KC Reaction - I don't get it

I too get complimented like crazy when I wear this, by both women & men. I don't think it's lame, though, I REALLY like the scent. It's a summertime staple for me. The apple & watermelon sparkle on my skin and the musk & sandalwood keep this from becoming overly sweet.

Even though Kenneth Cole seems to be the Rodney Dangerfield of Basenotes, I've always liked Reaction a ton. I only wish it would last a little longer. It has always been a compliment getter with me too.

Best regards,

Mike

You know, after sleeping on it I'm pretty sure I know why this one gets no respect here. The vast majority of basenoters are pretty much sick of aquatics. Reaction just came out a couple years ago, & by then everyone was pretty much dismissing this type of scent. I can't remember who it was, but recently someone posted about Polo Blue, and how when it was first released it got very positive reviews here. Then as the months & years wore on, the reviews got more & more negative because people were getting tired of scents in that vein. I wonder how basenoters would view Reaction if it had been released 5 or 6 years ago.

I sort of liked the newer RSVP scent of theirs. But decided to not buy it. These other KC Reaction scents I found to be very boring as everyone else had stated.

The majority of the U.S. buying public are very desensitized to ozonic/aquatic/fruity-floral scents. They truly think a true perfume/cologne should smell like those aspects. But as times change, the scent notes change with the times. Once back in the 70's, it was green fresh scents which I personally like. In the 80's, it was heady spicy dark scents (power scents as they are also called). Till the likes of New West for Him Aramis and shortly thereafter Cool Water were unleashed and came onto the landscape changing the scene and just about every scent out there. Soon more and more oceanic/ozonic scents took hold like a wildfire.

The department store SAs have pushed these onto the buying public so naturally it comes as no surprise that most of the U.S. buying public just love boring unimaginative scents like KC Reaction, the Ralph Lauren Blues, all the recent CK offerings in the 90's and still now.

So you can't really blame them (the buying public) for this when you think about it. If you're not very olfactory experienced like most are here and on other sites, you really don't know that there's a whole new world of fragrance experiences to explore.

It's hard to believe that some people think Eternity for Men is just to die for out there. I hate the stuff personally. But it's still revered with many women that swoon over this stuff still.

I think that the scent world is like the music world. As we have a lot of styels like rock,pop, classic, hardrock, tango, reggae same we have with the fragrances. As there are many kind of classic songs, rock songs or other songs, there are alos a lot of aqua fragrances fruity fragrances, but the problem with the fragrance world is the we can not play with the notes as we do in music. We are just able to put a few notes in a bottle and we are not able to change it is combination like we do in a music piece and make the scent notes play from one to another and back the same one as we do in music. because of that the same type of fragrances becoming boring soon as long as they are not very different. Sometimes we have to try baldly to mix rock with rap. I'm sure that some of you can still remember the Aerosmith-Run DMC song Walk this way. Maybe you liked it or maybe you don't but it was big hit then because it was something different. If you can catch this in a fragrance then you would be loved and would be interesting. Of course there'll be people who would complain won't like it, but let it be. What I shortly want to say is that, because of the note-space limitation of fragrances I think it is not really possible to make a very different type fragrance of a same class. Just like for some of us all the country music songs sound the same, so I don't see a very big difference among the Aqua fragrances or other same-base fragrances. Not that I don't like them, but most of the time they all smell very similar witha very slight difference. 9 from 10 people wouldn't be able to tell de diffrence between Acqua de Gio, Aqua de Bulgari and Issey Miyake. Or the other Aqua fragrances which I don't know or I can't remember. Pity that our noses are not as developed as our ears. So the fragrance industry is makinguse of our nose-lack. Maybe just like the music lessons at schools, we should give also fragrance-scent lessons at schools.

Good point. However, Givenchy Blue Label and Bulgari Aqua are both aquatic fragrances that came out after Reaction, yet they got stellar reviews from members here at BN.

Don't know about boring, etc. Just know that it's a vile scent on me.


Dan

Well, after 5 minutes I can barely smell it... Never received a compliment but this one is the best fragrance to be worn when you don't want to wear anything.

Well, a few things:

I did enjoy the RSVP since it wasn't a fresh scent and that surprised me since KC seemed to have sold out hardcore with the fresh Reaction (which, isn't terribly bad).

And being a department store SA (I just started) I can tell you I've tried pushing the other stuff. People really don't like GPH or anything woody or spicy. I've never pushed any polo fragrance yet I have sold 10 bottles of it this past week because people just ask for the stuff. I've given up hope and I'm trying to show people the better fresh fragrances.

And I like Eternity. It's not anything amazing but I do like it.

I love its top note, very refreshing and sensual, then, its base notes just went wrong--kind of sour. Guess it's the skin chemistry.

Alot of people here on BN dont like fresh frags, especially those that are made by the likes of Kenneth Cole, Armani, Calvin Klein, etc...

They want to smell different and nothing in the perfume world is more blah (to BN'ers) than a post 2000 fresh scent. More times than not, these type of scents will get dismissed before they've been given a try.

If you like KC's Reaction, give Orphee a try. No sour Apple note, but Watermelon, mmmm....http://www.basenotes.net/ID26121237.html