Oscar de la Renta Tropical Flower

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I smelled this fragrance before I saw the bottle and while the fragrance left me lukewarm, the bottle really turned me off. Something about the colors, the shape and the way it felt just didn’t settle well with me. Just as well for lukewarm perfume.

Tropical Flower

Tropical Flower

In Bottle: Tropical, pleasant but not especially unique or interesting. I get a lot of fruits, sweet and cooling.

Applied: Tropical fruits upon application, smells like a dewy melon mixed in a tropical drink and meant to be enjoyed under an umbrella. There is a floral, rose note that wafts in during the mid stage with a liberal coating of sugar that runs over the opening. If this had been a bit less sweet, it might have done a little better because there’s something decent about the mid stage and its florals that are trying to class up Tropical Flower, but aren’t quite making it because of the sugar. The dry down is a dead end of white musk and the remnants of sugary fruits and frangipani.

Extra: Having been too busy this summer to make it to the beach, I tried to replace my beachless summer with a fragrance. Some day I’ll make it to the Bahamas, but for now, the Tropical Flower just isn’t a substitution.

Design: I really can’t say I like the design of Tropical Flower’s bottle. It looks very plastic, even though it isn’t. And maybe that’s what they were going for all along, it just doesn’t appeal to me.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Passionfruit, melon, raspberry, gardenia, jasmine, frangipani, white musk.

So that was Tropical Flower, a fairly underwhelming fragrance.

Reviewed in This Post: Tropical Flower, ~2008, Eau de Toilette.

Balmain La Mome

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Ambre Gris by Balmain was one of the first perfumes I ever reviewed for this blog. Back then I was still in my “Oh gosh! Fruits and flowers are so good!” phase. I’ve since grown a bit in terms of taste (or at least I like to think I did) and while I still love my flowers, my clean smells, and my fruits I’ve also warmed to Ambre Gris enough to be excited about La Mome rolling out of my sampler box for a try.

La Mome

La Mome

In Bottle: Roses, violets and an undercurrent of amber.

Applied: A flash of sweet raspberry that opens the fragrance under a fruity, sweet pretense. The rose is quick to fall in and I’m glad for that because I think I’ve had my fill of raspberry for a while. The rose has a lovely soft and classic affect mixing beautifully with an amber note that sweetens and warms the fragrance. I get violets the longer I wear this, giving the fragrance a bit of dusty appeal like I’m wearing a fine fragrance and just dusted myself down with some violet powder. This reminds me of fancy windows for some reason. Windows with intricate little patterns in the glass. Windows that lead to an exquisite sitting room. It’s deceptively simple because this is a much more complex scent than the seemingly easygoing violet, rose and amber mixture.

Extra: A little bit of research yielded an explanation for the naming convention of this fragrance. La Mome means “The Kid” which is a dedication to Edit Piaf.

Design: I love the design of this bottle. Balmain does very well with its packaging. The juice, the color of the juice, down to the materials and the style of the bottle, and the weight of the whole thing are meticulous. I love everything about it, up to and including the little tassels.

Fragrance Family: Floral Oriental

Notes: Pink pepper, raspberry, freesia, rose, violet, myrrh, iris, opoponax, amber, musk.

Sometime I should sit down and take a good sidelong stare at how my tastes in fragrance have changed over the past two years. I went from a pretty uneducated lover of fruity florals to a pretty uneducated lover of everything else too. I never would have thought a little hobby blog could take me this far.

Reviewed in This Post: La Mome, 2008, Eau de Parfum.

Jessica Simpson Vintage Bloom

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I will forever associate Jessica Simpson fragrances to that line of supposedly edible perfume that I have yet to taste for myself. People have reported they taste like varying degrees of fake vanilla flavor though. Anyway, this post isn’t about edible perfume. It’s just about Jessica Simpson’s newest fragrance, Vintage Bloom.

Vintage Bloom

Vintage Bloom

In Bottle: Smells fruity and floral. I know this is being pushed as a pure floral, but it smells like a standard fruity floral to me.

Applied: Yeah, big old fruit. I want to blame it on the combination of citrus and raspberry. There’s also more florals in this than peony. I want to say rose and jasmine with peony to make the trifecta of floral boredom. The end game is also largely typical with a clean sandalwood fade. The fragrance as a whole is dull but very wearable. It’s a nice neutral scent for a younger crowd that wants to smell nice and not controversial or complex in any way. It reminds me of–well, of a lot of other fragrances that smell exactly like this–all of which also fall into the celebuscent category. Chances are, if you own anything with another celebrity’s name on it that leans more towards “smells like flowers” than “smells like fruit” or “smells like candy” then you don’t need to buy a bottle of this. If you own any of Bath and Body Works’ latest floral releases then you don’t need a bottle of this. If you are missing a “smells like flowers” celebrity fragrance and feel like you need a little more Jessica Simpson in your life then you could do worse than Vintage Bloom.

Extra: I always feel like I have to write in a disclaimer for fans of these celebrities that no, Jessica Simpon/Paris Hilton/Britney Spears did not become perfumers overnight and mix their own fragrances in their bathtubs or whatever. Vintage Bloom was actually made by Parlux. The people (with an unfortunate Flash website) who brought you other fragrances such as Rhianna’s Reb’l Fleur, Paris Hilton’s Can Can, and Queen Latifah’s Queen.

Design: The bottle could look better. As it is, it’s one of those over-designed pieces that’s too ornate to be called simple, modern or elegant, and not ornate enough to qualify as extravagant. It kind of skirts that awkward middle where it doesn’t hit modern or “vintage”. It just looks kind of tacky and out of place and I can’t say I’m a big fan.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Lemon, lime, raspberry, peony, sandalwood, musk.

Remember when Jessica Simpson actually sang for a living instead of selling perfume with her name on it? Or embarrassing herself on a reality TV show? Is she even still singing? I’m about as up to date with music as I am with television and movies.

Reviewed in This Post: Vintage Bloom, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Coach Poppy Flower

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Coach Poppy Flower is a flanker to Poppy. It’s supposed to put a more floral spin on the original fragrance. Not sure what else they want out of the original Poppy because that one was fairly floral to me. Ah well, we’ll see.

Poppy Flower

Poppy Flower

In Bottle: Fresh, juicy flowers with a lot of water lily representation.

Applied: Sadly I’m smelling predominantly water lily from the starting point. I get a bit of citrus and the other sweet fruity things in this, but I suppose this is how you can go about making an already floral fragrance even more floral. The water lily gives me a bit of a headache as it seems particularly potent in this fragrance. The rest of the florals are giving up a good fight to help overwhelm or tame the water lily but I think that initial whiff blasted whatever chance the rest of the notes in this had for me. I really just get a lot of water lily with a little bit of jasmine and rose layered in there for good measure. As the fragrance ages, the peony comes up a bit more and given my previous association with peony, I don’t think that’s a good thing. Poppy Flower smells watery to me, kind of like a flower water mix and it isn’t very good, but it’s not horrendous. I wouldn’t venture to say this is okay, it’s just not too bad.

Extra: Coach Poppy Flower is marketed as fashionable, chic, and flirty. I have to admit, that despite being bombarded by marketing that claims something is flirty, I have yet to truly understand what that means in a marketing perspective and the word has been thrown about so much that it’s lost all meaning to me. What I do know about flirtiness is that I get nothing of the sort from Poppy Flower.

Design: Similar shape and style to that of Poppy, only it’s interpreted as purple and silver this time. I still don’t like the bottle, but the handwritten affect they used on the packaging is still fitting and aesthetically pleasing in its own way.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Citrus, black currant, raspberry, litchi, apricot, ivy, water lily, rose, jasmine, peony, sandalwood, musk, amber.

Coach Poppy Flower is available in EDP format and also comes in a body lotion if that kind of thing floats your boat. Me, I’m not personally a fan of this fragrance and actually prefer Poppy.

Reviewed in This Post: Poppy Flower,  2011, Eau de Parfum.

Vera Wang Princess Night

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Really? Another one? At this point, the Princess line has become this heart-shaped, sugary thing I find myself inexplicably drawn to. Like I can justify smelling its many iterations in the hopes that something about the whole lot will strike my fancy. So here goes nothing.

Princess Night

Princess Night

In Bottle:Fruity with a distinct sweet vanilla fragrance. There’s a creamy quality to it too. Smells a lot like a warm berry dessert.

Applied: Fruity opening with a slightly tart berry personality that pretty much bursts out of the bottle and attaches itself to your skin to attack you while it has the chance. The berries are rather shortlived and end up devolving into this anonymous “fruity” smell that mixes rather nicely, but also rather blandly, with the florals in the midstage. The staple jasmine, rose, and orange flower combination does what its always done–create a benign floral twist that behaves in the presence of fruits and vanillas. The dry down isn’t too much to write home about either. Sweet vanilla, layered with a hint of woods to give the fragrance a warm, sweet finish. The warmth in this one shouldn’t be confused with the warmth you might get from an amber note, this is all mild warmth. Kind of like dipping your toe in lukewarm water as opposed to wrapping yourself in a plush sweater.

Extra: Princess Night, presumably after the success of the Princess line by Vera Wang, was released in January 2012.

Design: All right, who green lighted this thing? I picked up the bottle and had glitter all over my hand the instant I came into contact with it. Now I’m not as big on glitter as some people–in fact, I kind of hate glitter. Regardless, the glitter makes the already garish bottle look even more garish. Princess Night was sitting next to a bottle of regular old Princess and the former made the latter look like a baccarat masterpiece. I’m sorry, the look doesn’t appeal to me and the glitter just turned me off completely. On more technical terms, Princess Night is shaped exactly like the rest of the Princess line with a removable ring you can wear on your finger. It’s two chief differences being the dark purple glitter that covers the entirety of the bottle and a metal tag hung from the neck to identify the fragrance.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Oriental

Notes: Red berries, raspberry, watermelon, orange flower, jasmine, rose, sugar, vanilla, musk, woods.

Kind of had to stretch to call this an oriental but what else stands out from Princess Night but it’s fruity opening and vanilla finish? Maybe the next Princess flanker will work out for me a bit better.

Reviewed in This Post: Princess Night, 2012, Eau de Toilette.

Taylor Swift Wonderstruck

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So Taylor Swift’s name enters the world of celebrity fragrances. Did she do any better than the multitudes of celebrity fragrances that came before hers? Nope.

Wonderstruck

Wonderstruck

In Bottle: Sweet berries with a heavy sweet note that’s reminiscent of vanilla layered over a thin and sparse coating of flowers.

Applied: Smells like berry hard candy mixed with vanilla. Not particularly interesting and not particularly new or fascinating. I think I’ve officially burnt myself out on fruity florals now because Wonderstruck is actually striking me the wrong way. Again, it doesn’t smell bad. It’s just boring. Anyway the vanilla berry fragrance takes on a bit of juiciness from the peach or the apple or whatever the heck fruit smoothie concoction rolls in after the opening. This makes the thing smell like Hidden Fantasy by Britney Spears tripped and fell into a vat of Viva la Juicy. The midstage is marked with a hint of florals rising up like a horrible ocean of sweetness and girliness. The fragrance reminds me of any number of female celebrity perfumes and its identity really blends in with the rest of its competition. The dry down isn’t any more remarkable either, a dose of vanilla, a hint of warm amber, a bit of sandalwood and white musk to give the fragrance that clean, sweet, girly ending.

Extra: Wonderstruck was released this year to a happy audience of Taylor Swift fans who will be equally  happy to note that the perfume smells good if you’re into fruity floral fragrances. Heck, if you liked the Britney Spears Fantasy line then you’ll probably enjoy this. Or even if you just like Taylor Swift and want to collect things with her name on it. As a fragrance though, it’s not accomplished or unique. So serious fragrance lovers would get better wear out of a more competent fruity floral.

Design: It’s a bit cheesy but I have to admit that it isn’t poorly designed. There’s something Renaissance about it. Maybe it’s the carvings on the cap that remind me of the intricate stonework that would be present in a lovingly built church. Aside from the cap, I find the charms kind of garish and random and the bottle functional and unobtrusive at best. It’s not a bad design overall.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Blackberry, raspberry, peach, apple blossom, freesia, tea, hibiscus, honeysuckle, vanilla, musk, amber, sandalwood.

Saw a “teaser” on YouTube for this perfume where Taylor was wearing one of her trademark fancy dresses and looking ethereal as she wandered around while title text faded in to introduce the fragrance. I’m not sure how to feel about the whole thing except mildly perplexed. Why does a perfume need a teaser? Is Taylor doing something else that I’m missing? I don’t know anything about music and suspect that I’m tone deaf so why am I musing about any of this? I may never know the answers to these barely valid questions, but I do know that I loved Taylor’s dress.

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

Bath and Body Works Orange Sapphire

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I had smelled Orange Sapphire a few months ago and thought it would be a part of Bath and Body Work’s regular collection. When I went back recently to freshen my memory of this scent, I found that it had been discontinued. That’s the thing with Bath and Body Works, they come out with some nice, wearable, easy fragrances that smell all right. Then when you go back looking for it again, it’s been discontinued. Talk about frustrating.

Orange Sapphire

Orange Sapphire

In Bottle: Clean, sweet citrus that reminds me immediately of summer and the tropics. Nicely done citrus-based fragrance that’s more interesting than White Citrus. Orange Sapphire is like White Citrus if the latter would loosen its shirt collar a little bit.

Applied: It’s like a sweet citrus party upon application as all the citrus notes flood up top and vie over each other for dominance. There’s definitely a distinct sweet mandarin scent amongst the various citruses. As the fragrance wears on, it gets a bit more floral and a lot more generic. Orange Sapphire’s citrus notes try to hold on in the midstage but the fragrance develops into a floral near the end of its midstage and when Orange Sapphire hits the endstage, it still smells like a sweet floral generic fragrance, the base notes don’t add much to the fragrance, as is usually the case.

Extra: Orange Sapphire was discontinued sometime in 2011. The last time I saw this on the shelves at a Bath and Body Works store was in 2010. You can still buy this on eBay and Amazon from third party vendors. But given the history of BnBW discontinuing scents then bringing them back under different names, I wouldn’t be surprised if Orange Sapphire resurfaced with a different name.

Design: All Bath and Body Works perfumes are pretty much designed the same way. I suppose the uniform design approach works for them. I mean, the design itself is easy enough to like and easy enough to rebrand for other fragrances. Orange Sapphire, appropriately enough, features an orange glass bottle with some sapphire blue elements on the design.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Blood orange, orange, grapefruit, bergamot, mandarin, cassis, raspberry, peach, jasmine, orange flower, freesia, lily of the valley, magnolia, orchid, vetiver, musk, patchouli.

It’s too bad this was discontinued because I think it did fill a niche in that it’s more playful than White Citrus but is still refreshing without being a full out gourmand. But, I wouldn’t be surprised if they brought this back at some point.

Reviewed in This Post: Orange Sapphire, 2010, Eau de Toilette.

Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady

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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.

Marc Jacobs Daisy Eau So Fresh

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Daisy Eau So Fresh is the 2011 released flanker to Marc Jacobs’ wildly popular Daisy. I was a little leery going into this one because I saw they had taken the fruity floral angle up a few notches. But Daisy Eau So Fresh is actually very nice.

Daisy Eau So Fresh

Daisy Eau So Fresh

In Bottle: Litchi seems dominant with a fresh grassy quality. It’s otherwise a very nicely done fruity scent that reminds me of a fruit smoothie on a hot summer day.

Applied: I’m smelling litchi and fruit punch. I’m able to separate the litchi since it’s pretty strong to my nose but the rest of the fragrance is mushed together in this amalgamation of fruits. It’s sweet, a faint echo of Daisy in the brief grassy glimpses I get in the opening as the scent evolves into a fruity floral with the fruits still being the dominant players. As Daisy Eau So Fresh ages it leads away from the fruity opening a bit and evolves into more of a clean floral with a slight powdered quality to it. The dry down is noted with a clean musk and a hint of cedar. Overall, a more pleasant experience than Daisy. And I already liked Daisy to begin with.

Extra: Seems like ‘boggling at the advertising’ should be a regular feature on this blog. The ad for Daisy Eau So Fresh said that it was a whimsical interpretation of the original fragrance. I don’t know about anyone else, but if someone had told me to describe Daisy, I probably would have used the word ‘whimsical’ to begin with. How else do you describe a scent that’s supposed to be the smellification (now a word) of a daisy?

Design: Daisy Eau So Fresh is bottled in a similar shape and style as the original Daisy. Just think of the original bottle for Daisy, then stretch it out a little so it’s a bit taller, introduce some light dusty pinks, a little pop of yellow and you got the bottle for Daisy Eau So Fresh. I have to admit those rubbery flowers grow on me. Just don’t leave them out for too long because they collect dust like crazy.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Grapefruit, green notes, raspberry, pear, jasmine, rose, violet, litchi, apple blossom, musk, cedar, plum.

Overall, I actually think Daisy Eau So Fresh did a good job being a flanker. It smells pleasant enough, easy enough, and if someone liked Daisy by Marc Jacobs they should probably give this a try to see if it jives with them too.

Reviewed in This Post: Daisy Eau So Fresh, 2011, Eau de Toilette.

Marc Jacobs Oh Lola!

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Oh Lola! is a recent flanker of the original Marc Jacobs Lola, that shampoo-y smelling, not unpleasant but not exciting, clean floral with the massive flower cap. Oh Lola! s presented as a pinker, more stylish version of the original. When someone describes a fragrance as ‘stylish’, I immediately cringe.

Oh Lola!

Oh Lola!

In Bottle: Fresh and berry-like with a layer of sheer florals underneath, a bit on the sweeter side but doesn’t overdo the sweetness to the point of cloying. Not very interesting but smells decent.

Applied: Clean and berry-like in the opening, reminds me a bit of a berry trifle or fruit juice. I swear I can smell a mango note and pineapple note in there. But essentially, the opening is generic fruit punch. It’s clean though and a little sweet as the fragrance ages, the fruitiness meshs more into the florals and lets in some of these flowers we’ve been hearing about. The florals themselves are unexciting, they’re blended well enough that they form this clean, unassuming and easygoing blend of flowery goodness that goes well with the fruity opening. As Oh Lola! heads into the base the scent takes on an extremely dull sandalwood vanilla scent that I haven’t smelled in a while but still remember rather well because every generic-smelling perfume uses a sandalwood vanilla base. “Oh Lola!” is shaping up to be more of an “Oh, Lola, It’s You Again”.

Extra: The buzz is already out for the ad campaign surrounding Oh Lola! Dakota Fanning has been chosen as the face for this fragrance and the questionable nature of the ad photo has already sparked something of a sensation around this perfume. I found Bang! and its ad campaign to be a humorous if somewhat lowbrow presentation. I find Oh Lola! to be of the similar vein. Or could we all just be overreacting because we’re used to Marc Jacobs pulling stunts like this? Whatever it is, the ad campaign made me raise a brow, the pink bottle made me grimace, and the description that Oh Lola! was ‘stylish’ made me cringe. Nothing about its presentation made me want to rush out and smell it or buy it.

Design: Maybe it was because I was overpinked as a child and have since grown something of a disdain for the color’s reputation as a “feminine” hallmark, but I don’t see why everyone thinks pink is so cute. Pink, when used right, can be cute. Sometimes it can even be sophisticated. If used wrong, it’s a bit burlesque and can even come off as cheesy and childish. So when they took Lola’s bottle, (a perfectly dynamic piece of work) and made it pink, I had to wonder what exactly there was to accomplish here. But I suppose they had to have a flanker look somewhat like the original. And I suppose–if nothing else–pink truly does suit the fragrance. I just find it tired that perfumes would constantly use pink for their fruitier, lighter, less serious flankers of original perfumes. You see a flanker that’s pink and can safely assume that it’ll either be sugary, weak, one dimensional, or a combination of the three.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Strawberry, raspberry, pear, peony, sandalwood, vanilla.

All right, so I admit I was chomping at the bit to get at the design of the Oh Lola! bottle. It just bothered me on a fundamental level that I can’t even begin to explain. Nothing on the juice, but the design of the bottle itself just turned me off immensely. Thankfully we’re here for the juice–most of the time.

Reviewed in This Post: Oh Lola!, 2011, Eau de Parfum.