Not a full bottle for me. Will use up the decant. I love lavender but the softer, rounder kind. This is a herbal lavender blast which I don’t mind at all. But what turns me off is the sweet fruity notes and the caramel combining with the lavender in the opening. Even if caramel is listed as the base, I smell it peaking through in the opening and it is just not for me. I do enjoy the mid pineapple and the patch, vanilla combo. It is strange combination like Houdini mentions in his review. Its interesting and different. If you like sweet slightly acidic fruit ,caramel and have an affinity to lavender this might be for you. Reminded me of the way Twilight from lush is similar. So try that if you can’t get a hold of this.
Indolic florals leaning to creamy, sweet, almost overripe fruit.
On my skin this is mostly the creamy florals, with a little hint of green with a very soft musk.
The two new scents from Marlou are very safe compared to the previous 4. Not a bad thing at all, but not what I expected.
This is an interesting one! It opens with a fresh Bergamot with champagne, and it dries down to a creamy sandalwood, and works so well! Performance is not the best but it does the job! Smell is amazing!
There is truly nothing like this! Opens with this creamy lime coconut and dries down to this beautiful vanilla nutmeg boozy sort of fragrance! Performs incredibly well and an all rounder 10/10!
Good fragrance! Vanilla with almonds and a creamy floral to it! smells a little medicinal to me tho.
The perfect Mango fragrance! Beautiful Mango note with a great citrus and airy side characters! The Mango in this really shines!
Great Strawberry and Caramel Scent, Sweet and creamy! Beautiful fragrance and great performance too!
Great Apple fresh green scent! Reminds me of Y EDP but the sweetness is toned down which appeals more too me! Amazing everyday fragrance!
Imagination dupe, super well done but more citrus heavy than the original, but does the job! great everyday and anywhere collection! Compliment puller and great scent!
Amazing Sugary Lychee and fruits! Fresh, and powerful! Feminine but could be worn by the right man! This scent is heavenly!
Super unique! Tropical yet sweet with the vanilla! Great performance and amazing scent!!
A fresh-aromatic spicy woody leathery masterpiece. A scent that is difficult to describe, it starts as a tart fresh rhubarb mixed with woods, drying down into a leathery woody base that stills holds its freshness. It’s Quinten Bish’s masterpiece. It can go on anytime of year and will hold its magic. It’s stays forever and will make your presence linger long after you left the room, but without being irritating or anoying. It combines Quinten Bish’s masterfull blends of spice, freshness and slightly dark woods to perfection.
A fragrance that seems expressly designed for the hottest of summer days, this opens with white citrus florals, with jasmine particularly noticeable, then progresses to a slightly leathery- black tea combo, the florals darker and more subdued, mixed with a hint of pine, before ending on an earthy patchouli note. It's very light, almost effortless, and it blossoms in the heat.
The blurb for this perfume talks about Villa Nellcote's past, when it was occupied by the gestapo, but also how it became a hippy haven ( the Rolling Stones recorded Exile on Main Street there), which suggests there should be an uneasy balance of light and dark in the fragrance. I don't get that at all: instead it reminds me of lying on a lawn, on the sort of day when the sky is intensely blue and the sun high and unfettered above, eyes closed, catching the small of the garden around me, and the dry, baked earth beneath the grass.
I like this a lot, and don't at all regret blind buying a full bottle (it was on offer), but there's an apparent mismatch between the intent and the actual fragrance. And I can't help but think that the intent might have resulted in something a little more challenging and ultimately interesting that what's been presented here, lovely though it may be.
Imagine someone wearing a loud, arab amber/fake oud fragrance changing their baby's dirty nappy, and they've just started to talc the little bottom, while the soiled nappy is still within smelling distance and you walk in at that exact moment..... Voilà, Blossom Love. But I'm not mad at it.... It does calm down after the quite hair-raising opening. Update: actually I have to retract my previous statement. This is, and remains, a MASSIVE, bombastic, more is more, EXTRA, histrionic diva, but not a diva with the chops of talent, more a desperate housewives type of hot mess with plastic, enlarged lips and eyelids that sag with years of encrusted mascara and coagulated benzodiazepines. The only person I can imagine smelling like this in all seriousness would be an alcoholic, low-quality Liza Minelli drag tribute act.
This smells like the original Aramis. I know it gets compared to a lot of niche and/or more obscure perfumes, and I’m not saying it doesn’t smell like them, I wouldn’t know, I’ve not smelled them, but if it IS like them, then THEY smell a lot like Aramis too. I have loads of experience with Aramis, it was one of my Dad’s two signatures when I was growing up, the other being Obsession For Men. There’s a very good chance it was the first fragrance I ever sprayed myself with because it was just there. I also owned a bottle of my own until last year when the sprayer broke and I just threw it out because it was a modern formulation and I wasn’t that attached to it.
This one smells a LOT better than that did. It honestly reminds me a lot of the version my Dad used to wear, it’s more full-bodied in the opening before airing out as it hits the mid without losing its bite. I’m sure it doesn’t actually just have three notes like the said own says it does, but this is one of those times I could believe it does, where the bitter grapefruit and medicinally rose are blending together to give it the tang it’s got, with the leather smoothing it out. It smells INCREDIBLE, especially when you factor in the price. It’s a perfume made for actual serious adults. Which probably means o shouldn’t be wearing it but whatever I do what I want.
This really is one of the best perfumes Zara has ever put out. It might be THE best. If nothing else I’d definitely say that if you have any affection for Aramis, buy this instead. The only negatives I can think of is at £29.99 for the new version in their Exclusive range bottle with the magnetic cap it’s probably MORE EXPENSIVE than Aramis is now, and like a lot of Zara fragrances the sprayer isn’t very good, but take into account I’ve already said the sprayer on my bottle of Aramis one day just randomly STOPPED WORKING, so grade that one on a curve.
Utterly bonkers creation from Christophe Laudamiel.
It opens with an utterly huge blast of green rhubarb, but this quickly morphs into something else - pistachio, citrus, dry grass, even a hint of something creamy and vanillic. Then the rhubarb roars back again before changing into something different once more. It's sweet and tart at the same time, and has never smelt quite the same on every occasion I've worn it.
It's also very persistent and strong, and will cling to clothing for days once applied - spare application is required.
It took me a little while to love this perfume, but love it I now do. Too strong for summer perhaps, but ideal for spring when there's still that touch of coolness in the air.
Breath of God is one of those perfumes that comes brandishing its reputation before it, like some leperous figure shouting, "Unclean! Unclean!"
In actuality, it's nowhere near as fearsome as its reputation suggests. The opening is dense and heavy smoked fruit, which smells almost gourmand-like. The smoke intensifies and recedes, at times threatening to become overwhelming, but it always backs off at the last moment. Rose pokes through. There's a strong blast of vetiver. Finally, it simmers down to a lulling amber incense and stays that way for several hours. This drydown is the least interesting part of the creation: it's like a slightly less refined version of the notes you would commonly associate with a Serge Lutens.
I remember buying Lush's first commercially produced perfume, a sticky, sickly lemon thing that smelled like melted, condensed boiled sweets, and to have progressed from that to this, which is almost harshly virtuosic, is an enormous leap in both technical skills and imagination.
Oddly, this would almost almost work as a summer perfume, but the incense is ultimately a little too dense for that. Ideal for autumn and winter though.
Utterly abstract fragrance that simultaneously smells very alien while at the same time is suggestive of so many different things.
First off, it smells very yellow. And that's not just because I know mimosa is one of the notes. A single whiff of this and that's the singular colour that comes to mind, a deep, intense yellow. It also smells hot and dusty, but this isn't the hot dustiness of an arid landscape: it's the glassy and metallic lustre of a hot light bulb,or a fan heater blasting out warmth on a cold winter's day. The wine note present is somehow also marine, but it's the sea in the distance, with only the slightest suggestion of it carried on a breeze. Above all, this is astonishingly airy and suggestive of vast, wide open spaces, but it's the space of an unused storage warehouse or an unoccupied office block. As for wood, I get none.
This is quite unlike any perfume I've encountered, and had Christophe Laudamiel not discontinued his Zoo line, it would be backup bottle worthy.
Doliphor is very intimate, very soft and personal.
It's difficult to describe because of this.
It's like a baby's head. Maybe that's the easiest way.
Human, clean, lactonic.
It doesn't lean too dirty on me. Slightly sweet and aromatic from the carrot seed.
I was immediately worried about the costus note as it really wasn't for me in Ambilux, but here it is just right.
Official wording;
Skin in a bottle. Warm and humid areas of the body.
Carnal imprint left on a worn garment. Trace of a musky laundry
Composition:
Tenacious and synthetic metallic, bitter, greenish, inky, tea, very musky. Fantastic cooling, kind of indescribable fragrance.
Strong, classic, masculine, aromatic, citrus, floral, dry woody.
An opening of spicy aromatic petitgrain and bitter orange, quickly followed by a nice, green neroli. Orange blossom floralizes and sweetens the neroli, while carrot seeds add a slight powderiness in the mid. Cashmeran and woods combine to create a very nice dry woody base. Claims oak, I don't really detect a significant oak note, more cedar if anything specific. Has a feeling of a classic EDC-style fragrance with a significantly stronger woody base.
Futuristic, masculine cold damp earth and rose done in a clean, modern way.
A bit peppery with a little synthetic sweetness in the opening. Quickly a slight grayish, mineralic, damp earthiness appears, casting a kind of veil over a fairly prominent rose and a cold, slightly plasticky incense note in the mid. A synthesized patchouli derivative woody base with ambroxan. This is a fairly linear scent with many interesting aroma chemicals and futuristic synthetics.
I fell in love with this back in 2003 and still love it. Back then it reminded me of a Catholic Church. I was obsessed. I still pick that up but it is so much more than just a church scent. Big, rich, complex, and sexy as all get out. Hot priest vibes.
Beautifully sweet, with warming boozy rum and rich tobacco. The sweet ripe dark fruits, and rich cacao are delicious.
The leather is subtle and the vanilla is sweet and indulgent but doesn't lead edible on me. .
The tobacco is something else I have to say. Smokey and rich. The leather is just the right depth to add a comforting familiarity of a well worn leather jacket.
Cosy, delicious, comforting, and amazingly masculine.
