A week of reviews of drugstore fragrances wouldn’t be complete without a rundown of a few inexpensive musks, and reviews of drugstore musks wouldn’t be complete without Jovan and Coty. Lucky for me, a nearby Walmart stocks a gift box with 11 ml bottles of Jovan Musk for women, Jovan White Musk, and Coty Vanilla Musk Eaux de Cologne.
Jovan Musk for women has been a drugstore staple since it was introduced in 1972…
Back in December, Robin capably tackled the topic of fragrance layering, with suggestions for combining scents to enhance and emphasize certain notes. I must admit that I’m something of a purist: I prefer to wear one perfume at a time. However, I’m willing to experiment with layers of other products underneath. Although some fragrance lines do offer their own matching body products, those shower gels and lotions are often disappointing. Sometimes, the fragrance just doesn’t live up to the richness and complexity of the original perfume; in other cases, the formula of the gel or lotion is surprisingly low in quality.
Instead, I prefer to find unrelated scented products that harmonize with my favorite perfumes, based on broader fragrance families or single notes. I’ve written about my quest for rose lotions once or twice before, and vanilla is another category that seems to merit frequent layering discussion here on Now Smell This as well as at MakeupAlley and other forums. The right lotion can moisturize the skin so that perfume “clings” better, and a vanilla-scented body product adds an extra, underlying dose of warmth and sweetness to any fragrance. Here, then, are a handful of vanilla lotions that have recently impressed me, with suggestions for fragrance matches…
Last February when I reviewed Annick Goutal’s Vanille Exquise, I noted that “I am not a huge vanilla fan in general, but there are cold, grey days when a bit of vanilla is just what you need”. Those days are upon us once more, so this morning I’m road testing three vanilla fragrances: Guerlain’s Spiritueuse Double Vanille, Le Labo’s Vanille 44 and Indult’s Tihota.
Guerlain Spiritueuse Double Vanille has been all the rage on the boards and blogs, and it is easy enough to see why. This stuff is simply delicious…
Anné Pliska’s eponymous perfume, launched in 1987, has long been a cult favorite among perfumistas. About Anné Pliska herself, I know virtually nothing except that she is based in California, and is apparently very good at maintaining her privacy in the internet age.
I tried Anné Pliska some years ago and didn’t love it: it was too cold and amber-y to suit my tastes. Alyssa over at Perfume Smellin’ Things suggested I ought to give it another try, figuring that if I loved Fendi Theorema, surely Anné Pliska ought to have a second chance. Her description: “Pliska is like Theorema’s chic, stern Aunt, one with a scandalous past that her niece knows nothing about…”.
The Poule de Luxe collection from Crazylibellule & The Poppies is a series of solid twist-up perfumes centering on vanilla notes. The line, as a whole, is easy to like: the packaging is adorable and convenient, and best of all, they are reasonably priced at $16 for 5 gr. Their Encens Mystic easily qualifies as my best bargain find of 2006.
The Poule de Luxe collection does not have anything that will displace Encens Mystic as my particular favorite, but it is high on the “fun” factor and bound to find fans with vanilla freaks. My favorite of the bunch is the Vanilla Moka (shown), which features notes of dark chocolate, cocoa bean, sandalwood, mocha, coffee liqueur and musk. Years ago, I used to love a particular kind of coffee hard candy, and I’ve been going crazy the last few days trying to remember what it was called, but at any rate, Vanilla Moka smells exactly like it: dark coffee with just a touch of chocolate, sweet but not overly so. The dry down gets woodier, paler and creamier, and has a nice comfort scent vibe, assuming you love the smell of coffee. The lasting power is not quite so good as the Encens Mystic, but at the price, it is hard to complain, and insofar as you can just throw the tube in your purse or pocket, touch ups are not a problem…