Womens Fragrance

This year retro is in and all the flower power images of the 60’s are back in vogue. Peace, Love & Juicy Couture fits the mold and they have done surprisingly well with this, their newest fragrance. Where Couture Couture was too artificial and had an almost alcohol type underlying scent, this fragrance is refreshingly Sixties and it is just a lot of good fun.

No one will ever call Peace, Love & Juicy Couture a top shelf fragrance, but it is actually quite nice for the price and really complements the fashions currently trending. The first stages are bright green and lemony, perhaps a little too herbal, but hey! That’s the Sixties for you. Anyone who lived in the era would tell you that green fragrances were ‘happening,’ and the fruitier the better. After a bit it turns a bit floral, but thankfully not overly sweet. It is in a warm, yet pale base, with – you guessed it – patchouli to complete the package. (The Sixties wouldn’t be the Sixties without patchouli!)

If you are looking for the notes in Peace, Love & Juicy Couture, you would find Meyer lemon blossom, wild hyacinth, sweet apple, black currant, sambac jasmine, star magnolia, Malibu poppy, honeysuckle, linden blossom, orris, patchouli and musk. There just isn’t a way to look back on that time without either remembering patchouli and musk. This may never become a designer fragrance for the elite, yet it is absolutely a perfect complement to that 60’s retro look that is so fashionable at the moment. Worn with any of Juicy Couture’s line of clothing, this just seems to make perfect sense.

There is something about the name ‘Christian Dior’ that makes you want to run right out and buy any new fragrance or fashion that bears the moniker! This is the third in the series of Escale fragrances by Dior as it joins the family of Escale a Portofino and Escale a Pondichery. The undertones are of aromatic citrus family and the newest fragrance Escale aux Marquises is a tribute to the tiare flower, the emblem of Tahiti. The fragrance puts you in a frame of mind as if you are on a moonlit beach on a Tahitian night with the scent of tiare flowers wafting in the air.

The first scent you will experience is peppery lemon. The notes in Escale aux Marquises are blood orange, pink pepper, cardamom, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, clove, nutmeg, coriander, elemi, lemon peel, tiare, freesia, benzoin and vanilla – lightly sweet, yet enticingly spicy! However, you may be disappointed because the tiare fragrance is not as obvious as it should be and is set way too far in the background amidst other notes that should be simply that – notes!

While Escale aux Marquises didn’t meet with the rave reviews that other Dior fragrances have met with throughout the years, it is still a nice, gentle fragrance that carries the Dior name with pride. Although most reviewers favor the other two in the series, for those of us who like a fragrance that is sensual but not obnoxiously so, this is a scent to be reckoned with. Yes it might be ‘light’ but sensuality shouldn’t slap one in the face!

Every now and then something fresh and invigorating hits the perfume arena and adds a touch of nature in the process. That appears to be the case with the series of five fragrances by Jane Parker, British floral designer. These fragrances are set to launch in October and they are created to represent various “moods and characters.” The fragrances in the series are:

- Red Roses, Black Violet, Cyclamen
- Fig, Sandalwood, Amber
- Gardenia, Cedar Wood, Patchouli
- Iris, Jasmine, Sandalwood
- Green Orchid, Vetiver, Lemon Grass

As you can see, each in the series is a tribute to nature and they promise to be breathtakingly different from any designer perfumes on the market. If you look at the names, it is almost reminiscent of an earthier day, perhaps the late 60’s and early 70’s when the focus was on “back to nature.” What a delight in this over technological world in which we live!

While Red Roses, Black Violet Cyclamen provides sensuality and a quality of mystery, Fig, Sandalwood, Amber is blatantly sensual. Gardenia, Cedar Wood, Patchouli is as close as you will get to the 60’s in this lifetime and Iris, Jasmine, Sandalwood brings back the days when life was spent by the pool or on cruise ships to the Orient. This is the same with Green Orchid, Vetiver, Lemon Grass with the difference being that this is muted by the green, earthy tones. Each and every fragrance promises to be a delight and a long awaited welcome change.

If you are looking for a fragrance that features a rose, any rose whatsoever, you are looking at the wrong perfume. The ‘Forbidden Rose’ is actually symbolic of all that is hopeful amidst a world in darkness. The tones are largely red apple, white peach, bourbon pepper, lotus flower, apple blossom, heliotrope, pomegranate, vanilla, chocolate and sandalwood. And, as you can see, there is no rose – not black, white, pink yellow or any other color at all!

One of the characteristics to note is the while the apple ‘hits’ you first, the peach gently emerges and then lasts for a very long time in terms of a fruit tone. While it turns a bit toward the bitter toward the middle of the phase, it is soon accompanied by floral notes. The idea behind the florals is of petals (pink petals at that!) that never fully bloom. The base is a slightly muted wood with just a hint of a vanilla/almond sweetness yet the peach carries through for the duration.

There is something almost overly cautious about Forbidden Rose that has you wondering whether it is truly the fragrance it was intended to be. Perhaps that is the symbolism of being caught between two worlds of fairytale purity and vampire darkness? Or maybe the scent is mindful of a girl caught between innocence and sensuality. It isn’t clear whether this lack of direction is intentional or just a result of not being the fragrance it should have been, but in any case, this dichotomy works very well along with the inherent symbolism in the marketing.

It seems like no other perfume designer has so many fragrances that have a broad appeal to virtually every woman who wears fragrance like Calvin Klein. However, in the past he catered largely to the younger crowd until the unveiling of Beauty which is meant to appeal to a broader range of ladies, particularly the over 40 crowd. While his other fragrances are marketed around sensuality and the notion that ‘sex sells,’ Beauty is actually being branded as an elegant fragrance with the commercial featuring Diane Kruger dressed in white and touching on purity, confidence and wisdom.

Beauty is much less fruity than Klein’s other fragrances but there are hints of it in the upper notes. The fragrance is more floral, reminiscent of the calla lilies that are shown throughout all the advertising campaign images and many experts are calling it a mainstream floral essence with a woody and very clean base. In fact they are saying the base is a ‘woody musk that is not too dark and not too light.’

While it may not be the epitome of elegance it is certainly a lovely fragrance and in keeping with what Mr. Klein sought to accomplish. Something that is not fruity sweet yet retains enough sweetness in the upper tones to keep it fresh. Beauty isn’t a fragrance that will set the perfume world abuzz but it will make an impression with a slightly older crowd than previous fragrances by Calvin Klein which means it does what it was created to do – capture that audience.