Lacoste Essential

Posted on by

After a month of unsuccessfully trying to find a magazine with fragrance inserts I was handed a booklet filled with gold. Lacoste fragrance samplers make me deliriously happy. Those free sample vials stores used to give out like candy? They are practically an extinct species now. These days we get cards with pads of perfume soaked cotton mushed between two layers of sealing. But I’ll take what I can get. Essential

In Bottle: Fresh. We’re talking men’s shower gel scented fresh. Not surprising as Essential is marketed toward men and this smells predominantly like the very inoffensive (and very successful) shower gels, soaps and shampoos that are billed as sporty and sold to men who don’t want to smell like a bucket of pink candy. I can dig it.

Applied: Essential starts off with a quick blast of aqua soaked herbal citrus. Clean and brisk, like splashing a huge handful of cold water in your face in the morning. After it wakes you up, it reminds you of what has to be done that day. Smooth bergamot blends in with the spicy, faintly floral sweetness of the heart while maintaining that wonderful initial fresh blast. The dry down is a green, faintly sandalwood, wet affair with freshness splashed all over it. Essential is not new or interesting or exciting. It’s a good standby, a great office fragrance, and as such it has high versatility.

Extra: Some of the funniest things I’ll read are perfume advertisements. The people who make the marketing campaigns for fragrances surely have to know how the product works? The little sample card that Essential came on claims that the fragrance has, “patented Time-Release Technology”. I didn’t know you could patent evaporation.

Design: Essential’s bottling reminds me a lot of Guerlain’s Vetiver. Probably because they’re both rectangular, simply designed, and the juice for both of them are green. No complains from me here, though I do find that gripping the bottle is difficult for someone with small hands like me.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: Tangerine, bergamot, tomato leaf, cassis, black pepper, rose, patchouli, sandalwood.

I prefer Vetiver as a men’s fragrance over Essential. Essential just smells normal, kind of generic. It’s good for office wear and if you’re looking for something easy to wear, this is it. But I could get the same effect from Platinum Egoiste too with a touch more class. Or I could just bank my money on Guerlain’s Vetiver.

Reviewed in This Post: Lacoste Essential, 2010, Eau de Toilette.

Disclaimer: The fragrance sampler vial reviewed in this post was provided to me for free. I am not in any way receiving pay or compensation for this review. This review was written based upon my personal experience and opinions of the product.

Guerlain Vetiver

Posted on by

Guerlain’s Vetiver is a classic that’s been reformulated over and over. As near as I can tell, the old and new versions smell pretty similar. I have only tried the new version on my skin. Vetiver

In Bottle: Lovely green and clean with earthy notes that spells fresh rain, leaves, and woods.

Applied: Green and citrusy clean. Lovely wet scent that ushers in the woodsiness with a nice elegance. One of the things I tend to notice with BPAL (Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab) fragrances is their dirt note is very pronounced. Fantastic for those who like more earthy scents but I prefer what the dirt in Vetiver is doing, lending a small essence of itself without being pronounced. I smell it’s there but it isn’t overpowering anything, in other words. The cleanliness of Vetiver is a fantastic feature as the fragrance shifts into a beautifully balanced dry, clean, spicy and woodsy fragrance. As the scent ages the citrus disappears leaving that clean dry spice and wood to mix with a pleasant light smokiness. While I’m trying to separate these notes, I’m not having an easy time. Vetiver is a masterfully balanced fragrance that makes it difficult to pick out individual notes and frankly, when a fragrance is this well balanced, I don’t care enough to pick the notes out of it. Just take it for what it is, a clean masculine scent that’s been referred to as a classic for good reason.

Extra: Vetiver is a type of grass that smells dry, green and grassy. Guerlain’s Vetiver came out in 1961.

Design: Presented in a lovely glass bottle with alternating clear and frosted glass stripes. Vetiver’s bottle is functional, pleasant to look at and easy to hold.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy

Notes: Bergamot, lemon, mandarin, neroli, coriander, vetiver, cedar, tobacco, nutmeg, pepper, tonka bean, capiscum.

If you were planning on picking up a bottle of Vetiver, definitely go out of your way to test it out first. This fragrance smells very different on the skin than it does on paper.

Reviewed in This Post: Vetiver, 2008, Eau de Toilette.

Marc Jacobs Daisy (in the Air)

Posted on by

Daisy is one of the most popular modern fragrances that is widely available through many different stores. You can find this thing sitting in department stores, drugstores, boutiques, you name it. And it’s not hard to see why. Daisy is a light, playful, fresh and clean scent that was made to appeal. Like the Acqua di Gio of the 2000s. Daisy

In Bottle: Green and grassy with a light violet leaf giving it that green grassiness. The fruits in this are detectable but they’re watery–not sweet and honestly, they don’t need to be.

Applied: Fruit is the first thing I smell, diluted and tamed fruit. Most of you time you would think of fruit notes as being sweet and loud but the ones at play in Daisy are much more subdued. The mid-stage is characterized with a blend of fresh and clean smelling flowers and the persistent edge of green grass. I smell the gardenia most of all in the mid-stage which is a really addition. The dry down is a pretty and sheer musky vanilla. Daisy is the representation of a beautiful green meadow, a light breeze, and a happy frolic. It’s care-free, girly, clean and fresh. It’s also very, very light as I find myself having to use more Daisy than I would any other fragrance to catch my scent in the morning. The fact still remains though that this is a great modern fragrance that truly earns its badge as one of the most popular available fragrances.

Extra: Daisies do not actually have a scent. Marc Jacobs’ Daisy invokes the concept of what a daisy would smell like instead. It should be noted that you may find Daisy and Daisy in the Air available in stores. Daisy in the Air is the exact same fragrance in a limited edition bottle with blue flowers. Unless you are in the market for a new bottle of Daisy, do not drop the cash on Daisy in the Air because it is not a flanker, just a redesign for the bottle.

Design: Cute little curved glass bottle with an equally adorable topper covered in white (or blue in the case of Daisy in the Air) flowers. I had originally thought the design for this fragrance was a little hokey but those flowers get to you so that even the most minimalist of us are swayed by those infectious little flowers. I gotta admit now, I like the bottle design. It’s cute and playful and effective. The rubber flowers are what cinched the deal.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Floral

Notes: Strawberry, violet leaves, ruby red grapefruit, gardenia, violet petals, jasmine petals, musk, vanilla, white woods.

Another thing to note of Daisy in the Air, aside from the blue flowers, it also comes with a garland that you can spritz with scent and hang in the room so that it disperses fragrance throughout the place. I think it’s a cute gimmick but again, this isn’t a flanker, it is just the exact same smell as the regular Daisy packaged differently.

Reviewed in This Post: Daisy & Daisy in the Air, 2010, Eau de Toilette.