Saturday 28 July 2012

Perfume-Salvador Dali-Little Kiss Cherry

I’ve never been a fan of Salvador Dali’s fragrance, out of a handful of them I’ve casually tried on paper strip in store, nothing has really caught my attention.

Little Kiss Cherry looks kind of promising, when I was searching for a summery day scent. However, I guess Salvador Dali should’ve just stayed with his usual arts, instead of playing with the olfactive art too pre-maturely.
Ok…about the scent, after an initial burst of unpleasant, sharp alcohol smell, Little Kiss Cherry is slightly more tolerable. To my nose, it is quite similar to many commercial “girly” perfumes launched after 2000 which didn’t follow the sugary sweet blue print, a.k.a Little Kiss Cherry is the watery sparkling sour alternative.
To my nose, initially this smells more of an acidic sour cherry on top of some watery twig accord than any imagination “cherry” or “kisses” typically evoke to me. After a while, it gets a bit fruity sweeter, and the citrusy lemon-y accord gradually made it more detectable.
The official notes of this fume look rather colourful, however, this is the time I do become rather sceptic, litchi, cherry blossom, lotus, camellia etc, I guess, most of the time it’s quite subjective to our marketing-induced imagination, to be honest, what I smelt could be all the above, or, honestly, realistically and subjectively, it’s just watery sour cherry and cherry twigs to me.
Little Kiss Cherry does bring in mind many personality-wise similar scents, like Yves Saint Laurent’s Baby Doll and its flankers, Dior Addict II and  Salvatore Ferragamo’s Incanto series (but Little Kiss Cherry is much less sweet) to name a few. However, there is something sharp in this scent which makes me feel quite uneasy and questioning the quality.
Some might find Little Kiss Cherry quite inoffensive and suitable for office.
However, I find it lacks of personality and of quite disappointing quality (perhaps too obviously synthetic/edgy/fuzzy according to my definition and to my nose), I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. For the same amount of money, or several buck extra, get yourself a bottle of Baby Doll I’d say (somewhat Baby Doll becomes a classic when in comparison with Little Kiss Cherry).

Sunday 15 July 2012

Perfume-Calvin Klein-CK IN2U for Her, CK IN2U for Her Pop, CK One, Obsession Night, Secret Obsession, Eternity

Calvin Klein, a brand that most people who don’t normally wear perfumes would know, due to its highly successful unisex perfume CK One launched in the 90s.
When I was a newbie, not sure why, CK perfumes were always on my to-try/try-to-love list. I guess marketing and popularity do play huge roles in perfume choices when it’s more an accessory rather than a passion.

CK IN2U for Her

This was the first CK perfume I actually bought, that was back in 2007, when the commercial was like everywhere and even though I find the type of commercial rather mindless and use something sex-y to sell; I felt to the trap and purchased a bottle. “Well, it’s a bottle of Calvin Klein, how wrong can that go?” Well, when I look back, how naïve it was.
So… about the perfume, it is nothing ground-breaking or mind-blowing. In fact, it is more like a perfume trying hard to mix everything together. Fortunately, the end result isn’t too bad.
The start of CK IN2U for Her, is like a burst of clean/sport vibe from some type of vague citrusy notes, which smell nothing citrusy. It’s a burst of active, spontaneousness made from artificial non-cloying sugary notes, which gives anyone a sugar high. Somehow, it reminds me some of the guys’ deodorants. Or maybe, it’s the legendary cactus note CK claims to have in this perfume.
After the initial burst of sporty accord (thank goodness, this is the most pleasing sporty accord I’ve ever smelt, due to its sans-aqua-note, oriental vanilla themed intension), I can smell fuzzy vanilla mixed with some vague sweet citrusy and floral notes, which mingles around til the end. Not bad at all. In fact, I do find IN2U for her rather pleasing to wear to some sporty outdoor gatherings, and yes when it was 2007 or 2008, I can always spot one or two persons wearing this perfume in a lecture theatre.
Not a bad perfume at all, I can see it become heavily discounted nowadays and soon would become some kind of drug-store-thrill-find for many.


CK IN2U Pop for Her

This is the limited edition/a flanker of the original CK IN2U for Her. This is a much smoother and more a suitable scent for the IN2U name in my opinion.
CK In2U Pop for her is a rather nicely-done perfume from CK. It starts really fruity, fresh, kind of melon-y. It makes think about bubble gum and carefree childhood, but the scent is quite nicely blended and doesn’t give me any headache (while scents with such fruity fresh opening, like Victoria’s Secret perfume, would definitely give me a big headache).

Soon there’s a creamy (something like plum blossom plus vanilla, and creamified maybe 10 fold) and woody accord added in, makes the whole concoction cuter in a fluffy kitten way, it makes me feel lazy and laid back, like in those sunny Sunday afternoon, wearing a huge jumper and reading a nice novel at home.

The dry out is lovely too, like the middle phase being tamed, plus some sweetened papaya. If you’ve tried Boss Orange Sunset, then CK In2U for her at this stage is like a creamy, slightly plumier and papaya-infused version of Boss Sunset. Both of them have this creamy, quasi white floral scented blended really well.

I liked it a lot; however, after wearing this several times, I can’t help but feel a little bit bored and slightly annoyed by Pop for Her. It is a lovely fragrance, but somehow I find the creaminess in it somewhat too demanding, like an attention-seeking child, to me. It is not the same as, say…loud, as in Chinatown by bond no.9, the plum blossom and other notes, but even though the accord in Chinatown is loud, sweet and bold, but somewhat I find it easier to wear. It’s like something in CK In2U Pop for her just doesn’t want to be fitted or tamed. Or maybe that’s why this days I kept on smelling floating perfume clouds around people, maybe it’s the evil intension of most of the designer commercial perfumes, they want to stand out by themselves; and the wearer sometimes just being victimized and become a perfume carrying vesicle when the perfume’s applied with a slightly heavy hand.


CK One

CK One is like a modern classic to me. It does not have that much edge or dazzling personality, but it is surely comfy to wear by many due to its clean/soap water quality.
The beginning of CK One is like bright, sweet-y citrusy with some ‘clean’ factor, just like soap, it smells likable to both the genders. After about 2 minutes, CK one becomes the clean shirt smell. There’s this citrusy, watery factor here steers CK One away from the typical ‘soap/laundry detergent’ category, yet its water and soft enough to not being pushed into a typical citrusy/sports pile. CK One is just versatile and easy to wear. No wonder it has been really popular in many Asian countries where an inoffensive clean scent is what you need to walk in a city full of people.
The dry down of CK One is slightly more powdery than before, which makes this scent a rather linear and safe one to try on.
A nice fragrance preppy scent!


Obsession Night (Women)

Sharply sweet in a peculiar watery way, mingled with something vaguely orchid flower, this is what’s oozing out the small sprit. Somehow there is a really familiar feeling this scent gives me, something vaguely everywhere when it was years ago, but not necessarily that pleasant or well selected.
The scent develops rather linearly, towards the dry down, it is just slightly creamier in the vanilla aspect.
I find this CK offering is not that much a ground breaking scent, definitely doesn’t live up for its name in my opinion. A ‘merhhh’ choice, yet a safe-y choice for a night out or some occasion like that.


Secret Obsession

First spray get me a really masculine (dead straight masculine, not the sweet cute average guy perfume masculine--say like Euphoria Man, or Pi from Givenchy) type of scent. I get a lot nutmeg and spicy kind of scent instantly. I can’t smell anything rosy or plumy even though they are listed in the official notes. I guess the nutmeg is really dominant at the start.

Then after 5 minutes, when the scent starts to settle down, I don’t feel that against it, and actually I start to like it a little bit. I can smell something dark, woody, mysterious, maybe a little bit seductive (but nothing like your usual cameral/chocolate/sugary sexy seductive), it’s purely something makes me curious and want to know/sniff more. Soon the tuberose-y white floral note comes and balances out the strong masculine feeling a little bit.

It is a strong and hypnotizing-in-its-own-way perfume in my definition, even in the relatively softer dry down, I still get a lot of woody scent, with a tiny bit vanilla sweetness. Sensual and dark are quite good description of Secret Obsession.

Even though it’s not the ‘usual’ female perfume I would really love to wear, but I find it definitely wearable and somehow I feel really different and kind of really like to wear it occasionally at night—to mentally teleport myself to somewhere totally new. I guess Secret Obession is just one of those scent for typical feminie-perfume-wearers to step out of their comfort zone and still enjoying the scent.

If Secret Obsession is just a bit too masculine to your liking, Crystal Noir by Versace is a really good alternative and personally I am a bit partial towards Crystal Noir.

Eternity

Eternity starts with lovely cough syrupy(in a nice subtle way), sweet rich YSL-Paris-style rose, with a touch of clove-like spiciness. It is just so Sophia Grojsma.

Later on, I can smell the spicy floral combo (which is carnation dominated), which is really weird in an amazing, unusual way. It is big, bald, with a little bit glamorous touch, really 80’s.

Later on it dries down to something really nice, spicy floral, still has the heart, but tamed, wind-down, with a little bit bee-wax kind of hint.

Eternity wasn’t an instant like, due to some weirdness there, but I know I don’t repel it the way I hate some weird plastic odd synthetic notes. When I gave it a second chance, I’ve started appreciating the weirdness in this perfume; I don’t mind have a sniff once a week. However, I wouldn’t recommend this perfume to most young 20-somethings or even the 30-somethings. It has a certain vintage feel to it, might be hard to pull off on a regular day, in this society where toilet cleaner cleanness or overly sugared sweetheart or aquatic sports accord are the ‘in’ things.
Anyway, Eternity is a lovely perfume and I can see certain people can pull it off effortlessly and elegantly.

Saturday 14 July 2012

Perfume-Demeter-Hello Kitty, Little Twin Stars, My Melody, ChocoCat

The inner child of me just could not resist the cute Sanrio line from Demeter. Curious and curiouser, I waited and waited, till the day I received the parcel and couldn't wait to open it and smell the scents. However, to be honest, Demeter might have a handful scents which impress me, but...the Sanrio series? some of them are quite disasterious to someone who is seriously looking for a perfume-y perfume. Despite Hello Kitty and Little Twin Stars disappoint me, the other two are rather cute-ish.
Well, here's what I think about the scents:

  • Hello Kitty by Demeter
Hello Kitty by Demeter smells of really artificial “apple” flavour. Period.
As much as I wanted to like it, as much as I tried to smell the “apple” notes in it (yep, according to Demeter, there are various  apples featured: red, green and yellow); I find there is this sharp, harsh plastic-y note in Hello Kitty which overpowers anything that’s a bit “apple”-ish smelling.
Image of 15ml purse spray version of the Demeter fragrances, from left to right, they are Little Twin Stars, Hello Kitty, My Melody and Chococat
Photo of Demeter fragrances in purse spray version.


  • Little Twin Stars
Little Twin Stars by Demeter starts just like the average household dishwashing detergent, in lemon flavour—it’s lemony with a significant touch of sugar sweetness, yet still gives the illusion of that it’s a lemon scent.  To be honest, it is a little bit disappointing and it would be better if Demeter named this one ‘Detergent, Lemon’ or something.
As time goes by, there’s a watery yet nice element comes in, which makes this scent a bit watered down, the sugary accord less aggressively commercial. Somehow, I’d say, it’s not bad at all. It’s a resemblence of sweet orange and other citrusy essential oil burn in a water essential oil burner, nice for the home environment. Still, I cannot get over the fact that this scent really doesn’t make me feel like wearing it. So much so, that you wouldn’t wear a washing detergent on your skin.
The good thing (or maybe a bad thing) is that, the sillage of the scent simply declains in a drastic linear fashion and about 3 hours later, no matter how hard I press my nose on my arm, there’s nearly nothing left.

  • My Melody
My Melody by Demeter is a rather interesting Demeter offering since I’m a vanilla junkie with a sweet tooth. The start is like almond syrup, really sweet, a bit almondy with a tiny hint of alcohol. Then the scent settles to something typically sweet Demeter, which is…hmmm, disappointing. The scent then smells like some kind of slightly burnt warm vanilla-scented rather solid cake, which is quite similar to the dry down of Waffer Cone and Strawberry Icecream, also from Demeter. Somehow I can’t stop but wondering, does Demeter really create all the scents from scretch, or is there a magic base for all the sweet scent, which in the end, leads to such boring similarity. :S
Not bad as a fuzzy, kind of solid (as in when you inhale it, it feels as if the solid of..say a cake, was inhaled) vanilla foody scent, but if vanilla or almond or the combination of vanilla and almond is what you are after, there are surely many scents better than this one. Said that, I wouldn’t mind too much if I was going to wear this one in cooler weather.

  • Chococat
Chococat by Demeter is a really yummy scent for gourmand, chocolate lovers.
The start of Chococat smells of real dark chocolate (the scent and the heavy solid feel) with a hint of slightly synthetic yet-non-headache-inducing cherry-ish scent.
After the initial burst of all the scent, Chococat calms down to some better mixture, which smells like vanilla chocotop, the really generic one you can find in the cinema candybar, with a hint of slightly sour and warmed cherries.
Nice scent to try! I don’t mind to wear it at home, however, I guess it is a bit not age apprepriate to wear Chococat out and about, somewhat it just reminds me of a five-year-old who got icecream melted and all over her dress. Nevertheless, it’s a cute scent.

Perfume-En Voyage Perfumes-Carmel Boheme, Carmel de Ville, Debut de Carmel, Peche Noir, Poete de Carmel, Makeda, Havane Pour Homme

En Voyage Perfumes is a niche line based in the Northern California, USA. I was intrigued by the background of self-studied perfumer Shelley Waddington, who is the nose and the creator of her En Voyage Perfumes line.
I ordered some samples from the En Voyage Perfumes website straight away when I found out of this niche line, back in 2011.
Shelley Waddington is lovely, upon receiving the samples, there is also a letter with them, in which Shelley talks about the different scents she created and the mood etc which suits each scents.
The following is what I think about the scents. As much as I wanted to love them all, I’m afraid En Voyage Perfumes is one of those niche houses which I just can’t comfortably wear.



  • Carmel Boheme by En Voyage Perfumes
The start of Carmel Boheme, by En Voyage Perfumes, is really potent, like strong, delicious rice wine, and slightly-going-off (but still in a good way) alcohol-smelling, fermented fruits like strawberries and cherries.

Soon there’s this sweet, berry-hint and clean, uplifting sweet jasmine, tuberose kinda essential oil scent dominants the perfume for several good hours. In the beginning of the white-flower domination, there is some 90s-strawberry-flavoured-bubble-gum hint, and then the jasmine goes warmer, and some creamy gardenia scent comes in to stay. I’m not a fan of white flowers, so it’s somewhat headache inducing to me, but I’m sure any white flower lovers would find this one quite nice to try on.

Then dry down is soft, quite coconut-y and vanilla-y creamy which is slightly tropical to me. IN the end when Carmal Boheme fades into a skin scent, I can smell something slightly woodsy and creamy, somewhat it has a similar spirit to Havana pour Homme.

Overall, it is a nice white flower perfume with some delicious edible touch in the beginning and end. I would recommend it to anyone who loves jasmine and gardenia.



  • Carmel de Ville by En Voyage Perfumes

Carmel de Ville starts with a burst of sugared plum with slightly green hint, it is weird but in a good way, somewhat it reminds me of the feeling when seeing a Kabuki play. Soon enough, an intriguing smell comes in and stays, it’s not a typical perfume-y smell to my nose, it’s ‘synthetic’ (as in I can’t possibly smelt this smell from any daily fruits or flowers) but not the type of fruity sugary synthetic smell you find in many commercial, somehow it’s like Play-Doh mended with some vaguely water-rose and floral scent.

Then it goes like Play-Doh plus sweetness plus lily smell plus a tiny bit creamy hint for a long while. I am not a fan of dominant lily scent, and somehow it makes me feel cold and a little bit gloomy while sniffing my wrist.

Later on, a weird echo-y milk-y slightly quasi-aquatic smell adds in, and it stabilises and harmonicalise the perfume, but I find it still a little bit headache-inducing.

I wanted to like Carmel de Ville, but it just doesn’t love me back. However, if you likes white flowers like lily, and you can go with aquatic-ish scent, try this one.



  • Debut de Carmel by En Voyage Perfumes
Clean ivory soap/tooth paste hybrid smell is the immediate opening of Debut de Carmel by En Voyage Perfumes. Just when I was thinking will this be a weird house hold cleaning product scent, Debut de Carmel has already turned into nice ivory soap scent, with some discreet creaminess and real fresh non-sweet peachy undertone (which I find in nearly every En Voyage Perfumes, maybe the creamy slightly peachy scent is the house’s signature base?).

Soon the ivory soap smell goes away, leaves the nice peachy smell dancing on a light, vanilla-y non-tropical creamy background. The peach-y smell here is the most real yellow peach smell I’ve ever smelt in a perfume(apparently it should be the apricot note here), and it is really mouth-watering and lovely, without any high-voltage pushy sugary interpretation of any particular fruitiness.

Then Debut de Carmel dries to really lovely genuine peach-y apricot-y smell with a tiny bit musky hint.

Debut de Carmel is my favourite among the whole En Voyage Perfumes range, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes real peachy, apricot smell, in a less ‘fresh’ (as in commercial perfume fresh pink way), but more real fruit-y way.



  • Peche Noir by En Voyage Perfumes

Peche Noir by En Voyage Perfumes starts in a sugared, syrup water in a delicious, nectarine cold-sweet (as appose to stick Britney or Jessica Simpson sweet) way. I can definitely smell the lily there, but it’s also so well-blend and the lily doesn’t over power other notes. Somehow, this reminds me of the soap bubbles, the plastic container (infused with the soap water smell) and a sunny afternoon in the park when I was little. I like the beginning; however, the only drawback is it is a little bit edgy to my liking.

Then something cold, slightly minty but without the minty-ness ( I guess the lily gives the well-blend other part of the perfume this kind of good, cold minty-ness), and green, lush comes, it smells like a blooming summer night, but nothing like any of the typical white flowers I’ve ever smelt in any other perfumes. It is like a liquid song being inhaled. It is like a mixture of Burberry Weekend for Women and Annic Goutal’s Passion.

The dry down has a clean slightly ink-y smell added in to the middle notes, which makes me think of inhaling the scent of green grass and little flowers around a water pound, in a summer evening.

I don’t find Peche Noir seductive or sexy, despite what goes behind the creation of Peche Noir. It is just a pretty perfume. Peche Noir is not my cup of tea due to my dislike of the kind of sweet peachy floral fruitiness, but I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes Burberry Weekend or perfumes similar to that.



  • Poete de Carmel by En Voyage Perfumes

Poete de Carmel by En Voyage Perfumes is a really nice and pretty perfume, but to me, it lacks of a backbone. Poete starts quite powdery in a soap rose water clean way, with a hint of honey.
Then it gets sweeter in the slightly earth, and tart. Every now and then, there’s a little bit fruity sourness comes by. It is like a weird but nice mixture of rose, light spice, and a little bit of Le Labo Oud 27.

Later on, Poete becomes spiced rose water. Somehow I find it really inoffensively familiar, It’s like a rose-themed, female version of Dior Eau Sauvage; or a slightly less melancholy combination of Anna Sui’s Anna Sui and Forbidden Affair and a tiny bit spice, but just better in a well-blend way.

Then it gets tarter, powderier, softer and warmer and sunny spring-like, at the same time a certain dominant sour fruity hint is here too. It is like inhaling brown sugar water with a pinch of spice.

Poete de Carmel is a nice perfume and I find it easy to like and the quality of ingredients makes it stand out when comparing it with generic designer house perfumes like Anna Sui’s. However, I wouldn’t splurge to buy it for myself as it is somewhat a high-quality version of generic-smelling perfume, Poete lacks some spirit to be a Poete de Carmel (or maybe, I have to confess, I had really high expectations for a perfume with such name). Nevertheless, it is a decant-worth/sample-worth perfume to me for sure.



  • Makeda by En Voyage Perfumes
What can I say about Makeda by En Voyage Perfumes? It is just Jasmine, a lovely jasmine soliflore, real green dewy jasmine under the sun, with a little bit hint sweet discreet fruitiness.

The opening is quite weird buy lovable in a mixed-up house detergent lemon-y sweet fruity way, but it disappear really soon. After this, Makeda is quite linear, what I can smell is just jasmine! Even though I’m not a fan of jasmine, but the jasmine here is so real, just like the one I smelt in a garden. If you were scared by TM Aline due to the sugared jasmine there, Makeda won’t scare you for sure, instead, it might lure you in to a new world where you find jasmine lovely, make you feel exotic and somewhere in between optimistic and happy.

To me, I can’t really smell much the wood, the dry out is more like a version diluted jasmine oil in some unscented body lotion, by unscented, you know most of the time unscented product have the slightly creamy coconut-y discreet smell undertone there.

Highly recommend to jasmine lovers.



  • Havane Pour Homme by En Voyage Perfumes
Havane Pour Homme by En Voyage Perfumes is really worth trying to me, and it could easily be a go-to scent for anyone who likes citrusy essential oils and subtle vanilla-y skin scent in the dry-down.

Loud, cirtusy, zest-lemon-and-lemon-cake-dominant start reminds me of a good cologne to the citrusy extreme. Somehow it’s like some pre-blended citrusy refreshing essential oil. I’m not impressed, but I have to say I like it a lot and the feel of it cannot be compared with another ‘nice’ citrusy perfume. The start is quite typically masculine, but to me, it smells more refreshing and aroma-therapeutic.

Havane pour homme goes lighter and less acidic (citrusy) soon. At one point, it smelt like when you get closer to smell the citrusy oil and ginger oil in an oil burner and you smell both the warm water and oil. At this stage I even find Havane kinda disappointing as it lacks some perfume characteristic.

However, after about 1.5 hours, the smell of Havane gets creamier in a really subtle way, it gets slightly powdery and really vanilla-y (the vanilla here is like the vanilla plant, you can smell the vanilla-ness, but no sugar or any cupcake scent involved here), a little bit coconut kinda creamy (without the coconut tropical smell) and a tiny bit herbal hint somewhere along really discreet tobacco leaves and cocoa smell. Havane is quite sensual in a discreet way and at this stage I simply feel confident, in love and optimistic (in a mature, quite sense, not the fruity happy girly optimistic); it feels like going out with a confident sexy well-groomed workaholic type of guy who doesn’t wear much perfume and whom actually has a softer, and caring side for you only.

It is indeed a great office perfume. Either the typical refreshing aromatherapy beginning or the nice, close-to-skin dry down is a nice. Also, it is the first perfume ever I find not bothering me at all, I can smell it, but I wouldn’t even think that I’m wearing a perfume, it’s like you and the perfume are so naturally together; by no means I’m saying some other perfumes I like are bothering me when I’m wearing them, it’s just I can smell and am more aware of the existence of many other perfumes.

Highly recommended to anyone want a cotton-t-shirt-kinda-easy comfy office perfume or a quite spontaneous natural day perfume.

Perfume-Fragonard-Miranda

Miranda by Fragonard is one of the vanilla-dominant Fragonard fragrance, which is easy to wear if you are a vanilla junkie like I was. However, again, I find Miranda a bit too generic and too similar to many other scents.
Anyways, about the scent, it starts in somewhat slightly oddly-fruity-hinted vanilla, which somehow reminds me of The One by Dolce&Gabbana and Hypnose by Lancome, but nowhere near as sharp or distinct fruity sweet in the beginnining.
After several minutes, Miranda settles down and smells of nice, inoffensive floral-sweet-hinted,dry-coconut-creamy vanilla, which is quite similar to Coty’s Vanilla Field.
As time pass by, Miranda becomes closer and closer to the skin, as a muffin/cake-smelling scent.
If you like a typical sweet vanilla scent, Miranda will be a good choice, but if you are looking for something a bit longer lasting or easier to find, skipping the Fragonard fragrances I’d suggest.

Wednesday 11 July 2012

Perfume-Fragonard-Fleur de Vanille

Fleur de Vanille, belongs to the Les Naturelles series by Fragonard, it is classified as an oriental vanilla scent, however, to my notes, maybe it is because of the vanilla, it is quite a decent typical quasi-singular vanilla scent with quite a bit gourmand charm.
The start of Fleur de Vanille is quite pungent, sweet, quite editable in a cupcake-way with a tiny bit citrusy hint. Somehow, it reminds me of the opening of the Vanilla parfum oil by The Body Shop.
After a while, the citrusy note is gone and Fleur de Vanille settles to a rich, well-blended portion of non-sweetened chocolate/cocoa, something a bit floral like those faint floral scent you can smell from baby powder, something a bit nutty-woody, and quite yet beautiful vanilla.
The final dry down is quite nice and cosy, just like slightly nutty sponge cake, and it is really close to the skin, somewhat makes this vanilla scent quite a nice skin scent.
If you have tried most several of the Fragonard offerings and know how long approximately they last (or should I say, how they not last), then the longevity of Fleur de Vanille would not give you nasty surprise either. However, even though there’s no projection after about a maximum of 3 hours, it lingers around for quite a long while.
Fleur de Vanille is the only Fragonard scent I actually really enjoyed out of the handful of the Fragonard perfumes I’ve tried so far. I actually would recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a really inoffensive vanilla scent which stays rather close.

Monday 9 July 2012

Perfume-Fragonard-Zizanie Cologne

Zizanie Cologne by Fragonard is quite a surprise with regards to the 'cologne' part.

The start has quite a mild near-aldehyde-floral touch, to a watered-down Shalimar base, which is kind of tart-lemon-y mixed with a lot of unsweetened, non-sugary vanilla.
After several minutes, the whole combination calms down quite a bit. To me, it just smells like a really apologetic Shalimar, quite, muted-citrus and unsweetened vanilla. As I find Shalimar a bit hard to pull off due to the slightly animal if hint in it, Zizanie Cologne is no different, the difference is that Zizanie Cologne is closer to the skin and can be used as a skins scent if used with a light hand.
Then, there is the final dry down, which smells of really light dry, unsweetened vanilla.

I'm not impressed again, not only by the low longevity of the scent, but also, because of the similarity between this Fragonard scent and other commercial ones.

Perfume-Fragonard-Confidential Soudain

Confidential Soudain by Fragonard starts with quite a bitter, bergamot-dominant punch and it mellows, becomes bitter and a bit powdery. Something cold, Prada-y mixed with something green, Chanel-y comes to mind.

After several minutes, Confidential Soudain settles and on top of the bergamot, something vaguely floral comes in. And as this scent develops, it shines.

The bergamot gradually becomes less dominant, while the vaguely floral becomes a bit soapy powdery and this comes to the center stage. Somehow, it is bubbly and in an elegant way, something close to Chanel No.5 Eau Premiere mixed with something like Lancôme Miracle kind of bubbly, not the girly pink champagne fruity bubbly you would smell in quite a handful of celebrity scents these days. The bubbly feel in Confidential Soudain speaks of elegance and a swirl of womanly maturity.