Mainstream Monday – Sniffing a Popular Perfume
Ça Sent Beau (used to be Kenzo de Kenzo) is the first fragrance by the fashion house Kenzo. This weird floral is inspired by a “living beach pebble” and I think that is what the ugly bottle is supposed to represent.
Ça Sent Beau opens with sulfuric citrus, hairspray aldehydes and cool greens. It reminds me of mandarin slices on ice. It’s cool and mineral. The showcases florals, slightly tangy florals. The most prominent is a peachy tuberose and I swear I get sour tagetes/marigold. There’s an herbal “dryness” within this fragrance. It’s soapy but it has this weird synthetic plastic thing going on that reminds me of inflatable pool loungers. It dries down to a close-wearing candied, powdered sugar covered vetiver. It’s like “green sweet”.
The aldehydes are huge in Ça Sent Beau. Huge. Engulfing. I’ve worn this and immediately after spraying people have said, “What is that? White Diamonds?” No. It’s not. The aldehydes are even more atomic in Ça Sent Beau. And weirder.
Notes listed include patchouli, bergamot, mandarin orange, coriander, tuberose, African orange flower, gardenia, jasmine, ylang-ylang, peach, vetiver, amber and vanilla. Launched in 1989. PERFUMER – Françoise Caron
Give Ça Sent Beau a try if you like aldehydes or have nostalgia for those “period pieces” of the early 90’s. Or if you like perfumes like Clinique Calyx, Estee Lauder Beautiful, Grès Cabotine and/or YSL Yvresse – but it’s weirder than any of these.
Projection and longevity are above average.
The bottle is fugly. It reminds me of a duckling wearing a women’s Edwardian era hat.
Sadly, it’s not an easy to find fragrance anymore in the US but you can find it on auction sites.
Victoria’s Final EauPINION – Weird aldehydic citrus floral. One you like or you don’t. I love aldehydes and I like these sort of 80’s to 90’s “transitional” designer scents.
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Fragrantica – Member reviews
The bottle looks like an egg at the moment it is dropped into poaching water.
I see that 🙂
I have a miniature bottle of this take came in a Kenzo sampler set. I got it early in my perfumistahood and remember distinctly writing the same word in my assessment!: weird.
I could not figure out what I was smelling. I dabbed just a little with that little plastic top dabber so I think I missed the hugeness of the aldehydes. I’m sure if I smell it again, it’ll still be puzzling despite my more ‘learned’ nose, haha 🙂
It is so hard to describe, isn’t it? I’m like um, weird floral. Weird citrus? Weird.
And that’s not a bad thing, but it sure is hard to describe.
[…] opening is a metallic citrus and adlehydes, cool and mineral and somewhat like the opening in Kenzo Ça Sent Beau but more humid. It wears as green, citrus and humid with a hint of spicy anise. As the steam lifts, […]