Prada Candy

Prada’s well-done and mostly well-received Infusions line was a big hit with me and its non-Infusions fragrances are fabulous too. So when Prada came out with Candy, I was a bit leery from the name on its own. But every fragrance gets a fair sniff.

Candy

Candy

In Bottle: Warm and musky with a sweet hit of benzoin and burnt caramel.

Applied: Sweet caramel and musk hello! The benzoin follows in afterward and the fragrance takes on a creamy, burnt quality. I hope you like that scent because the rest of the fragrance is pretty much that with a fading of the musk first, then the caramel, then the creamy vanilla for me. The caramel in Candy is a little bit better behaved than the burnt caramel notes in other fragrances like Flowerbomb or Pink Sugar. I still don’t know if I like it, but it isn’t too bad in this. What is too bad is how rather dull Prada Candy is. It wants to be a gourmand but the musk is holding it back. It wants to be an oriental but aside from being rich and deep and full of benzoin and warmth, I hesititate to give it that. In the end, it smells strong, it smells sweet, and while it’s not complex or interesting it does do caramel a lot better than any other caramel-based contender so far. Heck, at the very least, I’d pick Prada Candy over Flowerbomb despite Prada Candy being significantly simpler.

Extra: Prada Candy was released mid-year in 2011. It was composed by Daniela Andrier (Prada Infusion de Vetiver, Prada Infusion d’Homme).

Design: The bottle is a bit retro. Reminds a little of the 80s and I suppose that would be Prada Candy’s way of channeling the orientals of the 80s into its sweet caramel self. As for me, I’m not much of a fan of the bottle design. I don’t like the colors or the shape and would prefer something a little less retro.

Fragrance Family: Oriental Gourmand

Notes: Musk, benzoin, caramel.

As unimpressed as I was with this, I need to remind that this is a good fragrance. It’s several steps above Aquolina’s Pink Sugar and Viktor and Rolf’s Flowerbomb. If you want a high end fragrance with a focus on caramel and a little bit of grown-up personality (not much, just a little) then give Prada Candy a sniff.

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

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