Badgley Mischka (2006)
by Badgley Mischka

The parfum is over-the-top, and the lotions are among the best I've tried. If you really want to experience Badgley Mischka, the parfum and lotion are the only way to go.

12nd September, 2011.

Once again, skin chemistry determines whether a perfume works or doesn't...I found Badgley Mischka to be a surprise hit for me. Although I do love flowers in nature, I'm rarely thrilled by the anonymous "white floral" notes of floral perfumes. There are exceptions, of course, but more often than not those are soliflores dedicated to replicating a single flower, often with a complex structure of many other notes for depth & interest. (DK Gold comes to mind.) But many floral offerings strike me as generic, sickly-sweet, lacking in depth, or unfortunately synthetic. And they tend to go even sweeter on me... Badgley Mischka went on both bright and lush, happily lacked any prominent artificiality, and went on to develop a warmth that underlined the exuberant florals with a hint of ripe fruit and a ghost of spice and/or resin (?), giving it some real backbone. It's a fairly subtle perfume on me---definitely not overblown or strong---and settles into skin scent within the first hour or less. In fact, opposite to what others have experienced, that is its main weakness for me: it lacks tenacity & projection. If it had more oomph, it would go on my favorites list for its quality and skillful blending.

1st September, 2011.

A *masterpiece*? BADGLEY MISCHKA?

Clearly I'm missing something. Sure it smells nice enough, but there's no no cause for olfactory ecstasy in this genteel ANGEL derivative. (Isn't that actually a contradiction in terms?) To my nose, this composition is a essentially a weak solution of the ANGEL base with some stewed peaches (no extra sugar added, thankfully) thrown into the mix. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that BADGLEY MISCHKA might have been one of the Angel of Stars, "Angel La Pêche,” well, except that it is way too weak, so they'd have to bottle the extrait as the edp (which is in any case what Thierry Mugler appears to have done with all of the ANGEL namesake flankers—that's why a lifetime supply can be found in those apparently small .8oz bottles!).

I disagree with the categorization of BADGLEY MISCHKA as a fruity chypre. When I think “fruity chypre,” I think YVRESSE or DECI DELA or FEMME ROCHAS or MITSOUKO or BRYANT PARK. Patchouli alone does not a chypre make, IMNSHO. In my perfume book, chypre is an honorific term denoting a texture and depth entirely absent from BADGLEY MISCHKA.

Nor is BADGLEY MISCHKA a fruity-floral perfume, as Luca Turin's wife maintains—she claims in her review of FLEURS DE NUIT that BADGLEY MISCHKA “unexpectedly perfected the much-maligned fruity-floral genre.” Say what? Since when is patchouli a flower? Clearly the authors of “The Guide” are banking—and I mean that, I really do—on the fact that most of their readers are utter ignoramuses. But I digress...

Although the opening of BADGLEY MISCHKA is an attention grabber, it is short-lived, ceding nearly immediately to a polite, very light oriental with middling longevity. Because it has been the object of a serious “mission civilisatrice,” BADGLEY MISCHKA will not remind many of ANGEL, I realize. Perhaps aesthetically it would be better compared to FERRE edp, except that the latter is a much more beautiful perfume, with a unique and distinctive identity, rather than being simply another distant relative to a famous perfume. (okay, it is related to IRIS POUDRE, by the same perfumer, but it's still unique...). In FERRE edp, fruit is skillfully deployed to complement iris. In BADGLEY MISCHKA, the fruit is just trying to break through, even to be discernible amidst the dominant, albeit dilute, ANGELesque base.

Happily, the bottle really is a work of art.

13rd August, 2011. (Last Edited: 14th August, 2011.)

My liking Badgley Mishcka is akin to the person who hates all white florals loving Fracas. I don’t have anything against the notion of the fruity floral per se, but I’d never smelled one that I liked (at all) until Badgley Mischka. It proves that if a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing. The fruits are fermented, the florals don’t show their innocence, just their decay. The patchouli is a sweet undertone to the sloppy drunk feel of the beginning, but you know when it’s great? Put it on, start to sweat a bit, and the patchouli combining with the hootch makes you seem like a bit of a hippy lush. People think this stuff is ‘old-Hollywood’ soigné? Really? I find it much more blatantly queer than the mock-normalcy (and its mirror image, feral ambition) that I associate with old-Hollywood.

I think the key is the part with the fewest spoken lines: the florals. If there’s jasmine here, all I get is the indole. If there’s peony, it’s that ammonia-smelling angle of peonies just starting to turn. If these floral bits were any stronger, Badgeley Mischka’s first words to you would be bad breath. As it stands, they’re more the, “Hello! Darling!” kiss-kiss greeting of a fabulous friend meeting you at the door as you arrive just late to his cocktail party.

27th June, 2011. (Last Edited: 18th July, 2011.)

I'm amzaed I've missed this for so long, although it is only available in the UK in Harvey Nichols. LOVE this stuff! Again it doesn't smell all that girly to me. This could be that I've been so disapointed with mens fragranaces for so long, I may just be making them fit into "unisex" in my mind so that I don't feel too girly! lol. Anyway, this stuff is beautiful. Trying the parfum at the moment (The edp is following!) as it has been reduced from £155 to £27, hell knows why. Possibly because I think EA have recently aquired the contract. Very fruity, not unlike the top of many mens frags but does have that creamyness I just adore in fragrances. The sandalwood, muskc and patchouli really "ground" what could have ended up being a light and airy "girls skipping in the park" kinda thing which seems to be everywhere at the moment. Maybe this is where I get the unisex vibe from. Anyway, I don't care I LOVE it!

29th July, 2010.

I bought this frag after reading Tania Sanchez's review of it in ' perfumes : the guide' she talked about being underwhelmed at first but the more she tried it the more love truly blossomed !
I bought the 50ml EDP 100ml body lotion and 5ml Parfum for a bargain price whils ton holiday in Florida I tore the package open as soon as I left the store ( I still had not tried it by this point ) and at first sniff I thought it was bordering on horrid but bearable. I did what Ms Sanchez did and persevered and I loved it more and more with every passing day. It's clean, full of almost fermenting fruit (trust me it smells great) , long lasting, bold and beautiful !
Just try it , you might not like it but one day you will x

14th July, 2010.