Jessica McClintock (1987)
by Jessica McClintock

JESSICA MCCLINTOCK reminds me of barbie dolls. Not the sort of perfume which curvaceous Barbie herself might don—wouldn't she really prefer ANGEL?—but the sort of fragrance which little girls who play with Barbies might wear. Little girls being groomed by their housewife mothers to become good housewives one day. They also have Easy Bake Ovens and little bottles of nail polish, like the toddler daughters of a former colleague of mine. He brought them to work with him one day (his wife must have had an appointment at the beauty parlor), and I was a bit taken aback that these little girls, barely able to talk, had chipped polish on their tiny little fingernails. Small wonder that nearly half a century after the ratification of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, women in this country still earn only 77 cents on the dollar paid to an equally qualified man for performing the very same work. But I digress...

The flowers here smell more like lilacs than anything else to me, but all in all, this composition strikes me as quite juvenile and not romantic at all. The manufacturer's card boasts that this perfume is "the fragrance that whispers romance...," but to me it just whispers: "Shut up and go clean your room!"

25th October, 2011.

For a long time this was my June " perfume of the month ". The lily-of-the-valley brings to my mind white bridal gowns ( which of course is what Jessica McClintock is famous for), and it is a nice light scent for the summer. Although it will never rank amoung the best, it is still a good fragrance.

31st May, 2011.

A very pleasing lily fragrance, not the best on the market (I would recommend Taylor of London's) but a nice choice nonetheless. A few strong spritzes of this in the morning will only last about a half day; be prepared to reapply if necessary.

8th May, 2010.

Hillaire's review makes me lol! I don't agree with it, but it's hilarious. I love the fragrance of Jessica McClintock edp, if not the prim, out of date image and packaging. Here are fragrance notes I found online on Fragrantica and a few online discounters: "Top notes are cassia, basil, ylang-ylang, bergamot, black currant and lemon; middle notes are jasmine, lily-of-the-valley and rose; base notes are musk and woodsy notes." I smell the lotv and the brightness of lemon and bergamot and, though it's not listed, I'm getting a big impression of gardenia, with its "proper mushroom note" and all, whatever that is. This fragrance reminds me of summer so I enjoy it.

6th May, 2010.

I used to love this Lily of the Valley floral and went through several bottles in the late eighties/early nineties. I did receive many compliments when I wore it. Even though I am still very fond of LotV scents I could never wear this one now...guess I have outgrown it.

25th February, 2010.

Firstly, I would like to apologize to fans of all the JM fragrances...

I have to start here with the marketing of the JM line. As far as I can tell: this is a line of fragrances geared toward women who are obsessed with some sort of super puritanical, straight-out-of-BRIDES notion of romantic femininity and dollhouse "aesthetics".

Associations are to Hallmark wedding cards, plastic, pre-fab wedding cake filigree, American, petit bourgeois Anglophilia, Harlequin romance novels, and the wholesome side of Victoriana...

That said, the fragrances inside these ultra-gauche bottles deserves a modicum of recognition for aptly living up to the worldview its packaging espouses. It's a perfect fit, and I am somewhat impressed by the achievement: these smells pretty much do evoke goodliness, pristine, guarded, chaste womanhood, and full cookie jars!
This one, "Jessica McClintock" is for the sexless, tight-lipped matron, who still knows girls should smell like flowers, you see;
"Jess" is for the younger, more carefree prude, whose hair may even be seen a tad unkempt, while she spins hopefully under a white pagoda clutching a white rose to her breast;
"Silk Ribbons" (I have not smelled it, I confess) must be aimed toward that luckiest girl in all the world -- the one with impending nuptials and a ballerina-themed cake!!!

The whole line makes me want to scream in the night.

2nd November, 2009.