Alien (2005)
by Thierry Mugler

Ambivalence. Depending on weather, body chemistry, and amount sprayed, Alien can be either delightfully floral, warm, and woody or overpoweringly vanillic, sweet and synthetic. Today it was the latter, and when it manifests like this on me, I really don't like it. On gentler days, Alien has a synthetic, metallic quality which can appear as gasoline, lighter fluid, or acetone. This adds an intriguing edge.

The opening is powerful, lasts for hours, and screams JASMINE! soaked in gasoline or acetone: a heavy floral cut with a dark industrial note. This makes Alien interesting but can also lead to headaches. A synthetic vanilla rises. This makes it a little...boring. Pretty, but boring. As the juice dries down, it becomes far tamer and less interesting: amber, wood, the Cashmeran accord. It's a nice floral-oriental, but it looses that weird quality that it has in the opening when all the notes are jumbling together like in a particle accelerator.

Overall, it's a very feminine, floral fragrance but doesn't align with the bottle or concept at all. Alien? How? If Dominique Ropion had been able to extend that synthetic quality throughout the scent's life, then yes, perhaps it would really smell like something alien...a strange creature from a planet covered in white flowers who has acetone for blood. That would create an interesting juxtaposition. But that quality fades rather quickly and we're left with a jasmine/wood/vanilla juice that smells like something a matronly 5th Avenue Lady Who Lunches would wear rather than something that might waft off an alien being. Too bad too, because I really wanted to love this one.

Long lasting, massive sillage (alien fumes!), headache inducing if over-applied, slightly opulent, very linear, feminine, ok for day but absolutely for night, and a bit boring.

At first sniff this smells God-awful. Like some super heady synthetic sludge. Synthetic and overpowering, not nice at all. It has a sweet play-doh-y feeling and a slight woodiness--but the woodiness seems very synthetic and not very deep to me. I can say that it does smell very foreign, and very alien, and that's not just the ad copy influencing me. The question is, is it a good kind of foreignness, or is it just wrong? As those awful and scary topnotes dry down, the jasmine, the best aspect of this fragrance, comes to the front. The Jasmine and vanilla combine to create a sweet accord which to my nose lacks depth. I keep wanting the woods to come out more to play. The first two hours after the loss of that awful synthetic ugh are this lovely jasmine powder scent, which is very appealing. I begin to like it more the longer I wear it. It is like the smell of jasmine soap in the shower when it picks up the unwashed human body smell and becomes sort of tangy and vanilla-y. Alien at this point seems old-fashioned but still synthetic, and it retains hints of that same weirdness that are so disturbing at the beginning.

Unfortunately, just as I was about to add this intriguing scent to my bottle wishlist--I need a nice jasmine-the jasmine pulled away, and I was left with a cheap smelling synthetic on my arm with way too much longevity. I mean, all of a sudden, it started smelling like the more egregiously synthetic abominations of Bath and Body works. Just bad.

i often wear this on dates, intense, deep and sensual, often get good comments when i wear this, like alot of thierry mugler frags

A very warm and comforting scent. I would describe it as an oriental. Even though many people have commented that it lasts long, it doesn't have longevity on me. I would put this in my top ten perfumes. Not for the shrinking violets though!

Supersonic metallic jasmine that resonates in floral harmony for hours and hours. This is 1 out of 2 scents that I feel are incredible independent feminine frags. Black Cashmere is the other. Both are beautiful, stunning, and gorgeous. They also have a feeling of "look but don't touch". However, I must admit, this is one of my wife's favorites and I fell in love with her as Alien being her go-to perfume. What does that mean then? Alien is perfect for a performer type of personality. And on the other side, if you want to wear something that selectively attracts only people who are genuinely confident in what it takes to know you, Alien might be your calling. If you want a fragrance that beckons the world to snuggle up to you, I don't think Alien was born to do any such thing. With all that said, Alien is not for the timid. It is for the driven.

This is my current favourite. I am no expert in terminology but to me it smells so otherworldly in a fantastic way. A huge plus for me (and which led me to buy it) is its longevity. Nothing lasts on me except some four or five fragrances from the myriads that I've tried. It not only lasts long but it smells better and better as time goes by. It may have absolutely nothing to do with it in scientific terms but it also reminds me of one of my boyfriend's perfumes, 'Sculpture' by Nikos, this may have made it so familiar and comforting to me. Nothing to stand in awe of but entirely to be enjoyed. It is also intoxicating and addictive...so alluring, warm and sexy...I just can't stop smelling my wrists when I put it on. Definitely a thumbs up...two thumbs up I say!!!