The Heeley line is a sleeper for me. I keep finding a lot to love there at a reasonable price point – or they were reasonable, but I never put them at the top of my list, despite my admiration for many of their scents. I remembered them being under $100 a bottle, so how did they get up over 100? Is my faulty aging memory to blame? Anyway, the newest entry they have is Ophelia, with notes of Italian orange, green flower stems, jasmine, ylang ylang, tuberose, moss, white musc. It’s $178 for 100 mls, where the rest of the line is $148. It’s still not as high as some, but I’m just going to block out this new information and keep remembering them as being less than $100, it helps me sleep at night.
They don’t list Lily of the Valley in the notes, but I suspect that’s in the green flower stems catch-all. It’s defintely LotV smelling for me on the open – am I wrong? It feels very much like Diorissimo, which is one of my all-time favorites. Ophelia is luminous, it seems to glow from the inside. The tuberose and ylang give it a nice roundness and depth as that greenish note fade quite a bit in about 20 minutes. This is a seriously beautiful perfume, it just radiates white lush without smothering or choking you like some white florals do. I’m thinking poor man’s Shalini, though it doesn’t have quite that trilling sillage that Shalini has. It’s all white flower. If you aren’t a fan of the white flower, well, you know what to do.
Speaking of Diorissimo, I have a question, did Dior and Hermes both tighten up their distribution? You used to be able to get all of the Diors and Hermes fragrances for cheap on discounters, but lately, like the Guerlains, they are impossible to find at a discount. You get used to paying $50 for a bottle of Hiris, ya know? Anyone heard anything there?
One of the ladies at our great local fragrance store in Fairfax (Fair Oaks mall) VA told me a few months ago that her suppliers had let her know that Dior was cracking down on 3rd party sales and that it was going to be pretty difficult to get more. So I’m not surprised to hear this. At least it went out with a bang at her store – I got a full ounce of Diorella *parfum* that day. Worth Every Penny.
I have never heard of Heeley…something new to explore, thanks!
I have never heard of Heeley…something new to discover, thanks!
I only have Cardinal, and I love it. Ophelia was nice, but I’m not a big floral girl.
Actually my local TJMaxxes (I have no fewer than FOUR of them within a 15 minutes’ drive) have had Guerlains lately — nothing you’d actually want, mind you, but there they are. I’ve even seen Armani Prive there (not Bois d’Encens, alas; only the jasmine one so far). Never seen a Dior or an Hermes, however.
Heeley is definitely one of the more overlooked lines; I loved my sample of Cardinal, but as soon as I bought a decant it started giving me a headache, sigh.
What shows up at discounters has always been a mystery to me. It seems random, at least partly. Our local TJMaxx has been doing a dump on Tocade, at $7 for 100 ml. It makes me worry whether they are discontinuing it or something.
I do see Dior at some discounters, and occasionally Hermes as well. But I suspect many of those houses have occasional spurts of “let’s stop this”, trying to restrict the distribution. Of course, one can get flankers galore!
It’s interesting that you think of Heeley as on the cheaper side… I got interested more recently, and they’ve always struck me as on the expensive side!
I haven’t tested the Heeley’s because I remember them being much, much cheaper. I do remember picking up Diorissimo at TJMaxx type stores-but that was 25 years ago (gulp), when I was a teenager! All my friends and I wore it at that time.
Sigh. When did $178 become a poor man’s perfume? I suppose it could be worse, considering what I’ve shelled out for 50 mls of some other fragrances. But oh, those notes sound luscious. I’ve made a serious move toward florals this year and this one must be tried.
Which discounters were you finding the Hermes frags at before, but are now gone? Fragrancenet is typically the only discounter I look at, and it’s still there (tho granted, it’s not $50/bottle). Are there better discounters with bigger discounts? Ooh. Now you have me intrigued.
Try my favorite, BeautyEncounter.com–great selection and super customer service. They still have a very good selection and price points on the Hermes line, but Christian Dior must’ve “gotten to them” as well, since the line mainstays seem to be at regular price now.
Gotcha! I’ll check it out! Thanks!
I just got a sniff of Ophelia, and I adore it. This coming from a non-floral kind of woman, but one in the process of conversion. I wanted a bottle right off, but the price is just too high. I’m hoping the exchange rate gods will help me in about a month when I’m in Paris…
Or….you can wait for me to test it this late afternoon and if it’s luuuurve (and with my love of Big White Florals….?), we can talk 😉
xo>-)
ps. I have managed to miss this TWICE at the Barney’s counter – Vida and I both sniffed Selmarine, which we loved but I now wonder if I was just tired – there is a lot of ‘aquatic’ in that baby and not as much salt as I’d hoped. Or maybe I’m just tired now?
They did. I went to my place on Broadway in search of Diorissimo and was told those days were over. Color me provoked.