Florabotanica (2012)
by Balenciaga

The name of Florabotanica sums quite well how the perfume actually smells : flowers and green plants. Upon application, Florabotanica combines rose, carnation and some greenness. The rose is not overly sweet, but on the clean, fresh and green side. The carnation offers some bitterness. The mint contributes the greenness without giving out the chill cooling vibe like some sporty fragrances. During the wearing, I can also smell some white flowers like jasmine. However, it eventually returns to the initial combination and stays so firmly till the end.

The sillage is relatively close and the longevity is simply outstanding, 12h+. It's an understated and inoffensive scent with a steady structure. It certainly is not a masterpiece, but a well-made everyday fragrance for green floral lovers.

Edit: I recently tried Jardins d'Ecrivains Junky which features a very prominent cannabis note. Now I can also discern it in Florabotanica. However, here it only acts like a supporting role, lending an earthy vibe and preventing the fragrance becoming too clean, a very clever touch!

The Rose Garden at Wargemont - Pierre-Auguste Renoir

I can understand how might be well-composed, but it's just not my jam. The pleasant honeysuckle accord I get close to my skin keeps fragmenting into temple-achingly sweet aldehyde-coated soapy rose notes accented with raw alcohol burn. These hurt, and they feel insanely persistent. Overall, this feels wearing iridescent soap bubbles spiked with Everclear. Ouch.

My mother asked me for a bottle of perfume when asked what she'd like as a gift. She has worn most recently L'Eau D'Issey (which I find uninspiring) so I decided to find a better, more interesting alternative for her. Cue Florabotanica, I'm going to quote Luca Turin's review of this here as I can't say it better myself:

"Florabotanica manages to turn frumpy and cheap into frivolous and charming by doing to the floral what Philippe Starck did to upholstery when he took a Louis XVI chair, cast it as one piece of Lucite, and called it Ghost: bring forth something not particularly comfortable, but unquestionably witty and stylish."

I received a sample of this from Nordstrom's yesterday and to me there's a sharp, synthetic, countertop cleaner accord that burns my throat and is rapidly giving me a headache. Underneath the shrill and generic fruit and flower,(it's a stretch to try to name a specific fruit and I certainly wouldn't call this "flower" a rose) I'm getting a very slight, limp vetiver, cleansed of all its dirt and glory. And there is a minty-birchwood thing that is popular these days (though no wood is listed among the official notes). The overall effect for me is the way I have felt trying Narciso Rodriguez: grumpy, disappointed, and vowing not to bother with commercial fragrance counters ever again. Probably good for the office if you like fruity-florals of the popular variety.