Drigsby

My mother, a lady who grew up in China, can't handle eating a Krispy Kreme donut because to her the donut is too sweet. She's grown up on Chinese deserts that are typically more oily in flavor with just a touch of sugar. I suppose after a life of adjusting to the sense of sweetness, her tastebuds have been toggled to prefer a modest amount.

I only the other hand, will happily nom all of the Krispy Kreme donuts (ohh especially the ones with the creme filling) and have trouble believing that anything could stimulate my sweet tooth too much. I sort of apply this philosophy to the sweet fragrances on the modern market... with Pink Sugar and La Vie Est Belle being two of the the hottest sellers (both that I love), sweet is obviously in-fashion right? I've never seen a Chinese pastry (oiley with a touch of sweet) in an American supermarket and I doubt I'll see a fragrance like it as a top seller today.

But there is a certain attraction to oily flavors with a dab of sugar. Like a Chinese desert I think Hermes Rouge smells incredibly oily and just a little sweet. The oilyness of the sandalwood deepens the savoryness of the scent, and the spices add an undeniable warmth. Also, something about the spices (which are quite foody) reminds me of walking through the nightmarket on the streets of Beijing during the summer, with merchants selling sandalwood fans and the street food stands selling spicy lamb kabobs. Snag it up before it becomes too hard to get, as I don't see anything like it being in fashion in the near future.

For those debating on whether or not to make the plunge for Parisienne, I think that it is important to consider that it has a tendency to vanish in cold weather. I first got this fragrance in the summer and thought that the fragrance had acceptable longevity: I would get whiffs of it 5-6 hours into my workday. In the winter, it pales in comparison to other sillage bombs in my closet and I find it's completely gone before I even have the chance to smell it.

The bottle is beautiful and well made. The cap is heavy and the bottle ergonomically fits into your hand. The scent is also quite pretty... it's comparable to other juicy rose/berry fragrances out there (like VC&A's Feerie, for instance) at a similar price range. I cannot smell the plastic notes although I've been assured by many that the plastic-feel is there.

I think it's a versatile fragrance and a would make for a good present but I found that I tired of it quicky: something that rarely happens for a fragrance I initially love. To the seasoned perfumista it will probably be boring, but it held quite a wow-factor for me when I was new to perfumes.

I'm probably part of the target market for this fragrance so forgive me for being madly in love with this celebrity-associated, Flowerbomb mimicry. I can't help it: this synthetic gourmand fruit-chouli has so much cavity potential that it is absolutely delicious and addictive to me.

And forgive me for comparing it to the Gourmand Queen - Guerlain Gourmand Coquin, but Gourmand Coquin was a somewhat disappointing experience for me after wearing La Vie Est Belle: I think that LVEB does the chocolate note better for my tastes and the longevity and sillage is better... less refined than the queen for sure but I've never pretended to be a refined lady. I'm more the girl next door than a elegant seductress.

I love, love, love over the top sweet fragrances. Pink Sugar is right up my alley, as is Flowerbomb, La Petite Robe Noir, and Lolita Lempicka. I also love caramel gourmands like Molinard Vanille Marine and Laurence Dumont Tendre Madeleine/Xerjoff Lira. If these fragrances are your thing my guess is that you've probably already tried La Vie Est Belle and have an opinion on it. It's my absolute favorite in the chocolate-gourmand category.

The other day, my husband was helping me pick out a bedtime perfume when he extended his arm and picked up Frederic Malle's Iris Poudre. "No, I can't wear that, that's a fancy pants perfume". He reached in and grabbed Diptyque's L'ombre dans L'eau". "Nope, I can't wear that either... far too cold". On and on we played this game until he reached in and pulled out my much-loved bottle of Pink Sugar. "Yes, this goes with everything this time of year".

I live in the Midwest, USA and temperatures are just starting to dip below 40. I'm finding that I'm switching up quite a bit of my daily routine, most notably the clothes and perfumes I choose to wear. Most days, I'm in a girly sweater and enveloped in a sweet cloud of cotton-candy and caramelized sugar yumminess - I love it! If my signature actually represented the perfume I wear most often, it would be Pink Sugar.

I suppose I am either the target age or slightly above the target age for this fragrance. Up until this fall, I've tried so hard to avoid it in my perfume journey, turning my nose up in the way that people turn their nose up at One Million: another insanely popular fragrance. A friend gave me a sample the other day and I wore it just out of curiosities sake and I found it to be cozy, delicious, stress - relieving, friendly, inviting, and wonderful. It was FS bottle worthy to me, and now it is the perfume I wear all the time.

Lesson learned: don't discount fragrances simply because other people enjoy it -- the hype may be well-deserved!

I'm a self-diagnosed tuberose addict: I've looked up all the symptoms up on the internet and I'm sure I have the disease. Early on in my perfuming, I was on a quest to own all the tuberose big names out there and for some reason I put Nuit de Tubereuse on my list. After trying out all of the REALLY big tuberose divas on the market I have come to the sad conclusion that I am not really a diva.

I have all of 0% diva in my personality. I consider myself pretty rational and level headed (except when it comes to blind-buying) and I am drawn to perfumes that I can realistically wear to any occasion. NdT pretty much fits the bill. So, you would think that as a tuberose lover and a lover of versatile perfumes that I would be magnetically pulled to NdT like I was Diptyque Do Son!

Never blind buy kids.

I think NdT has mislead itself into thinking it's a tuberose fragrance... a better name would be Nuit de Pepper(?) la Fleur Blanc = Pepper and White flowers at Night. I do like it in the same way I like syrupy florals, but I would have not purchased 100mL of the EdP if I knew that it wasn't really tuberose themed. However I do recommend taking a sniff if you happen to chance upon it... it sure is interesting.