So Pretty (1995)
by Cartier

So Pretty starts out its life on the skin as a soapy, aldehydic green floral with echoes of Ivoire and White Linen. Its starched, chaste muguet, hyacinth and galbanum top notes are intensely “perfumey,” but just when So Pretty convinces you it’s going to be a nostalgic old school scent for prim and proper ladies, the development takes off in an entirely different direction. The rapid advance of a very sweet, bright, fruity rose accord adds warmth and complexity to the floral bouquet, while a blend of resins, woods, moss, and patchouli in the depths rapidly transforms the soapy green floral into a fruity rose chypre.

So Pretty occupies an evolutionary niche halfway between the grand rose chypres of the 1980s – scents like Knowing and Paris – and the newfangled fruity chypre style on display in Badgley Mischka, Chinatown, and the reissued Azzaro Couture. It comes as no surprise that So Pretty was composed by Jean Guichard, whose son Aurélien is the nose behind Azzaro Couture and Chinatown. Part of what separates So Pretty from both classic chypres and its rose chypre predecessors is the character of its fruit accord. Rather than the more traditional bergamot or lactonic peach, So Pretty relies on a vibrant and characteristically “modern” red berry note that has parallels in scents as far-divorced as Mûre et Musc and Angel. In fact, its sweet berries and patchouli leave So Pretty looking a bit like a rose chypre viewed through an Angel-colored lens.

There are times when So Pretty’s fruit foreshadows the syrupy excess of contemporary adolescent celebrity scents, but its patchouli-seasoned chypre underpinnings and the quality of its rose note elevate it from hard candy to the equivalent of a fine, berry-infused after-dinner drink. Once established, the fruit, rose, and patchouli play out in a steady, linear manner over their chypre foundation. There’s plenty of power, and So Pretty projects conspicuously for several hours before trailing off into a skin scent of creamy sandalwood, soft musk, and mild, sweet resins. So Pretty is interesting as an evolutionary link between older and newer chypre styles, but it’s also a pleasing scent in its own right, and very much worth trying.

Note: Don’t judge So Pretty sprayed on fabric or paper, where its soapy floral top notes remain dominant far longer than on skin, obscuring the warmer, richer rose chypre that supports them.

24th May, 2011.

So Pretty De Cartier eau de parfum ticks so many boxes for me.
I spent months looking for a classic rose chypre whose perfume notes would include lots of " green" , maybe some citrus, lily of the valley, jasmine, woods and oakmoss. I also wanted something that I felt I could wear throughout the year, for any occassion, work or play......S.P does not disappoint.

On my skin:~
The opening is dry and sparkling~ bergamot, ugli fruit.
Lush roses, vibrant dewberries and wet moss quickly follow, ending with earthy forest berries, pine cones and sandalwood.

Eden in a bottle.

20th April, 2011.

This is a straight up, here I am, rose chypre. It has glassy/crystalline presence to it that I attribute to what it is not..not sweet, not fruitocious, not incensy, not artificial. I believe it a Rose de Mai I smell. It reminds me of Andy Tauer's Rose Chypre (his is less conventional and more edgy). I admire it's depth and naturalness...after a few hours I catch beautiful basenotes wafting from it....the sandalwood and musk that has so far been hidden among all the roses. The name doesn't really capture it's spirit. I would have called it "stiletto" (it's a high heeled rose). Great and inexpensively found.

1st November, 2010.

Another top-notch, utterly gorgeous chypre, which uses quality ingredients.

I recently stumbled upon 'So Pretty' in my chypre-ventures, and it's almost silly -- because this is such a paradigmatic fruity chypre -- that I have not tried this one before.
I am especially delighted by its similarity to Amouage's 'Jubilation' for women -- one of my favorite scents. It's almost uncanny, and acheives that really rare, exquisite citric-tart sillage, I attribute to the best fruity chypres on earth; i.e. 'Mitsouko', 'Jubilation', 'Diorella', 'Y', and 'Chant d'Aromes
'So Pretty' strikes me as a modern, but still-totally-classic re-interpretation of 'Mitsouko', or 'Chant d'Aromes'. It's fuity and resplendent, yet neither too challengingly lactonic nor too aldehydic like its ancestors. In fact, it deserves particular recognition for its remarkably tranquil, glassy opening; it's bliss out of the bottle. Still, it evolves into all we'd hope for and totally delivers, in terms of longevity.
It's fruits are of the traditional chyprc variety, and are more milky and citric than sweet. A chypre-loving man could wear it, too.
Its character is collected, purposeful, and sharp... with Patrician predilections to spare.
So, don't let the name throw you; it's not the sort of thing a Disney princess would smell of. To my sensibility, it's not "pretty" at all; it's composed, civilized, and persuasive.

23rd January, 2010. (Last Edited: 15th February, 2010.)

It is indeed a pretty perfume.

27th May, 2009.

This is a gorgeous, classic, sophisticated rose fragrance! It could be mistaken as "old fashioned" or mature, but it is really magnificent in the way other classic aldehyde fragrances are sophisticated and elegant, such as First, Chanel No 5, Chamade, etc., because it has that classic fragrance structure. So Pretty opens for me with a tempered, non soapy dose of aldehydes and neroli. After it warms up and the heart notes begin to develop, a very classic damask rose note emerges with just a hint of sweet berry - not like berry soda pop as we are used to these days, but more like the aroma of warm blackberries still on the bush. Just enough to make it seem fresh, warm, and almost summery. It provides a "garden" aspect that prevents the entire composition from being too formal. The soft neroli emerges off and on to keep it warm throughout the development. So Pretty does have a hint of a green chypre quality in the base - very soft- such as in the soft base of Givenchy III. There is also a whiff of similarity in the dry down of So Pretty to the dry down of Guerlain's Nahema edt. Where Nahema has peaches with rose and the oriental balsamic drydown, So pretty has the light berry and a chypre green/sandalwood dry down. Worn in the right doses this is just fantastic, soft and romantic. If I were to wear Nahema in the fall and winter, So Pretty would be my romantic spring and summer rose. They are very similarly structured, so if you like Nahema or even if you want to like it but have trouble wearing it, you should test So Pretty.

25th March, 2009.