Love & Tears, Surrender by By Kilian, 2010

Because the jasmine and orange blossom in L&T are surrounded by the sharp greenery of petitgrain, bergamot, galbanum, and ylang, I actually missed the jasmine all together and thought that I was smelling an accord of tuberose and orange blossom. In any event, the white florals here (no matter what tricks they play on your nose) are crisp and natural, not heady and piercing. Still, a light application would be wise.

Another gorgeous soliflore from By Kilian, and I may love this more than Beyond Love. It is definitely a fragrance I could surrender to, except Love and Tears is perhaps a little more masculine with the woody drydown and petitgrain opening. The galbanum in the top is wonderfully bold, and the oakmoss punctuates it firmly in the classic chypre tradition. For a jasmine lover, this could be a holy grail. It smells exactly like southern California or the Mediterranean (or I would imagine India) where the vines climb wildly and saturate the balmy evening air with their exotic smell. It also avoids the tea notes of many jasmine fragrances and smells vibrant and alive. The honey of orange blossom and creamy warmth of ylang ylang extend the floral heart infinitely. It has great sillage and lasts forever.

I simply just fell in love. I didn't think I'd love any jasmine other than beloved No.5, but this one is tempered by the ylang ylang. Just gorgeous. It's just so feminine and surprisingly more Love than Tears. Besides, Kilian himself sold it to me during a visit--even wrote me a little card saying something very sweet. No one says no to Kilian. He's pretty hot actually. No chest hair though (he does the french thing of wearing a nice suit paired with a nice shirt unbuttoned all the way to the pec area). Oh well, they can't ALL look like Tom Selleck!

I am generally not a fan of florals but there are those rare exceptions, those that are way too beautiful or different to not be adored. As Le Labo's florals are animalic and different (Iris 39, Rose 31), Kilian's florals are too beautiful to be ignored. I am not a fan of either tuberose or jasmine, yet Beyond Love is the only tuberose I could imagine wearing and in face I am intrigued by it, finding it the bes tuberose and Love and Tears is painfully gorgeous, it is the make me cry beautiful jasmine and animalic as well, just the way I would want my jasmine to be. Even though I would no longer buy jasmine perfumes, I would make an exception here and consider Love and Tears, it is the epitome of sensual femininity.

Slather it on for a really lovely opening. A seamless floral-fruit accord as pretty as the month of May. The arch prettiness of it may lead some to view it , as many things merely pretty, as also quite vapid and I have to admit I think of Love & Tears as a bit of a trifle sometimes. But there really is a simple elegance to it also. The jasmin is of the muted attenuated variety. Love & Tears does not impress in the way Beyond Love does, a fragrance I continue to admire everytime I try it. But what does these days? Oh....L&T is decidedly feminine. And yes I do get the shampoo thing.

"The inconditional surrender of a jasmine loved in tender musk". I cannot see love in this fragrance, only tears, unfortunately... Love and Tears starts totally floral with a kind of semi-sweet tone. I sincerely do not have a lot of contact with floral notes, so, I have difficult to differentiated between them, but this wasn't a problem with this particular fragrance since it is dominated by only one note: jasmine! This is all about jasmine on my skin. Pure, dominant, overwhelming and of course, long lasting. A fragrance devoted specially for those who love this note, otherwise do not bother yourself smelling it.

As with Beyond love and its tuberose accord, another thing Ive come to know is that Im not really a fan of Jasmine based scents either. This one is jasmine through and through and certainly is overly floral. At least this one is marketed as feminine, unlike some of the others in this line that are marketed as unisex, but clearly feminine. On a woman though, this scent would work extremely well I believe.

Love and Tears brought a whole lot of jasmine from the start. And then in the later hours dried to a jasmine musk. Very good for women of course but will still keep it for my own personal like for the smell.

Petitgrain gives the topnotes a sharp sweetness, followed by a clear, fresh jasmine all the way to drydown. l sense a gardenia note here too, but it's cool & crisp, not creamy. l agree with Suga; "limpid" & "watercolour" describes this very well. A lovely, soft & delicate Spring fragrance.

I'm a diehard Jasmine fan. I have Creed's Jasmal and have had another Jasmine based scent (quite popular and expensive however the name escapes me..they sell it at Neimans, I know!), Creed's Angelique Encens,etc. When I heard the name of this scent it intrigued me...when I smelled it I KNEW I HAD to have it!! This is Jasmine in it's purest form!! It's a wet, just picked Jasmine scent but heady nonethless. For me, upon applying Vasline to my dry skin, I find that Love & Tears lasts much longer than Creed's Jasmal however it has FOUR different types of Jasmine in it...I'd expect it to last longer for that price! I went the cheapo way and got a few samples to try (Thank you, Saks!) and when I decided to buy I went online and got the 1.7 oz. refill (the only size it comes in for $245 in a much over-hyped bottle.) I got the refill, keep the lid tightly closed and keep in in my refrigerator applying it only with a Q-tip. It's lasting a nice long time!! I got mine for less than half the store price and was it ever worth it!