Mainstream Monday – Sniffing a Popular Perfume
If the currency utilized in the world post-Nuclear Apocalypse includes samples of Viktor and Rolf Flowerbomb, I will be a rich woman. How have I accumulated so many samples of a fragrance that I never really wanted to wear? Never in my life have I asked for a sample of Flowerbomb; yet, here they are. Every online order comes with a sample of Flowerbomb. If you ever do a beauty subscription box, you will get more Flowerbombs than you’ll ever need.
I will take all of these samples as a sign to finally review this fragrance. Maybe once I do, I will appease the sample gods and receive something else other than Flowerbomb in abundance. But, if Flowerbomb is going to be our post-acopocalyptic currency, maybe they should keep on coming my way…
Let me be anti-climatic here and let you know that I don’t really like Flowerbomb. Like Chanel Coco Mademoiselle, it’s just one of those perfumes that doesn’t smell good on me. I like it on others but on my skin it’s off. Flowerbomb is a very popular perfume, so I’m fine smelling it on everyone except for myself. My review is based on how it wears on my skin…and I’m letting you know that it doesn’t smell great on me.
Flowerbomb opens like if cotton candy could be made out of rosewood. It’s a sharp citrus-y, woodsy rose with a lot of burnt sugar. I’m always surprised by how not floral this perfume called Flowerbomb is! The florals wear more like custard. Overall, it’s a sweet, woodsy perfume. As I’ve already mentioned, the white florals wear like they are baked into a thick vanilla custard. I feel like my skin really amps up the creamy vanilla custard and patchouli. For most of the wear, that’s all it is on me – some sort of patchouli dessert. It eventually dries down to vanilla pudding and soft patchouli/woods. You’ll most likely recognize this base because it’s been copied for almost 15 years now. It’s the sort of base that defines a decade of women’s designer perfumes.
A vanilla custard floral/patchouli doesn’t sound terrible, right? On me there is an odd sourness that I don’t pick up on other people that wear it (and I do smell this one a lot out in public because it’s so popular or because we all have too many samples of it). I think Lancôme La Vie est Belle works for me better than this one.
Notes listed include Jasmine sambac, rose, freesia, Cattleya orchid, musk and patchouli. Launched in 2005. PERFUMERS – Olivier Polge, Carlos Benaim, Domitiller Bertier and Dominique Ropion¹
Give Flowerbomb a try if you like sweet floral ambers. Or perfumes like Lancôme La Vie est Belle, Hanae Mori Hanae, Aquolina Pink Sugar Sparks, Chanel Coco Mademoiselle and/or Van Cleef and Arpels Oriens.
Projection and longevity are average. FYI – I am reviewing the EDP.
Flowerbomb is available in a few sizes with the 1.7 oz bottle retailing for $115 at Sephora and Nordstrom. It can sometimes be found at discounters like Perfume.com.
Victoria’s Final EauPINION – Vanilla custard and patchouli, sweet but not a gourmand. It’s not one for me; yet, the universe keeps providing me with samples of it. Go figure.
¹I have a saying “Perfumers of three, leave them be”. Usually this is a sign of frankenperfumes with a budget of “just make us some money”. Considering this, Flowerbomb isn’t terrible in comparison to a few other franken-corporate-perfumes.
If you’d like to read my review of Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb, here it is. I think of it like a hunky gingerbread fragrance.
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*Sample obtained by me (so many samples obtained by me). Product pic from Sephora. Brigitte Bardot from www.fanpix.net. Post contains affiliate links. Thanks!