Hiya Posse Peeps, Lovely came out 10 years ago and when I spritz it there is still a sense of wonder and excitement every time. I don’t know what it is that speaks to me so much about this very simple feeling fragrance. The moment I put it on it’s like my brain clicks into this other mode of operation that covers up my internal monologue which is basically repeating, “OMG! This smells great. I smell amazing. How does she do this for the price? Amazing! SJP is clever, wow, I smell so good. Why don’t I wear this every day!” So now you know what goes on in my head…..
Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker 2005
Lovely by Laurent Le Guernec and Clement Gavarry
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Nectarine, bergamot, rosewood, lavender, apple martini
Heart: White daffodil, pepper, patchouli, orchid
Base: White amber, cedar, woody notes, white musk, salt
Sarah Jessica Parker. I love her. Part of it is that she is so perfectly imperfect. That awkward looking girl with the horsey face and perfect body. She can act and has a warmth that comes through the screen and grabs me in everything I’ve seen her in. To be honest I don’t remember her in anything until Steve Martin’s 1991 L A Story where she plays a SO LA drip and where I fell madly in love with her. She had me laughing and squirming in equal measure and I think helped to deflate my delusions of anti grandeur. Then she turns up in Bette Midler’s 1993 Hocus Pocus and I was lost eternally. Interestingly I was not a huge fan of Sex and the City till Jin came along and made me watch the whole series over about 3 months, actually I think we stopped halway through the last year because of moving etc. Oh, and I also can’t ever forget that she married the heart throb of my dreams who I met filmicly in Torch Song Trilogy, Matthew Broderick. Another reason to adore her.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
So, Lovely. So Lovely. Lovely is one of the fragrances I can always spritz and go with. It’s lovely creamy florals and patchouli that are there and not there, that it seems really calm and soft until you realise that the whole house smells Lovely. The egg bottle, the pretty pink, the plush sparkling opening and the super cuddly multi-musk dry down sprinkled with resins. That I can spritz Lovely in the morning and still smell Lovely when I come home after meetings and lunches before I get glammed up and go to work. Because Lovely fits every outfit and almost every mood perfectly.
Lovely is a modern classic for me. It’s a symbol of how Lovely fragrance can be and is still available to buy everywhere for nearly nothing. Lovely is lovely.
Further reading: Now Smell This and Bois de Jasmin
Fragrance Shop has $27/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $3/ml
What constitutes a Modern Classic for you? Do you ever wear Lovely?
If you liked this then drop on over to Australian Perfume Junkies and continue the fragrant conversation there, we love visitors.
Portia xx
The first time I smelled Lovely it was in TJ Maxx at a discount price. When I sprayed it to sample, my first thought was that it was an excellent copy of Narcisso Rodriguez for her (pink bottle), which I had just purchased a month earlier. I was thinking, “No way! I could have got the same scent for about $70 less!” After comparing side to side, I found that they were a bit different, but in my thinking, not so different that I’d spend the extra next time around for the NR.
I’m also fond of Lovely, just took it on vacation. And I loved “SanDee”!
Excellent holiday frag choice Jen, I bet you smelled delicious. was it your “holiday” fragrance, to seal the memory?
Portia xx
Never watched Sex and the City so I only know SJP from Square Pegs and fashion magazines. I remember when she dated Robert Downey Jr.!
Read A Perfect Scent so I must have smelled Lovely at some point but I don’t remember it. Your review makes me want to seek it out!
Wasn’t Robert Downey Jnr a mess back then. Thank goodness he’s on the right track now Barbara B.
It’s not hard to find, still at the mall.
Portia xx
I am not sure I’ve ever tried Lovely, if so it’s been years ago. Time to revisit! My husband and I both love LA Stories and whenever we come across something ludicrously pretentious, we refer to it as L’idiots 🙂
Hey Rosarita313,
I really need to watch LA Story again. I have the DVD. It used to be go-to film around here.
PLEASE go try Lovely, just so you know.
Portia xx
I LOVE SJP, Portia. She’s so unbelievably likeable and to find out she’s a perfumista in The Perfect Scent was great. She also has the ability to make the kookiest fashions look fab. Lovely seemed to be a bit of a scent compromise for her but it has really stood the test of time.
Heya tara,
Yes, it was a compromise but those Coty people knew how to shepherd her. I love that they let her go her own way with Covet though. MMMM
Portia xx
I don’t care for Lovely, but I suspect that’s largely due to my difficult relationship with patchouli. I still think it’s wonderful that SJP has a personal involvement in her perfumes, and I think she really wears them herself, not as a marketing ploy.
I’ve been a fan of hers since her Square Pegs days, but just never managed to watch SatC – I was probably too involved with being a mother of small children in a small town to find the premise appealing. Oh well. And her taste in men is excellent, too; Matthew is not only handsome and charming but SO TALENTED.
I have those “why don’t I wear this more often?” scents too – Cuir de Lancome, that’s one. Maybe Eau Premiere.
OMG Mals86,
I have a hoard of Cuir de Lancome that I never wear. You have inspired me.
Portia x
There are a buttload of perfumes in my collection that do that to me when I do finally decide to wear them. Shalimar is one of them and I have a buttload of it along with vintage Bal. I don’t have a reason why I do this. But I’ve heard a lot of good things about Lovely but never tried it.
I too hoard the good stuff eldarwen22. We are that people. No one’s getting hurt.
Portia xx
I have a decant of this that I wear every now and then. It truly is lovely. Big S, little a, little n, Big D, little e, little e. SanDee!! I loved her in that role.
That’s what I remember about LA Story as well!
EXCELLENT Tatiana! Love it.
Portia xx
I’m into my 3rd 100ml bottle since its release. Ladylike yet sexy as rose/patch/musks tend to be. Always gets compliments
Hi there Alison Jenkins,
Yes, it’s so wearable. I’m only on my second bottle but it just goes to show how nice it is when perfumistas are repeat buying.
Portia xx
Howdy, Portia! So lovely to see you revisiting (and still enjoying) an old favorite. It really is a wonderful scent. And I agree with you and Jillie that Covet was a much under-appreciated fragrance — you guys make me wish I had some to try right this very minute!
Hiya Ann,
Which one? Lovely or Covet?
Portia xx
Covet — it’s getting harder to find. 🙂 Lovely is still pretty easy to sniff.
Lovely review of Lovely. I am now going to have to test it after having avoided it all these years – I wasn’t being a snob about SJP, as in fact I really liked her Covet perfume which was much under-rated – this is a warm fragrance with lavender, geranium, chocolate and patchouli notes and it smells so much more expensive than it was.
I LOVE Covet too. It’s a much more perfumista frag than Lovely Jillie but Lovely is just that, lovely.
Portia xx