Montale White Musk

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When people think “musk” their thoughts tend to gravitate toward the animalistic musks like civet then they wrinkle their noses thinking about intrepid perfumers chasing down civet cats in the jungles of the world. Very few fragrances still use naturally derived musks. Most of them are synthetics these days and hardly smell anything near animalistic. Montale White Musk

In Bottle: Bright, pure and clean. White Musk smells like lightly perfumed water. It’s airy, translucent and fleeting like the molecules of some fabulous fragrance is carried by the wind to you. With that having been said White Musk, due to its nature, is extremely light and fleeting. Even in the vial, after a couple of sniffs, it becomes hard to detect.

Applied: Very, very, very light. I would have to bathe in this stuff to get anywhere close to the average strength that other fragrances enjoy. White Musk is a blank (in a good way), refreshing, powdery scent. Sort of reminiscent of baby powder but a great deal prettier with hints of sweet florals in it. Think luxury powder in a gilded silver case. It’s also soapy and very clean. I don’t feel like this fragrance is meant to be an entity of its own. Rather it’s a natural scent enhancer and the fragrance is just so happy, light, perky and soft.

Extra: Montale is a French niche perfume house headed by Pierre Montale. The house focuses on agar wood (oud) fragrances. They also have a line of regular perfume from which White Musk is a part of.

Design: Montale’s fragrances come in a metal bottle with a signature look. I have yet to actually hold one in my hand but the design itself is iconic for Montale fragrances and it looks attractive enough. At least it’s a step beyond the standard rectangle glass bottle affair that most niche houses would swear by.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: White musk, violet, ylang-ylang, geranium.

Probably one of the more common misconceptions about perfumes is the discussion on musk. A lot of people associate the word “musk” with dirty, sweaty, or stinky smells. Musk is often used as a scent fixative in many perfumes. These days there are thousands of synthetic musks in use that don’t smell at all sweaty, stinky or animalistic. Synthetic musks are great examples. With their usually clean, almost invisible sheerness, that makes them great fixatives for fresher, cleaner, modern fragrances.

Reviewed in This Post: White Musk, 2010, Eau de Parfum.

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Morocco

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Morocco is among one of the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s more popular fragrances. Morocco conjures up romantic images of drinking tea in one of the most vivid nations in the world. The fragrance is BPAL’s interpretation of the place, using spices and warm milky notes to bring forward a very lovely gourmand fragrance. Morocco

In Bottle: Creamy, sweet tea with a touch of spices. I want to say I’m smelling saffron, nutmeg and cinnamon blended into a warm, milky, spicy beverage. There’s a touch of sweetness to this too that helps Morocco avoid being a hit of spices and milk. The sugar adds a much needed dimension because the sugar helps tip Morocco into gourmand territory.

Applied: Spices and milk before the milk settles off. Morocco moves along, carrying its cinnamon and nutmeg scent as sugar trails in behind. The fragrance ages into a slightly spicier piece of work when carnation starts to bloom. As Morocco continues to unfold on the skin there’s a touch of something musk coming up and intensifies as the dry down continues to wind its way through the streets piled high with spices and milky tea. Final dry down is a lovely creamy musk and woods.

Extra: BPAL fragrances are perfume oil blends. Which means they are fragrance oils set in carrier oils. This means the fragrance is set in an oil base such as almond oil or jojoba oil instead of alcohol and water.

Design: Morocco is contained in a 5ml amber glass bottle with a plastic top, just like other general catalog Black Phoenix Alchemy lab fragrances.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Spices, milk, sugar, carnation, sandalwood, cassia.

I do like Morocco, really and I was leery to even try it because of the spiciness. Sometimes too many spices can be a bit much to handle but Morocco strikes a very agreeable spice middle ground.

Reviewed in This Post: Morocco, 2009, 5ml Bottle.

The Dangers of Counterfeit Perfumes

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Perfume is a luxury and as a luxury, it is naturally expensive. A 100ml bottle of niche perfume can be hundreds of dollars. And even if you’ve caught the fume bug, paying hundreds of bucks for a fragrance can be absurd or just plain impossible for some people.

This is where counterfeits come into play. Imagine going onto eBay and coming across an auction offering Amouage’s Homage Attar for $20 (Homage Attar normally retails for approx. $350). The photo the seller supplies looks like a real bottle of Homage Attar. The seller claims they’re a professional. They claim to only sell authentic fragrances. And they seem to have pretty good ratings from buyers. The price is just so good that to not buy would be a prime opportunity lost. But is it too good to be true?

Why do people buy counterfeit perfumes?

There are two types of people who end up buying counterfeit perfumes. The knowing buyer and the unknowing buyer. People who knowingly buy counterfeit perfumes believe the fakes to be as good as the real deal but at a fraction of the cost. This is completely untrue as counterfeits are often made using lower grade materials.

Unknowing buyers purchase counterfeits because they were lied to or just don’t know they’re walking off with a fake. Buying a fake bottle that you thought was real is an embarrassing and frustrating ordeal. But as the fragrance industry grows, so does the counterfeiting industry. The counterfeit problem doesn’t go away no matter what you’re into. There are counterfeit clothes, counterfeit handbags, counterfeit electronics, even children’s toys are counterfeited. Your best defense against buying a shoddy product is research and knowledge.

Why do counterfeits exist?

Perfume is a multi-billion dollar industry. People love fragrances. And a lot of fragrances, particularly the designer and more popular niche brands, rake in a lot of money. They also tend to be expensive and many people believe perfumes are overpriced. So you end up with a lot of consumers who are looking for deals. Add  expensive and desirable luxury items to consumers who want them but don’t feel they’re the appropriate price and you get a prime environment for counterfeits.

Where are counterfeits sold?

The vast majority of people who encounter counterfeit perfumes find them online. There are many unscrupulous sellers claiming to be legitimate discounters, fake websites claiming to sell authentic products, or bad eBay sellers hocking fake products to unknowing online buyers. Flea markets, street stands, and bargain stores are also rife with fake perfumes because the people selling them either don’t know they’re selling fakes or know full well and just want to make a quick buck. One of the ways to tell if a perfume is fake is by looking at the price. If it’s too good to be true then it probably is.

Why are counterfeits bad?

Counterfeit fragrances can sometimes smell similar to the real thing but are always composed of cheaper ingredients or have been watered down. In the end, counterfeits are bad because you don’t know what went into them and they could harm your health. The creators of those fakes don’t comply with regulatory standards and don’t care if someone gets hurt from using the product. They could be using harsh chemicals, low-quality alcohol, use too much of a volatile component, have carcinogenic components, poor quality water, and who knows what else.

Which perfumes are counterfeited the most?

All mainstream perfumes suffer from counterfeiting from Britney Spears Fantasy to Chanel No.5. Smaller, lesser known niche houses are a little bit safer, but beware of cheap Creed fragrances and never assume that just because you’re buying niche, that you are completely immune to counterfeits. Some of the most counterfeited fragrances are Coco Mademoiselle, Chanel No.5, Chanel Chance, and  Green Irish Tweed by Creed. In fact, Green Irish Tweed has so many counterfeits due to its popularity and status that some of the counterfeits have gotten the look and details of the packaging down to near perfection. As a result, it can be really tricky to spot a fake Green Irish Tweed. Fortunately, due to how popular Green Irish Tweed and the Creed label are, there are lots of people who have used them for years and can help you identify a real from a fake.

How do I avoid buying a counterfeit fragrance?

The best, safest way, to buy perfume is to go to the perfume house directly, pull up a chair and watch them blend your perfume right in front of you. Obviously this isn’t going to happen to anybody any time soon.

So, on a more serious note, the most realistic and safest way to get your perfumes is through a department store counter  (Neiman Marcus, Holt Renfrew, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s, etc.) or the fragrance’s boutique store where you can smell the stuff yourself and buy there. This, however, is expensive. That’s not to mention that not everyone has a department or boutique store within reasonable distance. And some people don’t want to purchase fragrances online from these stores because they haven’t smelled it first and samples are not available. Besides, the department stores don’t always carry what you’re looking for.

Next step is to get online and purchase from reputable online retailers (Beauty Encounter, Lucky Scent [who also have a physical store in West Hollywood, California]). The key is to do your research before you buy. Online discounters can start out good, but go bad for one reason or another. That’s why it’s important to keep up to date with discounter reviews and fragrance news. Something everyone should be doing if they purchase goods online is reading reviews from legitimate sources about the stores they’re going to buy from. Look the retailer up on Google. See if anyone has written a review on the retailer. Look for a second, third, fourth, tenth opinion on different review sites if possible.

Pay attention to what those reviewers are saying about the company, look at the tone of the reviews. Some seedy companies will go out and write glowing reviews for themselves. It is important to be able to tell whether reviews are actually from customers or if it’s just someone from the company talking themselves up. There are a few great retailers offering perfumes at reasonable discounts and these guys will usually have a lot of reviews written up on them by a wide variety of people.

If you must buy from a smaller, lesser known discounter, be aware of the risks associated with this. Not all small discounters are bad, and you may just have the next great deal on your hands, the key is to be alert and aware of the position you’re  putting yourself in.

What about eBay?

eBay can be a godsend for people seeking out old, discontinued, vintage fragrances. And it could be a nice place to snag that latest trendy perfume too. But eBay is a risky venture when it comes to fragrances. There are some very, very convincing fakes out there and there is no guarantee that the picture you’re seeing on an eBay auction is an actual picture of the bottle.

Some counterfeiters will swipe photos people took of their bottles online and use them to sell their lots (hence why all the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab bottles featured on this blog have a  watermark on them). Another popular technique some counterfeiters use is to list the item with a press or company image of the bottle. For example, you can go to chanel.com and view photos of pretty much every fragrance they offer at the moment. It is easy for an eBay seller to take one of those photos to use in their listing. As a general rule, I tend to be suspicious of a listing for a fragrance that’s only using a company photo and will always ask the seller to provide actual photographs of their bottle or I won’t buy.

If you must buy from eBay, put the seller under a microscope before you bid. Don’t feel guilty about scrutinizing a seller. You’re buying a product, and you want to make sure you get exactly what you paid for. Inspect their feedback and see what others have said about them. Check their negative feedback for consistent or repeated problems other buyers have had. Look at their other items for sale. If they’re selling a huge quantity of the same fragrance, be leery but don’t jump to conclusions yet.

If you are looking at used, unboxed perfume bottles then you are likely to be on safer ground than if you were looking at buying brand new, factory-sealed fragrances. If you are going for factory-sealed it becomes very important that you scrutinize the outer packaging. Ask for pictures of all dimensions of the box. Specify that these pictures should be large. You’re about to drop a lot of money on this perfume so make sure it is legitimate by scrutinizing everything and making sure it is absolutely real. You’ll need to do the legwork by researching the appearance of your fragrance. Pay attention to the markings on authentic bottles and boxes and make sure they match up to the photos on the listing.

Sometimes shady sellers may have some really good dupes on the outside so check the cellophane. It is also not unheard of for shady sellers to open an authentic box, take out the authentic fragrance and replace it with a shoddy copy. So the cellophane should be neatly folded, evenly dispersed and glued down nicely. If the cellophane looks wrinkled, crooked, or poorly glued then be suspicious. If the cellophane was open, the seller should have a good reason for doing so and since it’s already been opened, ask the seller to take shots of the bottle inside the box.

Depending on how accommodating a seller is, you should try to get some more information out of them. If you suspect the photos on the auction were swiped, try asking the seller to take more photographs, specifically of the logos and other branding, the informational labels on the fragrance, a photo of the bottle next to a piece of paper with a word or username you specified written on it, and so on. Finally, look at the price. If you’re looking at a brand new bottle of perfume that would normally be $100 going for $10, it is too good to be true.

How can I tell if I have a counterfeit?

Counterfeiters are getting increasingly sophisticated with their fakes. At least on the outside. It is extremely difficult for a counterfeiter to completely replicate the actual perfume itself because creating the exact same product wouldn’t be cost effective for them. It is a bit easier for them to get the packaging details right but they often slip up as well. The following are some things to look out for when you suspect you’ve got a fake:

1. The outer packaging.
Look at the shrink wrap and the box your fragrance came in. The shrink wrap should fit cleanly and snugly around your box. It should be made of high quality cellophane that is clear and unwrinkled. The glue should be applied carefully and evenly and come away clean and easily. The box itself should have sharp, even corners, and be made of durable or high quality materials. The box will also contain the fragrance’s name, the company that made it, and a cursory list of ingredients in the fragrance itself. Read everything on the box. There should be no spelling, punctuation, duplication of words, or grammar errors.

2. The bottle.
Real perfume bottles are detailed and made of glass with specific design elements that make it easy for the user to spray or apply the fragrance (Burberry Brit’s bottle defies all logic and is a terrible example). If your fragrance bottle has visible faults in the glass, isn’t made of the materials it should be, has a defective sprayer, is featured in a color that isn’t typical, or lacks the usual markings in the right places (brand name, fragrance name, logos, serial numbers, lot numbers) then be very suspicious. Some counterfeits also use cheap stickers to attach a perfume’s name to the bottle instead of embossing the name like most real bottles tend to have.
For most mainstream bottles, you can look some pictures up online to get an idea of what your bottle is supposed to look like. Make sure you get the right name and year when you Google because many fragrances have flankers which can be colored or designed differently. Or you may have an older bottle with a different design.
Again, check for typos or spelling errors. On the bottom of most perfumes, there should be general information about the perfume (concentration, amount, fragrance name, fragrance house) either etched into the glass or attached with a well fixed, well-fitted sticker. If the sticker does not fit the bottom of the bottle, be wary. Some houses also affix information using ink. This inked information should be difficult to remove. If you find that the information is easily scratched off or rubbed off, be very wary.

3. The juice inside the bottle.
Real perfume liquid should be crystal clear. There should be nothing swimming in there like sediment. If you’ve got cloudy perfume, or perfume that has mysterious bits and pieces in it, return it. Perfumes are often colored and if you have an older, authentic bottle handy, try comparing the color of the two. Make sure your authentic bottle is not expired because expired or many years old because perfumes will change color as it ages. Anyway, if both bottles are fresh, the colors should be the same.

4. The fragrance itself.
It is good practice to have a sampler or an excellent idea of what your fragrance is supposed to smell like. Whether you have a sampler for reference or have smelled it a few times in a store. This is the best way to tell if you have a fake fragrance or not. Real fragrances are complex and have three layers, top notes, middle notes, and base notes. Most counterfeits won’t smell like the real thing. They may smell similar but have a flat, one-dimensional quality to them like they’re missing an entire layer of notes.
You can test out the suspected fake by spraying a sample of the real thing and the suspected fake on different blotters. Never test a suspected fake fragrance on your skin. You do not know what components went into making the counterfeits and there could be something in there that might harm you.
Please keep in mind as you are testing that some perfumes may change as they age and therefore smell different. Different concentrations (EDT vs. EDP) may also smell different. Don’t jump to conclusions immediately if a fragrance smells different than it should. It could be old, or you may be trying to test two difference concentrations and getting different results.

If you just don’t know where to start telling if your fragrance is real or not, it seems very authentic but you’re still concerned, or you just can’t find any reference photos, then ask the online community. There are forums and people who have probably used that fragrance for years and can tell you what to look out for or tell you if you’ve got an authentic fragrance or a fake if you provide them with a few photos.

I think I have a counterfeit, what do I do?

If you purchased a fake fragrance, send or take it back to the store or retailer and explain what happened to them. Reputable stores should take the bottle back and either issue you a real bottle or give you a refund. If the retailer doesn’t accept refunds, your only recourse is to warn others of what happened to you, throw the fragrance you bought out, and take steps to ensure that this won’t happen to you again.

Remember, if it’s too good to be true then it probably is. If you suspect you have a fake, ask someone for a second opinion. And never wear a counterfeit fragrance because there is no way, short of sending it off for laboratory testing, to tell what’s in it.

Creed Virgin Island Water

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Creed’s one of those fragrance houses that always lands in the, “Meh, I don’t know” category when it comes to a full on purchase. They’re billed as a niche fragrance house. I like most of what they have to offer but I’m also turned away by the price and the fact that a percentage of the fragrances I’ve smelled from them tend to smell very similar to more affordable fragrances. Virgin Island Water suffers from this, “Oh, this is nice but it also smells like . . .” Virgin Island Water

In Bottle: Rummy coconut and crisp lime. The rum note is getting a lot of help from the alcohol base of Virgin Island Water, and making the scent a tad more authentic. Virgin Island Water is a clear, crisp, clean fragrance with a slightly floral, gingery treatment.

Applied: The rum is up front and center then steps aside for the coconut and lime. Many people have noted the similarity between Virgin Island Water and Bath and Body Works’ Coconut Lime Verbena. I don’t blame them, it was the first thing I thought when I smelled this too. But there’s subtle differences between the two. The most prominent one being that Coconut Lime Verbena is a much simpler fragrance with less boozy personality than Virgin Island Water. The latter has a crisper, greener lime note, a less aggressive coconut note and then there’s that rum which Coconut Lime Verbena lacks. In addition to the rum and the purity of the lime and coconut, Virgin Island Water also has an interesting evolution where its Bath and Body Works counterpart tends to stay one-dimensional. As the scent ages, the ginger comes up, spicing up the fragrance and giving it a more exotic feel. Hibiscus and jasmine also help separate Virgin Island Water and add sophistication to the scent as the dry down starts showing off a bit of flower power. The only thing I can’t say for Virgin Island Water is its lackluster staying power as I approached dry down within a few hours. At least dry down was beautiful as a crystal clear, rich coconut rum fragrance.

Extra: Creed is a fragrance house that began sometime in 1760 in London by James Henry Creed and is still run by the family today by Oliver Creed. There is some speculation as to some of their former clientele, but I’m not much of a Creed history buff nor does it affect the fact that I like the fragrances they put out so they’re doing something right because they have a lot of fans.

Design: Most Creed fragrances come in similar bottles. I have a sample vial straight from Creed itself that’s just a generic glass vial filled with the good stuff. There are glass flacons and spray bottles available that tend to look the same depending upon the fragrance gender. I’ve never held nor seen a Creed bottle in person so I cannot attest to the quality of the packaging. I can say that I’m not much of a fan of the pretty plain looking spray bottles but the splash flacons look elegant and functional.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Bergamot, lime, mandarin, coconut, copra, jasmine, hibiscus, ylang-ylang, ginger, tonkin, rum, sugar cane.

So it comes down to one question. Is it worth it to shell out the hundred-something bucks for a bottle of Virgin Island Water when most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the hundred dollar juice and the ten dollar juice from Bath and Body Works? Try them both out first. Perfume is a personal experience and not everyone’s nose can detect every note in a fragrance. If you can tell the difference between the two and like Virgin Island Water more, then buy it if you feel it’s worth it. If you can’t tell the difference and like them both just fine, it’s probably better to get Coconut Lime Verbena and save yourself quite a bit of money.

Reviewed in This Post: Virgin Island Water, 2010, Sample vial.

Juicy Couture Couture Couture

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No, you didn’t read that title wrong. The fragrance name is Couture Couture, making the entire thing seem like an excessive exercise to test your ability to avoid spitting all over yourself and the poor sap standing in front of you. Couture Couture is the young 2009 release from Juicy Couture followings its two wildly popular fragrances, Juice Couture and Viva la Juicy. Couture Couture

In Bottle: Sweet, sweet, fruit. One only has to take a sniff of this to realize that there’s at least a few degrees of sweetness in there. That something sweet is being layered over something sweet, and those two sweet things are being coated in a thick layer of sweetness and on top they’ve drizzled some fruit, added a drop of vanilla and called it a day.

Applied: Sweetness. But that’s okay, it’s not done yet. Couture Couture still has a ways to go and evolve before the day is done. The fruits start to come up as well as the vanilla, which I had thought would remain behind everything else for a while longer but it’s a more eager vanilla, I guess. I’m smelling grape punch, the kind that you buy frozen and then mix with water at home.  There’s florals in there though. Don’t think Couture Couture is a fruit and sugar only gal. The sweet honeysuckle note makes an appearance here along with its jasmine friend, hovering around the miasma of sugared fruit. The dry down of Couture Couture is a bit friendlier to me. The rest of the fragrance is so sugary sweet that when the dry down arrives, I get a hint of light sandalwood and realize that things are going to be okay. But that’s after the hours of tumbling down fruit and sugar mountain.

Extra: Juicy Couture, the company, started in 1994. Their velour tracksuits were all the rage when I was younger. I never did catch onto Juicy Couture’s line of clothing though.

Design: Nice interesting bottle design. Not rectangular, but also not in a bizarre shape that takes up too much horizontal room. The cap has an interesting topper on it, giving the bottle an exotic look. There’s a pink ribbon tied to the bottle to give it an extra cute little detail. The topper kind of reminds me of the Betsey Johnson bottle–except done a thousand times better.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Mandarin, grape, plum, orange blossom, jasmine, honeysuckle, vanilla, sandalwood, amber.

In a way Couture Couture reminds me of a mix of original Juicy Couture and Viva la Juicy with a huge smack of sugar thrown in. But that familiarity with the other two Juicy fragrances might also have something to do with the fact that they’re all fruity florals, come from the same company, and are made to appeal to the same kind of people.

Reviewed in This Post: Couture Couture, 2010, Eau de Parfum.

Chanel No.5 Eau Premiere

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Commence the raving, Chanel No.5 Eau Premiere makes the regular No.5 and twists it into a modern, clean but still classic smelling fragrance. Eau Premiere was made to capture that lost subsection of individuals who thought the original No.5 was just “too much”. That No.5 smelled too much of aldehydes or far too old. In essence, Eau Premiere is an updated, stripped away, younger version.  Eau Premiere

In Bottle: Bright, fresh citrus over that familiar Chanel No.5 smell. But there’s something clearly lacking. The aldehydes that come up immediately upon first sniff have been toned down. The sparkle is a bit duller but Eau Premiere still has that No.5 base, it’s just less blatant now.

Applied: Citrus and a shout of florals before Eau Premiere settles down. Imagine Chanel No.5, then take away most of that sparkle by toning down its aldehydes. Tweak the florals so they dance and float in the air like a pretty, flighty piece of transparent cloth. The powder is noticeably toned down in Eau Premiere to further “update” this fragrance and make it more youthful. The final dry down also lacks that heady, dense, muskiness in the original No.5. Eau Premiere is a younger class of lady. She’s a pale gown and a diamond necklace compared to Chanel No.5’s sleek black dress and pearls. I get that same, but subdued clean, floral, jasmine fragrance but it’s lighter, greener, more fresh and less dense. Nevertheless, the essence of the old classic is still in there.

Extra: Beautiful as it is, Eau Premiere is a flanker. And flankers are not always bad. Though the ones that come immediately to mind for me weren’t to my tastes. Still, when you think about all the different products Chanel has with No.5’s essence, soaps, lotions, body gels, powders, and on and on, another flanker based on No.5 might seem excessive. But if you love Chanel No.5, it’s daughter, Eau Premiere is worth a try. She’s got the same breeding but is obviously in a younger style.

Design: Presented in a tall rectangular glass bottle with the house name and fragrance name embossed onto the glass. The bottle takes its inspiration from the original Chanel No.5 bottle but in a taller, easier to hold form. The cap is especially familiar, being made of a denser material. Chanel’s bottle designs have always been beautiful and Eau Premiere’s is no exception.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Floral

Notes: Mandarin, bergamot, aldehydes, jasmine, neroli, ylang-ylang, rose, vetiver, vanilla.

Eau Premiere was tweaked by Chanel’s in-house perfumer, Jacques Polge. Polge was responsible for the wildly popular, and very successful Chanel fragrance, Coco Mademoiselle. He’s also done Cormandel, Egoiste, and Allure Homme.

Reviewed in This Post: Chanel No.5 Eau Premiere, 2009, Eau Premiere.

Twilight, The Perfume

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I had the dubious honor of being able to smell Twilight (the fragrance inspired by the books and movies).  It was a rather strange moment in my life as I had originally thought myself too insulated to ever encounter a bottle of this fabled stuff but lo and behold, it wafted itself to me.

Now, it wasn’t like I thought it would smell bad. So few modern made fragrances (especially celebrity fragrances and those based on pop culture) could contain anything that would be considered “stinky”. I just didn’t buy into the hype. I didn’t like the books which excluded me from everything else, thankfully. Aside from seeing the occasional personal thumbing through one of the novels in the series, I largely avoided this phenomenon. But hey, a chance to smell a pop culture phenomenon? Who am I say no? Twilight

In Bottle: Word on the manicured, rainy Oregon streets have it that this fragrance is supposed to be representative of what Bella smells like to Edward. My initial reaction? This reminds me of high school. Lavender is the prominent note in this and I detect that sweet, bubbly, clean freesia too.  There’s more to it than those two notes though. I’m picking up something woodsy and very, very slightly bitter. Cedar, very small cedar though. Think sapling sized.

Applied: Okay, I really only had one shot at this so here goes. The initial burst is a flare of green lavender and bitterness. The bitterness is really fleeting though as the freesia comes in to do its work. The lavender is a nice, dewy, clear note that does a great job until freesia rolls into town with its screaming soapiness. This is a clean fragrance, clean and cool like a late spring shower in a forest. Which, I suppose, is appropriate given the imagery in the movies and books about rainy old Forks. As the fragrance starts to dry down the lavender takes off for the background letting what I’m pretty sure is some sort of musk note come up. I lost all traces of cedar except a tiny patch of green. Throughout the duration of this, I get green, clean, sweet and floral. The four scent groups that are the most inoffensive to people. The final dry down is a sweet, soapy with an now almost invisible lavender. Not a whole lot of evolution, kind of predictable lifespan and really not breaking any new fragrance ground. But it is a step above what I thought this would be.

Extra: Apparently these were initially only sold in Hot Topic stores and were fairly popular. I can see why people like this. It’s really inoffensive, highly wearable, and it’s a fairly competent clean lavender scent. There’s barely any interesting dry down though and it’s no wonder they only bothered to list two notes. It’s because the dry down is pretty uneventful. Musk, green, and persistent lavender. This isn’t going to rocket Twilight into the gilded halls where the likes of Guerlain and Caron live it up but it’s workable.

Design: All right, let’s talk bottle. Twilight’s bottle is pretty much a direct rip off of Nina by Nina Ricci. The differences being a slightly darker glass and a sentence written on the Twilight bottle. The bottle construction itself is also a fair bit poorer than Nina. The little silver leaves on the Twilight bottle were a bit loose. And on the Nina bottle, the glass is seamless and smooth. On the Twilight bottle, there is a noticeable seam where the two halves of glass were combined. It’s a blatant copy otherwise. In early 2009, Nina Ricci opened up a can of lawsuit over the bottle design. No surprises there. No word on how that’s going but I’m sure there won’t be any dirt slinging. If there is, I am so there.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Floral

Notes: Lavender, freesia, cedar, musk.

Twilight was sold at Hot Topic stores as a limited edition scent that rode in on the coattails of the book series and movie successes. As far as I understand it, this fragrance is extremely popular among fans and whoever likes (or doesn’t mind) lavender will probably like this too. The fragrance itself is hard to hate. Oh, and don’t ask me if “perfume spray” means eau de toilette or eau de parfum. I honestly don’t know.

Reviewed in This Post: Twilight, 2009, Perfume Spray.

Annick Goutal Gardenia Passion

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I suppose spring is coming to my nose, that means breaking out the florals and readying the fresh for summer. Gardenia has a sweet fragrance with that similar greenness to it that I notice in a lot of flowers. To me, it’s a crisp, young reminder of warming temperatures and budding leaves. Then you have Annick Goutal’s Gardenia Passion, the fragrance with the deceptive name. Gardenia Passion

In Bottle: Gardenia Passion is tuberose. Predominantly tuberose. So tuberose, in fact, that in the bottle I smell nothing but tuberose. Tuberose, tuberose, tuberose. This is so tuberose in the bottle that it beats out By Kilian’s Beyond Love. Though it lacks the finesse and gentle greenness of Beyond Love.

Applied: Strange sour, almost vinegar-like, note upon spray that lingers for a few minutes after application. That sour note is mixing with the sweetness in this fragrance and the powerful hit of tuberose. This makes for a pretty wickedly strange blend of sweet and sour florals. The sourness does go away eventually, letting tuberose shine through. I’m searching the murky waters of Gardenia Passion for its namesake but aside from that sweetness–which could be from the tuberose too–there’s not a whole lot of it to be had. I feel a little cheesed, honestly, because a fragrance named for gardenia should either have gardenia in it or at least have notes that illustrate the concept of gardenia. With the way this is going, it should have been called Tuberose Passion. Or Tuberose to Eternity. Nothing wrong with tuberose, just, where’s the gardenia? I get no mention of that elusive gardenia on dry down either. It’s just lighter tuberose with a vegetal background.

Extra: Now, I like tuberose. I think it’s an interesting blend of screech and whisper. Tuberose is a sweet, almost tropical scent. Sometimes, people mispronounce its name saying, “toober-rose“. It is actually, “toob-rose“. As for Annick Goutal, the company was started in 1980 by Annick Goutal and had a skin cream line prior to branching off into fragrances.

Design: Placed in a beautifully textured bottle with a ribbon tied to the neck. From that ribbon dangles a paper label with the name of the fragrance and house on it. The cap is colored gold, very lightweight, but comes off the sprayer nozzle very smoothly. The sprayer works just fine.

Fragrance Family: Soliflore

Notes: Orange blossom, tuberose, jasmine, gardenia, herbs.

It’s almost funny that this should be a soliflore, given the fact that its focus is on the wrong flower. But maybe that was the point. Maybe I’m just smell blind to whatever gardenia was used in this fragrance. Maybe I’m just nuts about tuberose and it is the only flower I will ever smell again.

Reviewed in This Post: Gardenia Passion, 2010, Eau de Parfum.