Harajuku Lovers G

The Harajuku Lovers fragrances is one of those things I never really got into. The scents are okay–mostly. My favorite of the lot is G which was supposed to represent Gwen Stefani’s character. There’s been so many flankers over the years that I’ve pretty much lost count of them all. So this post is a review of the original G, the one released in 2008.

Harajuku Lovers G

In Bottle: Fruity and coconut. Very tropical. The fruitiness is more predominant in the opening.

Applied: Blast of very slight tart fruits followed by very sweet coconut that rushes in and steals the show. The coconut is huge in this fragrance and is clearly the main player. It hovers up top and casts this creamy coconutty sweetness over the rest of the fragrance. You get some florals in the mid-stage, mostly reined-in jasmine and freesia with this sparkly clean undertone. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about G, but it is a very, very, well done coconut, beachy, tropical scent. The dry down is markedly uninteresting with more coconut hovering over the sandalwood and clean laundry smell.

Extra: Okay, I think I’ve got most of the flankers down for G as of this post. With how popular the Harajuku Lovers fragrances are, I doubt the list of flankers is going to remain static. Anyway we’ve got G (2008), Sunshine Cuties G (2009), Wicked Style G (2010), and G of the Sea (2011). Then there’s the bottle redesign for the winter which further adds to the confusion with the Snow Bunny version of G. I’m sure I’m missing some other edition like Valentine’s Day G or Talk Like a Pirate Day G–Oh no, am I giving them more ideas? 🙁

Design: Okay, yeah, the bottles are really cute. But they’re not my thing. The perfume comes in a little glass stand that the plastic doll is propped on. You gain access to the perfume by either popping off the head of the doll or the entire doll body. I remember handling these bottles more than once but don’t remember if I removed only the head or the entire body but spraying the fragrance itself was not an unpleasant ordeal. I was honestly not that impressed with the design and would have rather seen these dolls as a part of some sort of dangling charm off of a better designed bottle similar to what Juicy Couture did. Think about it, cute little Harajuku Lovers cellphone charms that come with your perfume. As it is, it’s too gimmicky for me at the moment.

Fragrance Family: Fruity

Notes: Mandarin, coconut, apple, jasmine sambac, freesia, magnolia, coconut cream, white sandalwood, cottonwoods.

The fragrance for this is one of the better iterations of tropical and coconut out there. I’m just not a fan for a variety of reasons. The coconut is just that, pure sweet coconut, nothing too interesting about this fragrance. And the packing does not hit home for me. So they missed me by two points. There is, however, a huge fanbase for these dolls and these perfumes so clearly it’s a successful gig.

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