Gucci Flora Gorgeous Gardenia

Gorgeous Gardenia

Gorgeous Gardenia

Gucci Flora was like my guilty little pleasure where I knew the fragrance wasn’t super sophisticated, but I still like it and wear it anyway. So I got curious when I saw they had come out with some Flora flankers. I had my reservations, after all, Flora wasn’t anything to call home about so how good could the flankers be? I know I shouldn’t judge a flanker by the perfume it was modeled after. But what bothered me most about Flora Gorgeous Gardenia was its somewhat silly name.

In Bottle: Pear and sweetness with a little touch of floral.

Applied: Pear upfront with the sweetness rolling out its game very quickly. Gorgeous Gardenia smells of candy and lace and fruity summer drinks with little umbrellas in them. After the initial blast of fruit juice and candy, Gorgeous Gardenia settles down a bit and introduces a very mild and difficult to pick up floral element. I can’t say the gardenias are making much of a show as this tends to enjoy smelling like generic flowers and sugar. The sugar in this isn’t too strong. It’s actually used rather well, giving the fragrance a soft lilt that sort of brushes your nose instead of slamming into it. I like that about it, but as for everything else, it’s a pretty bland affair. The dry down isn’t very noticeable either with the sugar cleaning itself up a bit and leaving a ghost of itself behind with a dry and cleanly scrubbed patchouli note finishing the scent.

Extra: Gorgeous Gardenia is only one of five Flora flankers to be released. The other four are Generous Violet, Glamorous Magnolia, Glorious Mandarin, and Gracious Tuberose. Makes me wonder what other “G” words they can come up with to couple with some unsuspecting flower. Perhaps we’ll get Grandiose Rose.

Design: I really liked the design of Gucci’s Flora and the more I used my little 30ml bottle, the more the design grew on me to the point where I decided it was adorable and that I loved it–just in time for all the juice to run out. Still, I liked the packaging for Flora and I like the packaging for Gorgeous Gardenia which is largely similar except in a tall bottle as opposed to squat and with pinkish liquid.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Pear, berries, gardenia, frangipani, patchouli, sugar.

I did like how Gorgeous Gardenia smells, but it’s far from interesting or new. It’s a very functional fragrance much like Flora–though the two don’t smell alike. Gorgeous Gardenia tends more toward sweet and fruity as opposed to sweet and floral like Flora did.

Reviewed in This Post: Flora Gorgeous Gardenia, 2012, Eau de Toilette.


Gucci Envy Me

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.


Gucci Rush

I tend to gloss over Gucci Rush every time I get near it and I can only attribute this phenomenon to one thing–that ugly packaging. I see that big, red, square thing sitting on the shelf and wonder to myself what it is I’m looking at. When I gravitate closer, I realize it’s Gucci Rush once again, blasting red into my retinas and generally turning me off.

Rush

Rush

In Bottle: Smells fake and isn’t afraid to admit it. Rush smells like my childhood days spent sitting in a corner reenacting fairy tales with plastic dolls that wore cheap, fruity perfumes.

Applied: I didn’t think that plastic, synthetic smell was on purpose. Evidently it was! Very brave of Gucci, but at the same time I question their sanity to be this forward about the synthetic quality of their scent. Still, I can appreciate a fragrance that doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not. It smells like plastic on application, mixed with over-the-top fruity notes. I notice the peach most of all, it’s a bit nauseating to be honest and the plastic stays on me for the rest of the fragrance’s lifetime–which is not necessarily a good thing. The scent has some florals in there to help balance it out but Rush is like a discordant piece of music written by a madman. The midstage is an equally hilarious blend of  white florals that smell like they rolled around in a pan of powder. As the fragrance dries down I get a hint of spicy plastic on florals and a powdery sort of vanilla base mixed with an earthy patchouli note that’s been warmed and dried by a bit of vetiver. The vetiver gives this a bit of a golden feel at the very end of the fragrance, I rather like that last little bit.

Extra: I tried looking around the internet to see what other people would lump Gucci Rush into in terms of fragrance family. I think the consensus was that this stuff was a modern chypre. I can see how it would be considered that with the use of the earthy patchouli, but if I had my way I wouldn’t so much call this a modern chypre than a synthetic chypre. That plastic note is still wigging me out months after I tried this stuff.

Design: Gucci Rush turned out to be a more interesting fragrance experience than I thought it would be. The packaging makes a bit more sense to me now but that doesn’t change the fact that the packaging has been a major turn off for me for many years. I understand what Gucci may have been going for there, but when it comes down to it, Gucci Rush’s aesthetic just looks cheap, lazy, and bad. As much as I appreciate its connection to the scent itself, I can’t get over the basic hideousness of the thing.

Fragrance Family: Modern Chypre

Notes: Freesia, gardenia, peach, coriander, Damask rose, jasmine, vanilla, vetiver, patchouli.

I kind of like this. It’s fascinating in that macabre way. You know when you’re flipping channels when you happen upon one of those live operations where they film the gory bits of surgery for some sort of educational purpose? And you’re thinking to yourself, “Ouch. This poor person. This is terrible. I shouldn’t be watching this. I haven’t got the stomach for it”, and yet thirty minutes later you’re not only still watching it but you’re on the verge of entertained. That’s Gucci Rush.

Reviewed in This Post: Rush, 2009, Eau de Toilette.


Gucci Guilty

Am I the only one who gets a little bored seeing “scandalizing” skin flashing ad campaigns for perfumes? I mean, I loved the cute and girly approach Miss Dior Cherie took. I also liked the commercial for Covet. And just to be fair, those were two perfumes I blasted. Now Guilty, on the other hand, it’s a fine perfume. Very interesting release for Gucci actually. But its ad campaign is once again one of those show as much skin, have as much writhing as possible, dealies that’s so overexposed that the ads are just boring now. I’m not a prude. In fact, I’m the opposite of offended and/or shocked. I’m just bored to tears by racy ad campaigns and I wonder if anyone else is also tired of the age old adage that “sex sells”. They even had Frank Miller come in, and he gave the commercial a fabulous look and feel–it’s just too bad it boils down to the sexualization of a fragrance. Oh, right, we’re doing a fragrance review.

Guilty

In Bottle: Fruity citrus topper with a spicy kick. Pink pepper, is that you again? Wow, it’s like I’m seeing you an awful lot around these parts now.

Applied: Pink pepper’s on the verge of becoming one of those overused trump cards in perfumes. It seems there’s an awful lot of fragrances released lately with pink pepper thrown in there for a bit of spice. It works well in Guilty, giving the top fruity citrus notes a bit more complexity than they’d have otherwise. The fragrance heads into its middle stage still smelling fruity with a lingering bit of pepper as the florals come up with a bit of sweetness to keep Guilty young and approachable. The florals being lilac and geranium, neither of which are very heavy hitters, are really sheer so the mid-stage smells mostly fruity with the pepper receding into the background. The dry down is marked with a surprisingly interesting warm smooth amber and cleaned up patchouli. I’m surprised Guilty used those two to end on an oriental note and I was happy to note how pleasant it all was and how nicely it rounded itself off at the end.

Extra: Guilty’s commercial and ad campaign is a benign drop of raciness in an ocean of racy perfume ads. It’s nothing special to behold and in the end, despite its big ticket production, the ads fall flat on me. However, the perfume was good so I’m glad I looked beyond the ad and got to what matters.

Design: Fascinating little glass bottle encased in a gold outer shell. It reminds me of 1 Million. I can’t say I’m a fan of metallic outer shell bottles like this but it looks all right. The elements are balancing, the shape is appealing and the logo is used in a rather clever way. Not my favorite design but not bad at all.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Oriental

Notes: Mandarin, pink pepper, peach, lilac, geranium, amber, patchouli.

So is Guilty as racy as its ad campaign wants you to believe? No. It’s a benign office scent that smells like flowers and warm amber. I guess that’s another part of why these sexy commercials bore me. Very rarely do they ever advertise a fragrance that’s actually sensual. Guilty’s main appeal to me is actually in how wearable and inoffensive it is. This stuff smells like a grey dress with long sleeves, a high collar, and an ankle hem. It is not, in other words, your little black number.

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


Gucci Gucci pour Homme

The Saga of the Inoffensive Men’s fragrance continues with Gucci pour Homme, a mixture of fresh and woodsy for the man who isn’t yet tired of smelling like a mixture of woods and spice. Gucci pour Homme I

In Bottle: I can harsh on Gucci pour Homme for smelling like every other woody spicy fragrance for men out there but it really is a winning combination that, if worn properly, is like a formula for success. Well, fragrance success anyway. Its in bottle presence is a sharply fresh spicy woodsy scent.

Applied: Spicy woods! The pepper in this lends a pleasant kick to the blend of woodsiness that predominates this fragrance. There isn’t a whole lot of originality to be had here. If you liked Dolce and Gabanna’s Light Blue pour Homme, you will find this a fairly good choice too. It differs, of course, with Gucci pour Homme having a cleaner and more detectable aromatic bay leaf note in it and a strong cedar and woody accord. The bay leaf sticks around in the mid-stage where it mingles with the woods and does a fine job making Gucci pour Homme smell decidedly masculine. Of course a woman could wear this too, but the marketing would have a fit as this was clearly made for a man to wear. It smells of clean dry wood and greenness. Like a man who spent the last three hours chopping down trees and making a very nice desk in the forest then took a shower. The dry down is likable enough with your typical woodsy cleaned up vetiver fade with a pretty nice leather note and a splash of warm amber thrown in for good measure.

Extra: Just for a full dose of confusion there are three Gucci pour Homme fragrances that share similar names. Gucci by Gucci pour Homme. The one reviewed in this review, also called Gucci pour Homme, finally there’s Gucci pour Homme II. All of them smell different and look different. Gucci by Gucci pour Homme is bottled differently than the fragrance pictured here. Gucci pour Homme has an amber liquid and is the fragrance in this review. Gucci pour Homme II is bottled similar to this one only the liquid is blue.

Design: I really like Gucci pour Homme’s design element. It’s a cube-like glass bottle that reminds me of how Chanel nail polish is bottled. Simple, clean lines, no frills. Just a nice minimalist design that functions well.

Fragrance Family: Spicy Woodsy

Notes: White pepper, pink bay, ginger, papyrus wood, orris rhizome, vetiver, amber, white olibanum, leather.

Gucci pour Homme  is a very popular fragrance for men. You can probably tell why. Like with all men’s fragrances that lack in the originality sector, it is high in versatility and likability. You can wear this in the office, to the club, on the bus, to the golf game. Wherever it is your heart takes you guys and girls. Just a forewarning that Gucci pour Homme runs on the strong side, so ease up on your trigger finger.

Reviewed in This Post: Gucci pour Homme, 2008, Eau de Toilette .


Gucci Flora

There’s nothing very special about Gucci Flora that you couldn’t get anywhere else. It has a nice scent, an inoffensive and pleasant aroma perfect for office or school wear. Something about its squeaky cleanness just slots it in generic category. Generic, boring, common but ultimately very pretty. Flora

In Bottle: Light, sheer, clean peony with citrus and a mixture of discriminatory florals. Nothing stands out too much in Flora.

Applied: Citrus opener that has a nice clean kick to wipe the palette before it calls in the peony and its entourage of florals as the scent prances in a field wearing a cotton dress into the mid-stage. Rose is used to bolster the scent in Flora as I can’t smell rose, exactly, except for its presence. That sweet pinkish feel that builds up the power of the other flowers must be those mysterious fruity notes that Flora alludes to while rose is happy to just settle in the background. I was looking forward to a few other notes in this but they never actually make an appearance. It’s all just lumped into one big bouquet of fresh and clean. If someone asks me what I smell in Flora, they’re likely to see my eyes bug out as I chirp, “Flowers!” Flora lasts a decent time, often getting hours of wear before approaching its dry down which is a clean patchouli, vaguely flowery, and sandalwood mix.

Extra: I like Flora. I really do. Don’t let my comments about how pedestrian it is turn you away. This is a very nice fragrance with a classy, clean aroma that’s pretty set to be widely worn and commented upon. Mostly you’ll get things of the, “Hmm, you smell nice” category. Then you get the pleasure of telling them what it is and it’ll be a great time.

Design: Cute squat bottle in a geometric shape with a little black ribbon on the bottle. The design is pleasant, the bottle isn’t too awkward to hold and everything works as it should. One thing I will note is that I love the floral pattern detail on the inside of the box. Reminiscent of botany texts and old woodcut floral patterns. I am a big sucker for that kind of thing.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Citrus, peony, osmanthus, rose, fruity notes, sandalwood, patchouli.

I own a small 30ml bottle of this stuff that I spray on whenever I want to smell clean and fresh but more interesting than one of my clean musk scents. I always find myself smiling a little whenever Flora wafts up to my nose, so something in this stuff is doing good work.

Reviewed in This Post: Flora, 2009, Eau de Toilette.