Chanel Allure Homme Sport

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It’s been a very long time since I’ve had to worry about where my next fragrance review is going to come from. But my bank of reviewed fragrances has run dry and a collection of new niche and vintage samples is on its way. In the mean time, I dove back into the mainstream and fashion house markets. That is to say, I took out my notebook and went sniffing at the mall. My relocation landed me in a less urban area with available fragrance stores nearby. Which limited my choice to Bath and Body Works’ latest releases, BPAL, Victoria’s Secret’s offerings and what I could get my hands on at Dillards.

Chanel Allure Homme Sport

Chanel Allure Homme Sport

In Bottle: Pleasant and sweet. Homme Sport smells of citrus, deep vanilla, woods and lukewarmth.

Applied: Allure Home Sport starts off with a spray of citrus and aquatics. It smells crisp, clean and refreshing. The fragrance ages rather quickly, approaching its middle with a showing of pepper and neroli blended with a more floral note that helps temper the cedar a little bit. The vanilla is rather apparent to me, lurking in the background like it’s waiting for me to do something about it. At the end it was a vanilla amber with a spicy woods mix. The amber tries its best to warm this up, but it never really gets there. At most, it’s lukewarm. It is kind of cool in some parts, kind of warm in others. It’s like dipping your foot into a swimming pool lukewarm–if that makes any sense at all. Overall, a sporty scent you would imagine would smell of sharp citrus and aqua to give you that, “I’M CLEAN! I’M FRESH!” yelling kind of feel. Homme Sport starts off like that to me, but takes it on a more relaxed, “Don’t worry, you’re clean, but let’s not yell about it”, route.

Extra: Allure Homme Sport was released in 2004 and is obviously the flanker to Chanel’s Allure Homme.

Design: Contained  in a metallic Allure Homme-like bottle. It looks luxurious and masculine at the same time. Good design by Chanel? Pretty much a give in most cases. Actually, Chanel’s had its fair share of stinkers too, but Allure Homme Sport’s bottle design is not one of them. It’s not especially memorable or beautiful, it’s just basic good Chanel design.

Fragrance Family: Oriental Woodsy

Notes: Aldehydes, orange, mandarin, marine, pepper, neroli, cedar, tonka bean, vanilla, amber, vetiver, white musk.

The oriental comes in with the ever present vanilla note that I kept noticing throughout, otherwise, this would have just been woodsy to me. If you’re looking for a pretty laid back, mostly predictable fragrance with a designer name on it, then Allure Homme Sport is probably a good idea.

Reviewed in This Post: Homme Sport, 2011, Eau de Toilette.

Frederic Malle French Lover

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French Lover is classified as a men’s fragrance, but why should this earthy and dark scent be exclusive to one gender? I’m happy to be back between the gears of Frederic Malle’s scent machine.

French Lover

French Lover

In Bottle: Fascinating in a dark and earthy way. This is dirt, dust and ruggedness in a perfume.

Applied: Dark and earthy is my first impression. French Lover opens with a strong galbanum presence coupled with angelica and a bit of patchouli and moss. Despite the moss–which I often associate with dewy–French Lover’s moss and other ingredients present a very dry interpretation. This is desert and power. It’s unrelenting with it’s show of strong materials and continues to be powerful way into the endstage. As the scent wears on, it gets stronger with a middle note of smoked greenery. Add in a dollop of cedar, a dash of vetiver and tone down the angelica and you’ve got the final experience as French Lover rolls out with a strong showing of dry woods.

Extra: French Lover was launched in 2007 and composed by Pierre Bourdon.

Design: Designed in much the same way as most other Frederic Malle fragrances. Bottled in a simple, but luxurious to hold cylindrical bottle with a simple black label running along the glass to tell you what you’re getting. All this topped with a black cap. I like the design well enough and the bottle has a very nice weightiness to it.

Fragrance Family: Earthy Woodsy

Notes: Galbanum, angelica, spices, incense, cedar, vetiver, oakmoss, white musk.

Probably the most interesting thing I’ve smelled in a while. It’s not my kind of thing, but it’s a very well-composed fragrance with a lot of personality.

Reviewed in This Post: French Lover, 2008, Eau de Parfum.

Victoria’s Secret Love Bitten

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I was actually attracted to this because of the packaging. Something about lace makes me feel better. One of those odd character quirks I have, I guess.

Love Bitten

Love Bitten

In Bottle: Apples with a clean soft white musk and a load of woods.

Applied: Pretty much what I got in bottle, I got on my skin. It smells of apples and clean musk and wood. It’s like a basket of apples sitting next to a pile of wood. But this isn’t a great apple note as there’s nothing authentic to how these apples smell. These are artificial apples, the flavoring kind you get from a Jolly Rancher candy and not like an actual apple that you pick in an orchard. It’s serviceable though and it works well with the two notes it was paired with. The woods give the apple in this a more grownup feel as plain old fake apple fragrances to tend to project an air of carefree youth and candy. I don’t dislike this, but I also don’t like it. It’s certainly not one of the best apples I’ve smelled, but it’s a pretty good scent if you can work your way around the fake apple.

Extra: Love Bitten is a member of Victoria’s Secret’s Attractions Collection. It was released in 2011 and is no longer available because Victoria’s Secret–like Bath and Body Works–has this terrible habit where they introduce a fragrance, get a bunch of people hooked, then pull the stuff off the market.

Design: The lace was what drew me to the fragrance. I can’t help it. I love lace. The design itself is pretty good. The lace looks a bit out of place on the bottle at times, but it is eye-catching and effective in that sense. The bottle itself is pretty standard size and shape. It’s easy enough to hold and pretty good for a body mist.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Woods

Notes: Apple, woods, white musk.

Love Bitten, while it was still sold by Victoria’s Secret, had an entire line of body care items in addition to the body mist. If you’re still interested in Love Bitten, it’s available on eBay and through resellers on Amazon.

Reviewed in This Post: Love Bitten, 2011, Body Mist.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Wensleydale

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Wensleydale is the fragrance I go to after a shower and feel like I need to be as clean as possible. Wensleydale is a part of the Good Omens series of fragrances by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. You can find them here. Wensleydale

In Bottle: Strong but very reminiscent of a classic bar of soap. Think a bar of white soap and you’ve pretty much got Wensleydale.

Applied: Strong waft of soapiness that’s a little bit sharp to begin with, but the fragrance settles down quickly into a warm clean smell with an added hint of sweetness and cream. I get a wonderful mix that reminds me of stepping out of the shower and wrapping myself up in a warm terrycloth robe. There’s not too much else to Wensleydale, it barely goes through two progressions with the sharpness fading into a creaminess and the fragrance fades into a pretty linear clean cotton smell. But boy do I love it because of how nicely it combines warm, clean, fresh, sweet, and creamy into a scent.

Extra: Wensleydale is named after a character in Neil Gaimen’s Good Omens book. And the Wensleydale character, in turn, was named after a valley in England.

Design: Wensleydale is bottled in the same way as other Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab scents. Amber bottle with a label affixed to it. Wensleydale and the other scents in the Good Omens series feature unique art for their labels.

Fragrance Family: Clean Floral

Notes: Cotton, milk, amber, white musk.

I have no way of knowing what the notes are in this, so it’s all a big guess on my part. It might also interest potential Wensleydale testers to know that Black Phoenix is donating proceeds from the sale of Wensleydale and other fragrances from the Good Omens line to two charities.

Reviewed in This Post: Wensleydale, 2010, 5ml Bottle.

Victoria’s Secret Vanilla Lace

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Vanilla Lace is one of those fragrances that was discontinued for hazy reasons and recently brought back to the glee of its fans. The name for this one was what drew me to it. It reminded me of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s discontinued, Antique Lace.

Vanilla Lace

Vanilla Lace

In Bottle: Soft, yielding and sweet vanilla.

Applied: There isn’t much to say about Vanilla Lace except that it smells like clean vanilla. It’s obviously a more synthetic vanilla that lacks in spices, but the note is a better build than most synthetic vanilla’s used in fragrances, if only slightly. It’s not overpowering, has a gentleness to it and that helps take away from the synthetic edge it has. When I say a vanilla is synthetic, I usually mean that to my nose, I get a bit of plastic scent with the vanilla. The note is very sweet, so it’s helpful to include it with a clean white musk to cut the sugar. In the end, Vanilla Lace is a nice clean and sweet fragrance. Good for everyday wear, but not what you want to look for if you want sophisticated vanilla.

Extra: Vanilla Lace has been discontinued and re-released a lot. It was recently brought back and is now available on the Victoria’s Secret website or in any Victoria’s Secret store that carries fragrances.

Design: Bottled rather simply in a plastic spray bottle. I’ve always been somewhat impressed by Victoria’s Secret’s plastic bottles. They’re thick, a pleasure to hold, and they have a bit of weight to them. But in the end, it’s still plastic and the body mist is obviously meant to be used up rather quickly.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Vanilla, white musk.

Vanilla Lace’s Body Mist also boasts some amount of chamomile and aloe vera for moisturizing and nourishing your skin. The two moisturizing ingredients are too lightly scented to really be picked up to my nose.

Reviewed in This Post: Vanilla Lace, 2012, Body Mist.

Thierry Mugler Innocent

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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.

Gucci Envy Me

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What struck me the most about Gucci Envy Me was the fact that the ad actually said it was supposed to appeal to “the egocentric and bold young woman”. I wasn’t aware being called egocentric was a good thing, but it’s evidenced in how well Envy Me did as a fragrance that people either don’t care, didn’t know, or actually found it  appealing to be called egocentric. Color me confused.

Envy Me

Envy Me

In Bottle: Sweet and clean fruity florals. Just about as standard a fruity floral as you can get. Smells good though.

Applied: Pink pepper adds a bit of clean spice the fruity opening of this where I get a mixture of peach and mango that reminds me of an Herbal Essences shampoo. The fragrance evolves into this litchi note that dominates the beginning stages of the mid notes arena. Litchi tends to enjoy taking control of the show and I find the fruit note to be a bit unbearably sweet and pink and girly at times. Envy Me does a good job taming its litchi for the most part but it is still quite strong in the fragrance for a little while. As the scent continues to age, there’s a bit of perfumey woods going on as it blends in with the clean fruity opening while imparting this refreshing sense to it that I can only assume is the white tea at work. As Envy Me keeps going into its base, there’s a clear amping up of the soapy clean fragrance was present throughout the whole thing as the white musk takes hold of the pretty tame teak and sandalwood mix. At the base the fruits a little weak but I didn’t expect them to do anything else but fade as the fragrance ages on the skin. Overall, Envy Me was a pleasant ride. Starts off like a Herbal Essences shampoo and ends with a scented sandalwood fan fragrance.

Extra: Not sure where they got the idea that this fragrance is bold and egocentric. It just smells like shampoo and cleanliness to me. It’s one of the better done fresh out of the shower smells in that it doesn’t abuse the florals but it’s still pretty generic.

Design: Gucci Envy Me is bottled in a tall rectangular flacon with the signature Gucci pattern on the glass running all the way up the four sides of the flacon in pink. It’s a little ridiculous for my aesthetic but I can definitely see the type of image this fragrance is trying to project in its design choices. The bottle is a bit awkward to hold because it–like Givenchy’s Very Irresistible–is a tall and slender bottle that’s made of heavier material.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Fruity

Notes: Peony, pink pepper, cassia, peach, mango, litchi, pomegranate, pineapple, sandalwood, white tea, teak, white musk.

In a pinch, I’d reach for Envy Me to spritz on when I want to smell refreshed and clean. It’s a great out of the shower fragrance for if you want to hold onto that Herbal Essences smell for just a little longer. Otherwise, there’s nothing remotely bold about it. It sure is fun though.

Reviewed in This Post: Envy Me, 2006, Eau de Toilette.

Guerlain Shalimar Parfum Initial

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Having missed out on numerous past Shalimar flankers, I resolved to go smell this one. At the very least, I could finally add a Shalimar flanker to my list. I wasn’t really sure what Parfum Initial is supposed to do to beloved Shalimar but it wasn’t what I expected.

Shalimar Parfum Initial

Shalimar Parfum Initial

In Bottle: Fresh and sweet citrus with a deep vanilla note lingering about in the back.

Applied: Fresh and clean citrus on opening with the rose and other florals rolling in soon after. There’s a dry woodsiness that joins the fragrance shortly after that as the scent warms up with a vanillic quality that doesn’t reach gourmand–and I’m glad. This is already different enough from original Shalimar that I’m a little disturbed when the mid-stage continues as we get a deep, warm vanilla, touched with a hint of florals. The fragrance ages into this warm, tonka quality that’s dense and deep but never reaches the point of gourmand because there’s that clean, fresh note keeping it from going full-on foody. There’s a lot missing in this fragrance that I would need if I were to call it anything related to Shalimar. Shalimar to me was that leathery vanilla scent. There’s vanilla in Parfum Initial but the missing leather makes this scent feel like it’s missing something. Maybe that’s just me though. What Shalimar Parfum Initial does is take an old classic, put a very modern spin on it and make it more accessible to a wider audience. I don’t know if I like this flanker, but it is nicely done regardless.

Extra: Shalimar Parfum Initial was released in 2011 and was composed by Thierry Wasser.

Design: I haven’t yet held the bottle for Shalimar Parfum Initial but if it’s anything close to the new Shalimar bottles then I can pretty much be guaranteed that it’ll be awesome. I love the redesign of the Shalimar bottles, it brings the fragrance back to the classic design that most people know Shalimar to.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: Bergamot, orange, rose, jasmine, vetiver, patchouli, vanilla, tonka bean, white musk.

The more I think about this fragrance, the less sold on it I am. I’ll always think Shalimar got it right almost a century ago. While is a nice, newer, more approachable interpretation I also think it lost a little bit of essential history along the way.

Reviewed in This Post: Shalimar Parfum Initial, 2011, Eau de Parfum.

Cacharel Amor Amor

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Some days I like Amor Amor. Other days I think it’s a soapy mess. It ultimately comes down to my mood and Amor Amor has good days more than bad days, though it’s so far the only perfume I hate one day and love the other.

Amor Amor

In Bottle: Sweet and floral, a bit sharp, with a very strong soapy undercurrent. There’s a ton of white musk in this to me.

Applied: Sweet and clean with a bit of fruitiness that eventually evolves into a sweet and clean floral mid-stage. There’s something in this that’s sharp–I think it might be the white musk–that rears its head in the mid-stage and sticks around until the very end of the fragrance. Amor Amor is a bit of fun and girly balanced with sharp clean musk. The mid-stage reminds me of a bunch of fruity florals mixed together with an extra heaping of sugar slapped into the mix. The dry down gets a bit less sweet and a bit cleaner as the white musk takes over and sweeps the fragrance into a vanilla woods with a scrubbed amber scent.

Extra: I don’t know what to think of Amor Amor. Some days I think it’s one of the better fruit scents out there. Other days I think it’s just too sweet and too typical.

Design: I don’t like how Amor Amor looks. It feels like it wants to be a gimmick and reminds me too much of the rose under glass in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. The bottle itself is easy to hold and use. I just don’t care much for the aesthetics.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Blackcurrant, orange, mandarin, bergamot, cassia, grapefruit, apricot, lily, jasmine, rose, white musk, amber, tonka bean, cedar.

I’m writing up this review from a set of notes so I haven’t smelled Amor Amor in a while. I do wonder if my opinion of it has changed since I wrote the review. I guess I can try to smell it some time soon and see if I’m having a good Amor Amor day or a bad one.

Reviewed in This Post: Amor Amor, 2007, Eau de Parfum.

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.