The Beach Eaus – A month of beach and ocean inspired perfumes.

The month isn’t over yet so you better believe I’m still going to talk about coconut perfumes. Beach perfumes don’t have to smell like coconuts and coconut perfumes don’t have to smell like the beach. But, let’s be real, when most of us see the word “coconut” in a perfume’s name or in its note list, we are expecting something that smells beach-y.

Sarah Horowitz is a line that was introduced to very early on in my fragrance journey. Back then, it wasn’t something I could easily get my hands on but people talk about this brand and other California-based fragrance oil brands that sort of epitomized L.A. cool to me back then as I sat in front of my computer in Nashville reading internet forums about fragrance and beauty products.

Anyway, it’s sort of funny that I’m still online talking about how stuff smells. Even though things change, some things stay the same, right?

Now the perfumes. As you can guess, these are coconut perfumes. They’re available in an oil or alcohol base. I find that they smell different enough from each other in the different formats that they warrant their own reviews.

The EDP: This version has more florals. It’s a humid white floral with a waxy vanilla. The coconut in the EDP is greener. Coconut Milk is giving me that beach-y coconut that I want when I think of beach-y coconut. It’s a warm, creamy coconut with breezy white florals. In the dry-down, Coconut Milk becomes sweeter and creamier. It’s mostly a tanning oil coconut and vanilla ice cream.

The oil: This smells like coconut macaroons in that it’s sweet, gourmand and toasted. It’s almonds and white florals. Except even the flowers are gourmand. The orange blossoms smell like grape jelly. I thought this was just going to be another coconut gourmand but there’s an unusual note in this that comes across like an ashtray…but not in a bad way. I finally put together that the tonka and vanilla are coming across like booze and cigarettes. Like a lot of the other scents in the Perfect Collection, Coconut has Egyptian Musk. The dry down is a soft musk and a sweet vanilla coconut oil

Right now, I prefer the EDP to the oil. But, it’s summer. When I was wearing this, I totally thought of the EDP as the spring/summer and the perfume oil as the fall/winter of this fragrance. The EDP is breezier, lighter while the oil is denser, more gourmand.

Notes listed include almond, orange blossom, gardenia, tonka bean, vanilla and Egyptian musk. Launched in 2012. PERFUMER – Sarah Horowitz

Give Perfect Coconut Milk a try if you like sweet coconut or vanilla perfumes. Or Pacifica Indian Coconut Nectar, MBeze Koko Haze, Costamor Dulcess, LaVanila Vanilla Coconut and/or Bath & Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar.

The 1.7 oz EDP retails for $75. The 1/2 oz oil retails for $78. A layering kit (samples of each) are also available for purchase at Sarah Horowitz.

Victoria’s Final EauPINION – Creamy coconut and vanilla. I’d say the EDP is more tanning oil/beachy while the oil is more gourmand/boozy.

*Disclaimer – Sample provided by the brand. I am not financially compensated for my reviews. My opinions are my own. Product pic from the brand. Geraldine Fitzgerald pic from fanpix.net.

Original article: Sarah Horowitz Perfect Coconut Milk EDP & Perfume Oil Review

©2019 EauMG. All Rights Reserved.

The Beach Eaus – A month of beach and ocean inspired perfumes.

Earlier this month, I kicked off the beach theme with a line of perfumes inspired by islands, Nateeva. As the month ends, I’m close to reviewing them all. ₁ Our next stop is St. Martin:

Saint Martin is a tropical floral. It opens with a breeze of jasmine and hibiscus mixed with tart, fresh raspberries. The fragrance starts out as a white floral but eventually turns into a yellow floral. It’s a cucumber-like mimosa and pollen-y, heady freesia. It dries down to a jasmine musk. I ended up wearing this on an incredibly humid day and noticed that this is a rather musky fragrance (in the way that Narciso Rodriguez is). It was wild to me that before I was focusing so much on the hibiscus flower instead of the hibiscus seed…or ambrette. St. Martin’s dry-down is a jasmine that really throws in the entire hibiscus plant.

Notes listed include hibiscus flower, orange flower, mimosa, jasmine, amber and musk. Launched in 2016. PERFUMER – Laurent Le Guernec

Give St. Martin a try if you like mimosa or “tropical florals”. Or perfumes like Comptoir Sud Pacifique Felrus des Caraibes, Bvlgari Omnia Coral, Marc Jacobs Hibiscus Splash (discontinued), Gallivant Tel Aviv and/or Estee Lauder Beyond Paradise.

Projection and longevity are average.

The 3.4 oz retails for $125 at Nateeva.

VICTORIA’S FINAL EauPINION – Mimosa, hibiscus and a vegetal musk. The first few times I wore this, I liked it but I felt like I had this base covered. As I wore in 90+ degree heat and oppressive humidity, something clicked in me. I really enjoyed smelling like breezy florals and hibiscus musk. It’s not a ground-breaking fragrance, but it’s pretty.

₁ My favorite one is coming up soon! I promise.

*Disclaimer – Sample provided by the brand. I am not financially compensated for my reviews. My opinions are my own. Product pic from the brand. Debra Paget pic from fanpix.net.

Original article: Nateeva St. Martin Perfume Review

©2019 EauMG. All Rights Reserved.

The Beach Eaus – A month of beach and ocean inspired perfumes.

I can’t believe this month is almost over…and that summer 2019 is coming to an end. I’m trying to squeeze in the last few “beach” scents while it’s still officially summer. I’ve saved my favorite and my least favorite from Nateeva as my last in this series:

Dominican Republic opens as a citrus-hued rose. It’s predominately a grapefruit-rose with a glistening bergamot. There’s also a generic herbal greenness that I really can’t put my finger on but it’s familiar. As it wears, it’s a dewy, watery floral. It’s like those things that were marketed as “zen” and “Eastern” in the 90’s (remember when everything had water lotus or bamboo?) but in reality it all just sort of smelled like hairspray. It dries down to a generic musk and woods that is meant to smell like ozonic driftwood or something like that.

Wearing Dominican Republic was a trip in a time machine to a place that I really didn’t want to go. It didn’t take me to the D.R. but instead an awkward era of the mid-to-late-90’s. This is the sort of watery citrus floral that was so popular then. Every designer and mall store had a version of something like this. It’s sort of amazing how this style of perfumery is still something people want. I guess I need to come to terms that stuff like this is now “classic”.

Notes listed include Bayahibe rose, orange blossom, grapefruit, red berries, sandalwood, cedar and musk. PERFUMER – Laurent Le Guernec

Give Dominican Republic a try if you like dewy, aquatic florals. Or perfumes like Byblos Essence, Banana Republic Classic, Bobbi Brown Almost Bare, Clinique Happy and/or By Kilian Water Calligraphy.

The 3.4 oz bottle retails for $125 at Nateeva.

Victoria’s Final EauPINION – Dewy citrus floral. This is my least favorite of the Nateeva line. And honestly, this is my least favorite genre of perfumes. I didn’t like them then and I still don’t like them today. Anyway, I’ll share my favorite from the Nateeva line soon.

*Disclaimer – Sample provided by the brand. I am not financially compensated for my reviews. My opinions are my own. Product pic from the brand. Kate Moss pic from fanpix.net.

Original article: Nateeva Dominican Republic Perfume Review

©2019 EauMG. All Rights Reserved.

The Beach Eaus – A month of beach and ocean inspired perfumes.

Long story short, I didn’t get to publish this review in August, the month I focused on beachy perfumes. I got busy but I really wanted to cover my favorite in the Nateeva line before wrapping up this series. And now I’m posting this review after the Bahamas have been devastated by Hurricane Dorian, the most damaging hurricane reported in the country. It feels really off to post this now, but it was in the queue. Maybe I can say this is a perfume review and also a friendly reminder to make sure you are prepared for emergencies and have a plan.

OK, now to the perfume, which is my favorite in the Nateeva lineup. Bahamas is a citrus floral but not like citrus and florals, it’s like citrus blossoms. It opens with a bitter neroli and sweet, honeyed linden. To me it this perfume smells like June in a bottle. It’s linden trees in full bloom and the last of yellow jessamine (a poisonous flower that smells amazing and is the state flower of South Carolina). The heart is a heady floral, like jasmine but accented with lime. The dry-down of Bahamas is a soft floral musk. It’s one of those “my skin but better” scents. It’s like clean skin that has been scrubbed with fancy French orange blossom soap. For me Bahamas is summer in a bottle. It’s happiness. It’s the color yellow. It’s polka dots and sunshine. It’s so optimistic, I feel like it could be obnoxious…but it isn’t. It’s just a classic, beautiful, and uplifting scent.

Notes listed include elder flower, neroli, orange flower, linden blossoms, white woods and skin musk. Launched in 2016. PERFUMER – Laurent Le Guernec

Give Bahamas a try if you like linden perfumes or honeyed citrus florals. Or perfumes like TokyoMilk Waltz (discontinued, which is a great shame, really), L’Artisan La Chasse aux Papillons, Jo Malone London French Lime Blossoms, D’Orsay Tilleul and/or Annick Goutal Eau du Ciel.

Projection and longevity are average.

The 3.4 oz retails for $125 at Nateeva.

Victoria’s Final EauPINION – Linden and jessamine…it’s June in a bottle. I love it. It’s my favorite from the brand and the one I’d like a full-size bottle of. These days, maybe I should invest in a little more “optimism in a bottle”.

Speaking of Bahamas, there are many aid organizations that one can donate to that help with clean-up, medical supplies, etc. Just do your research to make sure it’s going where you hope it’s going.

*Disclaimer – Sample provided by the brand. I am not financially compensated for my reviews. My opinions are my own. Product pic from the brand. Anne Gunning by John French pic from fanpix.net.

Original article: Nateeva Bahamas Perfume Review

©2019 EauMG. All Rights Reserved.

Mainstream Monday – Sniffing a Popular Perfume

When it comes to Chloé perfumes, I don’t really have an opinion one way or another. When I do, they discontinue whatever I like (such as Love, Chloé). Everything else has been a rose-y flanker that basically define “generic perfume” smells. It’s not that those are bad; I’m actually genuinely in awe of their line for creating things that are so generic that I can’t even describe them. They posses a special power because there are few perfumes that make me shut up.

When Chloé launched Nomade, I was in no rush to try it. It marketed itself as a chypre and with this designer perfume’s record, I just expected for this to smell like a rose dryer sheet and not anything remotely moss-y or different from their massive catalog of Coty-fied roses.

Nomade smells like what the brand promises – a modern chypre. It opens with weeds that smell like an overgrown pasture mixed with a pleasant commercial perfume. It’s like lily and stone fruits (notably peaches and plums). I also start to pick up on a sulfuric grapefruit peel and tomato leaves. I also swear that I get lychee, basically all of the stuff that is not listed in the perfume’s note list. The heart of the scent has a hint of non-descript wildflowers/pollen, tomato leaves, blackcurrant, and well, sourness. Nomade is fruity and sweet but it’s weird because there’s bitter greenness throughout the scent. It eventually dries down to a dry, sharp, and green moss with patchouli and woods that seem like they’ve been put through the washer and dryer.

Over the past decade, there’s been many designer perfumes that promised us a “modern chypre”. However, I found those perfumes to be the usual fruity-floral compositions but with a base with the faintest traces of moss (and a lot of patchouli that has graduated from Fruitichouli Academy). To my surprise, Nomade is recognizably a chypre. But, it’s not an old school chypre. It’s modern enough and well, generic enough, to be sold to people that have no clue that chypre is a perfume genre.

Notes listed include Mirabelle liquor, freesia and oak moss. Launched in 2019. PERFUMER – Quentin Bisch

Give Nomade a try if you like sour fruity florals. Or perfumes like INeKe Gilded Lily, Jo Malone London English Oak and Redcurrant, Miller Harris Cassis en Feuille, Rochas Femme (modern) and/or Kelly & Jones Notes of Merlot. And maybe even stuff that is bitter and green like Annick Goutal Folavril.

Projection and longevity are above average. This definitely wears more like an EDP. When I wrote this review, I didn’t realize that there is an EDT and an EDP and apparently they smell different. I wish the brand would have done what they usually do and just make the EDT a flanker! With the way this one wore, I was shocked to find out that the entire time I’ve been sampling the EDT and not the EDP.

Nomade comes in a few sizes with the 1.7 oz retailing for $95 at Sephora.

Victoria’s Final EauPINION – Sour chypre. Personally, I don’t see myself wearing something like this but I appreciate that a mainstream designer perfume finally managed to make a modern chypre that isn’t ashamed of its oakmoss past.

*Sample obtained by me. Product pic from Sephora. Grace Coddington in Vogue August 1966 from pleasurephoto.wordpress.com.

Original article: Chloe Nomade EDT Perfume Review

©2019 EauMG. All Rights Reserved.

Jazmin Sarai is an indie perfume house that focuses on “immersive experiences”. So, it’s a brand that likes to connect scent to visual and auditory arts. Years ago, I had tried the brand when it was launched and I was impressed. Since then the brand has launched some more perfumes and I’m finally trying them. Solar’1 is a perfume inspired by D’Angelo’s Africa (2000).

Solar’1 is spicy. It opens with fire. It’s like dried hot spices like allspice, cinnamon, turmeric and ginger. It’s really like Chinese five-spice powder in perfume form. The note list of this fragrance reads as foody. I mean, I just described it as food, but there’s some interesting olfactory tricks happening in Solar’1. Instead of being a peachy floral, the osmanthus adds a leatheriness. The cocoa accents the leatheriness with a bitter earthiness. Somehow the addition of actual gourmand notes kept this perfume from being a delicious spice rub or a shot of Fireball. The dry-down is a warm, cozy amber. Overall, the perfume has a naturalistic, realistic feel.

Notes listed include ginger, osmanthus, cocoa, labdanum, and musk. Launched in 2015. PERFUMER – Dana El Masri

Give Solar’1 a try if you like spicy perfumes. Or perfumes like The Merchant of Venice Sultan Leather, DSH Perfumes Fire Opal, DSH Perfumes Epices d’Hiver, L’Artisan Fou d’Absinthe, Floris 1962 and/or MariaLux Mogadess.

Projection is below average. Longevity is above average. The notes of this fragrance should be “thick and dense”…and they are. Yet, there’s a sheerness to them that makes this cozy, spicy scent wear more like thin layer of cashmere/silk than a thick wool coat.

Solar’1 comes in a few sizes with the 1.7 oz retailing for $95 at Jazmin Sarai and Perfumarie.

Victoria’s Final EauPINION – Chinese five-spice. It’s spicy but it’s also soft. I imagine this will be just the sort of thing I will feel like wearing when the weather gets cooler.

*Disclaimer – Sample provided by the brand. I am not financially compensated for my reviews. My opinions are my own. Product pic from the brand. Yasmeen Ghauri eating Chinese food. It’s from fanpix.net but I’ve forgotten where this editorial was initially published.

Original article: Jazmin Sarai Solar’1 Perfume Review

©2019 EauMG. All Rights Reserved.