Launched back in 1980, Eau de Givenchy was on everybody’s Christmas list, it seemed like everybody had a bottle on their dresser back then. With three decades having elapsed since I first discovered it I was interested to find out what I would make of it today. The notes, for those who need reminding of that evocative blend, are composed of the following: bergamot, mint, Tagetes, green, fruit, honeysuckle, jasmine, lily of the valley, tuberose, rose, cyclamen, orris, musk, Cedarwood, sandalwood and moss.
The perfume opens with notes of sharp citrus green and a slight bit of mint. Although labeled as a fruity floral any fruits that do exist in there seem to be dominated by the strong citrus.As a result it is not really a sweet scent and as it dries on the skin lily of the valley and Jasmine, come into full effect. At the bottom gentle notes of wood and musk round the whole thing off very nicely.
Eau de Givenchy smells clean, fresh and delightfully light.It still evokes a sense of sophistication and chic all these years on and will go the rounds with any new floral scent on the market. It does, in fact come across as strikingly modern and is completely in line with current trends towards clean and fresh light floral fragrances.It doesn’t at all smell like the thick heavy eighties fragrances that decade seems to immediately call to mind
To top it all off, as clean and light as it is, it still has a quite astonishing staying power, a feat quite tricky to pull of in practice.

Created with Audrey Hepburn in mind back in 1957, L’Interdit was created by Francis Fabron for his friend and famous fashion designer, Hubert de Givenchy. The scent was subsequently taken off the shelves in the U.S in 1990 and allowed to remain in stores throughout Europe.Givenchy decided to restore it in 2002, after it has been reformulated in order to make it more palatable to a new generation of perfume buyers.The result of these efforts as a quite interesting scent, L’Interdit is delightfully fruity and floral, well-rounded, and attractive though not earth-shatteringly new.
The original L’Interdit, combined chic and fun and this has been preserved to a certain degree.It opens with aldehydes and bergamot, which soften considerably as it dries and allow a gentle sun-kissed peach and strawberry aroma to waft away from the skin. Behind these you’ll find rose, jasmine and iris.The florals however are not separate, but rather mix and meld swirling together, their edges blurring.But just above these floral eddies you’ll find a refined spicy carnation more and honey warmth.Matte amber and earthy vetiver come in at the close, taking the senses with them as they fade to a veiled powdery finish.

Este Lauder Companies, Inc. is a manufacturer of skin care, cosmetics, perfume and hair products based in the United States. The company was founded in 1946 by Joseph and Este Lauder, who both commenced creating cosmetics in New York. Starting off with a line of only four products within two years they signed the company’s first department store seal with Saks of Fifth Avenue.

The company grew expanding throughout the united states for the next fifteen years and in 1960 they finally expanded offshore sealing the deal on their first international account in the London’s Harrods and next in Hong Kong. Aramis Inc.was the company’s next venture which saw them expanding to the production of fragrances. In 1968 the company created Clinique Laboratories, Inc. Clinique the first allergy tested, fragrance free cosmetic brand by Este Lauder.

The company over years has developed a reputation for creating excellent cosmetics, skin care and fragrances and frequently use high profile celebrities, both make and female, to market their various lines. Their perfumes are also well known for their quality, affordability and have become extremely popular, with sections in department stores the world over.

We’ve had a lot to say about celebrity perfumes on this site, most of which have been at best unflattering. Sarah Jessica Parker perfumes don’t seem to fit into the celebrity scent mould for two simple reasons. Firstly they are aimed, or seem to be aimed at an older woman, with all the sophistication therein that that implies, and secondly she doesn’t seem in any kind of rush to flood the perfume market with bottles bearing her name, this new fragrance comes two whole years after the release of Lovely. Both of these facts are a most welcome here. The idea behind Covet was to create something harder and more aggressive in nature than Lovely, something more daring and interesting.

The notes that go into Covet are as follows: wet greens, geranium leaves, Sicilian lemon, lavender, chocolate, honeysuckle, magnolia, muguet, musk, vetiver, bois de cashmere, teakwood and amber. Immediately you can see a difference between these notes and the sickly sweet sugary fruits of most other celebrity scents. Covet opens loud, with a sharp burst of lemon tempered by lavender and grounded in greens. It immediately softens on the skins, the initial sharpness quickly rounds itself off, making way for the sweetness of the chocolate to waft through. Almost just as this takes place the central flowers come in, and equally quickly they seem to dry out and make way for the perfumes distinctive musk.. This is a very well put together scent, one of my favorite celebrity affairs. It is dark and sexy in the base, with the vaguest hints of the initial sharpness informing the sweet edible hints of vanilla and chocolate. It also lasts seemingly forever, even though it progresses through its notes so quickly and what you’re left with is a delicious perfume with a wonderful warmth that you want to ever fade. I never seem to grow tired of this one.

The Story behind Femme is that is was created way back in the forties by famous perfumer Edmond Roudnitska. The perfume was commissioned by Marcel Rochas and intended as a gift for his wife. The original perfume has been reformulated by Rochas with an view towards today’s perfume market and has been altered slightly. The difference between the original and the new version arise in the omission of the aldehydes of the original in favor of cumin, which spices thing up interestingly, although, over the duration of a single wear you will find that the two versions of Femme parallel each other quite closely. The notes of this new version include: peach, plum, sandalwood, rosewood, lemon, rose, jasmine, oakmoss, patchouli, musk, amber, civet, and leather. It is a very sumptuous and sexy perfume, but also one that inspires a sense of nostalgia for days gone by. Furthermore it is strangely personal in the way it makes you smell, almost like you’re opening yourself up to the world. It lasts forever and the silage is quite astonishing, combine this with the fact that, as I have already mentioned this is a very sexy scent, and you understand why I use the word personal to describe it. It is intensely personal, and requires a certain air of confidence in order to carry it off properly. Over ripe fruit gives it is bruised lusciousness in the top notes. Sandalwood wafts off your skin throughout and is grounded by an almost dirty chypre bottom. This reformulated version is a great success and a welcome addition to the house of Rochas. Use with care, and only if you’re brave.

Released way back in 1970, Eau de Rochas has proven to have a lasting appeal, or at least be part of something of a rediscovery and revival. Originally released as a woman’s cologne, nowadays it smells like more of a fragrance that either sex could enjoy equally. It is astonishing that a fragrance that was created forty years ago can seem so contemporary and fresh today, more than this, it even seems to have qualities that are mysteriously absent from the fragrances of today, cologne or not. What makes this particular cologne so special though, and guarantees its place up there as quintessential cologne, is the fact that unlike other colognes it doesn’t make the error of overdoing the coolness and freshness. This is a marked feature of colognes that they open fresh and tend to move all the way through the entire olfactory experience that they provide with coolness and freshness from top to base notes. As a result, not only are they boring and smell quite alike, but they also feel rather cold and unsexy after a while. This is due to the fact that overwhelmingly, the sexiness of a fragrance boils down to how it dries on the skin and how it starts to warm and spice up from the heart notes onwards to the base. This is precisely what Eau de Rochas manages to do, once the pale rose heart begins to fade away you get a wonderful warmth beginning to emanate outwards, no doubt created by the subtle blend of amber and oakmoss in the base. As a result this fragrance has it all, the fresh cool and breezy entrance, the understated floral heart and a warm sexiness at the base. It is comprised of the following notes: verbena, lime, mandarin, bergamot, wild rose, jasmine, coriander, carnation, oakmoss, amber, and musk and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Paired with the sport line of garments from Ralph Lauren, the Ralph by Ralph Lauren line of perfumes have been quite a success. Not just in the marketplace but also from the point of view of perfume reviewers. While there is nothing really groundbreaking about them, they do seem to be much more well balanced and poised than many of the other perfumes out there geared at the young adult market. Regardless of its name, Wild by Ralph Lauren, like the other perfumes in this line is a fruity floral, fresh, sweet and zingy at the top, floral in the middle and pale musky at the base. The head notes are sweet and fruity, strawberry being the dominant scent in top of this particular fragrance, this in turn gives way to a nondescript flowery bouquet in the centre, which in turn makes way for a pale woody kind of musk at the bottom. The notes are as follows: strawberry watermelon, cherry blossom, pink peppercorn, red petals, jasmine, amber, sandalwood and musk.

Though having nothing particularly wild about it, Ralph Wild by Ralph Lauren is a very pleasant, fresh and extremely wearable scent. The notes are well balanced so as to prevent the sweetness of the fruits becoming overpowering. This is a nice, sweet and fun pink fruity floral suitable for women of all ages.

Developed by perfumer Annie Buzantian, Ralph Rocks is is yet another addition to the Ralph by Ralph Lauren line of perfumes for young women. The line was introduced back in 2000 in order to capture a piece of the ever-growing twenty-something fragrance market and has seen the company release a string of fresh and fruity perfumes. The notes for this particular fragrance include passion fruit, kiwi, citrus, freesia, orange blossom, hyacinth, palm leaves, sun-bleached woods, coconut milk, sandalwood and amber.

At the very top the first notes to hit you as soon as you spray this perfume are a strong and sweet blend of tropical fruits. After these you get a fresh burst of citrus that helps to cut through the sweet fruity aroma,Thus preventing Ralph Rocks coming across as some kind of tropical fruit juice rather than a perfume. As these initial top notes begin to calm and the perfume dries on your skin it follows with a cream floral heart that is sweetened slightly by a hint of coconut, this helps tie in the head and heart notes to each other. As the middle phase of Ralph Rocks wears on you notice that it becomes progressively less floral and more coconut-y, without ever becoming to overpowering. By the time the heart notes have completely faded, and with them all hints of fruit, the perfume settles into a pale musk, grounded by the scent of woods. This is definitely one of the better perfumes in the line. Yes, it is sweet but nowhere near as sweet as other twenty-something fragrances and indeed many of the other ones in the Ralph by Ralph Lauren line.

Fendi is a high fashion label based in Italy that has come to be best known and instantly recognised for the iconic “baguette” handbags it created. The company was founded back in 1925 from a shop in Rome where it specialised in the creation and selling of bespoke fur and leather products. Today it is one of the fashion giants, a multinational company reaching into all markets where it specialises in the creation of all sorts of luxury goods and fashion items. Karl Lagerfeld is currently the creative director of the company.

Fendi controversially still deals in fur products, in 1997 this reached the media as supermodel Naomi Campbell was fire as a spokesperson for the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals after modeling a fur coat at on a Fendi catwalk. Fendi also produces lines of highly desirable eyewear, timepieces that feature the use of Swiss movements, an finally fragrances. Fendi launched their first ever perfume to the market back in 1985, the memorable Fendi for Women and has since developed the line, not releasing perfumes as often as other manufacturers or labels, choosing instead to create desirable fragrances that have a reputation for being highly collectible and quickly discontinued.

Having been discontinued in many stores, Palazzo by Fendi was always something of a love hate affair with most people. Many mention it in the same breath as Thiery Mugler’s Angel, others site it as being closer to Karma by Lush. And although you’re not likely to find very many glowing reviews of Palazzo, for some reason unbeknown to me, I’d like to break with this tradition of Palazzo bashing and mention some of the fragrances good points, for there are indeed many. Firstly its rare, you don’t get very many people nowadays tapping you on the shoulder and saying you’re wearing Palazzo by Fendi aren’t you? Superfluities aside, it is actually a pretty interesting perfume. It is bold and assertive, rather delightfully off-key in composition and coming from Annick Menardo as it does, it is deliciously foody.

I don’t know about you but I never tire of smelling a certain way that makes men want to eat me! The patchouli notes are forward and unashamed and there is a really interesting incense-like smokiness to the scent that I personally find extremely sexy. Curiously there is also some citrus in there not evident in the top but buried somewhere deeper, perhaps the synergistic result of a couple of other elements as they mix with one another. It is undeniably sophisticated and self-assured, it doesn’t toe the line but rather is brass enough to stand out and say something different. It lasts forever, wafts off the skin exceptionally well and gets you noticed in a good way. The notes are as follows, I got so into eulogizing it I forgot to mention them at the onset: mandarin orange, lemon, bergamot, pink pepper, orange blossom, rose, and jasmine. If you want something a little different, a little rare and that comes in an absolutely preposterous bottle, this is definitely something you might want to try. Get hold of it while certain online companies still have the stock, and if you like it, buy a whole lot more!