DarkMatter

To start with, I adore the bottle. It's a beautiful design that refracts the light and looks very expensive and exclusive. The dark fuchsia along with the gold is, quite frankly, sexy and very appropriate for this fragrance. This is the first Victoria's Secret perfume that I have experienced and I am very impressed.

Upon first application there is a definite sweet and tart opening from the blood orange. This quickly softens and allows a lovely fresh plum note to carry through. Slowly the fragrance deepens and smooths with woody and musky accords. The orchid gives this a beautiful powdery and clean finish. Although this is a deep seductive perfume, it doesn't have a huge sillage. It is extremely intimate and perfect for a sexy date. Seduction Dark Orchid doesn't disappear like a lot of perfumes that have a gentle projection. On me it stayed as a gorgeous veil of scent around the skin for around 6-7 hours.

Seduction Dark Orchid is a petite blonde wearing a pink négligée and white fluffy kitten heels. She seems so innocent, but she will seduce you and make you drown in her sensual aura.

I'm beginning to think that the marketing department of Elizabeth Arden decided to make M sound different, unique, mysterious with the list of "notes" that are supposed to be within this perfume. I am currently really enjoying sweet, gourmand fragrances and have no problem with celeb-scents so this review doesn't come from a place of innate dislike. I just hate it when the public are spun a yarn and expected to believe it. This can happen with anything from exclusive niche perfumes down to the most economical beauty products. We are told a tale about how amazing this product is and how we have to spend our money to try it! Of course, once sampled, we will not be able to live without it...

Honestly, I had read so much about M in all sorts of online forums and heard people wax lyrical about how it was a "cut above" the usual celebrity fragrances. So with my current gourmand crusade, I decided to purchase it. You all know the bargain hunter in me by know folks, I'm sure. I didn't pay a high price, I got a brand new bottle for £6 including shipping on eBay as the box was a little battered.

My first impressions when I received it was that it is the tackiest box and bottle that I have seen for a LONG time. I buy cheap perfumes all the time, but this one LOOKS cheap. In all the photos it is so pretty with the purple butterfly and silver round the neck of the bottle. But in real life, it's plastic, it looks plastic. The box was horrible with a nasty molded clear plastic insert holding the bottle. What was Elizabeth Arden thinking of when they decided on this packaging? The photograph on the rear of the box with Mariah herself half immersed in water with an ethereal sky background of purple hues is actually very pretty. They would have been better off with a normal card box with the photo on the front and the rest of the box in a dark purple colour. EA...next time you need help to decide on packaging for a product, feel free to drop me a line.

So down to business. I applied M and waited about a minute to let the alcohol evaporate. I was expecting something quite complex and dark. Unfortunately, all I got was the smell of candy. After about an hour the fragrance did deepen somewhat and a slight resinous note became apparent. It stopped screeching sugar at me and became very pleasant. And that is that. What? I hear you cry. No seawater, gardenia or tiaré? What about patchouli? I'm normally very sensitive to patchouli and even if it is extremely well blended I can always pick it out. I honestly smell nothing here other than sweetness and a slight incense note. I love incense and, like I said, gourmand fragrances are currently high on my love list at the moment. I truly want to love this perfume, but it's just terribly mediocre. It has no sillage (on me) and only lasted as a skin scent for approximately 4 hours.

I will wear it when I am craving something sweet at bedtime. I don't mind using it up, but can't see me reaching for it otherwise as M hasn't given me any reason to. Sorry Mariah, nothing personal, but I can't see me purchasing any more of your perfumes.

EDIT: I've just layered it with The Body Shop's Rose Oud and I have to say that it now smells amazing. The depth of the oud with the sweetness of M are actually bordering on the "gothic".

I'm not a fan of most colognes. They tend to be too sharp and sour for my tastes. I do like citrus, but for me it has to be tempered with a floral note or with some sweetness. I was craving the smell of oranges for some reason and saw this for sale for only £5 including free next day delivery on Amazon Prime. I apologise for always mentioning it when I get a perfume for a bargain price, but I'm a sucker for a bargain! However, is it a bargain if the perfume isn't very nice or not very long lasting? I suppose not. I was willing to take the chance here because I trust the brand of Bronnley to deliver quality, having had good experiences with their products previously.

Upon first application I am hit by a blast of oranges. Not orange candy or neroli or other orange type scents, but actual orange! It's like that moment when one's fingernail pierces the skin of a fresh orange and that little burst of juice sprays one's hand. Sweet, juicy and authentic. Not sugary at all and very fresh. Quite rapidly on the heels of the orange comes a gorgeous jasmine scent. I was trying to put my finger on exactly what it reminded me of when my daughter asked to try it. She immediately said, "oh mummy, it's just like orange infused jasmine tea!" This is it exactly. It is fresh and sweet and floral. Perfect for a summer's day when lemon, lime or bergamot don't appeal.

After about an hour the orange has calmed and jasmine is more prominent, but it is still a beautiful summer fragrance. It didn't last on my skin for longer than 3 hours, but colognes don't last long anyway. At these prices I'm happy to reapply over and over to get that beautiful orange!

A lady in a white linen dress sits, alfresco, drinking a cup of jasmine tea in the middle of an orange grove, the breeze gently carrying the fragrance of the tea and the oranges aloft in a summer's afternoon.

As always, I'm on the lookout for a bargain. I got the opportunity to buy three 50ml bottles of this hard to find perfume for £8 and I snapped them up. Being a lover of rose and oud, one of my favourite perfumes is Montale's Aoud Queen Roses. I realise that Montale's oud is synthetic, but manages that difficult task of deceiving our nose into believing that maybe, just maybe it's real. I haven't had great experiences with The Body Shop perfumes. Even those that have been pretty have never lasted long on my skin and not since the 1980's have I come across one of their perfumes that is show stopping. They used to do "Herb" and "Apple Blossom" perfume oils in the early '80s which were amazing! But I digress.

Rose Oud opens with sweet roses and a background of clean smelling oud. I have heard that it was created with the Middle Eastern market in mind, but to be honest the oud in this is probably more suited to western tastes. It doesn't have the dirty, earthy quality that Middle Eastern ouds possess. It is too well behaved. Does this mean it is boring and uninteresting? Strangely, no. Unlike Aoud Queen Roses where the rose is the queen and the oud merely a supporting actor, Rose oud has a stronger oud note with the rose slightly sweetening and making it a tad more feminine. However, this is easily a unisex perfume. I can imagine it would smell divine on a man.

There is a slight metallic quality to the oud as the perfume dries down and develops. Musky, metallic and quite addictive. This is a sensual fragrance. It is beautiful and I am very pleasantly surprised. The Body Shop should make this widely available, it would be a huge hit. But then again, perhaps it should be restricted. I don't want too many people getting their hands on this. I want to keep it all to myself. After seven hours Rose Oud is still going strong on my skin, it has warmed and projects less than a foot at this stage, but it retains a mystery and a carnal quality that makes it very special. It isn't a very complex perfume, being quite linear in a lot of regards. But it's simplicity is a good thing. Complexity would not have worked in this case and The Body Shop have truly created a lovely scent.

This is a lithe temptress with long silken black hair and wearing a burgundy velvet evening gown. Once you are in her clutches, you will not escape unaffected.

I was rather circumspect about buying this perfume, but when I saw a second hand half-bottle for sale on eBay for £5 including postage, I felt it was worthwhile to sample this. I am a self-confessed rose lover! Roses are regal, sweet and fragrant. With the talk of a possible urinous note, I wasn't sure what to expect of CHARM ROSE.

Upon first application this is a slightly juicy, peppery wood. I can vaguely make out some sort of rose, but it is extremely faint. I was surprised to see that there is no pepper listed in the notes here as this has a very pronounced peppery quality to it. I can only assume that it is the rosewood that is mimicking black pepper to some degree. The clementine nectar is evident as a juicy, vague orange within the pepper. I am pleased to report that I get no urinous quality at all, but I can understand that the peppery rosewood and clementine could simulate the pungency of ammonia.

To be honest this is a bit of a weird perfume. It neither has a strong enough rose note for me to understand why it is called "Charm Rose", nor is it pleasant enough for me to want to wear it again. I usually enjoy woody perfumes, pepper is good in a lot of fragrances and fruits and roses should make this a big winner. But it misses being pleasant, it is just totally strange. I'm glad that this was so cheap as I shan't be wearing it and shall definitely try and fob it off on someone else.

CHARM ROSE is the loner in the corner of the diner that doesn't want to mix with anyone. This loner is rather odd and isolated, they keep themselves to themselves and don't make many friends.