Scents and Sensibility
My newest favorite commercial fragrance is Vera Wang’s Preppy Princess. The bottle is heart-shaped with pink and blue madras print and a blue crown w/ pearl accents for a cap. This is definitely intended for the Gossip Girl crowd, rather than the Skip’s and Bunny’s of the ’80′s prepster set.
The scent isn’t as “eclectic or edgy” as the marketing copy suggests. However, it does have a sweet fruity-floral note thanks to the tangerine, red berries, apple, Jasmin and honeysuckle top notes combines with some coconut water and woodsy element. It’s youthful, but not innocent or overly cloying - a tad more Nantucket then Upper East Side.
My perennial scent obsession seems to be cherry blossom. It started years ago with Lush’s Sakura bath bomb, Cherry tree lane soap, and continued with an imp (sample) of BPAL’s (Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs) Kyoto fragrance circa 2007.
Other scents I love include: citrus, ocean/rain, rose, coffee, sandalwood, almond, lavender, and leather. I broke down and placed my first order a while back . It appears that they threw in some extra imps. I ordered a full bottle of Kyoto – cherry blossom, white sandalwood, star anise; a great summer scent for me.
First impressions of the BPAL samples I ordered:
- Shanghai – clean, like Marc Jacob’s grass scent; green tea, lemon verbena, honeysuckle; after trying it on me, I determined that it’s unassuming and a good spring scent for work
- Kabuki - seems like a much sweeter, intense cherry version of Kyoto. I prefer to wear it more in the autumn months
- Aizen-Myoo - cherry blossom, Japanese citrus fruits, black tea; smells good enough to eat, not especially feminine, but I tend to do well with these kinds of scents
- Kumiho – white tea, ginger; very crisp and perfect for hot weather
- Kitsune-Tsuki – more floral than I would normally purchase, but the Asian plum gives it a fruity note; I make concessions for rose-scented items… perhaps an evening scent
- Bastet – Spicy notes on initial test and I can definitely smell the almond; another after-dark perfume for me, without being overwhelming
- Cthulhu – I got it for the name, and I like the smell of the ocean; initial test reminds me of a cleaning product… hint of lime with soap; wasn’t not 100% sold on this one, but mellowed out into a masculine, clean scent
- Miskatonic University – love the scent in the bottle; Irish coffee… almost toffee/caramel; I was curious to try it on, but waited until it’s cooler weather. It’s a good holiday scent.
- Whitechapel – very lime, hint of floral (lilac); not loving it upon first sniff… once I tested it on my skin, it turned into a really interesting and herbal fragrance that evoked summer or Provence.
On to the freebies…
- Sacred Whore of Babylon – very gardenia/floral scented, then seemed to catch a buttery/vanilla note; I’d have to be in one of my rare moods to wear this heavy of a floral
- Tushnamatay – nothing jumps out of the bottle, slightly herbal, slightly spicy; reminds me of Lush’s Dream Cream
- Perversion – decadent blend of tobacco, rum, leather and… chardonnay (which is my least favorite white wine, yet it seems to work in this scent) which makes me want to put this on some evening; if I were creating Pirates of the Caribbean… the fragrance, this would be it
- The Caterpillar – floral, floral, and more floral… with patchouli; a bit overwhelming in the bottle and I’m hesitant to actually try it on
What do you look for in a fragrance? What are your favorite scents and why?
