Tendre Kiss (2002)
by Lalique

Lalique Tendre Kiss

Notes: nutmeg, pepper, musk and amber (from fragrancenet.com)

Tendre Kiss starts fresh with green herbal notes and citrus, but soon turns into "wet dog" on my skin. There is also an unappetizing ozone-aquatic note mixed with spearmint and peppermint. As the "wet dog" note settles down, turning a bit to the smell of wet sheep's wool, TK becomes more salty and nutty, with nondescript woody base notes (probably Iso E Super, because it is giving me a headache). TK is certainly not what I expected, considering the label reads "...a transparent and sparkling fragrance...." At any rate, the drydown is much drier with more prominent woods and leather. Still not transparent and sparkling, but a huge relief from the initial animalic weirdness. In fact, the salty leather, herbs and woods of the mid to late drydown are actually quite pleasing. Thumbs down for an inexcusably lop-sided composition that is half-way to Etat Libre d'Orange's Secretions Magnifique for the first part of the development and an overdose of unimaginative, banal woody aromachemicals for the latter part.

This is a very soft, fruity-floral that it’s very nice but also it lacks a certain personality. Not bad at all, it’s very comfortable even at first spritz (peony, baie rose and litchi), moving onto a lighty sweeter basenotes (opponax, amber, sandalwood bourbon vanilla, light musk) in this case, I see intense pink roses sprinkled with a little white sugar that shines when put under the sun, with the added bonus of a very nice and heavy bottle, as is the case in almost all of the Lalique scents.
This is, I believe, the “youngest” scent in Lalqiue’s line of frags, and the one to get if you’re thinking of a gift for a person that likes soft rose scents.
Now, how this one differs from other limited editions and other pink frilly fruity florals? It’s difficult to say because of the lack of personality, but I can say that the logevity is better here than in most other scents in this category (but not the sillage) , another plus is that the rose smell is really nice and not fake nor candy-like, the litchi note smoothes out all the flowers and even if hedione is here, haters of this note would be happy to know that it’s not prominent at all.
The base is a very soft one as well, and all the notes intermingle with one another and the light musk is the one that keeps the other notes at the base at bay and in order, like a teacher in a class full of kids.
All in all, it is a very nice scent, but it’s No Holy Grail.