Marine Groove was released in 2009 as a limited edition summer scent. There’s very little to set this fragrance apart from other pineapple dominant scents and if I had to pick between the sweet fruity pineapple in this and the sweet boozy pineapple in Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs’ Rangoon Riptide, Rangoon Riptide would win every time.

Design: Marine Groove’s bottle has the same design as most of Escada’s other bottles. That elongated heart glass bottle with the gradient colors on it. In Marine Groove’s case, we got reddish-purple gradiating into bluish-purple near the base. I still don’t like the way it looks and still think it makes the packaging look like a bottle of shampoo.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Passionfruit, peony, jasmine, musk.

Sheer, easy to wear, young, fun, nothing at all to judge in terms of complexity. Marine Groove is a summer scent through and through.

Reviewed in This Post: Marine Groove, 2009, Eau de Toilette.