Fragrance folks have griped for years about non-stop perfume launches; it’s impossible to smell everything that’s released. Yet…we try. I’m often annoyed at the time I spend: “begging” for samples at department stores; ordering samples; STORING samples; and wearing fragrance sample after fragrance sample (a never-ending “activity”). Even in this economy, new perfumes keep coming, and I’m irritated! It’s even worse somehow when ONE company releases many new perfumes all at once. It’s like asking a friend who’s a baker to bring a cake to your dinner party, and he arrives with five cakes — and expects everyone to sample EACH one.
I’m suffering from perfume overload, perfume indigestion.
Dolce & Gabbana’s D & G division is launching five new perfumes in a collection called The D & G Fragrance Anthology. The fragrances are named after tarot cards: Le Bateleur 1, L’Imperatrice 3, L’Amoureaux 6, La Roue de la Fortune 10 and La Lune 18. It’s easy to remember those names, right? And before I forget, each scent is represented by a naked model or two — woo-hoo! (yawn).
Le Bateleur 1: The Juggler/Magician
(aromatic and aquatic notes, cedar and vetiver)
Le Bateleur 1 smells like cedar chips floating in a bucket of ocean water. That’s the first minute. Then, the interesting opening leads directly to “sport fragrance” territory (there’s melon/calone, mild “spice,” watery cedar and “rinsed-clean” vetiver). Le Bateleur 1 is a smooth sport fragrance with good lasting power; why anyone thought the perfume world needed it is beyond me.
L’Imperatrice 3: The Empress
(watermelon, kiwi, pink cyclamen and musk)
L’Imperatrice 3 begins with the aroma of sweet citrus fruits; the watermelon-kiwi accord has a nice intensity (and does not bellow: MELON! MELON! MELON!). “Grapefruit-y” and “green” notes keep L’Imperatrice 3 from becoming too sweet. The cyclamen note is aquatic, but not annoyingly so, and as the scent dries down, it becomes less sweet, more tart and smells (mid-phase) like Byredo Pulp (let’s call it “Pulp-LITE”). L’Imperatrice 3’s base notes smell of soft musk with a fruity-beer twist. Even with a name like L’Imperatrice, a man can wear this fragrance. L’Imperatrice has so-so lasting power, but it’s my favorite of the five “Anthology” fragrances. If someone gives me a bottle, I’ll wear it.
L’Amoureaux 6: The Lovers
(spices, bergamot, juniper, pink pepper, cardamom, birch leaf, orris, wood and musk)
L’Amoureaux 6 is a light-weight Hermès Bel Ami; it combines a citrus-aquatic accord with a small dose of spice (pepper, cardamom) and juniper. In a sugary line-up of fragrances (three of the five D&G Fragrance Anthology perfumes are sweet), I’m pleased L’Amoureaux 6 replaces fruity-sweetness with woody-spiciness. Still, nothing about L’Amoureaux 6 holds my interest; been there, smelled that.
La Roue de la Fortune 10: The Wheel of Fortune
(tuberose, gardenia, jasmine, benzoin and patchouli)
Sweet, sweet, sweet, “dessert-y”: La Roue de la Fortune 10 is a candy-shop floral fragrance, and it does not appeal to me at all. Tuberose, “gardenia” and jasmine blend together in a blur of white flowers; neither note stands out forcefully (jasmine is most discernible, with a hint of candied ‘banana’ and citrus). If this fragrance were the tiniest bit stronger, it would barrel straight into “Headache Territory” for me; patchouli and benzoin do nothing to take the sugar off the boil. This is an instantly recognizable, and very feminine, scent — another why-bother, a-hem, ‘creation.’
La Lune 18: The Moon
(lily, tuberose, sandalwood, musk, orris and leather)
La Lune 18 is a sheer lily-musk fragrance. I can’t say it smells “cheap” exactly, but it has an aura of (old) Avon about it and seems created with a “perfume-by-numbers” technique. The moon deserves better. To my nose, there is not a hint of leather in this scent, and the orris has been gobbled up by the white florals. Again: this is a SWEET, though not “food-y,” fragrance, and it’s “womanly.”
Five perfumes reviewed in short order; not one of them, in my humble opinion, original or interesting enough to deserve precious department store perfume space. I can only believe the guys at D & G aren’t really into fragrance. Is there a tarot card that reads: “You are exhausted, bored, you need a jolt”? That’s MY card! (Or perhaps I’m a combo of The Fool and Justice — a perfume ’searcher’ who’s always looking for something new and great, but who often finds disappointment and “fault” at the end of most perfume-seeking journeys.)
The D & G Fragrance Anthology fragrances are $65 for 100 ml.
Note: images of tarot cards The Magician and The Fool via Wikimedia Commons.
113 Comments
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Perfume overload indeed! I am feeling it a bit myself when I used to enjoy all the research and discovery I’d do online, waiting for samples with anticipation, the joyful agony of deciding what is FB worthy, blancing the new with the old….Part of it is my own fault for sure. But I also feel besieged by all the fragrances released. How can I give any of them decent attention when there are so many, even the good ones?
Anns: it’s an assembly line at my house…”toss” baskets, “pass to others” baskets, “try-again” baskets. On and on….
Your plight is exactly the reason so many of us are in your debt. Thanks for the blah blah blah warning.
Owen: you’re welcome!
Yup. Too many. I liked the Moon better than you did, though less on the 2nd try than the first. Still haven’t made up my mind about it. And now you have me afraid to try #1 on skin, lol. I passed it by until the SA put some on and had me smell it; on her, it was fantastically spicy, so I had her make me up a sample after all. Haven’t gotten to it yet, and now I’m not in much of a rush. I’ll get to it eventually, though.
Boojum: try Le Bateleur on skin…it won’t kill you, I’ll promise that!
Thanks Kevin…for time and money saved.
C: you’re welcome as always….
None sounds interesting at all. I’m amusing myself by imagining MJ Splash bottles lined alongside the new D&G ‘anthology’.
alltheprettythings: it’s been a LONG morning…what’s “MJ”?
Marc Jacobs
I smelled a few of these at Nordstrom, they were pushing me for the presale. They are all marketed as unisex, but in my opinion all of them are either distinctively feminine or distinctively masculine. I took home a sample of Le Batuleur. This one smells great, but it has no projecting power and on me it was gone in 30 minutes.
Rictor07: they were pushing the pre-sale at my store too: with these I’d say DON’T give people time to think about the scents or they’ll change their minds!
Kevin, it’s too bad most of these fragrances aren’t as good as your reviews.
If it’s any consolation, just when I’ve given up on the loads of new things out there that don’t move me, I find true love (or at least, a good fling). It may one out of thousands, but there’s always something…
Miss K: yes, there’s always that ONE that gets to you…unfortunately all the ones I like at present are outrageously overpriced!
HEY! Love your gravatar!
Someone noticed! Yay!!!
Kevin,
Your reviews are always so entertaining.
I am in complete agreement with your comments about perfume overload. I am not a “perfume reviewer” and even I get annoyed that every day there are more and more fragrances being churned out. We are being saturated with them and so many smell similar. Unfortunately, it’s all about money and very few are innovative.
Filomena: making a quick buck is the thing…and getting attention with advertising.
Ugh!
(((Yawn)))
Moving on to the next launch…
Violetnoir: LOTS of “multi-perfume” launches ahead….
I as well don’t understand these “group” launches. Seems to diminish all of the scents at once, as if the budget is spread across multiple fragrances instead of focused on one. I tend to view them this way anyway, and never have high expectations. I wonder if this strategy of trying to hit and please all consumers at once is working? Or is it backfiring?
Kevin, curious, do you know the names of the perfumers who designed these scents?
Karin: nope, didn’t find the perfumers mentioned anywhere (maybe someone else reading this will comment)
I think their theory is to throw it all at the wall and see what sticks!
Rappleyea: Agree.
If you look at the MJ splash series, the Harajuku Lovers series, etc. as models of mult-launches, it looks pretty enticing. The sales numbers jump and the variety pushes out other singular launches. I know when other collections have launched, customers were curious and the time invested in testing each one usually led to a sale of at least 1 from the collection. After 3-5, fatigue usually sets in, and the customer isn;t as excited about a singular launch. D&G’s name is vastly important in mainstream fragrance, so I think this was smart of them to follow other collections. I expect this trend to continue.
Alltheprettythings: if only D&G produced ONE good scent: period. They are one line that has never produced anything I want!
Thanks for saving me the trouble of tracking these down, Kevin. I loved the idea, but as usual, it seems as if the execution falls flat. La Lune and L’ Imperatrice may be test worthy if I happen to be out and about, but I certainly will not make my way to the D&G counter post haste to do so.
I can not keep track of all the fragrances even I want to try, and there is such a ceaseless barrage of new releases that even trying the classics has to be squeezed in, which is not how it’s supposed to be. The very idea of having a signature scent seems like a long gone fantasy from days of yesteryear.
Oh, I don’t know. If there’s anything that can make me grab the first really nice scent I find and stick with it, it’s the threat of having to smell 10,000 bottles of blah to find the next really nice scent.
I totally agree Boojum!
A.S.: sometimes a “fragrance uniform” sounds enticing, doesn’t it???????
With the tarot card motif, you’d think they could at least do something more interesting with the bottle design.
Miss K: the simple bottles no doubt keep the price low…and it is low these days for 100 ml. And using TAROT and not letting some strangeness seep in the perfumes is WRONG!
Kevin, I love the analogy of the baker friend who brings FIVE cakes and wants you to sample them all. A SA had me try at least one of these, but frankly I can’t even remember which one it was. Naomi Campbell? Is that #3? At least the ads are fun to look at for about ten seconds — possibly more of a thrill than the perfumes.
I find all this market cannibalization with hundreds of launches baffling but also interesting. Maybe for people who go perfume shopping only once or twice a year it seems great to have “all these new things” and the variety might ensure that very few people are all wearing YOUR “special scent.” However, how long will all these products be on the market? How soon will many of them start being pulled, discontinued — not that the brands are going for loyalty to one product, and maybe consumers don’t mind that Imperatrice was their “2009 scent” and in 2010 they’ll have another. Maybe that’s a good thing. Disposable mentality feeding the product cycle rather than “slavish” product loyalty for five or ten years. I don’t know. But yes, it’s tiresome. Oh, so tiresome.
As others have mentioned, though, perhaps for every ten or twenty hopelessly boring and unoriginal mainstream releases, one comes along that actually impresses us — yes, even us, the jaded.
And good lord, I didn’t even touch your lament over the travails of STORING all the samples. Even if something bores me, I want to keep it “for reference.” HA.
Joe: I’m awful about keeping samples of scents I hate…they are given away or tossed. I sometimes regret doing it…but there IS a limit! (I keep “classics” for sure, many niche offerings…but the idea of storing fragrances like this “Anthology”? NO!)
I’m fighting that urge myself. I at least set aside a bunch of “dear lord, I hate it!” samples and a bunch of “this is so very dull I could never bother with it” samples to get rid of one way or another… but that’s maybe 25-30 out of 200.
Boojum: really? I’d think you’d really get things manageable with that philosophy.
No, there’s a lot of middle ground for me. I’m a packrat at heart, so it has to be completely useless to hit the “ditch it” pile. Or else be something I don’t need that someone else would love.
I finally went through and got rid of a few samples – well put them in a bag for a friend who is jsut discovering sampling. But I have to try it at least a couple of times be fore I get rid of it.
And, I actually have been organizing my samples – not perfectly, but much better. I have a plastic divider box and a couple of other box-type things that most of them have gone into. I did just have them sorted out in those little organza bags, in bigger bags.
I was actually going to ask the other day on open forum what people did to store their samples–but I thought people might think that I was crazy. “How hard can it be for her to figure out how to store samples?” But it seriously is getting overwhelming. I have a couple different boxes, but it’s still hard to find everything in each of them. If anyone has some ingenious storing plan, I’d love to hear it.
I think there are some old threads here where that’s talked about extensively… or maybe Robin can use that as a subject once again for a future open thread.
Joe’s right; Robin did a whole series on perfume storage (including samples), and it’s really helpful. With all the librarians and anal-retentive spreadsheeters (myself included) around here, you can bet that a LOT of thought has gone into this topic! For whatever it’s worth, I took a fellow commenter’s suggestion to use ammunition boxes for samples (available at high-testosterone huntin’ ‘n’ fishin’ stores, in various calibers to fit sample sizes), and I’m very happy with them.
See:
http://www.nstperfume.com/tag/storage/
Ammunition boxes! I love it! That will go great with my tackle box of makeup.
Ok, thanks–I’ll check out the link.
Tama: I used to have a system, but now it’s about finding the box with most space to throw stuff in! Horrible.
Joe: I’m sure many people want “something new” each and every season…just like updating their clothes they want the new perfume. It is more about “new” than “good.”
That absolutely nails it on the head – it’s about new, not good. It’s hard for folk like me to get a grip on that concept. My mother only wore two fragrances all her adult life. I have quite a few more than that, and I’m incurably curious about fragrance, but my approach is basically the same as hers. It involves taking on a fragrance as a long term commitment: it becomes an extension of oneself.
I love reading about new fragrances but I’m not often tempted. In fact, I often burrow in with what I’ve got. I buy the bath/body/etc forms, becuase I love exploring all the layering options. But I wonder if many ephemeral fragrance releases these days have bath/body products? Maybe they are not aimed at that sort of consumer.
Annemarie: even with men’s mainstreams…they usually throw in a deodorant or body wash.
these sound kinda blah… ah well
but I will say FedEx came with my MAC parcel earlier this week and the Naked Honey was really good!
Oh, I’m jealous! Mine hasn’t even shipped yet.
I’m hoping nothings gone drastically wrong. I had to cancel my first order because I’m an idiot, and re-place it–hopefully they didn’t just cancel everything! I want my honeys!!
The Canadian orders ship from Toronto, so that’s probably why mine came so quickly. The FedEx hub(or whatever you call it where they bring the packages before they go out for delivery) is a greater distance away from the MAC warehouse than I am! lol If you’re really worried maybe you could give them a call?
Hi Kitty, I think I ordered mine the day before yours, and the box arrived UPS today….so maybe tomorrow is the day for you.
The Naked Honey is really nice and does smell just like the black locust trees! Cool.
I also got a bottle of MV2 which is quite reminiscent of Lostmarch Lann Ael….as Boo would say : like fruit loops in milk.
Then, of course I couldn’t leave well-enough alone so I put both fragrances on….smells pretty good!
froot loops lol maybe I’ll pass on that one. I didn’t really enjoy eau de rochas which was totally froot loopy.
I went with the MV3 It’s a spicy vanillay musky? kinda scent.
Ooh, I got the MV2, as well. And the MV3. And the Africanimal. And the Pure Honey. So, umm, clearly the word “restraint” doesn’t mean much to me. And speaking of not having any restraint, I will probably wear them all at once!
I meant Naked Honey. Pure honey, naked honey–whatever.
Speaking of Naked Honey…Kevin, Nordstrom owes you some sort of finders type fee. I think that your post must have crashed their warehouse invoicing system. I did the unthinkable and ordered Naked Honey usniffed the other day – first it is “cheap” and second Nord has a very forgiving return policy. Anyhoo…I get an email yesterday telling me that there was a problem with filling orders and it will take another few days to ship! These items come directly from their warehouse as I know from the ship-to issues with my address. I think you – I mean we – all cleaned them out!!
Bunny: GLAD to hear it!
I sample a minute fraction of what you all do, and I’m suffering from sample overload. The other problem for me is any day spent test driving a so-so sample is a day in which I didn’t wear something I LOVE! Seems wrong.
Too bad they wasted the Tarot name concept…could have been interesting.
I feel your pain… I have scads of samples I’ve haven’t yet tried or have been meaning to try again, but life is too full of disappointment as it is!
I keep mine in different boxes – the ‘maybes’ go in a decorative wooden box, all tagged and arranged by color and size; the ‘rejects’ go into a gift perfume box (also tagged or labeled) along with reject-make up that I pass onto my nieces and sisters. And I keep another stash in the guest bathroom, but those are mostly minis and partials, and anyone can use them when they visit the loo. I think my sample stash is around a respectable 75 or so at any given time.
I hate putting on some new sample and not really liking it but waiting for the dry down, trying to give it a fair test…..meanwhile I get all grumbly about a lost opportunity to wear something really good!
LOL Daisy! You’re about to add to my pain! And after you mentioned wanting to do a split of L’Ame Soeur (is the name right? I didn’t look it up), I looked it up and it sounds… divine!
Rappleyea: that fact has kept me solvent…I never buy perfume any more because I can never wear it due to sampling. I love samples mind you…and I’ve learned to test drive a sample on a finger, not on my body full-stop. So I can try 10 scents in one sit-down session and decide based on the finger test if I need to wear a fragrance and possibly review it. Still takes TIME and effort though.
ACK finger!!! My skin holds on to scent extremely tenaciously, and my fingers are the worst! I hate opening a sample and having it get on my fingers because I’ll be smelling it for days – literally!
And I think you’re pretty brave to test ten at once!
Final thought – the names are intriguing, the ads are great, but they all sound so dull.
I wonder if the overwhelming nature of such multiple releases is limited to those people who are required (or compelled) to review everything?
In any case, what would one propose as a solution to this problem? A moratorium on perfuming? A lottery system that determines which houses will be able to release new products? A Supreme Justice of Perfume who can declare “it’s already been done,” and send designers back to the drawing board? (If the latter were to happen, Annie Buzantian would be crying at her organ trying to distinguish PureDistance from Love’s Baby Soft.)
I myself will attempt to avoid the torture of “too many things to smell” (perfumeboarding?) by remaining aloof enough to prevent the onset of Jaded Nose Syndrome.
Scrubbles: Perhaps a Supreme Justice for each Continent? Wonderful idea. HA
I think I have jaded bank account syndrome….even sampling so many releases can get outrageously expensive if you don’t live near a good department store or perfume shop. Then slap a couple FB’s on the pile and OUCH! Nasty sharp pain right in the…….wallet.
Daisy: true…but thankfully I never buy department store scent samples. That would be WRONG, wouldn’t it? I do spend lots on niche stuff that is never IN a store to sample in the first place.
It’s again obvious that these perfumes are not targeted for the average woman. When given unusual names that are hard to pronounce, a perfume is not meant for the bathroom counter in a trailer park. I think this type of snobbery is sad.
I’ve also ordered my MAC Honey, but have received nothing. This is my first time to place an order for something unsniffed and I’m excited/anxious about my experiment. I have such a difficult time with ANY perfume staying with me.
Except I think that “the average woman” lives in the middle ground between ‘trailer park’ and ‘Park Avenue penthouse’. I certainly believe these are meant for the bathroom counter in the average suburban home, and absolutely not snobbish or niche by any stretch of the imagination.
Joe, I agree. Maybe just capitalizing on the increasing interest in metaphysics in general, of which Tarot is a part.
I don’t think so either… if you have some knowledge of French the names aren’t very difficult to pronounce. Since this is an Italian house, if the names weren’t French they would be Italian and I don’t know how that would be easier to pronounce. Even though I DO think all perfume names should be German.
das Glücksrad 10
Joey Joe Joe… you know German
what is “The Lovers” in German? I know, since I’m majoring in German I should be embarrassed to ask but whatevvvvv
not to mention, “average” women live in France.
I still think all perfume names should be in German though
der Mond 18
Newsitian09: the concept masks a heart of tin…fancy names, paying millions for a model…can’t hide the fact these are banal.
I didn’t know inherently French=fancy/unusual/snobbery.
and paying millions for a model is just typical D&G. They’re probably bff with these people anyway (I’m pretty sure they’re close friends with Naomi)
Krok: yes, Naomi C a good friend of D&G; I can’t imagine her appeal at this point but she’s in ALL the magazines these days…a sensational agent that woman has.
her appeal is that she is the HBIC
Oooooooh…kay. I can’t say I’m dying to smell any of these, but … seriously, you wouldn’t be interested in Bachelor Number Three up there at the top? Dibs. Naked works for me.
I hope you do something about his eyebrows, he looks like he could be on Naruto or something
Eh. I will be spending minimal time staring at his eyebrows
March: he’s the youngest looking so I KNEW that would be your choice!
Fine, now I’m feeling like a dirty old mommy. I’ll take one of the other two, which do you find more age appropriate?
March: I remember your Burberry The Beat choice too! I’d say No. 1 or 2 are a BIT more appropriate. But with retouching, who knows?
March- LOL! Although, I wouldn’t mind being stuck with the man in the middle! Even though he’s probably 15 years my junior!
None sounds interesting enough, I was going to say The Empress seems to be the lesser evil but then again – THE RULE:
SOMETHING MUST BE PINK!!!!
Take something that’s not necessarily bad and not necessarily pink – pepper, cardamom, grapefruit etc and make it pink. What does that mean exactly? More sugary, more fruity? The Empress did the cyclamen bit and that’s one point for creativity but that’s all the gets: pink tonga panties that fail to hide the fact that this empress has no clothes.
Is mainstream perfumery ever going to release at least a couple of fragrances for grown-up women?
Nile Goddess: I’m a girly man I guess! I never thought about it before but I simply can’t wear grown-up women’s scents (too womanly) but I can wear things like L’Imperatrice with loads of “pink” made for younger GIRLS. HA!
I thought you enjoyed wearing the very womanly Mitsouko [pour Homme]?
Releasing a series = maximising exposure and shelf space for the brand. It is all about quantity and using your elbows to get to the front row, especially on a trembling market.
Well, just wanted to let y’all know that I just saw these at a discounter (BigDiscount) for $50. Seems a bit quick.
Tama: goodness!
Kevin:If its not a problem can you mention the longevity of the perfumes you review.
I like the tarot concept, and also the adverts… don’t really feel excited to smell any of them though.
I manged to get samples at Nordstroms. Tested them today, and I’m on the flipside with your views, Kevin.
Two are basically fresh scents, and three have very “skanky bottoms”.
THE MAGICIAN: I like this one, although it is very generic, but a sound composition. Understated and simple, it almost smells niche. Good proportions of cedar to vetiver.
THE EMPRESS: Ugh! I hate this one! Fruity and synthetic grapefruit, including all (if anything mostly) its bitter bitter notes. For the most part, a linear scent that lasts surprisingly long aside from Wheel of Fortune.
THE LOVERS:
One of the skanky bottoms scent. The spiciness seems to fade quickly on me and moves right into a floral musk. The musks used in these compositions seem to be very, ahem, “naughty”. I thought I would like this one, but I would rank this as number 4 in the line.
WHEEL OF FORTUNE: My favorite! A mix of spicy notes with beginning notes of powdery gourmands and moves its way towards (naughty) musky and woody notes at the base. Longest lasting of the bunch I think.
THE MOON: The serenity of florals meets musky madness. I don’t know where the leather is in this scent either. Calming and quietly sensual. I would rank this number 3.
So there we go, I’m definitely getting WHEEL OF FORTUNE, and rank the rest as thus:
#2 THE MAGICIAN (I might get this one too, but somehow I’m thinking I own something quite like it)
#3 THE MOON
#4 THE LOVERS
#5 THE EMPRESS
All of them have suprisingly good longevity, and I’m surprised these bottles are being offered at $65 for a 100 mils, though I don’t think they should cost more. I think a lot of times they put out scents in sets like these to create a niche feel about them, thus adding more to the pricetag.
I found them at Macys today and i LOVE every single one of them!! Im going to spend $325+ on the whole collection but i really love and want them all! The lady at Macys said their meant to be mixed w/ one another so im really going to have fun w/ that! While i love them all, 3 and 18 are my favs of the bunch!
My sister called me RAVING about Wheel Of Fortune. I wasn’t surprised; her faves frags (being a non-perfumista) are Sensual Amber by BBW and Pleasures Delight by EL. She’s all about sweet and gourmand.
Out of all of these, I also liked L’Imperatrice the best. It reminded me of an Annick Goutal-style light floral, like a fruitier cousin to Petite Cherie.
Everything else was boring, though. L’Amoureux seemed like Light Blue Extra Light.
I keep reading reviews for La Roue de la Fortune and see all these different notes and interesting observations, but I tried it on and it’s just this screaming loud cupcake smell on me. I don’t get anything else. It’s like the cupcake ate the patchouli and all the flowers. Strange. I really liked L’Imperatrice and I’d like to go back to try L’Amoureaux on skin. I don’t know if I could use up 100 ml of either, but I love the plain sleek bottles.
Hello Kevin!
I got to try ALL of these today.
I must say I loved your review, so I’m tempted to compare notes, here we go..:
Le Bateleur: It smells like camphor at first, and then it turns aquatic. I couldn’t agree more with you on this one.. on the other hand, If I have to pick an everyday office scent, I would go for le bateleur.
L’Imperatrice: Well it may not scream MELON MELON MELON to you, but screams SYNTHETIC WATERMELON to me
… this is the one that smells the cheapest to me.
L’Amoreux: It has a note just before the topnotes start dissapearing that reminds me of Gucci Rush for men or Kenzo Jungle for men… It is a resinous note that I like, but I rather choose Gucci or Kenzo over this.
La Roue de la Fortune: My notes say “Very Very Sweet Opening” and I cannot place the scent it reminds me of.. but this is not original at all.
La Lune: I liked this the best, although it is in my opinion a feminine scent. I wrote “Interesting, but a little bit old-fashioned”
So I’m totally alligned with your Old Avon comment. Still the concept is good, this is the best of the lot IMHO.
Well, just sharing, and very very happy that these got to Argentina this fast! Usually we ahve to wait months and months to get the latest launches, but seems like we are on a lucky strike lately.
Looking forward your next reviews!
P.
Sorry, folks, but to me L’Imperatrice( # 3) smells like hot cat piss on straw. Yuck!
Tajali: grapefruit and hay…a great combo!
ROFL! On me it’s best of all. I even bought it for myself, it’s such a great shampoo-like hyperactive scent.. ;D
I was not dissappointed – i did not expect anything. They smell rather familiar to me so I asked the rep who is the manufactoring company. She rolled her eyes and said: It’s Procter and Gamble, it smells like, doens’t it? all like Hugo boss and the stuff…
She was herself annoyed and dissappointed about this boring stuff she has to sell.
I completely agree with you on the D&G Fragrance Anthology. The L’Impertrice 3 reminds me of a bathroom air freshener I used once. The rest of the line could also fit into that category. Or perhaps the fragrance oils for the home that they sell in department stores.
im just SO IN LOVE with nr. 10. my fav. i love the concept and the models. HOTHOTHOT
ok, my smelt all of them last week and got some samples that i gradually used over the week.
My Opinion:
Le Bateleur-Manly and has a very aquatic scent.
L’Imperatrice- GIRLY GIRLY GIRLY, its a nice scent but wouldnt dare wear it as a man.
L’Amoureaux- Very Woody, not my style.
La roue de la fortune-my favourite out of all of them… until i wore it and got comments like “are you wearing womens perfume”…
La lune- YUCK!
BUT i think the ads for it are hot
I feel I must stand up for this being a mans fragarance. Having just recently brought the whole collection in minatures (20mls is enough of each for me and less expensive). I find myself wearing all of them wthout any shame ( my favourites would be nos 1 la baliteur and 18 la lune and of course no 6 la amerueux). I like them all and dont feel embarassed to wear any of them even no 3 which I do have to say is too sickly sweet and has to go on with other scents on top as a layer.
I tried all of these just today. Smelt like something ive smelt before. Enjoyed Lune.. the drydown on all was boring.
On vacation, my wife wanted to buy me a new scent. I am very late to this party and only have two colognes that aren’t over 25 years old: Roches for Men and Prada Amber Pour Homme. We sniffed the five of these and found it easy to walk away, especially at $65 a bottle. If the collection of smaller bottles were sold individually, they might have had a sale. I appreciate these reviews though. I am slowly, slowly learning the vocabulary of fragrances and can go beyond “That smells good” or “Pass me the hand soap, stat!”