There’s just one rule I try to live by – if you’re going to give your perfume a name that’s a little edge, then make what’s inside edgy or at least interesting.
The Pink room’s Darkly Audacious is a perfectly fine florgourchouli with notes of lemon, bergamot, and rosewood; heart notes of jasmine absolute, cashmere wood, and plum; and base notes of dark patchouli, incense, amber, tonka bean, and vanilla. It’s a little swee, but it’s a plum sweet, which I don’t mind much. It’s certainly easy to wear and pretty.
Where did they hide the audacious? I guess I’d rather go prowl around in that Pink mess of Fifi Chachnil, which I do love because they throw in some tobacco to make an eyebrow arch just a bit, than to wear pedestrian audacious, if indeed such a thing can exist, and I argue it cannot.
The name doesn’t fit, but the perfume is okay, but for $125 for 50 ml, I’d rather go find some discount J’Dore or Coco Mademoiselle.
I did throw some Guerlain Habit Rouge extrait on to cleanse my palate. Damn, that stuff is smoooooooth. I feel like Richard Burton just came up behind me and his silk ascot tickled my shoulder while he whispered whatever he wanted in my ear with that accent. The Richard Burton of the 1960s, of course.
What perfume is most inaptly named for you? Given some snappy name it can’t quite live up to? So has anyone ever had their vedic astrology done? Jyotisha? I did mine today, and it’s confirmed that I have no ambition and am only fond of work if it’s stuff I love to do that doesn’t feel like work. Not a huge surprise there, but it was interesting. Well, chanting the sanskrit alphabet is probably more helpful for me, but it’s good to confirm stuff I was 99% sure of.
L’AP Al Oudh by Duchaufour does not smell like oudh to me at all. Once I stopped thinking of it as oudh, I started to like it.
I actually enjoy Traversee du Bosphore but always feel a twinge of disappointment because I expected something quite different based on the name – something smokier and more mysterious, more frankly floral, or incense. I know, I know there’s the whole Turkish delight idea, but that’s Turkish CANDY, not perfume, and not my favorite thing about Istanbul at all.
Oh, and Un Jardin sur Nil is totally WRONG. Etro Palais Jamais is what that should smell like.
I am with you all the way on the TdB :)
I think my gripe about mis-naming in perfumery has more to do with descriptions…..especially when a fragrance is described as sexy and then they rattle off a bunch of notes that are pretty much all fruit. I get that everyone has their own definition of sexy, but somehow fruit just never enters in to that realm for me.
How about Angel? Should be renamed ‘Dessert.’ Hmmm, what should actually be named Angel?
Another EL’dO misnomer: Rien. A punch in the nose the first hour, and takes two washes to disappear from a shirt…
BTW, I sampled DA the other week. It didn’t do much for me. I have more hope for the other scents in the line.
Metal, which is actually one of my favorite spring scents, ought to be named Vegetal.
Vamp a New-York? Beach Party in Cancun, more like.
You know, I just tried on Darkly Audacious yesterday, and it felt an awful lot like the de-skankified version of Marquis de Sade by Histoires de Parfums. Pretty, yes, and my SO loved it, but not really dark or audacious, which I solved by throwing a bit of the good ol’ Marquis on top to give it the heady, fecal underpinning it so desperately needed.
My favorite perfume misnomer: Passage de Enfer. More like Light Incense Breeze. Certainly not the smell profile I’m imaging, at least.
Passage de Enfer was more like Foamy Pine to me. Disappointment.
I’m still cleaning up the monitor from ‘Fluffy Bunnybutts’ !=))
xo >-)
I have to roll my eyes at the silly names of the Kilian line- Prelude to Love, Beyond Love- and if that’s not enough to add the “prohibited” etc…cheeezy. And some lovely perfumes. I would call Beyond Love “You Can’t Afford this Beautiful Tuberose”.
Speaking of Habit Rouge! Recently arrived is my vintage EdC in the original Apres L’ondee flacon! I am as please with the bottle as the juice :)
Huge congratulations, helenviolette! I’ve been very tempted by those vintage HRs due to the bottle.
thanks :) it is lovely
Marc jacobs’ Biscotti. Which I like, because it’s a nice light citrus floral (freesia), great for warm weather. Thre’s a little vanilla in the drydown, but no cookie here at all, really. And ditto the Le Labos. many of which I also like.
Any of the Le Labo’s.
Ralph Lauren’s Notorious, a waste of a fabulous name.
Definitely a waste- it sounded so promising and then ….. Nothing
For me it was Mandragore. Don’t get me wrong, I love the stuff (after an initial meh? phase), but with that name I’d been expecting something darkly witchy.
I agree. Also don’t think the dark purple bottle suits such a light fragrance.
‘me too! Dark purple bottle good name and no darkness. Big frown.
Cruel Gardenia: Camay Elegante
Angelique Noire: Angelique Verte
Rose Barbare: Rose de Grandmere
You’re dead on, Sherri, on the two I’ve tried. I’ve not smelled the Gardenia, and now you’ve made me want to!
I’d disagree, to some extent, on Rose Barbare – it was so shaving-cream on me that I’d have called it Rose Barbasol.
Caron’s L’Anarchiste should really be named, “Grandma’s Apple Pie”!
Putain des Palaces doesn’t resemble its name to me. Nothing slutty about it–much more elegant than one would think.
Doesn’t the slang term refer to upscale ladies in the trade? For the amount of money they make, I’m sure they must smell pretty good.
Have you ever smelled Versace Blonde? I think that one should be named “Putain des Palaces”.
PdP smells pretty non-racy.
Fluffy Bunnybutts is the best perfume name I’ve heard in a long time, possibly even in my whole life.
Fantastic! Actually, bunny musk is a pretty nice smell. Where was this perfume sold???
Oh, okay, Hypnotic Poison, got it! A little slow on the uptake today. Still, someone needs to use this name for real!
Hey, I would probably BUY Fluffy Bunnybutts. (Although I myself would have called Hypnotic Poison something like Extreme Root Beer Float.)
Second that- it is completely awesome!:d
“I have no ambition and am only fond of work if it’s stuff I love to do that doesn’t feel like work”
Bwahaha! If that’s not me to a T!
Anyways, Hypnotic Poison should be titled Fluffy Bunnybutts when I wear it, it’s so soft & inoffensive. My sister passed a bottle off on me, complaining about spiciness, which I’m going to chalk up to her having a case of pregnant super-nose!