Laugh With Me Lee Lee, Something About Sofia and My Place or Yours Gina make up Benefit’s new Crescent Row fragrance trio. They’re a perfect fit with Benefit’s kitschy / humorous aesthetic: they’ve got silly names, adorable cocktail-shaker inspired bottles, and outer boxes that look like row houses and fold open to show the home interior (see below; the scents were reportedly inspired by a row of Georgian townhouses in Bath, England). Benefit has wisely packaged them in small sizes (30 ml) at a reasonable price ($36). Benefit doesn’t have the pull of Gwen Stefani and these aren’t nearly as cute as the Harajuku Lovers dolls (and I’d guess they’re geared to a slightly older audience), but still, I should think the same logic applies: everything about the project is so likable that so long as the scents themselves aren’t repulsive, it’s hard to see why they shouldn’t succeed.
Laugh With Me Lee Lee is the lightweight of the bunch, and I’d guess it will be the biggest seller. It’s designated as a “fun and feminine woody floral” but wears like your basic young fruity floral: sweet, sparkly fruity-citrus opening, vaguely watery (and still quite fruity) floral heart, pale woody musk finish (the notes: cassis, melon, citrus, black violet, lily, jasmine, blond wood, amber and sandalwood). It hasn’t got loads of personality — or anything else in particular to make it stand out from the gajillion similar scents on the market — and it doesn’t have more than minimal staying power, but hey. The bottle is cute and it’s $36, which in today’s perfume market qualifies as very nearly free.
Something About Sophia is supposed to be an oriental, but despite being warmer than Lee Lee, it’s still awfully pale for such a thing. Sophia starts out in fruity floral territory (the notes: mango, freesia, sheer lily, jasmine, peony, musk, white caramel and vanilla bean), although it breaks even those rules by featuring recognizable floral notes in the heart instead of the usual mishmash of “things that might be flowers”. It’s pretty, and the dry down has a nice toasted vanilla sugar finish that’s vaguely reminiscent of a MUCH softer and quieter Jessica Simpson Fancy. The lasting power is good, and it eventually takes on what March at Perfume Posse accurately calls a “gingerbread-ish” quality. I’m with March: this is the best of the three, although I doubt it will sell as well as Lee Lee.
My Place or Yours Gina is clearly meant to be the “sexy” entry. It’s the darkest of the three, and might best be described as a second-cousin-thrice-removed to Thierry Mugler Angel, or what you’d get if you asked for an utterly innocuous version of Angel that a pre-teen could wear to school (the notes: pink pepper, bergamot, tangerine, peony, wild raspberry, lily, patchouli, tonka bean and vanilla). It’s darkish and fruity all the way through; the dry down is a very (VERY) clean and soft patchouli-ish woody musk with candied accents. March hated it but I thought it was fine, if perhaps a bit less lively than the other two, and not nearly as sexy as its name might imply.
So, the usual blah blah blah (I can almost type this sentence in my sleep): nothing exciting and perfumistas needn’t rush off in a frenzy to their nearest Benefit counter, but absolutely fine for what they are — and for the price. It does seem to me that if you’re going to add new fragrances to the tsunami already on the market, and if you’re not going to do the risky thing and make them original and distinctive, then the least you can do is what Benefit has done: give them fun back stories and adorable packaging, and keep the size small and the price low. Please, no more of the high concept but then we spent all the money getting famous models to take their clothes off and had none left for the juice or the packaging.
Benefit Crescent Row Laugh With Me Lee Lee, Something About Sofia and My Place or Yours Gina are available in 30 ml Eau de Toilette.
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NST is sure going to be popular with our wallets this week…
Wasn’t interested before, not interested now… but as with everything else, if I happen to pass it on the street (or in the store), I’ll likely give them a sniff anyway.
Might as well — and do think Sophia improves drastically on skin — I did not like it on paper.
The price is great, and their packaging is so cute; I’d be disappointed if it weren’t. My girls want a bottle of Lee Lee. Given how much I loathe Angel, I feel better after reading your comparison to Gina; it sounds like we felt the same about the other two! Thanks for the link, of course.
As I think I already said when you reviewed them, I have several of their makeup bags — they’re adorable too. I can’t remember now: did your girls go for the Harajuku Lovers??
Oddly enough, they didn’t! Gwen herself doesn’t really do anything for them, and they weren’t interested in any of the scents. I thought the scents (and L) were awfully dull myself.
They were dull, and these are better…but to me, both sets would be useless without the packaging.
Oh, the bottles are adorable! I actually am more drawn to this than something like Harajuku Lovers. Now, the fragrances themselves don’t sound that thrilling.
Shame. But maybe I can fulfill my need to buy such a cute bottle by getting one as a gift for someone.
Well, might as well try them…maybe you’ll love one of them!
Hey Miss Kitty….nice new (or should I say: mew) gravatar!
I agree these are cute! The fragrances don’t sound very interesting, I mean, I wouldn’t throw myself on a pack of wild dogs trying to avoid being sprayed with them…but I all I can work up is a “meh”…..I do think these are all about the adorable packaging. The Harajaku Lovers dolls were just so very annoying. I actively disliked them.
It is a great gravatar, agree!
And if you didn’t like the Harajuku Lovers, you might not find these so likable as I did either.
You know, it’s just that there’s SOOO MUCH really great stuff out there that I haven’t had a chance to sniff yet…..combination of being really a newbie and the veritable FLOOD of new things…that the “meh” fragrances are just going to automatically fall by the wayside….
I mean this in the best way, but I think you’ve smelled more fragrances in your first year as a “newbie” than most people have smelled in a lifetime!
my nose is an overacheiver….
Thanks.
Thanks for a great review, it was both objective and yet personal! Sounds like these may make it to the early Christmas shopping list for the teens in my life.
That was my first thought: perfect present for someone maybe a little too old for the Harajuku Lovers.
Thanks for the reminder Fuddy Duddy! Yesterday was exactly six months to Christmas too – and I don’t say that facetiously either as that time will fly! I’ve got several young nieces, so these might be worth checking out.
I received samples of all three for free with a purchase from Sephora. The packaging is adorable – the mini set comes in a little row house set and the doors open so you can get the fragrances out. I’ve only tried Lee Lee so far and it was okay, given the genre – probably nothing that I’d run out and buy, but pleasant enough. There was a weird moment somewhere between the opening and the drydown that smelled vaguely cheap and chemical to me, but it smoothed out in the drydown. I likely wouldn’t purchase this in the future – I already have Vivara and Fleur d’Corail if I want a fruity-floralish type of scent, but I think that it would be a cute stocking stuffer or birthday gift for a pre-teen.
How cute — are they samples or miniatures? I’ve got spray samples & the boxes are quite cute, but not so elaborate as what you’re describing.
I’d say that they’re somewhere between true minis and a sample – they’re larger than regular samples (maybe called deluxe samples?) and each sample is in its own box and they are each housed behind their own doors in the little row house.
The offer didn’t have an expiration date – it just said “while supplies last”.
I don’t know if this link will work or not – but here’s a pic if it does.
https://www.sephora.com/common/promo_popup.jhtml?id=P240023
Oh, duh…that’s exactly what I have except that I threw out the very cute outer “row house” box. Thanks!!
I passed on that Sephora offering, but now I regret it. This sounds like something my daughter would enjoy and I should have gotten it for her. I just wasn’t thinking. Oh well.
Check google — I think that coupon might be good through the end of June?? Anyone else know?
I checked the promo email I got and it just says “while supplies last.” The promo code is CRESCENT, if anyone wants to give it a shot.
Thanks!
Thank you – I’ll try it…
Although the scents sound fairly average, I still want to give this a try. I am all for small bottles, reasonable prices and things that don’t take themselves too seriously. Now if only more “real” perfumes came in 30 ml sizes!
It’s true, we need way more fun in the perfume market! If everything is going to smell the same, at least make it fun.
I find it hard to believe that Bath’s Royal Crescent inspired such a girly, flirty design concept. Those are some grand, forbidding-looking houses. If I were creating perfumes based on the imagined residents of such buildings, I would have called them (Caution: Well-worn British stereotypes ahead! I hope no one is offended) Stiff-Upper-Lip Susannah, Rule Britannia Regina, and High Tea Henrietta. But that’s just me.
Yeah, but those wouldn’t sell. And if anybody could take those houses and turn them into girly-flirty, Benefit could
too funny! I agree entirely….perfect!
Less marketable, sure….but probably a lot more representative!
I’m with Elizabeth, as I was when I first read about these coming out on NST. It’s as incongrous a coupling as taking a set of three mobile homes on a trailer park and giving their residents posh girls’ names like Cassandra, Araminta or Georgiana. The Sophia one is pitched about right, but the other two sound incongruous. I agree that Benefit would have a better chance than most to pull this off, but in the UK – for anyone who knows Bath – I see it causing scratched heads and general bemusement. : – )
Can’t argue with you guys, just don’t think it much matters — Benefit is known (in the US, anyway) as a “fun” brand. I mean, bear in mind that their other 2 scents are called “Maybe Baby” and “B Spot” — it just isn’t meant to be taken so seriously as all that.
What V….did you miss Jane Austen’s most famous heroine Lee Lee Bennett and her adventures with the landed gentry in Bath?!
Please tell me you’re pulling my leg and that there isn’t a pet name for Lydia Bennett I missed along the way. And I did the book for O-Level, so shame on me if so!
No, she’s kidding!
Sorry! Yes I am most definitely kidding. Strangely I did the book for GCSE too. I would put the Bennett sisters in Penhaligon’s or Annick Goutal, I think. Chevrefeuille for Lizzy, perhaps?
LOL! Have always thought someone should do a scent series for P&P.
I tried all 3 and mentioned it under New Perfumes… I thought the Sophia was top-loaded with mango, which is not a good thing imo. And the Gina has this burnt sugar and rubber accord that was really pronounced on me. LeeLee was similar to Light Blue the 2nd time I tried it.
Perhaps because I tend to like mango in perfume (one of my favorites is Eau Exotique by Parfums de Nicolai, which I guess is discontinued now) I didn’t notice the mango as much as you did. Figures that whatever you don’t like stands out like a sore thumb, right? Agree Lee Lee would suit somebody that liked Light Blue.
I’ve never been a interested or impressed by Benefit as a cosmetics company as a whole, but these sound almost exactly as what I would expect from the brand. I guess I’m not one to talk though . . . my friend owned their very first fragrance, Maybe Baby, and I quite liked it and used to steal spritzes from her whenever I saw it on her counter. Sophia sounds absolutely nauseating, but I think I could stand Lee Lee and Gina.
You’re either a sucker for these kinds of things or you’re not, I guess! I have 2 Benefit makeup bags, one that says “Gabbi Glickman Gets Grabbed by Glitz n’ Shine…Go Gabbi Go!” and the other that says something else (can’t find it at the moment).
I have purchase from benefit: lip stain, high def face powder, eye cream (great) and an adorable shower cap. I like their products. I also got the Crescent Row. I like Sophia, but not enough to buy. I am interested in their Maybe Baby, it sounds different. Has anyone else smelled it?
I also got Pucci’s three new fragrances in a little three sample bag from Sephora. Haven’t sniffed them yet. I need to find the notes somewhere, smiley face.
Maybe Baby is very popular — another girly-flirty fruity floral, very clean.
Here are your Puccis:
http://www.nstperfume.com/2008/11/26/pucci-vivara-variazione-new-fragrances/
wish I’d researched a bit before purchasing the Gina. Loved the marketing idea, not so much the actual fragrance. I’m one of those “older” women the scents might appeal esp. to (53). Love the bottle more than the contents, which I just recv’d today from Sephora.com.
Sadly, “older” in perfume-ad-copy-speak generally means over 18 or over 20, or if you’re lucky, over 25.
Laugh with me lee lee will be a great gift for my friend. but she’ll have to carry it around. It works more like a body spray.
It smells very light and sweet. Good for younger girls.
It isn’t heavy, it’s true, but hope your friend will like it!
Your friend will love it. It smells great but it also isn’t too empowering.
It’s funny, the day I bought “Queen by Queen Latifah” I was walking out of Macy’s and I saw the “My place or yours, Gina” and I sprayed it on a card and it smells JUST LIKE QUEEN! I couldn’t believe it!
They do seem at least somewhat similar, it’s true. Would guess the QL is much stronger.
Well, squeaky wheels do get the deluxe samples in the adorable row house box. I was at Macy’s (bad Macy’s) and wandered over to the Benefit counter while my friend tried in vain to find someone to sell her a $150 bottle of perfume. I looked at the cosmetics and noticed the adorable dollhouse they display the scents in. I was given ONE small piece of ribbon to test the fragrance of my choice. I asked for a sample of it, SA said sure, and began ringing up cosmetics I never said I wanted to buy. She then refused to give me my ONE sample. I became unreasonable peeved by this and called their corporate headquarters to tell them that this is no way to launch frangrances in a crowded marked and a weak economy, perfume being a luxury item, etc. Anyway, I just got my little row house with three samples in the mail today and it is adorable. I’m test driving something else and haven’t tried them yet, but if that sample box were available for sale I would have gladly bought it. I am a sucker for cute packaging, but am saving for some real perfumes to build my wardrobe around and I think these samples will satisfy my cute itch. I don’t think any of them are really for me, so I may pass them on to a teenage friend of mine.
Good for you for complaining — glad they responded.
Hi this is my first post here on NST and sorry for my english,it’s more then 20 years since i left school.Few weeks ago i decided to try one of Benefit fragrance.I try smells and bought Gina.The most funny was when i opened this lovely little house of Gina-it looks almost like my apartment!
Hi and welcome, and your English is fine!
That’s so funny…sounds like you picked the right one out of the trio. Hope you enjoy it!
I love Laugh With Me Lee Lee. It smells wonderful.
Glad you like it!