Reviews by underglass

    Showing 1 to 28 of 28.
    rating

    Vent Vert (original) by Pierre Balmain

    If the harsh old lady musky-powdery poof was eliminated, this might be more wearable for today. I can see where Vent Vert is attempting to go with the very alluring galbanum-leafy opening, but the excessive musk and oakmoss in the dry down makes this dated in a not classic way. Sweaty gardenia and gravely peach in the opening do not properly introduce the green in this fragrance. Rather they make this fragrance weighted down rather than fresh.

    6th April, 2011.

    rating

    Rose Essentielle by Bulgari

    Three different sites give very different top notes for this fragrance.

    Top Notes: Ottoman Rose, Mure (blackberry), Violet Leaves
    Middle Notes: Prelude Rose, Living Mimosa, Jasmin sambac
    Base Notes: Patchouli, Musk, Sandalwood

    Top Notes: Bergamot and orange
    Middle Notes: Turkish rose, orange blossom and jasmine.
    Base Notes: musk.

    Top Notes: Ottoman Rose, Prelude Rose, Immortelle
    Middle Notes: Blackberry, Violet, Jasmine
    Base Notes: Sandalwood, Patchouli


    Rose Essentielle starts out with so much promise. It opens with the twinkle of a crisp and rich rose wine. It is that deep and sanguine. The poetic lilt of the violet is like floral laughter. It kind of reminds me of Sen Sen. The fragrance becomes even fuller bodied as the berry comes in to play. The berry mercifully does not over power the rose and that prevents the scent from smelling like an autumn candle. Rather, it deepens the rose and that is great. The late middle notes have a unpleasant chlorine-like smell. But it is the dry down that is the real dud of the day. It becomes a slightly gritty and ordinary water flower fragrance with none of the piquancy the opening promised. Everything is gone. The dry down is is just harsh and weird. And completely out of step with the opening. Just the patchouli would have been a great and uncomplicated bottom note. They would have lengthened the deep and crisp quality to the end. I think it is the predictable use of farty musk and sandalwood in the base notes that turned this potentially dynamic dry down into a predictable and overused one. The bottom notes used just pull this fragrance in the wrong direction.

    The dry down also became very dusty and medicinal smelling and reminded me an awful lot of another much older fragrance but I could not remember the name. So I forgot about it. Then about forty-five minutes later, I smelled my wrist and, lo and behold, I'm smelling the clove / preserved orange peel of antiquated L'Origan.

    Sadly, This fragrance was like placing a spectacular ruby in a pewter setting.

    So my rating is neutral because at least the opening was magnificent.




    4th April, 2011. (Last Edited: 6th April, 2011.)

    rating

    Apple Blossom by Avon

    I pleasantly remember various apple blossom perfumes from when I was a kid. I loved the light and fuzzy sparkle and I would like to have that same olfactory experience today. It would be the perfect bath time spritzer. I recently had the opportunity to try a fresh bottle of Avon Apple Blossom. Avon's is not good. Oh No! It's got something cloyingly heavy and spicy and in there that gets a real choke hold on me and traps the captive apple blossom in a sour fug.

    4th April, 2011. (Last Edited: 5th April, 2011.)

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    Wishing by Avon

    I remember Wishing as being soapy, sweet and a touch peppery. Though it was considered light and soft when it was new, I think it would be considered cloying now. Even so, it was a whole lot better than the awful Avon stuff they have now, with that horrible stale tobacco signature note they now put in EVERY fragrance...to "mark" it as theirs.

    I give Wishing a thumbs up because it was nice for its time.

    1st February, 2010.

    rating

    Coeur de Parfum / Parfum Rare by Jacomo

    Parfum Rare starts out beautifully and disappoints terribly. I have this and when I give this a "cold smelling" right from the bottle, what I get is a classic woody floral, deep and womanly. It exudes confidence: mink, vicuna wool and diamonds. When worn, the floral smoothness quickly dissipates, and what evolves is a great, upscale and impeccable woody aura. It is not overly warm but crisp and elegant. It smells expensive.

    Sadly, dry down goes south. What this fragrance deteriorates into is an oily smelling twin to Arpege, thick and heavy and opressive. I cannot describe how bad the dry down is. It is actually offensive.

    19th December, 2009.

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    White Shoulders by Elizabeth Arden

    A boy presented a bottle of White Shoulders to me on our first date. I literally thought you could only wear it on your shoulders! Although I have not worn it for many years, I still have a pleasant memory of it--rich, flowery. elegant, sparkling, green and never sweet or ambery. I ordinary cannot stand gardenia fragrances, but this gardenia is so wonderfully mingled with the other florals that it remains well-behaved and does not become too tropical smelling or gooey sweet. Also, Tatiana reminds me a tad of this as well.

    14th October, 2009.

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    Skin Musk / Bonne Bell Skin Musk by Prince Matchabelli

    I am not a fan of musk in any way. Most smell pungent, “gummy” (for lack of a better word), and anything but fresh. White musk is a rotted disaster. Skin Musk is the only musk I have found that acutely smells “clean”. Skin Musk has a bit of vanilla in it that gives a Shalimar-like bent to the dry down. I used to wear it in college. I tried some recently, and though it is the nicest musk I have smelled, it’s just not for me.

    24th August, 2009.

    rating

    Jean Nate by Revlon

    Jean Nate is a sugar-sweet and powdery citrus fragrance. Very strong, stinging and overpowering.

    16th August, 2009.

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    Golden Autumn by Long Lost Perfume

    Golden Autumn was a lovely, golden, leafy, rich cool weather fragrance. It felt like I had on a cozy knit sweater when I used it. In the 99-Cent Only stores, they sell a perfume called California. It smells somewhat like Golden Autumn but it does not last as long. If I remember correctly, Cachet (from Prince Matchabelli, too) also smelled like Golden Autumn.

    16th August, 2009.

    rating

    FlowerbyKenzo by Kenzo

    Kenzo Flower is almost a copy of of Leutece and Ombre Rose. Magic Dreams is an acknowledged copy of Kenzo flower but I think it is much better. Magic Dreams is dryer and blunter and less sweet and less powdery than Kenzo Flower. Kenzo Flower is overly powdery and cloyingly sweet; Magic dreams is more buttery and has a fresher and smoother dry down.

    16th August, 2009.

    rating

    1000 by Jean Patou

    My boyfriend says 1000 its smells like rotted bra elastic It is a very heavy and leathery violet fragrance. Every time I have smelled it on anyone, I felt someone needed to take a bath. It doesn’t smell “fresh”, if you catch my drift.

    16th August, 2009.

    rating

    Glorious by Gloria Vanderbilt

    This is one of my favorite fragrances.. It is a brilliant, tingly, golden, crisp summery cologne. I don't know what it has in it but it makes me think there are only yellow things, like yellow jasmine and jonquil and lemon and daisies and sunflowers lots and lots of sunshine.

    16th August, 2009.

    rating

    Youth Dew by Estée Lauder

    I do not care for Youth Dew. It is too dark and strong and woody and spicy for me. The following anecdotal episode happened only a few hours ago...

    I caught a whiff of some heavy, dark and majorly outdated old lady perfume while at a hotel. I turned to see what I thought would be an overdressed, over-bejeweled 70-year-old woman but it turned out to be a 25-year-old gal who had it on. She said it was Youth Dew. You cold have knocked me over like a feather. She should not have worn it. That perfume is a crime on someone so young. Even her pretty figure and and charming face could not support such an asphyxiating and dated fragrance. I was not so gauche as to tell her the perfume was all wrong for her, unflattering to say the least, and that it aged her. Whatever would possess someone so young to wear it? What a fragrance faux pas that was!

    21st June, 2009.

    rating

    Flambeau by Fabergé

    A pretty and autumny chypre. It is warm and creamy rather than fiery and woody. My Mother gave me a little bottle of Canasta by Jacques Fath when I was young. Later on, Flambeau reminded me quite a bit of Canasta, which, by the way, was in itself, a very finely made and delicate chypre. But alas, both are discontinued and are very hard to find.

    19th June, 2009.

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    Opium by Yves Saint Laurent

    My very first reaction to this fragrance was, "It smells like old perfume from the 50's." It smelled years dated then, and it smells doubly years dated now.

    12nd June, 2009.

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    Joy by Jean Patou

    When I first inhale the scent of Joy, it smells like a deep, red wine made from...rosebuds! I sniff; I instinctively smile. It is the kind of fragrance that makes me want to inhale until I faint. Too quickly, a repulsive, floor level insecticide odor quickly invades the juice. Then with no warning, that unpleasant odor abruptly fades and a lustrous pearl of floral fantasy rises up like the moon over the Taj Mahal. This is exquisite. Then an annoying odor that reminds me of carnation raises its unbeautiful head and sours the fragrance, making it seem sadly old lady. But the fragrance itself is so breathtaking that I can deal with the carnation, if, indeed, it is that. It is too bad no one has invented a perfume brush (like the brush that removes fat from gravy) and you would whisk it through a perfume you want to love and remove whatever odor saddens it for you. (Such a brush would have to be scent-specific—a different brush for each fragrance note.) I have researched Joy’s perfume notes and do not find carnation listed among them, so I wonder what is it that smells like it?

    I have both the EdP and EdT. For my body chemistry, the EdT seems softer and sweeter, so I like that one better.

    In dry down, that is when the perfect sexuality of Joy reveals itself. Most of the carnation-like fragrance is gone; rose and jasmine mingle like anointed lovers without the fragrance ever getting woody or amber-y (Heaven forbid). I would have liked Joy to be like this from the start.

    Despite the one note I do not like, Joy gets a thumbs up from me. No other fragrance comes close.

    17th May, 2009. (Last Edited: 14th October, 2009.)

    rating

    No. 5 Eau Première by Chanel

    This is the heart of Chanel No 5 minus the dated stuff. When finances allow, I will buy a bottle. To me, Eau Premeire is as close to perfume perfection as a fragrance gets.

    The above was my take in February. I had only sprayed it on my wrist in a departmehnt store. Since then I have obtained an ample sample and was better able to see how it developed. It did not live up to my expectations. Chanel Eau Premiere does not work well on me after a time. All I get are sharpened wood pencils and Raid. It is so woody, it should be called an interpretation of Coco, rather than of Chanel No 5. It also fades very quickly, I’m pleased to say.

    Chanel 5 Elixir Sensuelle, which I do not see in Basenotes, starts out as pure, crisp beauty. Some of the old fashioned fragrance notes seem to be gone, leaving just the heart of Chanel 5, and it is jazzed up with a lightsome and sparkling floral opening that is new and yet very Chanel 5. It is cleanliness and freshness personified.

    In its next stage, not very long after, it disappointingly oozes into a sickly sweet, cloying, and overly powdery concoction. It is ruined with too much too sandalwood or vanilla or amber or something and deteriorates into an unremarkable and predictable gooey department store fragrance. It loses its Chanel-ness completely. And it no longer smells very “fresh”, either. I was SO disappointed.

    Ernest Beaux created the original Chanel 5 and he created the original Evening in Pairs perfume. I always thought these two perfumes had qualities in common. Both these fragrances are controlled and very directed and do not have the amber "poof" that, in my opinion, ruins fragrances. They get smaller as they dry down as if they were being compressed into diamonds rather than billowing out like clouds. Nether the original Chanel 5 or the original Evening in Paris have amber in their compositions! I expected Chanel 5 Eau Premiere and Chanel 5 Elixir Sensuelle to be like this, but sadly, they get ambery and sweaty toward the end, which is a characteristic of today’s facile and predictable fragrances. Mr. Beaux would be appalled.

    27th February, 2009. (Last Edited: 21st June, 2009.)

    rating

    Blue Waltz by Joubert

    I remember Blue Waltz from Woolworth's. I distinctly remember it had a a lot of vanilla in it and was very powdery. It was strong and sweet. I tried it but never wore it. It reminded me somewhat of Shalimar.

    27th February, 2009.

    rating

    Soir de Paris / Evening in Paris (original) by Bourjois

    The original was aldehydic while hinting to of dark berries, roses and wood. This lovely, iconic and sophisticated fragrance was cavalierly reformulated and now it smells dreadful. It was not even an interpretation of the original. It is a totally different fragrance. Why didn’t they leave it alone, create another fragrance, and give it a different name? Then new version smells like a stuffy discount store cologne, very ordinary and unimportant.

    Here is an interesting feature about the original Evening in Paris that I do not think any other perfume can claim -- no matter how old the original Evening in Paris, it stays as fresh as if it were new. I have a bottle my Dad gave my Mother in 1945 and it is still fresh and wearable. I have smelled full vintage bottles of this at antique shows, and the contents are as fresh as when they were purchased.

    27th February, 2009.

    rating

    Trailing Arbutus by Avon

    The 70's version, which I suppose was like the original, remindned me of the Chanel 5 imitations you can find everywhere today, or like Coty's L'Aimant. It was floral, powdery and very sweet. It was very old fashioned but not old lady as with Youth Dew. It was more girlish. The powdery quality was deep rather than gritty like with Ombre Rose.

    19th February, 2009.

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    V'E Versace by Versace

    I had two different perfumes that came in the same shaped bottles and they smelled identical. I wondered if they were really the same formulas. They were Rose Cardin and Taffetas. They had what I think of as a Moroccan rose theme. They were strong and spicy and smelled like linens sun-dried in a rose garden. They reminded me very much of potent Aromatics Elixir and Maroc. All four of these smelled great from the bottles but they became too strong on me. I found another perfume at a swap meet, a little softer and deeper, within the same Moroccan rose family and I fell in love with it. It is called V’e and it is made by Versace. All of the deep Moroccan rose is there, all of the garden depth is there, all of the delicious bitter golden sunshine is there, but it is richer and lower-keyed. It has become one of my favorite fragrances of all time. I did not have to "try" to like it. It was perfection from the first sniff.

    19th February, 2009.

    rating

    Odyssey by Avon

    Odyssey is one of the most TERRIBLE fragrances I have ever used. It smells like a rotted, gritty, sour men’s cologne. It was almost painful to smell. A friend gave it to me for Christmas and I tried so hard to wear it. It was putrid from the moment I put it on and got worse with the day.

    19th February, 2009.

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    Sweet Honesty by Avon

    An asphyxiating, overly sweet, synthetic musk is all I smell. And then it dries down to that weird cigarette-like signature note Avon puts in a lot of their stuff. Even new, it always smelled "past its prime" to me.

    19th February, 2009.

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    Raining Violets by Avon

    This was a sweet but light and fresh candy-violet. Nothing funky or musky in it at all. It made me think of cool breezes and wearing a violet sprigged cotton dress. I liked it alot. And I would definitely buy it again.

    19th February, 2009.

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    Daisies Won't Tell by Avon

    I actually remember this one. A great cologne. It was a light, enthusiastic, "yellow flower" fragrance. It was soft, fresh and upliftng. It was marketed as a children's fragrance, but old time children's fragrances are "mature" by today's standards, and this one could be worn very successfully by grown ups today. Daisies Won't Tell was created before Avon started putting some really weird signature notes in their fragrances. There is no negative smell in this fragrance at all. I would use it today; it was that good.

    19th February, 2009.

    rating

    To A Wild Rose by Avon

    This is one of my favorite fragrances of all time. This was all at once light, fresh, clean and cottony but thankfully not musky. It was rosy but not “flowery”. It made me think of wearing a crisp cotton eyelet dress on a breezy summer day. It was gently powdery but not gritty powdery like Ombre Rose. It was cleanly sweet but not piercing sweet. It did not yet have Avon's bizarre signature note they started adding later on that makes many of their fragrances dry down to the smell of a stale, sour cigar.

    19th February, 2009.

    rating

    Soir de Paris / Evening in Paris (new) by Bourjois

    The new fragrance is a huge letdown. The original used to smell a little aldehydic, like cherries, roses, light woods and amber. If rubies were a flower, they would smell like (the original) Evening in Paris. The new fragrance is dull to the point of being unpleasant, tobacco-y and excessively powdery with NONE of the old "pearls and black cashmere" excitement. Could they not have had the decency to give it its own name – like Evening in Old Socks? Evening in Paris used to make me think of dressing up and going out to dinner during a summer’s evening rain storm, romantic and mysterious. Now it smells stuffy and ordinary and unimportant, with no magic in it AT ALL, like a run of the mill low-end drugstore perfume. For aficionados of the original Evening in Paris, I found another fragrance that seems a tiny bit like it It is Chanel 5 Eau Premier.

    17th February, 2009.

    rating

    Grass by Gap

    I used to use Grass perfume from the Gap in the 90’s. I went back then to get more and I was brokenhearted to see it had been discontinued. I ordered a set from eBay and was thrilled with it. I pestered the Gap for a long time to get it back and today, 1/9/09, it was back. Excited, I sprayed it on and was very disappointed. It smelled nothing like my old Grass. It’s totally different. The old Grass smelled like the memory of a sunny day spent lolling on the grass. The old fragrance was rich, polished, slightly aldehydic, soft, not biting, and had a hint of a deep flower at the end. And it really smelled like grass. To my nose, this new Grass does not have any grass or floral smell in it at all. It might be in there, but it does not come through. The only thing I can smell in it is thin, raspy cucumber. Actually, it smells like a sharp shampoo. I will just keep with the original Grass perfume I have. I’m glad I bought the big size.

    10th January, 2009.

    Showing 1 to 28 of 28.

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