By March
Old business: the winner of the New Girls samples is … Lilly! Contact evilauntieanita at gmail dot com. On to today’s review.
There are few certainties in life, but I think we can be reasonably sure I’m not the target demographic for Justin Bieber’s new-ish scent, SOMEDAY. I might suffer a few pangs of guilt if I lusted after JBiebs’ barely-legal bod, which I don’t. Now that he’s cut off his signature moppet-hair, I doubt I could pick him out of a lineup of similarly young, pretty boys. At any rate, he probably isn’t staying up late at night fretting over how SOMEDAY will be received by smart-mouthed perfume bloggers in the 40+ demographic (aka “almost dead”).
Here’s the scent blurbage from Sephora: “Justin Bieber’s debut fragrance, SOMEDAY, is full of the same energy, passion, and confidence that drove him to the top of the music charts. Featuring top notes of juicy mandarin, pear, and wild berries, a heart of creamy florals, and a base of warm vanilla and soft musk, the playful, flirty scent is anything but ordinary. SOMEDAY embodies his idea that we will one day change the world and make our own dreams come true. It’s more than just a fragrance—it’s an inspiring state-of-mind. Take your Justin Beiber experience past the music and beyond the performer—and experience a world of possibilities with SOMEDAY.”
Oh….kay. Justin, honey. Settle down, there. I think you’ve been drinking too much Red Bull. Curl up on the couch and tweet a few fans while Auntie March takes a gander at your new perfume.
Juicy mandarin, pear…. (pear is the new pink pepper, isn’t it?), berries, vanilla-musk. Dunno, Biebs, it sounds pretty ordinary to me. I want to mock the rest of your text about changing the world, and making dreams come true, and blah-di-blah, only: a) it’s not steamy copy about jailbait hookups, and thanks for that; and b) it’s not anywhere near as ridiculous as the niche-y copy I read, worthy of the Prix Au Faux; and c) okay, I find the grrrrrl-power message kind of sweet, actually, like an old issue of Young Miss magazine telling girls to be themselves, aim high, and dream big dreams. I have two teenage girls, and those are messages I can get behind.
The blooming-hearts bottle looks like a rip-off of Lola (Marc Jacobs, phone your lawyer), but it’s fun and flirty and cute. The heart-shaped charm comes off so you can hang it from your jeans, or give it 2 UR BFF 4EVAH.
The reviews in Sephora.com are mostly favorable, here’s a representative sample: It’s very fresh & clean, but flirty at the same time. A bunch of guys told me I smell really good every since I started wearing it! There’s also a number of reviews from moms and aunts saying they bought it for a kid who was delighted. Several reviews note (I think correctly) that it smells a bit like Juicy Couture’s Viva La Juicy, although I find SOMEDAY less sweet.
How does it smell? It smells fine. It’s not as nauseatingly sweet as Pink Sugar, not as fruital as I’d expect from those notes. It’s mostly a clean vanilla-musk without the signature Tampax-Fresh accord I get from some musks (like many of J-Lo’s), less masculine than Hilary Duff’s scent, which I really liked… you know what? I don’t want a bottle, but I’d rather wear it than about a third of the crap on the shelves at Sephora. I stuck it under the noses of the two household teenagers and they liked it. It wouldn’t kill me if they put it on first thing in the morning, and they wouldn’t go to school smelling like they were looking for some quick action in the stairwell. Of course the humor there is: once I told them it was J Biebs’ scent they wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. At 17 and 15 they’ve already moved on, so I guess it’s tween territory.
Would I buy this for an eight-year-old, as one reviewer did? I guess, if she was dying for it, although I’d rather introduce her to the wonderful world o’perfumery with something that didn’t have a pop celebrity tie-in. Depending on the kid I’d go with some Demeters, because they’re fun, or Marc Jacobs’ Daisy, which is inoffensive and super-cute.
Have any of you bought perfume for a kid/tween/teen? What did you go with, and why? For what it’s worth – in my house, Diva’s enthralled with CB Burning Leaves and Dior Addict (I know, my bad), Enigma’s wearing the last of her MAC Honey LE, and nine-year-old Hecate smells like dirt and crayons. Naturally.
fragrance sample: Sephora
This perfume is awesome! I received one from my brother on Christmas. It has a fresh scent very similar to drakkar noir perfume. Also the bottle is very original and interesting.
I gave my niece Kate Spade Twirl (roller ball) for her 16th birthday last year along with something else (can’t remember what though). For her birthday this year, she decided she wanted to go shop herself to find a different scent and after working her way through Sephora and Nordstrom, she came home with more Twirl.
I think that bottle is really pretty…. wasn’t it Kate Spade who did that original ginormous white floral that got discontinued? It was actually pretty great.
I gave my niece several Demeters when she was 13. Lemme think …. I know she loved Sugar Cookie and Gingerbread, but I also got her Dirt, Fraser Fir, Bonfire and told her to combine them and call it “Camping” which is her favorite activity.
Last year, I gave her a couple of things from the Pacifica line: Malibu Lemon Blossom and their Fig. This year, I’m thinking of something from Tokyo Milk.
Pacifica would be perfect! Solids, roll-ons, good quality and inexpensive!
Camping! I love that idea.
I love the camping idea too! And the Pacifica line is great value. I love the Tibetan incense one, the orange one, and the fig one… actually all of them. 🙂
Whatever. I was thrilled someone besides me remembers Young Miss magazine!
Sigh. I loved that thing. Was so excited when it came in the mail.
Sniffed this the other day and thought it was pretty bad. And I like sweet stuff! Can’t recall what it was that offended me so, but I didn’t want to sniff again.
I think philosophy and the Fresh sugars would be a good intro for younger girls. I love my Fresh Brown Sugar!
Something from L’Occitane would be nice too, or Bulgari Green Tea.
Several of L’Occitane’s have been really nice. I have a friend who wears Four Roses (?) and it smells great on her, and I miss their honey-lemon. Definitely the Fresh line is appropriate too. The ones I avoid are the “clean laundry” ones.
So nice to see you! And I agree wholeheartedly — not bad, & certainly not as bad as it could been, but of course there are better perfumes even for an 8 year old. Would add to your list Gucci Flora, or to go upscale, one of the fruity PdNs or AG Petite Cherie.
It was just so much less awful than I expected (and nice to see you too!) Gucci Flora would be my first choice, since I could borrow it. I’d definitely spring for a PdN, it would make me proud to see a kid wearing it.
PdN herself noted that she had designed Violette in Love for girls – that would be a great choice.
This will be a great fragrance to purchase for my daughter’s girlfriends during christmas. BTW I have a code on my blog site for Sephora Friends and Family if anyone is interested. It expires Nov. 2 so hurry hurry!!!
Thanks.
My teenage son is very anti-Bieber so I like to play pranks on him like hanging Justin Bieber posters on the ceiling over his bed when he’s at school or changing his screen saver to the Biebs. Maybe I’ll give his girlfriend a bottle of Bieber perfume for Christmas!
As far as celebrity scents my son has recently decided he likes a couple of the Jack Black cologne scents, (I’m actuallys surprised they smell as good as they do.) which is an improvment from the Playboy cologne collection, IMO.
actuallys? Wow, sorry.
The Playboy collection, lol. Somehow those have eluded me. I wouldn’t have expected much from Jack Black, either. Mostly I figure if they don’t over-apply (and it doesn’t smell like Kouros) the kid’s okay.
Wonderstruck actaully smells pretty nice and Taylor Swift makes a better role model than Kat von D, that’s for sure! These perfumes may be helped or hindered by their celebrity endorsements: those who luuuv the celebrity may buy them for that reason (and that’s a terrible reason to buy a perfume) while those above it all won’t even try what may be a perfectly nice scent for them.
I figure the celeb angle is the only reason most of them sell. And you’re right, I’m trying to remember what it was, but I smelled something I liked and thought, only this is X’s perfume and I wouldn’t admit that to anyone at gunpoint.
My teenager wouldn’t be caught dead in The Bieb’s stuff, so I didn’t even bother smelling it. (I hadn’t noticed before, but Francesca’s right, the bottle top is sort of… hmm… Georgia O’Keeffe.)
What Bookworm likes is Donna Karan Gold and Hanae Mori Butterfly; she also likes B&BW’s Dark Kiss – in the lotion, not the liquid spray. What’s freaking ME out these days is that she comes home from marching band practice with her cheek/shoulder smelling like her boyfriend’s cologne. (I asked: True Religion, a classic aromatic fougere nice-guy sort of smell.)
Last year I gave my 10-year-old niece a mini bottle of L’eau par Kenzo that had come my way in a swap. It’s fruity and ozoney, but she liked it. This year I’m thinking I need to expand her horizons a little bit, maybe give her a handful of small decants. Daisy comes to mind, maybe Teo Cabanel Julia, J’Adore L’Absolu…)
Is it wrong of me to want to smell Wonderstruck?
I smelled it. Fruit roll-ups.
I want to smell it too, even if Elisa says fruit roll ups.
Heheh, the smell of the boyfriend. I remember that on Diva. Alarm bells… you could do way worse than True Religion, though. DK Gold is a pretty sophisticated choice.
A handful of small decants seems like a great idea. My 10-year-old niece enjoyed that. She’s fascinated by my frag collection.
Great article, March!
The Tokyo Milk line is great for the teens/tweens (many thanks to Sharon C. in the last swap!). My girls (19, 17, 15, 13 & 11) enjoy them, there are so many to choose from I can find something for each individual. My oldest daughter loves Philosophy Pure Grace and I think it smells really nice on her.
Some of the other fruity things I am not so crazy about for sure (though I actually don’t find Pink Sugar), but I try to keep quiet and tell myself it’s just a stage (as is spraying on gallons), and sooner or later they’ll tire of smelling like a walking Jolly Rancher.
My youngest surprisingly LOVES tuberose! Really! Like Fracas in-your-face real tuberose! Her favorite perfumes are AG Gardenia Passion and Monyette Paris (her Mama says she is too young for Fracas…lol) :-)
So glad to see you back, March, and hope all is well!!
Oh, the Tokyo Milk sounds like a great idea!
I loved a couple of the Tokyo Milks (Honey and the Moon?) and that other line Anthro was stocking for awhile, I’ve forgotten the name, darnit. And I support a big fan of tuberose.
Mmmmm, crayons. I’m going to type this & then go sniff a box of them. I love that smell. Yeah, I know…
I have a five year-old great-niece who is my honeybunny and my mini-me and no perfume for her yet, but I. cannot. wait until I get to start with that. Is five too young? I’ve been trying to work on her mom, but she still thinks perfume is only for special occasions. (Eyeliner, on the other hand, is for the grocery store. See, this just feels backwards to me.)
Five is not too young. You could take her with you, just stay away from BBW, I don’t want her getting any bad ideas.
Yeah, but don’t you live in TX? Every gal I know from TX wouldn’t flee their burning houses without a full face on, including lipstick. I say that with admiration.
(Funny, you’d think that perfume and eyeliner would go together.)
wait. I’m confused. The five year old is wearing eyeliner?
xo >-)
No, only five-year olds in Mississippi wear eyeliner.
We haven’t found my high school freshman’s gateway fragrance yet. She cares about her scented deodorant; we sniff test those before purchasing. She has a couple of seldom-touched BBW mists. A friend of hers layered these, and dd liked the combo, but considered it ‘intense’. (It was Orange Sapphire + Dark Kiss. The kids called it ‘Sexy Fruit’, which as naming goes, kind of nailed it. Alarmingly, they were in the 8th grade at the time.)
DD loves the smell of The Body Shop Sweet Lemon hand sanitizer, which lasts about 4 nanoseconds. I keep meaning to show her Love’s Fresh Lemon…
Happily, our $ investment so far is pretty low!
I guess I should be grateful I don’t have high school boys I’m talking out of wearing Axe.
I love the smell of lemons, although you’re right, it doesn’t stick around too long in fragrance, and if it does it ends up smelling weird, like Lemon Pledge.
But you will. 😉
Let me tell you, it’s not a pretty sniff.
b-(
so get him indoctrinated in the Good Stuff early, okay?
xo >-)
My son (a junior) has Vetyver Axe…and doesn’t wear it…or his Bulgari Green Tea or my Hermes Voyage. But he has to shower at school in the morning, and there is no way he is going to spray something in the locker room.
BUT. I wonder if high school girls *like* the smell of Axe…? I’m pretty sure if they all hated it, the boys wouldn’t use it.
I think they probably DO like it. There are eleventy-million varieties now. When the boys come over to our house (the girls have lots of friends who are boys) I don’t notice a perfume-smell. What I do notice, because they all take their shoes off in our mudroom, is how terrible their feet (shoes?) smell. Somebody should get on that problem.
Baking soda generously poured into the shoe, bag them in the huge baggies, and then freeze the shoes overnight!
Yeah, but I can’t drop baking soda in their shoes and freeze them while those boys are visiting… much as I’d like to. Maybe I’ll do a stealth attack with Febreze.
the problem with Febreze is that it is purported to work on your nose rather than the actual odor. Spritz it next time and see if you can smell anything ‘other’ than Febreze 😕
I can’t use that stuff – blows my sinuses right up! And that’s a bloody shame, as I have two dogs who fart like they’re getting a Pell Grant for Farting!
xo >-)
No, once you spray Febreze, there is no other smell. And to be honest I don’t even know where the bottle came from, it’s not something I ever would have bought.
Maybe I’ll just sneak in there and sprinkle foot powder in their shoes.
My teenage daughter does hate Axe in general – except that she has one friend who wears the chocolate one, whatever it’s called, and I have to admit that in the small quantities he applies, it’s actually rather nice. Doesn’t smell like actual chocolate, just sort of… mysterious and warm.
I remember hearing about Chocolate Axe and being disgusted. Maybe it’s not so terrible in small doses…
Not so great in the bottle, which I sniffed. On James the baritone horn player, pretty good. Go figger.
Confession time: the chocolate one (it’s called Dark Temptation) is the only Axe product I’ll go near, and it’s firmly in Guilty Pleasure territory. Something about it just works – it’s sweet and woody in that synthetic “drugstore” way, but it’s also surprisingly dark and compelling. Not quite chocolate, but close, and with a musky warmth and almost tobacco-ish sweetness. Maybe it really is mediocre, but so much less so than the other Axes that I appreciate it more. Maybe that’s why I’ve repurchased it twice and am now jonesing for the shower gel. *Sigh*
In my defense, I only wear the deodorant stick. The Axe sprays are complete olfactory assaults and somehow always smell like Axe, no matter what the scent is.
No shame there, you’re not killing everyone around you. And it’s not like I don’t love some lo-rent stuff. As long as this isn’t drenched all over a kid, I’m supportive.
I think I would get a teen girl something fun, nothing too sexy. One of those fruity Escadas, or the Marc Jacobs. I might also go with a niche line like Frederic Malle that has no advertising (I don’t like what happens when ads and teenage girls collide).
Those Escadas — they all smell the same to me, but you’re right, at some point Sephora had a set of minis (four or five?) that one of my girls wanted. They’re relatively harmless.
Malle. That would be a grown-up wonder, wouldn’t it?
Well Sephora has been giving out MARC JACOB bags with purchase. I received a sample and bag with my on line sephora order a couple weeks ago. Also another reminder if anyone is interested there is a code for a Friends and Family discount on my blog. Do check it out. The discount expires Nov 2nd. So hurry hurry!!
Oh, and I totally agree with Francesca about the bottle of the J-Biebs. I’m actually relieved someone else had the same observation.
You know what a freak I am, and I did not see that at ALL. What’s the name of that artist that did the dinner party? Right? With the plates? (Could I be any more vague?)
Never mind. As soon as I typed “dinner party” I remembered. :d
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dinner_Party
My little cherub (just turned 16) has a taste for uh, shall we say, big things scentwise. I just bought her a bottle of Angel Liquer, figuring if she uses 1 squirt, it’s reasonably mild. She keeps it down, she smells great, and we’re both happy. She also stole my Hypnotic Poison, which she wears every so often. I’m just relieved she doesn’t have a taste for Light Blue.
I don’t have to worry about DD1, because she’s off at college, with a bottle of Neil Morris’ Rainflower.
I love Hypnotic Poison, I think (is that the almond one?) but for some reason it’s irritating to wear, it gets bigger and bigger. And I’m glad Diva’s moved out of her Light Blue phase. They drench themselves in it.
Rainflower, what a pretty choice!
Yes Hypnotic has been my favorite for the past couple of months now. I actually blogged about it
Hi, March! Thanks for trying this. It’s good to know there are a few things out there that aren’t complete dreck. And I’m probably one of your friends who would recoil (but ever so slightly, so as not to offend you) at the Sur le Nil ’cause I think it’s that melon-y one, right? And glad the girls have good taste (even the dirt and crayons is classic).
I hate melon, and it’s not le Nil — you thinking of the Hermes Apres Mousson? That’s the death-by-melon one, if I remember correctly.
Buckethead still smells of baby-boy — that baby-head smell. Best smell in the world, I’ll be sad when it fades…
The cutest thing in all the world! Love that he’s still so much ‘little boy’. That goes away all too soon…:(
and then ….AXE! 8-x
maybe you can saaaaaave him from that?
xo >-)
I think their feet start to stink right when that baby-head smell goes away, so maybe some Axe will be in order.
I miss that little-boy smell. Mine are now 13 and 11, and even the younger one needs deodorant (gah, if he forgets a day it is Locker Room from Hell in the minivan). They were out playing football in the yard for an hour yesterday before it got too cold, and when they came in they both smelled SO wonderful, all chilly-fresh and warm skin.
They’ve recently started to be more interested in fragrance, so I’ve been trying to hunt up masculines for them to sniff. The 13-year-old wound up with a mini of VC&A Midnight in Paris, which is really nice, and the 11-year-old was (unfortunately) partial to my sample of Egoiste.
I’m NOT buying him Egoiste. The kid breaks stuff on a regular basis. I need a “Like Egoiste? Try our I’m All That!” dupe for him. Anybody know of one?
I love your dupe name! Those were funny – I know I had a few back in the day. Maybe get him the Egoiste and put some in a plastic atomizer and refill as needed?
Oh! Oh! The new CK Shock for Him reminded me of Egoiste — and Poussiere de Rose, actually. It’s like spicy-woody, on the sweet side for a masculine. I didn’t get any “Red Bull accord” from it.
“red bull accord” – shudder. I took a swig of one once out of curiosity. How they drink that stuff is beyond me.
It’s truly disgusting.
Someone was talking about Shock for Him the other day… Dane? Brian at ISTIA? I can’t remember. Thanks, E! I might hunt some up.
Yep, Brian reviewed it recently (favorably!)
Just ordered a half-ounce from Amazon for $18. (I KNOW nobody around here has it.)
Thanks, March–just barely missed snorting tea on my laptop at Prix au Faux.
I haven’t had experience giving fragrance to girls as young as you mention, but I like to think I’ve improved the taste of my “office daughter,” giving her things like Coco Mademoiselle and Un Jardin slN instead of the fragrance oils she was picking up in a headshop in New Paltz. (Yes they still have headshops in New Paltz.)
Meanwhile that bottle top…. Reminds me of a wall installation I saw at a show of work by hardcore feminist artists. If you know what I mean.
Dang, did I even spell the Prix right? I forgot to look it up.
Hey, you could do a lot worse than Coco Mad, I even have a wee decant of it when I’m looking for something just-fine. And it beats the heck out of those oils. Sur le Nil seems so easy to me, but I’ve had a couple friends recoil, have no idea why.
And now I will never look at that bottle the same way!!
Francesca, you made me lose some coffee with your comment. I thought I was the only one thinking that way!
I just don’t see it! You people are twisted. 😡 Which is why you’re here, of course.
Well, I must be really twisted, because it’s the first thing I thought of. Or maybe I’ve just seen too much crappy feminist “art.”
Do you look at Regretsy? Total, total guilty pleasure of mine. They have a whole section devoted to that … area. And the blog comments are often hilarious.
What is a head shop?8-|
An old hippie-centric store, with incense, beads, weird salves, fringed vests (and headbands!) and joss sticks, psychedelic posters and the occasional ‘options’….thick on the ground back in the late 6os, through the 70s….before being replaced by Donna Summer, poppers and giant shoulder pads.
xo >-)
That was a beautiful explanation. Although I see you glossed over the water pipes and rolling papers.
Thanks, March, for taking one in the nose for all the rest of us tween parents who debate these things. :-) Do I get the vapid, celebri-scent, or do I try to indoctrinate her with my personal perfume creed now, or save it for later? So far, I’m striking a middle path, and giving her samples of the good stuff and letting her explore mainstream stuff as well.
My DD, age 11, wants nothing to do with JB. Thinks he’s horrific. So his scent won’t be making any appearances under the Christmas tree at our house. But she is a big Taylor Swift fan, and I bought her a rollerball of Wonderstruck recently. She loves it. It’s also a sweet vanilla-based fruity clean musk thing. I don’t mind sniffing it, but it smells no better than shampoo, lotion or deoderant from the drug store. The bottle & packaging is pretty.
Well, the Taylor Swift thing could smell WORSE, right? Right? And I must be lame, but I think Wonderstruck is a great name for the product. The one I really hate now is that thing by Kat Von D that many of the high school girls are wearing.
Personal indoctrination is the way to go, right? My kids think my collection is normal, but their friends are fascinated.
My younger daughters also can’t stand the Bieb but love Taylor Swift. I thought about getting the youngest Wonderstruck for her birthday also. Tho..(here’s a Nashville celebrity story)…Taylor Swift was in Nordstrom a few weeks ago and, according to the SA at Diptyque loved and bought Do Son and a Roses candle. Maybe I should just get some Do Son and tell her it’s Taylor Swift’s “real” favorite perfume..lol.
Oh, I definitely recommend the Do Son, and I think it’s a perfect explanation!
This has been in stores here for a few months, and I took a whiff this summer and nearly fainted…from nausea. Synthetic berry/fake fruit salad/laundry sheet yucko. And the Lola bottle rip-off was kinda sad. For youngun’s in my family, I’ve taken them to a good perfumery and let them pick, it’s surprisingly heartening what they choose! For little girls whose moms don’t like perfume (and I’ve discovered that most American moms have “perfume issues”, it ain’t Europe here!) those Crazysticks from Crazy Libellule and the Poppies are perfect. Are they still in business? I only see them at discount now.
Huh, it didn’t register as sooo sweet to me…. and you’re right, I’d much rather take a kid to a good perfumery and shop in person, if possible.
I haven’t thought about those Crazylibs in forever. They were even at Sephora for awhile! Don’t know if they’ve been d/c’d.