Fragrance personality: A sensuous blend of Egyptian jasmine with warm, radiant notes of vanilla and sandalwood.
Family: floriental
Notes:
* Top notes: pear, neroli, bergamot * Middle notes: jasmine, heliotrope, lily of the valley * Base notes: vanilla, sandalwood, musk cream
My impression:
- warm floral notes at first - sweet vanilla endnote - not overly strong - great day to night fragrance - affordable ($24 for 30 mL, $29.50 for 50mL)
Overall, I thought this was a really wearable fragrance. Its not too strong, so you can still wear it to the office, but it is also complex and feminine enough that you could spray on a little extra after work for a night out.
Have you sampled this fragrance yet? What did you think?
Here's another opportunity for Canadians* to win a set of Harajuku Lovers fragrances**! Approximate retail value is $250:
How to enter:
1. Be a follower of my blog (feel free to join now if this is your first time here!) 2. Leave a comment on this post, telling me which is your favourite Harajuku girl / fragrance and why. 3. Optional: You may obtain an additional entry by posting about this contest on your blog and leaving a second comment with the post URL.
Contest closes this Thursday, Oct 22 at 11.59pm EST so only a few days to enter!
I will draw a name at random and announce the winner in a new post on Friday Oct 23. To claim their prize the winner needs to provide me with their name, mailing address, and phone number by end of the same day Friday Oct 23. The info is required by the sponsor to ship out the prize pack.
Please read the eligibility rules below before entering. Good luck!
*Eligibility: To enter and be eligible to win, an entrant must be a legal resident of Canada (excluding Quebec) who is over the age of majority in their province or territory of residence. Employees of or those residing with an employee of Coty Canada Inc, the Sponsor or Host, their agents, representatives, parents, affiliates, subsidiaries and dealers, advertising and promotional agencies, sponsors, suppliers of prizes, materials or services related to this contest, including the independent judging organization are not eligible to enter this contest. This contest is subject to all applicable federal, provincial and municipal laws and regulations. Each entrant is only eligible to win one (1) prize during the Contest Period.
**Prizes sponsored by Matchstick & Coty Inc.
*** UPDATE: I've noticed a few comments that aren't entries just questions, or don't qualify (anonymous comments not allowed unless they contact me with a good explanation beforehand). Thats fine just note that comments that don't qualify will NOT be counted in the draw, to be fair to all participants.
Remember how CK One was a huge hit years ago? 15 years to be exact. I remember being in school then and how all my friends loved the scent and wanted to own a bottle, haha :D Well, Calvin Klein has recently relaunched the iconic fragrance CK One again!
According to the company, the relaunch of CK One is about bringing people together, regardless of their differences in age, culture, race or gender. Thus to celebrate the launch, they have created a Facebook page for fans to connect, as well as a Youtube channel where you can see the CK One campaign video, the making of the video and some other clips.
Not only is the original fragrance being relaunched, there is also a special limited edition mp3 bottle being released exclusively at Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada. It retails for CAD$60.00. Now's your chance to get your own special edition bottle! The kind people behind the relaunch promo of CK One are sponsoring a giveaway to mark the Canadian launch. Simply enter using the widget at the bottom of this post with your name, email address, and poll question answer.
The giveaway is open to people with Canadian mailing addresses only (sorry US & intl readers!). Feel free to spread the word :) The draw closes in a week, Thursday March 26 at midnight EST. Winner will be drawn randomly and announced on Monday. Winner must contact me within 48 hours of me emailing them the good news.
Too tired to do a proper post...I've been up since 4.45am this morning for Boxing Day... Just wanted to mention to anyone who has been lemming after the Fresh Mangosteen fragrance (like me, lol) to check out Sephora at Eaton Centre. They have the Mangosteen box set slashed from CDN$114 to CDN$64!
The set includes the full size Mangosteen fragrance 100mL, and smaller sizes of the Mangosteen body lotion and soap. So its like getting the fragrance at a discount with the two other items as an extra bonus! This set isn't even on the Sephora website anymore so that must be why the store is clearing it out.
Besides that, they had some Stila lip glazes, lip glaze sticks, and other lipglosses on final sale as well (50% off). I was about to get one but decided not to in the end because they would still cost CDN$14, almost as much as a MAC lipgloss...
I have no idea what sale items they have at other Sephora locations in Toronto...but if anyone can let me know I'd appreciate it :)
Quick review of CK Secret Obsession, of which I received a bottle to try a while ago. It comes in a large brown box, and the bottle itself feels quite hefty and luxurious.
Its hard to photograph but the bottle is actually a genie shaped bronze tinted bottle:
Notes
Exotic Plum, Mace, Rose de Damas, Egyptian Jasmine, French Orange Flower, Spicy Orchid, Ylang, Tuberose, Moroccan Cedarwood, Wormwood, Cashmere Woods, Burnt Amber, Madagascan Vanilla, Australian Sandalwood, Florentine Orris Root (source)
My impression
The top notes smell quite pleasant when sprayed on a tester stick, however when I actually sprayed it on myself I didn't like it. On me it reminded me of older ladies perfume, a very vanilla-amber-musky type of scent. Once it settled down though the scent was more tolerable. It would make a great exotic perfume for a night out, but the smell was definitely too strong for daytime or office wear. (I only used one spritz too!)
Packaging wise the bottle looks sophisticated and elegant, something that would appeal to all women (except maybe the under 20 category).
A sidenote
One of the things that came up when I googled Calvin Klein Secret Obsession was a mention of the ad starring Eva Mendes that was banned from TV. If you are curious (and not easily offended you can see it on the Secret Obsession website here, or even Youtube if you prefer). I thought the ad was very well done as it completely embodied what this fragrance stood for - tantalizing, forbidden, and sensual. Just a tad too racy for TV though.
Overall
It makes a great fragrance for a night out (or a hot date :P). Just make sure your friends / date aren't sensitive to perfumes as this was rather strong. This one's more of a special occasion splurge than a wearable everyday perfume.
I've slowly become a fan of Gwen Stefani, although initially I didn't like her first album. However, her second album drew me in with The Sweet Escape, and 4 in the Morning. She looks gorgeous in this video, especially because her makeup emphasis here is on the eyes rather than her trademark red lips.
Anyway, last year or maybe the year before she released her first fragrance, L.A.M.B. It was a nice fragrance, and I liked it a lot. I didn't buy it though because I thought the scent was a bit too common...too mainstream for me to spend the $ on.
I was hoping for something more unique with her recent launch of Harajuku Lovers fragrances...and I'd say they are better in some ways, but the scents needs improvement if she wants to make something truly iconic.
Packaging The packaging, as you can see from the pictures below, is super cute! Definitely a collectible in my opinion. Each scent has a different doll representing it. I would love to collect all 5 dolls if I could...which brings me to another point - the price.
Pricing These scents are on the pricey side. They are available in two sizes - 10mL for US$25/CAD$33.25 or 20mL for US$45/CAD$49. Compare that to something like Ralph Lauren Romance, which is 20mL for US$36, almost US$10 less. I'm guessing its priced like that because you do get a really nice collectible bottle in addition to the perfume.
I think though that the price does not fit the target category. The marketing and packaging suits a younger crowd better (teen to early twenties), but the price would be too expensive for most people that age. If I were still a student I certainly wouldn't want to fork out that much money for such a small amount of product...
Impressions The scents are definitely on the younger side. I could see myself getting it for friends my age or younger, but it'd be hard to imagine say my older cousins wearing scents like these. The scents are rather basic and easy to like, although couple of them were a bit too sweet and cloying for my taste.
Here's a summary of each of the fragrance notes plus a quick note on what I thought...but keep in mind I'm no fragrance connoisseur. My tastes in perfumes are quite simple (too simple!) so you should definitely try all scents anyway to see if you like them yourself. Remember too that scents will smell different on each person depending on your body chemistry.
*Pictures and info on fragrance notes courtesy of Sephora.com
This scent was okay. The top floral notes are really nice but I'm not a fan of the musk notes at the end...but thats just me. It also smells a bit powdery...which I dislike.
This is a fruity-type of fragrance...the type I always go for so its no surprise that I liked this. Not to mention her outfit is my favourite among the 5 with that yellow headband and bows :) Very wearable scent for daytime.
I liked this initially ...but after wearing it a bit I think its still too sweet for me. Now that I've seen the fragrance notes I can see why. I love Pear and Clementine scents, which are the top notes, but can't stand musk and vanilla...Those usually form the bottom notes and thus wouldn't be noticeable until I had worn it for a while.
Baby
Notes: Freesia, Bergamot, White Rose, Orange Flower, Tiare, Jasmine, White Musk, Soft Woods, Heliotrope, Vanilla, and Violet.
I'll admit I didn't like this...at all. It was a bit too sweet for my taste...probably because of the vanilla and musk notes. It would make a good scent for wearing out at night though.
G
Notes: Mandarin, Coconut, Apple Skin, Jasmine Sambac, Freesia, Magnolia, Coconut Cream, White Sandalwood, and Cottonwoods
My favourite! The scent is smooth and coconut-y...pure love. I usually don't like oriental-type scents but this was the first scent in that category that I actually liked at first sniff! Most of my collection consists of citrus-y scents, so I'm happy to finally find something different that I still love :)
Overall, Lil' Angel and G were my favourites. Have you tried these yet? Which ones do you like/dislike? Why?
