Plum Crazy: A Plum Fragrance Guide

I love plums. We have a plum tree in the backyard and this spring brought us the most amazing aroma of plum blossoms. Plus, the tree has been just beautiful when covered with blossoms. It’s been quite a view from my pink boudoir. I also love the aroma of the juicy fruit. Stone fruits really add to a fragrance. A plum has a richness that others do not, plus it lacks the “fuzziness” of peaches. It mixes well with florals and spices. Hey, it even mixes well with seaweed. I would love a fragrance that smells like plum furikake. I’ve compiled a brief “collage” of various plum heavy fragrances. Feel free to add.

Budget Plum Scents (under $50): TokyoMilk Parfum Sugar Plum Solid Perfume is a sweet plum as the name implies. It retails for $18. Bath and Body Works has 2 fruity plum floral EDTs: Cherry Blossom and Blushing  Cherry Blossom. Both retail for $26.50 for over 2 ounces. An “oriental” plum is Avon Imari Seduction EDT. This is a “purple” seductive fragrance with vanilla, plum, and orchids. The 1.7 oz. goes for $22.50. Crazylibellule & The Poppies 26 Juin ile d’Yeu Solid Cologne is a refreshing plum/fruity chypre. The crazystick goes for about $18. To me it smells like a plum tree full of ripe fruit on a hot summer day. I really do love that stick. Aroma M Geisha Pink Roll-On is a frivolous sweet, sugared plum fragrance oil in an adorable package. It retails for $40.

More Expensive Plum Scents: Juicy Couture Couture Couture EDP is a very sweet fruity-floral with plum. It’s a bit too sweet for my taste, but it does have candied plums. The bottle is beautiful. The 1.7 ounce goes for $65. Creed Aqua Florentine is a light-hearted fruity floral with dessert plums, flirty blossoms, and cedar. The smallest spray retails for $130. Parfums des Beaux Arts by DSH Quincridone Violet EDP (not pictured) is an energetic plum/fruity violet floral. The 1 oz. EDP spray retails for $65. If a plum based fragrance could be an edgy fashionista, it would be Editions de Parfums Le Parfum de Therese. This is a blend of stone fruits, citrus, cedar, and leather. Love it. The 1.7 ounce retails for $155. If you are looking for a dried plum AKA prune fragrance, more appropriate for fall/winter, give Serge Lutens Bois et Fruits EDP a try. It’s woodsy and powdery sweet. It retails for $200 for 1.7 ounces.

 

Dolce & Gabbana Classic EDT Fragrance Review

The Mainstream Monday: Sniffing A Popular Fragrance

Dolce & Gabbana “Classic” EDT, the one in the red, is one of my favorite department store fragrances. I am not the kind of person that can go to Macy’s and find many fragrances that I like. However, this is one that many department stores carry and I love. It is warming, intoxicating, and it smells very “expensive”. This oriental fragrance wears very resiny and soft on me. It has a blast of citrus and refined flowers, but it smells woodsy and powdery. In my mind, it is what a fancy Italian women’s perfume should smell like.

At first I can pick up on the citrus but it is a perfumey citrus oil. I get rich neroli/orange blossom mixed with “classic” florals such as carnation and jasmine. The first few minutes are very neroli heavy. I know this fragrance hasn’t been around as long as other fragrances, but it really has a classic Italian perfume vibe. This is like a “going out on the town” fragrance, a seduction fragrance. It is very Anita Ekberg to me and makes me think of her in dream woman status in La Dolce Vita. The citrusy florals mix in to a powdery perfume blend. There is that spice from carnation mixed citrus blossoms. It becomes resiny, feminine, powdery, and sexy. It manages to be all of this while still smelling clean and fresh. I guess I have an old-school image of  the “clean” fragrance, less aquatic and soapy and much more powdery. The dry-down is a pretty blend of carnation, powdery amber, and soft vanilla. This is a fragrance that I like to wear in the fall because I like its warmth but I also like how it has a certain crispness thanks to the citrus and clove-like carnation. Somehow I can manage to wear this one in late summer, a little bit goes a long way.

Notes listed include tangerine, orange flower, red carnation, and vanilla. For an EDT, this fragrance wears for many hours on me, longer than many things labeled “EDP”.

I recommend this fragrance for those that like a warm oriental fragrance, YSL Opium EDT, Miller Harris Fluer Oriental EDT, Guerlain Les Parisiennes Derby EDP, Guerlain Sous Le Vent EDP, Estee Lauder Spellbound EDP, Parfums des Beaux Arts by DSH Parfum de Grasse EDP, Saffron James Punono EDP, Cartier Baiser du Dragon EDP, Serge Lutens Datura Noir EDP, Crazylilbellue & The Poppies Shanghaijava Collection Encens Mystic Solid Perfume and/or Avon Timeless Cologne. It comes in a few sizes and retails for about $64-$80.

Dolce & Gabbana Perfume for Women Eau De Toilette Spray 1.7 Oz by Dolce & Gabbana
From: BigDiscountFragrances.com

 

A Cheery Cherry Fragrance Guide

I can’t wear cherry fragrances because my husband says that I smell like a urinal cake if I do. Since I spend no time in a men’s restroom, I can’t contest. I just have to take his word for it. Fortunately, you don’t just have to smell like a cherry jolly rancher when it comes to cherry. There are many cherry blends and cherry blossom fragrances on the market. I’ve made a list of cherry fruit and cherry blossom fragrances in many price points.

Bargain Cherry Scents (under $40): The Body Shop Japanese Cherry Blossom EDT is a green, fresh floral bouquet. The 1.7 oz spray retails for $25. Avon Fire Me Up EDT is a fruity blend of black cherry, citrus, and pomegranate. The 1.7 oz retails for $16. Melissa Flagg Sadie’s Perfume Roll-On is a romantic blend of cherry and plum blossoms floating on white tea. I think this is my favorite cherry blossom scent. The roll-on goes for $28. Bath and Body Works has a few cherry blossom scents but I’d say their most popular is Cherry Blossom EDT. It is a blend of juicy fruits and delicate flowers with cherry blossom. The 2.5 oz goes for $26.50. Demeter PMU in Cherry Blossom is a light-wearing cherry blossom scent. The 1 oz cologne goes for $20.

More Expensive Cherry Scents: L’Occitane Cherry Blossom EDT is a light, springy floral fragrance. It’s light, airy, and soft. The 3.4 oz retails for about $46. Cartier Délices de Cartier is a sweet, gourmand like fragrance. The top not is Morello cherry. It is then followed by jasmine, vanilla, and tonka bean. The 1.6 oz EDP goes for $100. Annick Goutal Quel Amour EDT is a bubbley, fruity, rose floral with Morello cherry. The 3.4 oz goes for $115. Ed Hardy Love & Luck is a sweet fruity fragrance with cherry blossom, sake, plum, and blood orange. The 1.7 oz goes for $55. Victoria’s Secret Sexy Little Things Ooh La La EDP is a fruity floral with citrus, cherry blossom, and sweet vanilla. I think the 3.4 oz goes for $49. Hilde Soliani Doolciiisssimo is an interesting guilty pleasure of mine. It is a blend of cherry tobacco, which I have always thought smelled great, with vanilla and patchouli. The 3.4 EDP goes for $175.

 

Avon Candid Perfumed Skin Softener Lotion

Weekly Cheap Secret:

I love these little old school highly fragranced body lotions. I hope Avon realizes that this “retro” packaging is what sells these Perfumed Skin Softeners. Well, at least it does for me. I like to have them out, there isn’t a logo, a label. They are just in a “sphere”. They really look nice in a boudoir. They retail for about $5 and are frequently on sale for about 99¢ on Avon’s website.

Candid is a nice fragrance for those that like a classic late 70’s floral oriental type fragrance. I love a late 70’s oriental. It’s a dated blend of heady jasmine, red roses, woodsy but feminine sandalwood with vetiver. It manages to smell “fresh” and clean, I guess because of the vetiver. The scent isn’t very complex. It’s all blended together to make a feminine, fresh oriental scent. I find that it does mix well with pure fragrance oils of any of the scents mentioned above. I love to wear it with either jasmine or rose to bring out the feminine quality. I can make it more masculine and zesty fresh with a spritz of L’Aromarine Vetyver or Guerlain Vetiver. Since the product is heavily scented, I can still smell it wearing very closely to my skin after all day wear.

The lotion is thick but not buttery. I still find that at night I need to apply a heavier cream to keep from being ashy in the winter. I just use this skin softener for the nostaligic novelty. And it does wear nicely with fragrance oils and some of my more “classic” fragrances.

 

Issey Miyake L’Eau D’Issey EDT Fragrance Review

The Mainstream Monday: Sniffing A Popular Fragrance

Oh, the ever so popular L’Eau D’Issey! This fragrance has a cult following and I smell it on people all the time when I am out and about. It’s good that I don’t find it offensive! It’s a very popular aquatic floral and I remember for a few years there all of my girlfriends wore it. So it has taken me so many years to revisit this scent because I was so tired of it. I brought out a sample of it a few days ago. It’s a pretty scent. I’m not a fan of “aquatic” scents but I can handle this one (on other people) and as far as that genre goes, this is one of the best.

Issey is very, very floral at initial spritz (and throughout wear). It’s filled with humid, aquatic flowers. They are dainty and seem to have the most fragile of petals. These notes are listed as lotus, freesia, cyclamen, rose water, fresh peonies, carnation, and white lilies. If you are afraid of florals then leave this scent alone. It is heavy on them. I would say the floral that stands out most to me is the freesia and cyclamen. I can “feel” the lotus. This floral bouquet seems to create an atmosphere of water garden flowers. You just feel the humidity from them and you can almost see the sweating paper-thin petals. It’s an exotic fragrance (if you don’t live in a hot, wet tropical climate) because it smells like “jungle” flowers to me because they are so fragrant and so wet. The company describes it as “when Flower meets Water”. It wears very floral for a very long time.  Other notes in this fragrance include: precious woods, osmanthus, tuberose, amberseed, and musk. After hours and hours, no kidding, I can pick up a faint trace of the musk and woods, but their companions are still strong florals.

I can’t wear this fragrance. It gives me a headache. It is an attack of aquatic florals that doesn’t ever cease. That being said, for an EDT this wears for a long time. I also think it wears nicely on other people and it doesn’t bother me on them. It is just too much to be on my body. If you love lingering complex floral scents then you’ve found your soul mate with this one. If you want a long-lasting floral than this is it too.

I would say that you would like this if you like aquatic/fresh florals Estee Lauder White Linen (and all of its spin-offs), Demeter Rain, CK Eternity, Davidoff Cool Water, Susanne Lang Lotus Blossom, Armani Acqua di Gio, Lollia Imagine, and/or Avon Haiku. The EDT comes in 3 major sizes: a small .8 oz $44, 1.6 oz $65, and a 3.4 oz $89. Sephora has a roller-ball available for $22 that is nice for giving it a try and travel. *Currently available at fragrancenet.com.

L’Eau D’Issey Perfume for Women Eau De Toilette Spray 3.3 Oz by Issey Miyake
From: BigDiscountFragrances.com

 

Givenchy Amarige EDT Fragrance Review

Givenchy Amarige is a nice woodsy-floral (“oriental”) fragrance. It is warm and floral. It is one that I have had in my collection for quite sometime but I often overlook it for reasons unknown. I guess because it is a fragrance that I like, not that I love.

At first spritz, it is a heavy floral mix of gardenia, ylang-ylang,  and neroli. It manages to have a robust but somewhat “powdery” note. This gives the fragrance a subtle yet old-fashioned vibe despite its 1991 release date.  (Depends who you ask, many find this a “dated” fragrance). It “bubbles” with mimosa and faint citrus fruit and blossoms. There is a touch of stone fruit but very faint and I have to wear this many times and “think” about it to find it. This stage is brief, the fruity stage. It dries down to a thick gardenia fragrance but it is much warmer than the initial spritz. It has a bit more of a souring gardenia and tuberose vibe. It eventually turns into a gardenia with “woods” and a little more sweetness from something like vanilla and amber. It smells “exotic” and a little complicated. This isn’t a bad thing. Givenchy describes this fragrance as a fragrance “in love” and a play on “mariage”. At first,  it is flirty, soft, and delicate. It is happy and energetic. Then is becomes warm, sensuous, and seductive during its lifespan. It wears for many hours on me and I find it very hard to believe that it is an EDT and not an EDP!

The bottle is OK. It is sturdy with a disappointing plastic top. It is made to represent a blouse designed by Givenchy for Bettina Graziella which had a dramatic and sculptured neckline.

The 1 ounce retails for $47 and the 1.6 ounce for $62. There is a 3.3 ounce and I think it goes for $82. I would say, if you haven’t already tried this fragrance, that you may like it if you are the type that likes Jean Paul Gaultier EDP, Kenzo Flower, Dior Addict, and strangely Avon SSS Soft & Sensual body products line. This is also a great fragrance for the gardenia and tuberose lover. I really go for this one in the fall and winter because of its warm base notes. It is a great “winter” floral. I also find that it is too strong for me in the summer. Actually I should give a warning, this is a “strong” fragrance according to many noses, I mean I did compare it to Addict!

Amarige Perfume for Women Eau De Toilette Spray 1.7 Oz by Givenchy
From: BigDiscountFragrances.com

 

Welcome Spring: My Desire For Floral Fragrances.

I know it is predictable but I really want florals for spring. I want a fragrance with a sign of life. Usually I go for chypre or green fragrance but right now I am in a very floral mood. It only makes sense. It has been green in the Pacific Northwest and smells very mossy/chypre but no floral notes. Things are starting to bud even if they were covered in snow every other day. It is only natural to crave floral scents. However some florals seem to “robust” or to “dry” for spring. It is all a matter of perspective and I am sure where you were raised. I prefer bulb flowers and wild lilies. Here are some of my favorites and I know that I am leaving something wonderful out but i just can’t include them all.

6 Bargains Scents: Coty Muguet Des Bois is one of my favorites. It is a soft classic lily of the valley and you get 1.8 ounces for under $20. It is floral and dewy. Another nice soliflore type fragrance is Woods of Windsor Lily of the Valley it goes for $25 for 3.3 ounces. Tokyomilk Waltz is a nice white musk floral that reminds me of a frolic in a garden, much like the Fragonard painting. It retails for $28 for 1 ounce. Lush Sakura solid perfume is a nice blend of jasmine and mimosa. It smells of spring and only goes for $12. Demeter Wisteria is a nice soliflore that retails for $20 for an ounce. Avon Cynthia Rowley Petal EDT is a bursting Lily of the Valley inspired fragrance. It goes for $15 for an ounce and comes in a really cute hot pink hobnail glass bottle.

6 of the More Expensive Stuff: Diptyqye Jardin Clos EDT is a wonderful full hyacinth blend. It retails for $88 for 50mL. Guerlain Champs Elysees EDT is a light and flirty blend of roses and mimosa. It retails for about $60 and it depends on the size. The Marc Jacobs EDP fragrance is a nice fragrance with honeysuckle, jasmine, and gardenia without being too heavy. The 3.4 ounce bottle retails for $90 and the 1.7 ounce for $70. Melissa Flagg Mabel Perfume oil is a wonderful spring blend of lilies and honeysuckle. It retails for $42 for 1/8 ounce. Benefit Maybe Baby EDT is a nice flirty white floral. The 3.4 ounce retails for $48 and the 1.7 ounce goes for $32. I like the light almost bubbly scent of L’Artisan Parfumeur in Mimosa Pour Moi. The 1.7 ounce retails for $95 and the 3.4 ounce goes for $135.

 

Avon Tahitian Holiday EDT Fragrance Spray Review

This isn’t a bad smelling fragrance for the money. It retails for $15 for 1.7 ounces. It is often on sale and I think I got my bottle for under $7. It is nice, light, and beachy. It isn’t aquatic and it isn’t overly fruity or coconuty. If you like Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess or that wonderful but discontinued Estee Lauder Azuree Soliel then you will like this. However, this is an EDT meant to be worn during summer so it isn’t the longest wearing fragrance. I give it an hour tops. My half empty (or full, depending how you look at it) bottle looks like I really like this fragrance. But, that is because I have to spray the heck out of it, use it like a body spray, and reapply frequently to keep smelling it.

The bottle is OK for the price. It does resemble a water droplet and it comes in a lovely clear Tahitian blue sea shade. The bottle is glass and is easy to hold. The top is a not so beautiful plastic top that I have already lost. But, I am not complaining about the bottle. What do you expect for under $20?

At first the fragrance is a bit brash and hairspray-ish because of the high alcohol content. It is floral and a bit synthetic gardenia. It does smell of “monoi”, the cosmetics industry “it” item of the past few years. After the inital white floral burst it begins to smell of monoi. It smells of sun kissed Tahitian gardenias and coconut tanning oil. It isn’t mildly sweet like real coconut oil. It is more tanning oil coconut. It manages to get a little sweet like passion fruit or apricots, a bit of a fuzzy fruit, but it still remains to be a coconuty floral. The fruitiness is very understated and barely noticeable. It smells of “skin” musk, that super clean and warm musk used in many fragrances in this price range. This helps to hold the coconut without smelling too desserty. The whole time it smells of the Avon version of monoi, more hissy floral mixed with cosmetic grade coconut tanning oil fragrance. It smells much better than my description, I think. It smells of skin on the beach. It has that “product” smell but it smells warm and human and just a little aquatic or salty. It really is a nice blend. If you want to play up the saltiness, apply a spritz of Demeter Salt Air. This fragrance isn’t as nice as real monoi but it does smell pretty. It is a nice pick me up on cooler days and it wears nicely in the summer. It isn’t too sweet. It is just really “beachy”. This goes on my beach’n fragrance list. I think the Bronze Goddess fans will like this one, as well as those that like coconut scents by Bath and Body Works, J.Lo Miami Glo, and that Sarah Jessica Parker Covet Pure Bloom frgrance that I despised (if only that SJP fragrance was a nice as this Avon one). Or for those that want a light summer fragrance on a budget. I think I would repurchase if I run out. I like Bronze Goddess much more but the price of this Avon one is right and I like to use it as a linen spray as well. It turns my cold bed into a warm beach.