Fragrance Reviews by creamywildthang

I came across White Patchouli by pure chance. I actually thought that this fragrance was a spin off of Black Orchid so I did not pay much attention to it. When I went to the store, I was looking for Black Orchid but the lovely saleslady told me that I will be more suited for White Patchouli…….and I was.
This is the smell of a confident, classy woman who has the ability to have people eat out of her hands without being vile, loud and tactless. It is for a woman who understands the fine line between good and evil. It smells like air and water. It is truly unreal. The scent does not bog you down and strangle you – it lingers in the air and only attracts those who know gold when they see one…..even if the gold is rocky and unrefined. A true beauty indeed. My partner does not like it but I don’t really care…..this is one fragrance that I wear simply because I love it.
I have both Black Orchid and White Patchouli and I must say, Black Orchid is the devil and White Patchouli is the angel. When I wear White Patchouli, good things happen to bad people but when I wear Black Orchid….bad things happen to good people!!!

It has an element of Euphoria to it but for some reason, it has much too much of this element. It is a bit too much but just like many other popular fragrances, you either love it or you hate it. And that is what I love about this perfume...it is black or white, no grey areas so you can easily make your choice. I might like the drydown but the opening notes literally blow you over. It might be in a good way but for me, it was in a bad way!

Now I understand why this fragrance has an iconic following. Although only time will tell, forget Angel - Black Orchid is the Black Orchid of all fragrances. I had to travel 50km's in order to try this bottle and I must say, if I had to do it again, I would. The opening smells heavily of burnt syrup and liquorice. I did not immediately fall in love with the opening notes but when it dried down and started smelling like a medley of ripened cherries and mangoes, I just fell in love. It is not for the faint hearted and it does not smell like anything that I have ever smelled before. It holds it's own without using any other fragrance on the market as a crutch (like Euphoria used Angel to "crutch"on). Still, this fragrance is everything that I expected and more. When I smell it, it transports me to a classy cigar bar and I see myself with my long, jet black hair wearing a figure hugging backless black dress, red and sexy Mary Jane heels and a slick of red lipstick amid a cloud of cigar smoke, sipping cognac and exchanging looks with this one man that I know I am going to have for supper. It is not a fragrance - it is an experience. Bless your arrogant soul, Tom Ford.

I normally love woody oriental fragrances, my favorite (until recently) being Euphoria by Calvin Klein. I am not a girly girl so I never thought of trying out any florals but when I realized that half the Earth's population is using Euphoria, I decided to go hunting for better (perfume) fields!! That is when I stumbled across Michael after speaking to my beauty consultant. She whipped this perfume out and happily announced "this is not a perfume - this is a statement" then proceeded to spray it on me. The opening notes were so impressive that I waited for the middle and base notes to disappoint me and what an endless wait it was because this perfume held its own powerfully for 14 straight hours and continued in my dirty laundry basket. I am in love with this fragrances - it smells like a sophisticated, smooth gardenias with a twist of warm spices. I still cannot believe that this is categorized as a white floral fragrance.

It smells like sun and sand and sea and naughty summer flings. It smells like early morning walks on the beach in Capri. It smells like lazy days by the poolside in Hawaii. It smells like sunsets in St. Barth. It smells like pina coladas in St. Tropez. It is fresh and warm and green while being spicy and creamy and indulgent at the same time. I just love it!

It is an okay fragrance. It smells like a light-weight Versace Crystal Noir - however, it lacks a lot of things....like uniqueness. It does not stand out. It does not have it's own personality. It is a "safe" fragrance. It is a fragrance that I would wear to bed because I love smelling great ALL the time - even in my sleep. Other than that, I would not wear it anywhere else. It just does not stand out. The price is good though, however, because the scent does not last long, the price fits what it offers which is a nice fragrance for shy girls that refuse to stand out. I am not such a girl.

Think strawberries burning in hot caramel sauce. Think doughnuts cooking in sugared boiling water. Think apricot orchard. Think lollipop factory. Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet without a hint of class. Turned my stomach - I hate it. You cannot be taken seriously when wearning this....not even by a teenage boy. I wouldn't touch it even with an 8 metre stick. YUCK!

I must say - I have grown to love this fragrance. At first, I did not know what to think of it but as I wore it daily, I really started to love it. It has a really good base note - on me, it does not smell sweet at all. It also does not smell all that powdery or too floral. I love what my chemistry does with this fragrance. I also love the fact that it is not so overpowering - I love it so much, I wear it when I come to work and when I go to sleep at night. My sheets and my nighties smell of this scent and I don't mind. My fiance bought it for me and he loves it on me....so does everyone else, it seems. However, it is nothing special. I also use Dolce and Gabbana's The One and Ck's Euphoria and this one is lagging far behind my other 2 fragrances. I love having it in my fragrance wardrobe - although it is not a big name brand, it does manage to hold it's strongly enough for me to rather wear it to bed than my other fragrances. It gives me great dreams and since people are used to me wearing expensive, good perfumes, they immediately class this one as such, too. I like.

It is not very often that I would come across a perfume that takes me on a journey - as a die hard fan of cK's Euphoria, I just did not think I would find something as transcending as my Euphoria. Enter Crystal Noir. I stumbled across it by mistake - my fiance showed it to me and I was not convinced the first time I tested it. When I had a whiff of the top notes, I did not immediately like the top notes but I could tell that they were promising to turn into something that I was going to fall in love with.....and it didn't disappoint. I always loved Gucci Rush's gardenia notes but I did not buy the scent itself because I felt it lacked depth. Well, Crystal Noir filled up where Rush failed - the gardenia has a sexy, sultry, mysterious and dark depth to it. It goes have elements of both Gucci Rush and cK's Euphoria to it, but it puts a dark and dangerous twist to it. I am a fan of florientals and orientals and woods so this is just up my alley. It is quiet potent but I would wear it in autumn and winter - the heady spicy notes might be too much for my clients......in a good but not professional way. I love it and I am getting it for Valentine's Day. Either that or come the 15th of February, I will be a single woman and a certain man will have a broken heart and future.

I must say, the opening notes are scary to say the least. They jump at you ala Casper the Friendly Ghost's very scary uncles. If you are not the curious types, it will put you off immediately. I, however, really wanted to at least give Thierry the benefit of the doubt after my many disastrous encounters with the ever so repulsive Angel. Back to Alien - after the top notes sprung on me, they quickly faded into the heart notes, which had a warm yet cold aroma to them - I could tell that come the base notes, I will be sold.....and I was. I cannot think of any word to describe it except "mysterious". I think this is what an asteroid would smell like right after it hits the middle of the amazon forest - the asteroid would then smell like Alien right after the Amazonian rains pours on top of it. It smells grapey but not fruity, soft but not feminine. If tanzanite or aquamarine had an aroma to them, they would smell like Alien. It is not a safe fragrance and when you smell it, you either hate it but are drawn to it or you love it and are obsessed with it. It is one of those fragrances that you have to wear and carry off - otherwise, they overtake your life. If you have no sense of style and are trashy and classless and love men with no tact, then this fragrance is not for you. I personally love it.

My fiance loves this scent - he apparently read about it in some or other men's glossy, tested it at the perfume boutique and came back weak-kneed. I went hunting for it to test and I was not disappointed. I like "ghost" fragrances - ones that are unusual ("not safe") and not overpowering (ones that people don't immediately comment on but ones that linger in a person's imagination until they smell the perfume somewhere else or on someone and immediately get reminded of you). My signature perfume is Euphoria by Calvin Klein. I have only used 2 perfumes in my entire lifetime: Tommy Girl by Hilfiger and now Euphoria. My other favorite is Alien by Thierry Mugler and now, Narciso Rodriguez for Her EDP. I love Rodrigues solely because it smells elegant without being girly and overtly feminine and it has the "ghost" effect. For a perfume snob, Narciso has done very well. I love it.