The Mainstream Monday – Sniffing a Popular Perfume
Take a generic, sweet fruity-floral with your favorite or not-so-favorite pop singer’s face on the box, wrap it up in purse-like leatherette sleeve complete with dangling charm so everyone knows that you are posh, take the celeb-o juice price and times it by three and one is left with Carolina Herrera CH. If you like sweet, synthetic Coty and Elizabeth Arden celeb genre perfumes but are too embarrassed to purchase something by Mariah Carey or Kylie Minogue, don’t worry. Carolina Herrera has solved this dilemma for you. Now you can get low-brow celeb-o juices in the price range of the “good stuff”.
CH opens up as a cloying, sweet synthetic fruity floral. The fruits are so synthetic and alien to me. I get lots of plastic wrap and aluminium foil mixed with canned fruits in syrup. I’m rarely mean/negative when it comes to fragrance reviews, but CH is shockingly disgusting for the first 15 minutes. Give it 15 minutes and it settles down. My nose is no longer aching from piercing, supernatural fruit accords. The fruit settles down but it is still synthetic but without the chemical plastic and cold aluminium “ting”. The fruits are still syrupy, mainly melons in syrup, and they are mixing with this strange doughy praline accord. There are florals in CH. They are slightly hissy, reminding me of the “wet” florals/jasmine used in many Brittany Spears perfumes. The difference with CH is that the florals are working overtime to be hissy because they are drowning in syrups and sugars. I wish they’d work harder. The florals aren’t great and have been overused by “more affordable” brands, but they do add a bit of freshness but the bees will still be attracted to this sweet scent. CH magically warms up losing the strange coolness, aquatic fruits and florals that are the top and heart of CH. With time, I’m left with a sweet amber, vanilla, and woods base. I like the base, but I can live without the rest 😉 For an EDT, CH has a longer wear, but that may be that I notice CH more because it slightly annoys me.
I know that many people like this sort of thing and that is fine. I have many “guilty pleasures” that give me no guilt. Yes, I like Sand & Sable which means that I like the Kim Kardashian perfume (embarrassing, I know). And I have no shame wearing them. I’m irked by CH. If you like this sort of thing, be proud and rock that Mariah Carey M or Britney Spears Fantasy. Those celeb scents aren’t ripping you off. Their large bottles retail for the small bottle of CH. I feel that CH is trying to give someone their “guilty pleasure” fume with more posh marketing and doubling the price. I don’t like it. Geez, CH, at least take the pop culture perfume formula and use higher quality ingredients. But, CH didn’t. It’s the same ‘ole thing.
Notes listed include bergamot, lemon, orange, pomelo, melon, rose, jasmine, praline, cinnamon, cashmere accord, patchouli, sandalwood, suede, amber, and musk.
Give Carolina Herrera CH a try if you like sweet woodsy fruity juices or if you like perfumes like Mariah Carey M, Britney Spears Fantasy (and most of the flankers), Givenchy Hot Couture, Elizabeth Arden Provocative Woman, J.Lo Glow After Dark, Aquolina Pink Sugar, Escada Magnetism, and any other celeb scent that you can think of that has a “cupcake” accord. I call these “club scents” because all the chicks in college would apply these sickly sweet scents primitively to attract guys at the club/bar. Guys like cupcakes…and low cut blouses. But, I should really save my “club scents” post for another day.
The 1.7 oz. retails for $73 and the 3.4 oz. for $94. CH is available at Nordstrom. And you can check out the discount sites like Fragrancenet. Testers are much cheaper. – If CH is the only Carolina Herrera perfume that you’ve ever sniffed, don’t let it color your opinion of the other fumes. The original Carolina Herrera is one of my favorite florals ever. It’s nothing like CH.
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Well, that’s just too much money for what sounds like fruit soup.
I haven’t smelled the KK perfume, but I have smelled the Fergie Avon scent. It’s not bad, a tuberose based scent. KK is a tube scent too, isn’t it?
Today, I told a woman her perfume smelled lovely and asked what it was. She said “It’s Jessica Simspson Fancy!” and then she explained how amazed she was that a Jessica Simpson perfume actually smelled good. LOL
For the 30 seconds I smelled it, “Fancy” was like Bain de Soleil tanning gelée with vanilla poured into it. However, my nose is on the fritz it seems…that, or I am anosmic to 95% of the ingredients in Ineke Guilded Lily 🙁
The price of CH is what offends me the most. You can get so many good fragrances for $95.
KK is heavy on the tuberose in the fashion of Sand & Sable. I’ve heard the same about Fergie’s.
I have heard that the Jessica Simpson Fancy in the green bottle is awesome. I have yet to try either. I get distracted by all of the other scents, non-celeb scents, when I’m out.
This week, I learned that I am ansomic to 95% of tea scents.
I thought the same thing about CH. It smells just like a celeb scent, reminds me of Britney Spears, but double the price.
Nice review, but i want an advice. This is more for casual nights or every day?
My best guess is casual nights/weekends.
I also thought KK was pretty good, especially considering the source! I gave my sample to a friend and it smelled great on her.
I really love the original Carolina Herrera, the one from the late 80s with the polka-dot box. It’s a powerhouse tuberose so I try to only wear it in the outdoors!
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Yes, KK was good. Maybe it was because my expectations were sooo low because of the source 😉
That late-80’s Carolina Herrera is one of my favorite florals. Like you said, that’s an outdoors scent!
Designer wear and fragrances are expensive but I love Carolina Herrera perfumes!