Mainstream Monday – Sniffing a Popular Perfume
Wildfox is a casual ready-to-wear women’s clothing line with that “California cool” aesthetic of distressed denim and snarky typographic t-shirts/sweatshirts that are borderline offensive depending on the audience or manner or wear, but as our society has already ingrained in us, “conventionally” pretty people can get away with a lot.¹ Anyway, the brand licensed a perfume with Revlon/Elizabeth Arden a few years ago. The note list sounds interesting and the bottle is really pretty.
Wildfox is a weird one. It opens with a lot at once. It’s synthetic apricots and honey paired with white florals that sort of come across like a candle/home fragrance. There’s also incense and powdery notes. This sounds like a lot, because it is, but it manages to work. Instead of being thick like velvet, it’s sheer like a slub cotton, which is forgiving to such an “everything but the kitchen sink” composition. On me, it’s mostly a fruity-floral of apricots and delicate “shampoo-ish” florals with an undercurrent of candied-coated powder. Sometimes the honeysuckle is more prominent on me than other times (it reminds me of the sort of honeysuckle/jasmine in Annick Goutal Le Chevrefeuille), other times it’s a powdery amber-peach along the lines of Coty Exclamation. The dry-down is a honeyed amber. It’s sweet but I wouldn’t call it “gourmand”. It’s like a modern amber-style fragrance.
Overall, this perfume seems like it’d easily fit into a lineup for a brand like Victoria’s Secret. It could easily be a Sexy Little Thing or Bombshell flanker. But, this makes sense. I’d say that both brands potentially share some overlap in consumers. For a designer perfume marketed to teenagers/early 20’s, it’s surprisingly sophisticated without sacrificing its amusement. However, I don’t think the actual fragrance is as amusing as the note list wants you to believe. It’s just a really powdery fruity-floral with some sweetness.
Notes listed include absinthe, apricot, incense, camellia, honeysuckle, jasmine, ambrox, musk and honey. Launched in 2015.
Give Wildfox a try if you like soft fruity-florals. Or perfumes like Victoria’s Secret perfumes, Vera Wang Rock Princess, Marc Jacobs Honey, By Kilian Forbidden Games and/or A Dozen Roses Iced White.
Projection and longevity are below average. It wears more like an EDT.
Wildfox comes in a few sizes with the 1.7 oz retailing for $72 at Nordstrom and Sephora.
Victoria’s Final EauPINION – Powdery fruity-floral of peaches and night-blooming florals. It’s not as exciting as the note list would leave you to believe, but it’s a pleasant fragrance.
¹As I wrote this review, they launched a 4th of July collection of t-shirts like “Made in America” and “American AF” which is totally fine! Then you see the font and how it’s on red and worn by skinny white women. And there is a bridal collection with stuff like “Trophy Wife”, also “fine” but also an odd thing to wear on sweats. And a shirt that is a spin on “The Future is Female” as “The Future is Silly”. All of this is totally fine under certain circumstances, but I also feel it could be passive-aggressive under other circumstances. Anyway, some of the stuff is cute but some leaves me a little confused. Context, right?
But, like NastyGal (a comparable California-based brand), all the models are thin, tan and usually blonde. It’s very Barbie doll. One glance at their Instagram, I knew it’s not something I can relate to and not a look that many other people will relate to either (which is fine, that’s fashion). Since I’m ranting, one of the things that annoys me with a lot of these sort of brands is how their Insta shows people eating “junk” foods or they have merchandise with cutesy sayings about eating/drinking a lot and the models are all thin and “conventionally” hot. No way in hell they could show a person bigger than size 2 doing or wearing the same thing without enduring tons of online harassment. Somehow it’s cute when one person is holding two giant ice cream cones/eating an entire pizza but not when someone else does it. This isn’t a fault of the brand, just our totally wrecked society. Thanks for listening to my rant/s.
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I one thing I remember about this sample was the loud opening. I remember saying Ugh No and giving up. I don’t accept all synthetics, just some. 🙂 Glad I wasn’t missing anything special. Sometimes when I see less experienced perfume folks raving about a mainstream scent, I start to second guess myself. Thank you for the validation
Oh the conventional “Barbie doll pretty.” I guess I can see how that’s attractive to some people but… it’s so boring!!
And the juxtaposition of “eating excessively” against a person whose size implies they don’t eat at all… isn’t that just so… last century marketing?
Yeah, I don’t see it being anything you’d want to buy a bottle of. It’s perfectly fine but I don’t see you liking it tbh. But, I can see how people like it. It sort of checks a lot of boxes for those that like perfumes from brands like Victoria’s Secret, Gucci, etc.
It is so boring. But, it is obviously something that people still want.
AND YES. It is so “retro” and feels very dated. I honestly thought we were past that…but I guess not.