There’s a new trend in the fragrance world and that is expensive. Sure fragrance of any kind has always been a market about luxury but now the luxury market is trying to be even more luxurious. Sure, there are more annoying trends out there such as celeb perfumes or “celeb” perfumes of people you’ve never ever heard of. But making cosmetics more expensive during a Recession is kind of a silly and obnoxious thing to do. David Yurman has launched a luxury fragrance, every day there is a new niche variety with a big price sticker and now we have Bvlgari jumping in on the “luxury” market even though they already create luxury goods.
I am a big fan of Bvlgari scents. They are typically very simple and wear nicely. I love Omnia despite what the critics may say. It is very warm and I wear it, it doesn’t wear me. My husband wears Aqva which comes across as a fresher Dior Fahrenheit. Bvlgari’s floral fragrances are ultra feminine without piercing you through the sinuses with tuberose. The tea scents are so fresh and easy to wear. Well, Bvlgari thought that their market needed something special, something expensive for the “woman that desires the finer things in life.” Not that Pour Femme was the finer at $125 for a 3.4 oz EDP. Bvlgari used to sell their fragrances only at their jewelry boutiques that is exclusive and finer. But, why not pull the fragrances from department stores and do that again? Duh, it’s not about prestige it’s about the benjamins. Jasmin Noir retails for $95 for the 1.7 oz and $140 for the 3.4 oz.
I sniffed Jasmin Noir at Nordstrom as soon as the tester hit the shelves. The bottle is stunning and looks well, fancy. It’s the same shape as the others but the glass is dark and mysterious. It appears to be housing the strongest and most potent jasmine on the planet. Well, you’re wrong if you think that. There is nothing ‘noir” about Jasmin Noir. It is not dark or mysterious or heavy. It is very light for the money. Jasmin Noir is marketed to an older crowd which in this industry means 25 to 40 years old which I find silly. If that is their idea of older then I am shocked. Anyways, it faintly smells of jasmine at first but mainly of gardenia. However, even the gardenia isn’t as strong as one would expect from a “luxury” floral marketed to older people. The floral mixture seemed to vanish from skin fairly quickly. Also, the top notes were strangely sweet and not as “fresh” as flowers should be. I was left with the woody base. The base is supposed to be “masculine dark woods” but is more of soft feminine woods that are the dry down for everything else that has been launched this year. I could smell the warmth of the tonka bean and the vague ghost of licorice for about a few minutes. The fragrance did last a long time on my skin but it was the base notes that stayed forever getting a little more distorted and vaguely generic with each hour. The notes that stayed were the sweetness of vanilla/tonka bean and the milky reminder of crisp almond. Overall, the fragrance isn’t bad. It didn’t cause me to gag or scream “Dear God what is this?”. It is very unoffensive and wears close to the skin. I was just very disappointed. It did not live up to the price point and seemed like they did not even try to reproduce a better product. It was like they had this juice around and instead of labeling it as a $60-$80 product they decided to use this as their luxurious line. I think I would really like this fragrance if it was stronger or in a more concentrated form. But, I shouldn’t be asking for that. Itshould of delivered and instead it didn’t. I’ve smelled $25 perfume roll-ons more luxurious than this. *It is now at fragrancenet.com.
However, you can get it for a steal:
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