PBullFriend

A few seconds of grapefruit leads to a stench of burnt copy paper. Distant cousin of Comme des Garcons' Odeur 71 with all of the oddity, none of the charm. I'm not sure what this is supposed to communicate, or how it is to be enjoyed, but, half an hour after applying, I'm done with it and must scrub. Also, what's with the typeface on the bottle? Is its ugliness meant to warn us of the ugly contents within?

The name, "Meyer Blooms," made me think there would be a substantial amount of Meyer lemon, but I can't detect any. This is a perfectly pleasant white floral, about which I can't say much because I hate white florals. Should have just been named "Blooms," so as not to mislead.

When I first put this on, it was very weak. I had to put on a lot just to smell it. That gave me a hint of citrus and a lot of something metallic. It dried down to fake orange flavoring with a hint of sweaty feet. A couple of minutes later, it was painfully metallic. Even if it had become pleasant later, I would have refused to undergo the first 5 minutes, so I scrubbed it off.

I bought a mini of Clementine California, rather than waiting to go to Sephora to try it first, because I've liked everything I've tried of this brand. Likewise, when I put it on for the first time, I splashed on quite a bit, as I've done with other Atelier scents. From such hubris does a person get a headache!

This is the first of their line that I've hated. I can barely detect the citrus here, and what I do detect has none of the playful juiciness of clementine or mandarin. It's surrounded by horrible, pointy, synthetic clouds of sandalwood and pepper, bringing it closer in spirit to space-age plastic scents like Calvin Klein Reveal than to its citrusy peers in the Atelier line.

Coming to its page on Parfumo, I can see the possible reason behind this: Atelier Cologne sold out to L'Oreal in 2016, the same year CC was released. Either the perfumers were trying to catch L'Oreal's attention with a product compatible for their department store lines, or perhaps it was L'Oreal's people writing the briefs for this one. L'Oreal has been buying up many perfume companies in the last few years, and I'm unaware of any that were improved by their leadership. L'Oreal is also one of the few companies left that seems unapologetic about animal testing. While other companies were at least trying to phase it out, I've never heard anything from L'Oreal that shows any concern at all for the rats, rabbits, and other poor creatures whom they will mutilate and burn with overdoses of their products. I must be more careful about checking ownership of companies because, as this experience shows, it's not always obvious whether an animal-torturing company owns a particular brand.

Thank goodness this is fading somewhat after an hour, as is my headache. I'm still going to take a shower and wash myself free of it--literally and metaphorically.

I don't get any of the leather or spice here. Instead, I enjoy a minute of highest-quality lavender, followed by a minute of rootiest orris. Then, they merge to form a delicious Jordan almond infused with lavender water. Some powder and iris, a suggestion of almond and lavender, and a pastille's hard candy coating. My formula for this scent: (L'eau d'Hiver + Hiris) x 1/3 = Bucolique