Cartier Délices de Cartier EDP is a gourmand fruity floral perfume. It’s sweet with fruits and amber. If you like sweet “sexy” gourmands then you should like this. I need to get this out of the way. I do not like Cartier Délices. I just may say I hate it. I had a French speaking lady tell me I smelled terrible and embarrassed the heck out of me in a drugstore line. This scent makes me nauseous after about an hour of wear. My husband hates it and tells me that I smell like a urinal cake when I wear it. It reminds me of way more expensive version of cheap-o Parfume de Vanille Cherry Vanilla Cologne.

When I first read the description of this fruity-floral by Cartier, I expected that I wouldn’t like it. Why? Because cherry smells gross on me. It either smells like cough “sizz-urp” or the little dangly air freshener hanging from the mirror of back-in-the-day-cool hunk’s Trans Am.  I feared the cherry would ruin this scent on me. Guess what? It did. My skin always invites cherry to stay over at the beach house for the weekend. Skin says, “Don’t worry, Cherry, my Mom <me> won’t get mad. She’s on a business trip this weekend. I’ve got wine coolers!”   At first, Cartier Delices confuses me. I get lots of synthetic “wild” cherry that reminds me of the opening of Cherry Vanilla Cologne . It then becomes this hot, sweet mess of piercing freesia and sugared violets. It’s sweet and floral. The florals are drowned by what appears to be vanilla. The floral doggy paddle around with their little heads barely over the syrupy vanilla sea. Oh, but even the sea of sweetness can not cover up the urinal cake aroma of super synthetic cherry. I wish this cherry note would go away on my skin but it doesn’t! I don’t mind the floral sweetness. I love sweet fragrances; I like vanilla fragrances. I don’t like when my sweet perfumes smell like they have been sipping on cherry cough syrup. I don’t like my sweet perfumes to get a bit tipsy and embarrass me in front of all my friends. Don’t get me wrong. I like a boozey sweet fragrance. This isn’t boozey. This is grandma accidentally got tipsy off of cough syrup. It’s embarrassing instead of seductive and sexy (on me at least). Every time I wear Cartier Délices, I feel ill to my stomach. It doesn’t sit right with me because it is sooo sweet. Hours and hours after wear, the cherry finally leaves me alone. It has a rich, sweet tonka base with a hint of powdery amber. But, I still don’t like it.

OK, so  I hate Cartier Delices de Cartier in the perfume form. I can’t help it and I am entitled to my opinion. Saying this, I can see how people could like Cartier Delices especially if they like super sweet gourmand fragrances. This fragrance has appeal. I can also see how this scent can be seen as “sexy”. It’s fruity making it playful and sweet making it delicious. I can see this as a “hitting the club” kind of scent. It has a lasting power and maybe it would mix nicely with real booze. I mean, Cartier Delices EDP has sillage, giving it a presence. I know that I’ll never spend the outrageous price of $100 on this. If I want sweet, I’ll wear Chanel Coco Mademoiselle. If I want obnoxious, I’ll wear Mugler Angel. Anyways, I don’t like cherry used in perfumery. And if I did want a fragrance that smells like sweet vanilla and air-freshener quality cherry then I’d walk down to Walgreen’s a pick up a $10 bottle of Cherry Vanilla Cologne. That is if I don’t get yelled at waiting in line…

So, here’s my story that I have to share. A month or so ago, I decided to sample this fragrance. I went in with an open mind. I didn’t really like it, but I lived with it. I wanted to experience the dry-down before making any real judgements. Even though I disliked Délices from the beginning, I did not scrub it off. I went to run errands and ended up at the drugstore. It was an unusually busy day there. I was waiting in line. A disgusted, perhaps jet-lagged, French speaking lady kept making awful faces at me. I thought she was disgusted by the wait. By this time, I had forgotten about Délices. It had been at least 8 hours since I applied a tiny spritz. She starts to what I think, fake cough. She turns around again tells me and I’m working from memory here, that I smell “absolutely rancid/disgusting and that whatever perfume I’m wearing should be washed off immediately”. She also went on to say that I should be removed from the line because I am making everyone sick. I was sooo embarrassed and pissed completely off. I should of shared the curses I’ve learned from listening to Serge Gainsbourg records. I didn’t. But, I’ve never had anyone bitch me out over wearing a fragrance until that day. Have you ever been “called out” because of a fragrance?

Notes listed include frozen morello cherry, bergamot, jasmine, pink pepper, freesia, violet, tonka beans, amber, and sandalwood.

Give Cartier Délices de Cartier EDP a try if you like sweet, fruity gourmand scents with lots of sillage/lasting power or if you like fragrances such as Parfume de Vanille Cherry Vanilla Cologne (seriously sniff that one if you like this Cartier, I should of re-branded this line’s fragrance and retired), Sula Vanilla Blossom EDP, Victoria’s Secret Vanilla Lace EDT, People of the Labyrinths Luctor et Emergo Perfume, Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy EDP, Hanae Mori Butterfly EDP, Ed Hardy EDP, and/or Thierry Mugler Angel EDP. I know that I hate Cartier Delices EDP but most other perfume reviewers and wearers seem to really like it. I’m saving my $145 for something else.

The 1.7 oz EDP retails for $100 and the 3.3 oz for $145. Sephora has a 1 oz spray for $75. Also, check out fragrancenet.com. Sometimes they get the EDP and you’ll save at least $40.

Want more reviews? Try…

Bois de Jasmin

Sweet Buzz

Now Smell This (review of the EDT, not what I’ve reviewed here)

Perfume Posse (this is a bit of a menopausal post, haha)

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