Fragrance Reviews by Natalie

Wonderful! Ayala Moriel has got the most superb nose and her versatility means that she has something for everyone. Really, many things for everyone. I agree with purplebird's reviw: the chocolate here is the real thing; the dark, European stuff that does not condescend to the palette or the nose. It's for sensual, sulty women. This scent is for Barbara Stanwyck or Joan Crawford; for Maria Callas or Teresa Stratas, for Anna Magnani--for the intensely Romantic yet somewhat jaded woman of mystery and discrimination. A wonderful pleasure to wear on this snowy day.

It's 5 minutes of delight. The pepper notes are absolutely right and somehow smelling of white pepper (and my husband mistook it for regular black table pepper) is delicious. My difficulty is merely that the longevity is virtually nil; I carried it around with me yesterday and kept reapplying every half hour or so. I don't know if it's an issue with the scent or if it's me. Some scents last on me forever. At this rate, I cannot afford to indulge myself again. And, as the previous reviewer noted, the projection from the skin is slight indeed. I would love to smell this refurbished in such a way that it would stand up and do its peppery best!

This is a very pure Vanilla with a touch of sweetness and just the tiniest overtone of red chili pepper. I am not certain that I would smell significantly different if I had doused myself with cooking vanilla instead. I like it but would only recommend it to someone who is a confirmed vanilla lover.

The first time I tried Black Cashmere I was startled and just a tad put-off. How could a "name" like Donna Karan come up with such an outstandingly complex and seemingly contradictary formula? Within 30 second or so I was addicted and immediately purchased the fullest-size I could find. I felt a need that I rarely feel to OWN an almost absurd amount of Black Cashmere.

There are a lot of fragrances that I don't want to do without but if I were committed to "one perfume only" prison, this would be my choice. The deep dark leathery and woodsy smell with the accents of saffron and other exotic spices sold me totally after 35 seconds. Black Cashmere reminds me more of the woods and an old library than of Cashmere, but it does have a softness which undercuts the patchouli a bit.

This is a perfume that will console on a cold day, that will blend in perfectly with an opera, symphony, poetry reading, or cocktail party. It's sensual and makes me feel 20 years younger in age and 20 years older in wisdom.

And I certainly think it's a good unisex scent for the man who's beyond sports and fraternities. A good choice for an Oxford Don or a cosmopolitan, intellectual.

I am coddling my bottle of Fleur de Carotte and decided to wear it today since it's unseasonably warm for October.

At first application, a sweet note shreiks out like those four memorable notes at the beginning of the overture of "My Fair Lady". After the initial shock, the alcohol rides prime for a very brief period. Throughout the first notes of sweetness and the second notes of pure alcohol, one can sense a person in a distant room peeling carrots.

Then we move to the carrot experience up close. With a poignant combination of sweetness, greenness, and the earthiness of the roots of the carrot, Fleur de Carotte has greater longevity and warmth than one might suspect.

It's a great warm-weather scent and a very original one. I don't know why it was discontinued. Perhaps the carrot concept seemed too risky or too much of a one-note. I find it glows in a warm refulgence of healthy happiness. I don't believe that I smell like a salad bar, but I think that this odor while being true to carroty-greenness, has some mysterious overtones that add to the intrigue.

I will continue to use this for day time and special occasions. I could say goodbye forever to many scents, but this one will be surely missed. I doubt that any of the one-note houses can approach Fleur de Carotte.

I love this scent. It's a bit eccentric like all complex scents. It opens on a note of basic garage---the first impression is that it smells like a project my husband was working on. The garage smell flees quickly into that of an incense-filled cathedral. The smoky intensity is possibly sandalwood. From incense-filled Cathdral 10 Corso Como then takes me to the Beverly Hills of the 1930s and 1940s and I feel as if I am enveloped in the aroma of a sultry movie star with a smoky voice---perhaps Lauren Bacall or Ava Gardner or an exotic accent like that of Garbo, Dietrich, or Lamarr.

Overall this is a very satisfying amble from the mundane home to the divine to the exotic.

After several hours I don't pick up on the floral notes that others have mentioned but I am so seduced by the exoticism; the "Orientalism", that I'm not exactly looking for Roses. it's time for Humphrey Bogart to light me a cigarette (and I'm not a smoker!)

I have a decent sized sample and will purchase a full bottle because t10 Corso Como is like nothing else I have and does not even rhyme with anything else I own.

This is my first review so be kind....I love this scent. It is eccentric and counter-intuitive in many ways. First off, how can I persuade you that a mix of old ashtray and spinach overtones can be worthy?

But they are and they mix together with pleasing longevity to give one the sense that one is in the an elegant old library, immersed in the leather of old books as a single-malt scotch decants and the cook is wilting spinach in the kitchen.


I tried a sample last year and was so enamoured that I purchased a full bottle. It's got panache and style and perhaps is derivative of Cumming's Scottish background. His father was a forester at a country estate and this fragrance is very manorial home, very gentleman's club, very Proustian for me.