The Candies 2012: The Very Best and Very Worst Perfumes of 2012

I can’t believe it but it’s the end of 2012 already, which means that it’s time for us perfume bloggers to put together our lists of the very best and very worst perfumes of the year, honestly, where did the time go?! This year I’m affectionately entitling my awards ‘The Candies’ as a short, punchy alternative to The Candy Perfume Boy Awards. Neat huh?

Across all genres there have been many interesting, exciting and unique perfumes unleashed on to the market along with the usual amount of celebrity dreck, dud flankers and down-right-bizarre niche offerings. All-in-all it’s been a busy year with over 1,300 launches. Impressive but exhausting!

Below you will find my awards for Best Masculine, Best Feminine and Best Unisex Fragrances for both niche and mainstream houses. In addition to this I’ve also included awards for Best Flanker, Best Celebrity Fragrance and Best Ad Campaign. But we’re not just celebrating the very best of perfumery in 2012 here, no sir, we’re also highlighting the very worst with the Sour Candy Award, reserved solely for the naffest perfume of the year.

So I hope you’re wearing your very best frock (or tux for the boys, or frock if you prefer, it’s up to you really) and sipping on some fine Champagne as The Candies 2012 are underway…

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Frozen Flowers – Floral Fragrances for Winter

You may or may not be aware that I am somewhat partial to the odd floral or two. OK, that’s a severe understatement, I am a floral addict and if you were to examine me under a microscope you’d probably discover that my genetic makeup has been significantly altered by the sheer amount of white flowers that I wear. Maybe I’ll wake up one day and I’ll actually have become a flower? Is that pushing it? Thought so.

When most people think florals they think of summer; of golden sunlight beating down on fields and meadows of fragrant flowers shouting their narcotic odours into the warm summer breeze. But for me florals aren’t exclusive to spring or summer, in fact one of my favourite times of the year to break out my bottles of trapped flowers is the time, for the most part, when they are not blooming in the wild. My favourite time for florals is winter.

Floral fragrances are surprisingly versatile in winter, they can provide warmth and comfort or they can react with the cold stiff air to create a sparkling aura that freezes on the skin. So as the weather appears to be quickly changing and the mercury is heading closer and closer to the 0 mark (well it is here at least) I thought I would share with you some of my favourite florals for my favourite time of year.

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Do You Dare? – Madonna Truth or Dare Perfume Review

This post should come with a disclaimer – I am a Madonna fan, or as I put it ‘a royal subject of her Madgesty’. I just can’t help myself – I love her music, I admire her immensely for doing everything a man can do but better (and for getting away with it), for doing a lot with average talent, heck even this blog is named after one of her songs, so yes it is fair to say that I kinda like the Queen of Pop. I am also a HUGE fan of white florals, which may lead you to think that I was destined to adore Madonna’s first perfume ‘Truth or Dare’, I mean after all how could I not be biased when one of my favourite icons releases a perfume that fits very nicely into one of my favourite genres?

The truth is that the release of Truth or Dare was quite nerve-wracking for me. First things first, there have been many rumours about a Madonna perfume over the years and it would be fair to say that she should have done it a long time ago, back when she was more of a leader and less of a follower. Secondly, aside from a few glorious exceptions (Rossy de Palma, Tilda Swinton and Sarah Jessica Parker etc.) celebrity perfumes tend to be naff, thoughtless concoctions created as a quick cash cow for whoever feels the need to put their name to one. But as news of Truth or Dare startled to trickle into the blogosphere my fears were put to rest and I was particularly encouraged by the fact that her perfume would be a Fracas inspired white floral – a genre that she is known to love.

Truth or Dare, Madonna’s first and long-awaited foray into the perfume market is created in conduction with Coty, it is also part of her new lifestyle/fashion brand of the same name and was developed by perfumer Stephen Nilsen (Donna Karan Gold, Hillary Duff With Love). With Truth or Dare Madonna was looking to create something personal that was an expression of herself and her love for perfume, but could also be accessible to others, she wanted “something classical and timeless and yet modern” [1]. It is aimed at women between the ages 25-45, with the main focus being on the 35-45 bracket, a fact that I find baffling seeing as Madonna is currently 53 (at the time of writing). Anyhoo, on to the fragrance…

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Smelly News: Madonna Truth or Dare Perfume Commercial

Put the bondage mask down Madge – it’s for your own good!

After a brief hiatus due to a big wooly mammoth-sized dose of university work I am very pleased to be returning to the blogosphere once again and apologise for the huge lack of posts over the last few weeks. Before my full comeback tomorrow, which will kick of with a write-up of last week’s Perfume Lovers London Leather Event, I thought I would share the commercial for Madonna’s highly anticipated debut fragrance ‘Truth or Dare’.

Now, I am a Madonna fan, I have been for years and despite the fact that my interest in the Queen of Pop may have wained since her last album (I refuse to acknowledge Hard Candy as a legitimate Madonna album – it’s just better that way) I must confess that I am back in full M-obsession mode since the release of her latest album MDNA. This, plus the impending release of her first fragrance has me breaking into spontaneous fits of gay hysteria, so please do humour me slightly with this post.

Truth or Dare is reported to be a big white floral and seeing as it is coming from a woman who’s favourite fragrance is Fracas, I rest assured that it will be a relatively-decent perfume. That aside, I think we can all agree that the commercial for said fragrance is absolutely diabolical. Sometimes Madonna just tries to hard and whilst the whole look (and name) seems to be straight out of the Blond Ambition era (when she was at the height of her fame), I can’t help but feel that it seems dated and pointlessly ‘erotic’. I mean, was there really a need for the bondage mask?! Oh, and don’t get me started on the fact that she has used her worst ever single as the soundtrack! C’mon Madge – you’re better than that!

Shoddy TV commercial aside I am still VERY excited about Truth or Dare and cannot wait to get my greedy little hands on a bottle. More info on Truth or Dare below the jump…

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