Category Archive: Perfume Reviews

Uncle Serge Baffles Us Once Again – Serge Lutens Vitriol d’Oeillet Perfume Review

Carnations

I’ve had a vase of purple carnations sat in my hallway for about two weeks now, they are suitably cheerful and they smell spicy and gorgeous. The problem with carnations is that they tend to hang around. Yes, they’re very beautiful but I’m at the point where I want them to move along so that I can refresh the vase with something else.

This is also how I feel about Vitriol d’Oeillet.

Serge Lutens has described Vitriol d’Oeillet as an ‘angry carnation’ and on the Serge Lutens website the description simply says “What is it, Doctor Jekyll?” [1] These descriptions lead me to believe that my tiny spray vial was going to unleash a huge, evil carnation monster that was going to eat me and ransack my house. A little farfetched I know, but I do have an active imagination.

What did come flying out of my little spray vial was something completely unexpected; A pretty and realistic spicy bunch of carnations. Just like the ones currently lurking in my hallway.

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A Cosmic Drag Queen – Thierry Mugler Angel EDP Perfume Review

AngelWhat can I say about Angel that hasn’t already been said? Angel isn’t just your typical perfume, she is a legend, a legend in exactly the same way that N°5 and Shalimar are legends. She’s also not just a legend, she is a fierce vixen and a complete diva.

Created in 1992 by Olivier Crisp and Yves de Chiris for avant-garde fashion designer Thierry Mugler, Angel is inspired by Mugler’s childhood memories, he wanted “to make a perfume that could have a common resonance for everyone, something close to tenderness, to childhood.” [1] The childhood memories that Mugler chose to recreate in Angel were those of the fairground.

The very first time I smelled Angel, right at the beginning of my perfumista journey, I was shocked, appalled and disgusted all at once. Who would want to wear this? I thought. But I kept finding myself coming back to Angel, there was something about her, she lured me in and wouldn’t let me go, I was helpless. I became obsessed and after many sniffs I finally bought a bottle, wore it with pride and didn’t look back.

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Shock, Horror! – CK One Shock for Him & For Her Perfume Review

CK One Shock

Ahh flankers, there is nothing within the glorious world of perfume more guaranteed to make my eyes roll. Don’t get me wrong, there are some pretty good flankers on the market, take Guerlain’s Shalimar Parfum Initial or Chanel’s No 5 Eau Premiere for example. But on the whole the majority of flankers stink (see Marc Jacobs Bang Bang), they are a cheap way of marketing a new fragrance without having to come up with a new name or bottle and tend to carry no ingenuity whatsoever.

CK One Shock for Him and for Her are the latest in a long line of flankers to Calvin Klein’s iconic Unisex fragrance CK One, originally launched in 1994. With CK One Shock they have released “Two sassy new fragrances that flaunts youth innate sense of provocation” [1] Calvin Klein has proved to be the king of flankers over the years, the majority of which have been pretty terrible so I did not approach these two with high hopes.

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I Want Candy – Prada Candy Perfume Review

Prada Candy

I want Candy, I really do, out of all of the fragrance launches in the last few months Prada Candy is one of the only ones (other than Amouage Honour Woman of course) to push me to start screaming ‘I MUST HAVE THIS!’

Candy is the latest release from Italian fashion house Prada, and it follows such excellent fragrances as; Infusion d’Iris, Infusion d’Homme and L’Eau Ambrée and therefore it has quite a lot to live up to. The fragrance is described as “a different facet of Prada’s femininity, where excess is everything.” [1]

Well, I don’t now about ‘excess’, but this is most definitely a very gorgeous and chic fragrance.

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I’d Like to Love You Baby – Diesel Loverdose Perfume Review

Loverdose

Diesel fragrances have always rated as ‘Not bad but Not Great’ on my scale of perfume awesomeness (which runs from Viktor & Rolf Antidote to Guerlain Shalimar BTW). They’ve always been competently put together, pleasant enough fragrances that smell utterly mainstream. This isn’t a bad thing in itself, after all there is nothing wrong with decent smelling mainstream fragrances, but as perfumistas we expect more, don’t we?

Loverdose is the latest feminine release for the Italian brand and it follows Fuel For Life as the second feminine launch since the Diesel fragrance line was completely revamped.

Loverdose is described as follows:

“Loverdose is the sexy & addictive new fragrance from Diesel. It represents a woman who is sexy, playful and irresistible. She receives an overdose of love from those around her, but she wants more. She desires pleasure, adrenaline & passion.” [1]

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Everything Changes – By Kilian Sweet Redemption (The End) Perfume Review

Sweet RI have to admit that I’m a bit of a newbie when it comes to By Kilian, I have pretty much dismissed the line up until now, predominately due to the high prices (a rookie perfumista error, I know) but my financial restraints prevent me from considering über expensive fragrances, so I don’t try them just in case I fall in love, which is pretty much always the case.

But thanks to some excellent reviews by my Evil Scent Twin, Birgit from Olfactoria’s Travels I have found myself officially intrigued. I wanted to see what all of the fuss is about so I managed to blag a few samples from the By Kilian counter in Harvey Nichols.

Seeing as I’m such a latecomer to the By Kilian party, it seems fitting that I should start at the end, with the last fragrance in the L’Oeuvre Noire (The Black Masterpiece) collection, Sweet Redemption (The End).

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Gin, Gin, Where do I Begin? – Penhaligon’s Juniper Sling Perfume Review

Juniper SlingI’m not a gin drinker, actually scrap that. I wasn’t a gin drinker, but on Tuesday I was coerced (there really wasn’t much coercing going on) into drinking a number of gin cocktails at the bloggers launch for Penhaligon’s new fragrance Juniper Sling. This experience has taught me three things; firstly, Penhaligon’s know how to throw a party, secondly, their gin cocktails are unrivalled and thirdly, gin and fragrance go very well together.

Juniper Sling was created by master perfumer Olivier Cresp (the man that brought Angel into the world) and it is described by Penhaligon’s as “a playful, chilled and mysterious homage to the Bright Young Things of London’s roaring twenties.” Now this may give you the impression that Juniper Sling may be slightly old-fashioned, but this is absolutely not the case, Penhaligon’s have created a modern twist on a classic theme, just look at the bottle with it’s metal bow, a purely modern take on their usual flacon.

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Double the Bang, Half the Fun – Marc Jacobs Bang Bang Perfume Review

Bang Bang

Those of you who read my review of the original Bang on Wednesday will know that I found it to be a thoroughly well executed masculine fragrance for the mass market, so you can imagine that I was quite looking forward to Bang’s first flanker; Bang Bang.

The name is amusing, ‘Bang Bang’, I thought; ‘Double the Bang? This must be a more intense version of Bang’, are you with me? Well you may be, but Marc Jacobs isn’t, Bang Bang is described as a ‘refreshing and dynamic’ version of the original.

If the thought of a ‘refreshing and dynamic’ masculine sends you into a dull-perfume induced coma then I promise to wake you at the end of this review.

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The Big Bang – Marc Jacobs Bang Perfume Review

Bang

This Friday I will be reviewing Marc Jacob’s latest fragrance Bang Bang, so for the sake of continuity I thought it would make sense to review the original Bang fragrance, which in my opinion is the better of the two, but we shall get to that on Friday!

Bang is Marc Jacob’s second masculine release after the eponymous Marc Jacobs for Men (the less said about that the better). It was released in 2010 to a lot of fan fair and positive criticism from the perfume blogosphere. Bang was a big launch for Jacobs, the fragrance was accompanied by a rather aggressive marketing campaign, which showed Mr Jacobs in all of his, ahem, glory.

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Sometimes I Just Want to Smell Like a Hooker – Gucci Rush Perfume Review

Belle

Sometimes I just want to smell like a hooker. I accept that this may be somewhat of a sensational overstatement, but what I really mean is that when it comes to perfume, despite loving the classics, the symphonic florals and the exotic orientals, what I really love is the trashy, brash and over the top.

Sometimes it’s great to wear something that is loud, proud and ultra girly, I also find that these ultra-trashy scents work really well on a man, I have no fear of smelling ‘cheap’.

If you want cheap and trashy you cannot go wrong with Rush by Gucci.

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