Perfume Review: Prerogative by Britney Spears

I love Britney Spears. I have done since ‘…Baby One More Time’ hit the airwaves in 1998. That’s twenty years of being a Britney fan. I grew up with her music so it would be pretty TOXIC for me to turn on her now. I mean, I LOVE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL but Britney is my favourite, her music makes me STRONGER and whilst SOMETIMES there have been FREAKSHOW moments and things have often been a CIRCUS, I have always ensured that I WILL BE THERE for Britney. I support Ms. Spears because she will always GIMME MORE and I’m LUCKY to have someone who will provide me with the daily motivation I need to DO SOMETHIN’ – to tell me to WORK BITCH when I most need it. Basically, Britney, what Im trying to say is that I’M A SLAVE 4 U and you can have a PIECE OF ME whenever you damn well please.

OK. I’ll stop now. I promise.

Music career aside, Britney has had huge success with her perfume empire. Fantasy is one of the best selling celebrity fragrances on the market and has outlasted so many others from a whole host of her contemporaries. It’s also the best example of a fruity, cupcake floral there is and you can come at me if you think otherwise. This summer, Britney is treating us to a brand new fragrance – the provocative Prerogative, which takes its name from her hit single (a Bobby Brown cover) and Greatest Hits album. Prerogative is designed as a “break the rules” kind of a fragrance, created for all Britney fans, regardless of gender. It comes with the battle cry that we can all do whatever the hell we want. Well what I wanna do right now is review the heck out of this fragrance, and if Britney endorses that with this “do whatever you want” scent, I’m a do it.

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@FragrantReviews: The Greatest Hits

Four years ago today, my good friend, Nick Gilbert and I embarked on an exciting perfume project with a view of turning the world of fragrance reviewing on its head. We set out to use the medium of Twitter to create entertaining and bitesize reviews in 140 characters or less – the result was @FragrantReviews – our smelly baby that launched both of our writing careers.

Writing these reviews is surprisingly challenging. It’s tough to dissect and truly represent a fragrance in such a small medium, but it’s also immense fun and I think I wouldn’t be speaking out of turn if I said that both Nick and I really enjoy putting these fragrant tweets together. They can be funny, they can be poetic and they can occasionally be mean, but one thing they never are is boring.

We’re now at over 3,000 followers, and to celebrate our fourth birthday, I’d like to share with you ten of my favourite Fragrant Reviews – five from Nick and five from me. They range from the olfactory time capsule of Eau de Toast to the utter hideousness of Viktor & Rolf’s BonBon and capture some of our big loves and a number of our, well, not-so-big loves. I hope you enjoy this brief retrospective and will have a go at chiming in with your own 140 character reviews in the comments box.

Click here to check out Nick’s favourites.

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The Candy Perfume Boy Loves Cheap Trash

Juicy Couture Tracksuit — As much as I would rock a Juicy Couture tracksuit I can confirm this is not an image of me…

As a die hard perfume nerd it is often too easy for one to focus on all that is good in the world of perfumery. That may sound like it goes without saying but what I mean specifically is that one can fall in to the trap of only celebrating that which is considered to be the finest examples of the art we adore so much. Of course this is no bad thing in itself, quality, artistry, and beauty must be celebrated, however when doing so it is far too easy for one to overlook those perfumes that are, shall we say ‘a little rough around the edges’. The ugly ducklings if you will.

Personally, I adore an ugly duckling. Yes I also adore my Amouages, exclusive Guerlains and Maison Francis Kurkdjian scents but my guilty pleasures cannot be ignored. To my nose there is nothing more pleasing than a brash, cheap and trashy fragrance. That said, there is a fine line between the fun & trashy and the downright vulgar, in the context of celebrity it’s the difference between Lady Gaga (good vulgar) and Paris Hilton (bad, just bad).

If you’re looking for that fun, fancy-free, brazen and downright ridiculous over-the-top cheap scent then look no further than this guide, because I adore cheap trash and nothing pleases me more than sharing my favourite examples of tacky fragrant vulgarity with you.

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