Histoires de Parfums 1804

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Okay, no more silly celebrity stuff for the time being. I went a little crazy for Histoires de Parfums. Gimmicky as the concept might seem sometimes, I can’t deny for a minute that it hooked me. So I went and got a few more years from the line.

1804

1804

In Bottle: I really didn’t expect the pineapple to be quite so prominent, but it’s just about the only thing there on first sniff.

Applied: Yep, pineapple. Very tropical, quite sweet with a juiciness to it that I want to attribute to the peach. The pineapple note is very strong and quite loud. I rather like it as it screams holidays and summer at me. Strange because I expected something entirely more subdued from 1804, still feminine, still fruity but not screaming fun and sun like it is right now. All confusion and expectations aside, 1804’s pineapple opening is pretty delightful. It’s sweet and girly and fun. It rolls into a mild floral bouquet with a sweet and clean finish at the end. I was looking for the spices the whole time, but they never made themselves known. Not elegant, but not at all bad. I quite like it.

Extra: 1804 was inspired by Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, who might be more recognizable by her pen name, George Sand.

Design: Designed in the same way as most other Histoires de Parfums bottles. I would love to have a full set of these, lined up in a neat row. I would finally be able to pretend I’m some sort of chemist with impeccable taste.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Pineapple, peach, gardenia, jasmine, rose, lily-of-the-valley, cloves, nutmeg, sandalwood, patchouli, benzoin, vanilla, white musk.

Probably not an instance where I’m dying to throw money at it, but 1804 remains a very pleasant, very feminine fragrance. If I had a hankering for pineapple, I think it would be the first thing I go for.

Reviewed in This Post: 1802, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Perfumes Celebrities Wear

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One of the questions I get asked in surprising frequency is what perfume I think a certain celebrity wears. This confuses me for a number of reasons. Chief among them would be that if my television service wasn’t bundled with my internet service, I would gladly turn it off. I never go to the movies either. Buy movies. Or go out of my way to find out what’s coming out next. In fact, I’m not even sure who most of these celebrities are until one of their fragrances lands in front of my nose and I find myself having to do the barest amount of research.

Then the best comes when I tell people about the website that supposedly lists the fragrances that celebrities wear and they’re shocked the celebrities don’t wear the fragrances with their names on it. And I have to ask, why would they? After all, most celebuscents are cookie cutter tragedies that smell pretty similar to one another. Once in a while, you get a diamond in the rough but the majority of the time, if it doesn’t smell like Britney Spears Fantasy, it’s a miracle.

milaanddior

So what fragrances are celebrities wearing? Well, here are some of the more commonly asked for:

Britney Spears
Britney’s one of those celebrities who does end up wearing some of the stuff with her name on it. But she’s also into other things that don’t really surprise me. Like Comptoir Sud Pacifique’s Vanille Abricot. Hey, I don’t blame her, Vanille Abricot rocks.

Lady Gaga
I really wanted to stop talking about Lady Gaga, but since it’s the new year and so many people kept asking me what I thought she wore. Lady Gaga, apparently wears Thierry Mugler’s Womanity. Not really surprising and pretty fitting.

Angelina Jolie
No joke. I had no idea Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were together and had a large mass of children under their roof until someone asked me what I thought her fragrance of choice was. The last time I saw Angelina anywhere was in the movie Hackers (yeah). Anyway, she apparently favors Creed’s Love in White.

Kim Kardashian
You know, I was a much happier person before I knew who the Kardashians were. Regardless, Kim’s fragrance of choice is Michael by Michael Kors.

Michelle Obama
Color me surprised when I found out the first lady was enjoying quite a bit of celebrity status. The local paper actually had the answer to her favorite fragrance. She’s a Creed Love in White fan too.

Ashton Kutcher
Last I saw of Ashton Kutcher, he was on That 70s Show. Color me surprised when I found out it stopped running and he’s been doing other things since. Ashton favors Arpege Pour Homme.

Katy Perry
She’s apparently a fan of Vanille Abricot too. Doesn’t really surprise me, I was just hoping for something with a little more variety.

Taylor Swift
Oddly enough, the only celebrity that really got in my face this year was Taylor Swift. She was everywhere for some reason. On billboards, at stores, on TV on the rare occasions when I’d turn it on, on websites and in ads all over the place. She has quite the list of favorites, but the most notable would have to be Estee Lauder’s Bronze Goddess. Good choice.

Nicki Minaj
I really had to do some research on this one because I had no clue who or what Nicki Minaj did. Whatever it is, she prefers Chloe.

Mila Kunis
She apparently likes Carnal Flower. Good choice.

Selena Gomez
Laugh at me all you want, I thought Mila Kunis and Selena Gomez were the same person. They don’t even really look the same. Selena Gomez likes Daisy Eau so Fresh.

You can check out what other celebrities are wearing at: CelebrityFragranceGuide.com

If I had more room for the title, I would change the one for this post to be, “How out of the loop is Kay? Oh, and some perfume”.

Taylor Swift Wonderstruck Enchanted

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I didn’t happen upon Wonderstruck Enchanted by accident. It was actually somewhat pushed on me by a well-meaning sales associate who said it would suit me.

Wonderstruck Enchanted. In case you weren't tired of looking at Taylor Swift yet. I am.

Wonderstruck Enchanted. In case you weren’t tired of looking at Taylor Swift yet. I am.

In Bottle: I was underwhelmed when I smelled it prior to application. It had the hallmarks of faux vanilla and too sweet berries.

Applied: Well-meaning sales associate tells me Wonderstruck Enchanged was new, smelled fresh, clean, sweet and that it would suit me quite well. I was a little perturbed by that assessment, but figured I would try it anyway. Upon application, the sweetness and faux vanilla make themselves known right away. It’s not outright plastic-smelling but it isn’t natural. The sweetness is dialed way up in this to the point where my teeth felt like they needed to be drilled and filled in. And by the time I had walked away from the fragrance counter, gone home, went for a jog, showered then sat around for a few hours–I could still smell the sweetness on me. It clings like a powerhouse. Wonderstruck Enchanted isn’t special or unique. To me, it’s like a pile of berry candies coated with a vanilla air freshener. It’s just unappealing and kind of a mess. And unfortunately for it, it’s strength and longevity make it last an absurd amount of time. It wasn’t until I woke up the next morning did I finally rid myself of the cloying sweetness.

Extra: Wonderstruck Enchanted is obviously the flanker for the original Wonderstruck. It was released in 2012, and I really wish they had taken some time to think about it a little bit more because the fragrance manages to be both uninspired and messy.

Design: Similar shape to the original Wonderstruck. It’s red this time instead of just purple and features some slightly different charms around the neck of the bottle. I like the ornate cap, but that’s really about all I can say for it because every other design detail is clearly aimed at a younger audience.

Fragrance Family: Fruity

Notes: Passionfruit, berries, poppy, freesia, peony, champaca, sugar, musk, woods, vanilla.

Well, there you go. A few months go by and I get this urge to write about a celebuscent and Wonderstruck Enchanted just had to be it. It really wasn’t anything special and I found it mildly annoying that Taylor Swift was every where I looked. But hey, at least it wasn’t Lady Gaga again.

Reviewed in This Post: Wonderstruck Enchanted, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Thierry Mugler A*Men

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Lots of thanks to Undina from Undina’s Looking Glass for the sample of this fragrance. A*Men has been one of those scents that I kept hearing about but never got around to trying.

A*Men

A*Men

In Bottle: Sweet and a bit dusty, I get a lot of woods out of this but at the same time, I’m smelling the gourmand too.

Applied: Sweet upon application, lavender with a bit of milk and honey and lots of caramel. The fragrance introduces its woodsier side rather earlier as I get patchouli mixed with cedar that blends in with the caramel and milky notes. The mid-stage is marked with a noticeable addition of spices and woods, I swear I can smell cinnamon as the fragrance gets a bit more coffee like with this dusty coating of woods following it. The dry down is warm with a sandalwood base and a sweet toffee-like backdrop. I’ve seen people absolutely love A*Men and other people who can’t stand it. I was all ready for a gourmand but I was more surprised by the prominence of the woods in this. It makes the fragrance more oriental in style with a creamy, sweet caramel scent accented with a lot of woodsiness.

Extra: A*Men was introduced in 1996 and comes in two bottle styles. One metallic bottle and a rubber bottle.

Design: I’ve never been much of a fan of Thierry Mugler’s bottle designs. I often found them too chunk or too alien-looking and I can’t say I really like the bottle designs for A*Men either. It just doesn’t strike a chord with my sensibilities.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand Oriental Woodsy

Notes: Coriander, lavender, fruits, spices, mint, bergamot, honey, jasmine, milk, caramel, lily of the valley, cedar, patchouli, sandalwood, tonka, amber, musk, benzoin, coffee, vanilla.

I don’t think I’m that big of a fan of A*Men. I wasn’t sure whether or not I liked the gourmand bits of it, or the oriental bits, or the woodsy bits. It just all melded together into one big “blah” for me, though it does have really fantastic longevity.

Reviewed in This Post: A*Men, 2012, Eau de Toilette.