Potion (2000)
by Prescriptives

Somewhere along the line, Prescriptives seems to have lost its fragrance mojo, with Potion standing as the most recent example - albeit one that's several years old. Who knows, after the nightmare that was Flirt and then this rather anemic potion, perhaps the company has concluded that sticking to its gold standard Calyx might be the best bet? Anyway, I had heard several favorable comments on Potion and had, as per usual with a great many of my fragrances at that time, made a running lunch-break purchase of it at the old Rock Center Sephora. I remember the occasion well. I wasn't impressed with the test spritz but told myself I'd "grow to like it," yada yada. Same old same old - oh, the money I've gone through using that one short phrase as leverage! Sure enough, days later, it was still striking me as a watered-down fruity floral with no special angle, nothing much to say and not a lot to hold my attention save a demi-sourish tang that had me thinking of some less-than-acceptable drugstore scents I'd encountered. There was a touch of fairly pretty powderiness - maybe from the dianthus, probably either a sweet william or pink note - that pulled it off the edge of being total dishwater, but not by a whole lot. I'm sure many had the same or similar reactions as this didn't stick around for long. As for me, I used up my bottle without incident and have gone on to encounter, unwisely purchase and subsequently tolerate many other wishy-washy fruity-florallys of similar caliber. No, I will probably never learn!