Liquorice, for example. It’s quite strong since the beginning, and other than with sugar, it also mixes with a floral note that struggles to come out. After five minutes it feels like the sweet and floral sides are imploding into each other, makine the fragrance tip on its toes, wrapped in a muffled bitter-sweet layer, although it never gives up a certain floralcy.

Bitter and sweet indeed go great together, just like in Lolita Lempicka, of which Pink Sugar Perfume By Aquolina is a slightly less sophisticated version. For a fragrance that was meant to be sweet, it’s quite light, and the bitterness offers a significant contrast. In the dry down, sweet notes change towards a warmer mix of vanilla and chocolate, very much expected and appropriate.

Liquorice in perfumes is a little like tea: you either like it or not, and so is sweetness, so expect a black or white reaction to it.

If this was a color it would be
Pink Sugar Aquolina Perfume Review

Aquolina Pink Sugar Perfume Review

If you have the luck to sample it, don’t miss the opening, because that’s where earth breaks loose after the rain-shower, releasing all sorts of things, and creating an incredible smell that is hard to describe: minty, plastic, warm, fresh, sweaty. At times it’s also indolic (fecal, that is), with the memory of a childhood in the countryside right there (cowshed smell, anyone?).

All that amazing stuff above (it’s still floral, mind you) translates into a type of clean smell. Yet, it’s something light years far from the laundry detergent in many masculine perfumes: it’s the hardcore, concentrated cleanness of laundry soap bars, the smell of the laundry room in my parents’ house, which always comes with the sloshing noise of hand-washed clothes being rinsed.

After the fireworks of the opening, Apres L’ondee Parfum will reveal its personality: it speaks softly and it’s a vaguely melancholic, warm but detached at the same time. It will embrace you and keep you at a distance.

Note-wise it won’t change much, keeping its almost uber-human richness. However, as it starts marching towards the end, it will speak softer, and softer, and softer… until it fades away…

If this was a color it would be:

Apres L’ondee Review

Apres L'ondee Guerlain Review

Perfume Roberto Cavalli opens fresh, and with a certain minty flavour. It will be fairly unquiet all along, however after a couple of minutes, its structure starts to build, with sweet notes first, and then it finally settles down to a warm floral, sprinkled with musky notes.

After about 20 minutes of sophisticated musky floralcy, fruity notes unexpectedly come out, with a peachy sweetness, which almost gives out a tropical flavor. Peach is a good girl in the bad company of dark florals, musk and pepper. I wouldn’t call it a fruity-floral though, if the idea you have of it is something upbeat and unsophisticated. This one is warm and complex instead, also because of a spicy peppery side.

Roberto Cavalli Perfume For Women has a fairly clear physiognomy at this point, with four sides: the floral, the musky smudge, the peach and the peppery.  It is, however, still a quite restless fragrance. Like many – but not all – complex perfumes, it tends to toss and turn a lot, and results may vary: when it keeps the perfect balance of its elements it’s just great, deep and rich, but it may as well give more prominence to one of its sides. The most unfavorable of them is probably the musky facet, which in itself can be quite rough and plasticized: if that’s what you mainly get, then you may not like it.

As it dries down, vanilla starts to come in, muffling the notes, and toning down the Roberto Cavalli Fragrance’s voice. In the very end, it will get an interesting dark green background as well.

The base notes are when it becomes marilyn-monroe-chanel-No5-quote sexy: from under the clothes to under the sheets. Luscious and warm with no fear and no shame (It’s the perfume speaking, not me, I’m just the messenger…).

Also, it has a good duration, after 16 hours it was still there.

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Parfum Roberto Cavalli

Roberto Cavalli Perfume 2012 Review

There must be rose somewhere, together with a light tuberose that gives a light but rough earthy touch in the background.

It’s all pleasant and the sweet-ish notes coming out of the fruity floral mix are potentially sexy from a close distance.

Yet, I’m finding hard to get an idea what this perfume is about. And I’m not really sure if it’s because there’s really nothing to say, or because it’s actually deeper and more complex than I’d be able to understand.

La Lune by Dolce and Gabbana is a girl you wouldn’t normally notice, unless you had the chance to sit down, talk to her for a while, and look at her from a close distance. Then, you might find her interesting, or she might still leave you undecided between simple or shallow.

If this was a color it would be
D & G La Lune 18

D And G La Lune Perfume Review

The opening is muffled and gives out indefinite florals plus citrus notes, with hints of red fruits. There is also a light bitter earthiness in the background, that smudges the innocence of the main notes.

After a couple of minutes, the earthy side disappears, and the fragrance settles down to a tropical-sweet, and fresh attitude, with also aquatic notes that come out on the blotter, but were completely swallowed up by the skin.

Air D’escapade won’t become an icon in the history of perfumery, but if you’re about to head for a sun holiday, you’ve gotta take this with you: it’s all you’ll need perfume-wise.

If this was a color it would be:

Un Air D’escapade perfume Givenchy

On the skin this perfume by Frederic Malle starts immediately with a balsamic minty greenness, which tames the power of the florals density. This balsamic side is a peculiar, quite unexpected counterpart to the floralcy of tuberose, and it’s almost harsh on the throat.

The blotter is way richer. Whereas on the skin there are still some animalic notes pushing from underneath, on here the fragrance is brighter, with also a stinging bergamot to the mix.

If this is what you get on your skin, then this is far from your usual white floral powerhouse. The mint and the fresh notes work with tuberose, uplift it, and create something strong but wearable even if you’re still far from third-age, which is where a white floral would normally belong.

On both sides, perfume Carnal Flower will get vague honey-sweet notes in the dry down, with tuberose being one part of the equation and not the main character. The calmness of the base notes makes the intensity of the opening actually stronger in the memory.

Carnal Flower is alive, like the remarkable yellow of its liquid, and even though at times it feels half light, half nostalgic, it’s sexy all the way. Perfumer Dominique Ropion (Amor Amor by Cacharel, Un Fleur de Cassie, Amarige by Givenchy) sure took a super intense tuberose, but joined it with other notes with enough personality to keep it at bay, and make it even smile a little. And for that we’re grateful.

If this was a color it would be
Carnal Flower Perfume By Frederic Malle

Carnal Flower By Dominique Ropion Review

It’s not your typical fishnet stockinged rose though: the layer of vinyl is substituted by the sweet peachy and the citrus fruity notes of the start.

It’s a strange couple what you have there, but it blends quite well: it’s delicate and sweet, but still with a sexy card to play, especially from a very short distance.

Super short review this time, but Perfume Versus Eau De Toilette is good. What is not good is that Donatella Versace allegedly described the fragrance with words like “rough femininity.” On the contrary, Versus’ femininity is indeed quite smooth. The cool thing is that it will leave an “innocent” trail, but it will still smell sexy from a very short distance.

If this was a color it would be:

Versus By Gianni Versace For Women

Versace Versus Perfume For Women Review

The opening is like watching a 15-second trailer of an action movie:  you get a lot of the stuff you’ll get later, and very quickly. Dense white florals, more delicate ones, a fresh, almost citrus side, vague sweet notes, and also vague spices.

And then, the real D&G The One Perfume movie begins with rose, and it’s either the real thing, or a product of other florals like lily and jasmine. It’s not the naked rose of Stella McCartney’s Stella, or Parisienne a l’Extreme: the typical vinyl taste is very controlled, and the flower is thinly dressed with dense sourness.

It seems to walk a fine line between soapy and and musky-dirty, and I guess it might lean more towards one or the other on your skin. On the blotter for example, it came out (and remained for hours with no falter) as a pure delicate floral. On the skin on the other hand, it was quite musky, and similar to Narciso Rodriguez For Her.

For the most part of the heart notes on the skin, The One D&G For Women will keep changing expression, with also candy and clean notes alongside white florals and musk. And maybe some green notes as well… (I wasn’t high I swear). As it moves towards the dry down, it becomes almost gourmand, with dark and warm sweet notes. It’s the prelude of the soft vanilla for an oriental end.

And that’s how The One Fragrance goes to bed. Easy to see why it’s so popular. It will be at ease in any single occasion and it’s like Incubus’ latest album: all notes are simply perfect.

If this was a color it would be:
Perfume The One By Dolce & Gabbana For Women

D&G The One Perfume For Women Review

Lolita Lempicka Parfum will change very slowly, letting the magic begin. The electricity and the vinyl will leave, and so will part of the bitterness; in turn, patchouli will come out of the dark corner where it had been relegated. Its green notes, quite raw so far, will feel brighter.

As it moves towards the dry down, the accord of vanilla, liquorice and patchouli will slowly unfold. It will be warm, delicate, sweet and green, with still some residual toughness of the liquorice.

That’s when perfume Lolita becomes truly fascinating, sexy, warm and more clearly gourmand. This is sophisticated stuff, if you don’t like the opening, stick with it, you’ll be rewarded ten times as much in the end.

If this was a color it would be
Perfume Lolita Lempicka For Women

Lolita Perfume Review

There’s a respectable blast of white florals at the start of Perfume Organza, and then on the skin it gets quite indolic, with the power trio of jasmine, gardenia and tuberose.

The blotter gives out more interesting tones (and that’s what I hope you will get on your skin): it will still be animalic, but minty as well, and somehow fresher, probably thanks to gardenia’s buttery notes.

(incidentally: where else, if not in a perfume review, can you actually say that butter notes are fresh, and actually make sense?)

And then, just when I almost dismissed it as a perfume from the past (it’s from 1996), one that faced the path of time less well than Beutiful, after 2-3 hours, Organza Eau De Parfum improves. That’s when the floriental side of the perfume showed itself to me, although many find it quite spicy from the start.

The white florals become less aggressive, and it’s less it’s-1996-what-do-you-expect. The dry down carries a light breeze of heavy florals, with a vestige of sweet fruity notes in the background and a light vague peppery spice.

This is not for young girls for sure. If you’re at least 40 you can start pulling it off. The sooner the spicy sweet part starts to come out, the better. But even if it’s only in the dry down, it may still be worth it a couple of hours of old-style white floral steam.

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Organza By Givenchy Perfume    

Givenchy Organza Perfume