Monday, April 30, 2012

DREAMS UNLIMITED AND LOVE ETC FROM THE BODY SHOP

I don't normall shop at The Body Shop but I was passing by when I saw they were having a deal-buy one full size perfume and get lotion free. So I went in and tried these two scents.
DREAMS UNLIMITED FROM THE BODY SHOP
Notes listed: Currant, iris, cedar
Dreams Unlimited The Body Shop for women

I am really suprised that so many people disliking it-this is fresh floral that has a slightly aquatic feeling. I think its perfect for summer. Now discountinued Aqua Lily did bear some simularities to Dreams Unlimited but I think I like Dreams Unlimited better. Someone mentioned Cool Water as well-I have small bottle of Cool Water and Cool Water is much more unisex, citrusy and zesty to my nose. When I purchased my bottle of edp, I was given matching lotion for free. However, even layered, it doesn't last more than 1.5 hour. I find also that it doesn't project much or have much siliage. I like it but don't love it.


LOVE ETC
Love ETC The Body Shop for women
Notes listed: Notes listed:
Neroli, pear, bergamot, jasmine, heliotrope, lily-of-the-valley, vanilla, sandalwood, musk

I tried it this weekend along with Love Unlimited. I don't know why but I was feeling kind of meh about this scent. Unlike the other reviewers I couldn't smell vanilla at all. I get sort of warm citrusy top notes, and then musky slightly peppery floral. The end. This just didn't wow me

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Aimez-Moi by Caron-oh, yes, its divine!

Aimez-Moi came out back in 1996 and it wasn’t a love at first sight, more like a love after a second sniff. I remember sampling it at Nordstrom’s and thinking “wow, this is not good”. Now I know what notes are in this, I realized that it was the initial notes of cardamom, star anise and mint that almost knocked me off my feet and led to my negative reaction. I went home not giving it another thought, not realizing that some of the Aimez-Moi gotten on the sleeve of my winter coat I was wearing. Next morning I was putting on my coat and I realized that something smelled wonderful-warm, rich and slightly green but what was it? I realized that this was the only scent I sampled that day and figured if it smelled this good later, I had to try it again. I did and this time I let it mellow out on my hand and yes, there it was, that wonderful scent. I bought it, used it all up and went through several bottles of it until one sad day I couldn’t find it anymore.
Few years later, I managed to find it online and not only it had a different bottle, I heard that it was reformulated. I just bought another bottle online and it seemed like the same scent.
I find it hard to describe because it’s a floral and yet, its not like any other floral that I smelled before-its lightly green, warm, rich with a hint of woods and had just enough sweetness to stop it venturing into bitter territory. The best word to describe this scent is “golden”-its rich, elegant, and classy. For me, this is the most elegant scent I have ever smelled. I am not a floral lover, usually preferring sweet candy, fruity and gourmand fragrances but this scent have captured my heart.
Notes from Fragrantica-star anise, mint, violet, cardamom, bergamot
Iris, jasmine, magnolia, rose, wood, amber, musk
this is what Aimez-Moi bottle looked like back in 1996
Aimez - Moi Caron for women
Unfortunately, now its in plain clear glass bottle that most Caron perfumes are now housed. This bottle was beautiful, the new one is just plain

Monday, April 23, 2012

Weekend sniffings-New Garden Collection from Bath and Body Works and Love is Heavenly from Victoria Secret

This weekend I finally sampled the new Garden Collection from Bath and Body Works which include Wild Berry Tulips, Wild Apple Daffodil and Wild Citrus Sunflower. The verdict? All three are nice fresh floral scents with slight variation-Wild Citrus Sunflower has more citrusy notes, Wild Berry Tulips has berry notes as well as floral and Wild Apple Daffodil is a combination of fruity and fresh floral. I think these scents are great for the summer. Will I be buying any of these? No. Does it smell good? Sure. Is it anything unique? No. I still liked Wild Poppy from Bodycology much better for the simple reason that it was a fresh floral as well but not as generic as BBW latest offerings.
Unfortunately, the one scent I really wanted to try in a body spray, Malibu Heat, still wasn’t available at my store even though they were supposed to have it on the 20th. I was told by SA that because we are in HI, its taking longer to get to our store but once again, no one seemed to know exactly when it going to be here. “sign”
I also had the opportunity to try new Victoria Secret scent, Love is Heavenly. Now, before we go any further, I want to say that Victoria Secret is one of my favorite stores and I own tons of their stuff. However, I was really disappointed with their fragrance offerings lately. Everything new lately seems to be generic clones of each other. That’s what happened with Love is Heavenly-notes supposed to include waterlily, mandarin flower and musk. As soon as I sprayed it on, I realized that it smells very similar to Bombshell even though notes are different. Common, Victoria Secret, can we have something different already? I can understand that they want the scents generic enough so they would sell but at least can they do something different from the scent they already have? Because if I had to do blind smell test, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the two. Yes, it smells nice but if you already have Bombshell, do not bother with this.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

White Musk Libertine and White Gardenia from The Body Shop

White Musk Libertine The Body Shop for women
I was killing some time yesterday so I stepped into The Body Shop to check out their fragrances. I normally stick with Victoria Secret and Bath and Body Works because they have so much more variety of scents. But I heard about White Musk Libertine on Fragrantica and notes sounded so appealing that I wanted to try it. Notes listed: musk, rose, almond, honey, whipped cream. Sounds divine, right?
I thought I would love this based on the notes. Lord no!

While I didn't think it was a complete scrubber, I would never wear this. I wonder if my nose can't smell certain notes or something because what I smelled bears no resemblance to the perfume reviewers on Fragrantica raving about. Rose, almond, honey, whipped cream?! Where are all these wondeful notes? Perhaps I am especially sensitive to musk because that's all I could smell-musk with a hint of rose, which ended up smelling sort of very musty floral, sort of "grandma's closet" type of smell. (no offense to anyone's grandmas).
 I sprayed it on a paperstrip so I know its not my skin chemistry but I can't imagine how it smells so different from the notes listed. I actually liked the regular White Musk well enough but this I would never wear. I would try before you buy it blindly because you may end up being dissappointed.
White Gardenia The Body Shop for women
I always wanted to try the White Gardenia but as my bad luck would have it, they were out of everything but body mist which is superlight. I still sprayed it on my hand and its quite delightful, slightly fruity gardenia that bears some resemblance to Marc Jacobs. Notes listed-lotus, gardenia, bergamot and musk. Very light, young and almost innocent scent. My store should be getting more of edt which i hope to smell and see if its worth buying because body mist dissapeared from my skin in less than 15 minutes. Not worth it.

Monday, April 16, 2012

If you liked Butterfly Flower from Bath and Body Works, try Wild Poppy, new scent from Bodycology line

I was at Walmart today and of course, I had to check their body sprays. It appears that Bodycology line was being repackaged and their new packaging looked very nice, I have to say. They also added several new scents(and I can't remember all the names) that are copies of Japanese Cherry Blossom, Twilight Woods, Love Spell, Pure Seduction(these two are Victoria Secret scents) and Butterfly Flower.
For anyone who liked now discontinued Butterfly Flower-I owned a bottle and gave it away, not because I didn't like it but I have too much perfume and I figured I could always get another bottle. Wrong! Bath and Body Works have discontinued it shortly after and I have been kicking myself ever since. Well, Bodycology has what appears to be its twin-called Wild Poppy, lovely fresh floral that bears uncanny resemblance to Butterfly Flower. I couldn't resist getting body cream and small spray!

Also, they have 3 new "tropical" scents-I was in a rush to get to work so I didn't even smell them all but I picked up one body spray called "Tropical Escape". I LOVE this! It  smells like tropical fruit-pineapple, mangoes, papayas with a little floral note mixed it. If Malibu Heat smelled like this, I would have loved it(well, still withholding judgement on that one...). If you like tropical scents, you got to try it-I will stop by again when I have time so I can smell the other two. If you want to try alternative to BBW, this line can't be beat

Bath and Body Works Malibu Heat, Wild Apple Daffodil, Wild Citrus Sunflower, Wild Berry Tulips and other weekend samplings

I was eagerly anticipating trying out these four new scents from Bath and Body works so I made my way to my local store shortly after opening. And surprise, none of their employees even knew what I was talking about. Dude, are you serious?! Company has four new scents coming out but you don't have a clue? Finally, one of the salespeople had to go ask a manager and told me that they just received the new lotions(full line comes out on 20th). They let me smell it and I wasn't too impressed. Malibu Heat smelled like several other fragrances they already have, at least in a lotion form.  I will definately try the body spray because I am hoping I will like it better.  Sorry, gals, I couldn't smell the other 3 floral ones because they haven't even unpacked it yet...Grrr..I guess I will just have to wait until the 20th..

I also sampled Diane Von Furstenburg new fragrance. She is the designer who pretty much pioneered the printed wrap dresses in the 70s. Anyways, I got sample with my recent Sephora order and well, I can't stand it. Its doesn't smell good to my nose at all. The notes from Fragrantica list musk, patchouli, myrhh, violet and frangipani. I love frangipani but I can't smell it in this scent at all. This is very 70s scent to me-my mom used to wear Fendi and Anne Klein for years, which are both chypre scents, and while I always thought it smelled nice on her, I can't stand either one on myself or smelling it on other people. Diane Von Furstenburg smells just like Fendi to my nose-its not a "young" scent by any stretch of imagination and because I associate it with my mom( and several older female relatives who wore same kind of scents also), this smells "older woman" to me. Sorry, Diane, I like your dresses but can't stand your perfume.

I did like one scent I sampled this weekend at Sephora-Dolce and Gabbana L'Imperatrice. I saw several videos on YouTube with girls showing their fragrance collection and several of them had this scent.
Wow, I was impressed and fell in love with it almost immediately. It has notes of watermelon, kiwi, pink cyclamen and musk. I think I smelled this scent on several women before and remember thinking "mmm, this girl smells good". Its a sophisticated fruity scent that smells like a beautiful woman. Sorry, can't explain it better than that but you got to try it! Its kind of pricey but I will getting a bottle of this in the future

Friday, April 13, 2012

Daisy by Marc Jacobs-not so fresh:(

I got a sample of this with my Sephora order. I read the notes and thought I would like it so I sprayed it straight on my hand. Note to self-if you haven’t smelled perfume before, its not a good idea to just spray it on yourself. I was expecting light sort of girly floral. Nope. This reminded me of floral potpourri or floral room spray. I sprayed it on a card to make sure my nose wasn’t playing tricks-still the same dried flower smell. It actually smells like this floral scent that my grandma used to wear(God rest her soul) and it didn’t smell “young” to me at all.  I try not to call scents “old lady” but I have actually smelled something very similar on many older women so I think it’s a copy of an older scent that’s already in existence.
 There are actually very few fragrances that I don’t like-I may not wear some of them but I am not disgusted by it, but Daisy definitely falls into serious dislike category for me. Definitely try before you buy-I watched several YouTube videos where girls raved about this scent-just because they like it doesn’t mean you will.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Do you wear mens cologne?

I am a member of Fragrantica, online fragrance community, and its because of that site I heard that lot of women actually wear men's cologne. I was curious to try a few but keep in mind that I usually like sweeter perfumes so most mens cologne are too citrusy, fresh and too masculine smelling.
I was recommended Spicebomb from Victor & Rolf(I am sure everyone is familiar with their female, version, Flowerbomb) and Le Male from Jean Paul Galtier. When I was at Nordstroms the other day I stopped in their men's fragrance department to try these. First, I tried Le Male-I was seriously amazed how sweet it was. I honestly can't imagine a guy wearing this. Its smells sweet, slightly powdery and woodsy with an incense note(although I didn't see incense listed in the notes). I asked my husband if this smelled like men's cologne and he said "not at all, its very feminine". Lasting power on Le Male was awesome-one spray lasted at least 4 hours on my hand. Me likey:)
I also tested Spicebomb-it is spicy but its also sweet and woodsy with almost like a cigar note. Very nice also. I actually liked it better than Le Male but lasting power with Spicebomb is not that great(especially for a price). It burns itself out in less than 2 hours. All in all, it was a very interesting experience and I will definately try more mens scents in the future!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

New fragrance from Bath and Body Works-Malibu Heat

Well, ladies, looks like there is a new scent coming out, called Malibu Heat. Name reminds me of high school when  I wore a drugstore perfume with a simular name. I am certainly curious to try it especially after I saw someone on MakeupAlley post the notes:
Top: fresh mandarin, California orange, crisp pear, succulent pineapple
Mid: orange blossom, lily of the valley, coconut water
Dry: coconut milk, creamy vanilla, sandalwood, sunny musk
Doesn't that sound delicious? However, I have been dissapointed by BBW before when the notes sounded so great and fragrance itself turned to be rather mediocre. I will stop by this Saturday, during their fragrance event and see if I can get the lotion in this new scent.

Empress by Sean John

Empress Sean John for women
Citrus Floral


Notes are key lime pie accord, mandarin, star fruit and cranberry. The heart consists of raspberry, peony, passion flower, cardamom and ambrette seed, followed by notes of vanilla, sandalwood, crystallized caramel and second skin accord.

I sampled this yesterday and to my surprise liked it quite a bit. Perhaps I should say that I wasn't impressed with Sean John's any other offerings for women so this was a pleasant surprise. Bottle, while nice looking, is rather masculine so I guess I was expecting something more masculine as well. It really isn't. I sprayed one pump on my hand and thought it was rather citrusy. After about a minute, zesty note went away and I was hit with key lime pie. Mmmm, nice. At that point, I was really liking it. It continued to develop into sweet lime pie scent with some caramel at the base notes.
I would have never guessed that this has so many floral notes because it doesn't smell floral at all. I have people on Fragrantica describing it as masculine and to me its definately very feminine scent.  I also don't see this as unisex scent all(which is what I also read in internet reviews).
Key Lime pie with some cream and mandarins on top is what I get. Lasting power was about an hour so I will have to sample it again to see whether the lasting power improves. Overall, its a nice scent and I was impressed!