Fragrances -Tom Ford - Black Orchid EDP
LaGardenia 7/23/2011 11:39:00 AM
Oh how I longed for this fragrance; how I wanted it to be my Holy Grail. The bottle was so beautiful and the reviews were so glowing! I took a whiff from the bottle: heavy incense (reminiscent of my beloved YSL Opium & Guerlain's Samsara) laced with licorice. Slowly I begin to notice chocolatey notes and fresh earth. Soon the cloud of fragrance coming from the bottle begins to take over the entire room, and I haven't even sprayed it either on myself or a blotter! "Alright," I thought to myself, "maybe the complexity reviewers I have mentioned, the mushroom and orchid notes will come through on my wrist." I applied one spray to my wrist and pressed both my wrists together. Approximately 60 seconds later the room seems to fill with . . . baby powder. "Ok, so maybe the baby powder wil calm down and dry nicely" . . . Soon I feel like I'm being assaulted by a giant bottle of baby powder, so much so that my head begins to spin and my stomach begins to churn, and I'm left gasping for air. I have never had such a bad reaction to an incensey and orchidy perfume in my life. I spent the rest of the day drying desperately to scrub the smell off of me. Perhaps I'm cursed with the wrong body chemistry to wear Tom Ford's Black Orchid, or the batch I received was off? Maybe the EDP version just isn't for me. In any case, as with any fragrance, do not purchase this fragrance without trying it on your body first!
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Fragrances -Robert Piguet Fragrances - Fracas
LaGardenia 5/12/2011 6:35:00 PM
This is, without a doubt, one of my all-time favorite scents! If you love Gardenia, and classic vintage perfumes, this one is for you. When I smell this fragrance, I imagine that the wearer would be a very elegant and strong woman, someone very feminine and a bit girlish, but also quietly sensual. The hot pink of the packaging for Fracas seems perfect to me; this is very much a "hot pink" type of smell! How could it get any better? The bottle is opaque, protecting the delicate perfume from damaging sunlight. :)
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Fragrances -Giorgio Armani - Acqua di Gio (for women)
LaGardenia 5/5/2011 10:46:00 PM
This perfume is just so gorgeous, I'm seriously considering this as my signature scent. Light, elegant, summery, and with fabulous lasting power. Various perfume fanatics I know have told me this scent is crap, but I don't care. I just might break down and buy a bottle of this soon.
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Fragrances -Christian Dior - Miss Dior Cherie
LaGardenia 5/5/2011 10:32:00 PM
This is such a beautiful fragrance! Normally I'm not one to praise mainstream scents marketed to the under-30 set but this is definitely worth purchasing. I just wish it didn't seem so blatantly marketed toward teenage girls and felt a little more sophisticated and mature.
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Fragrances -Jean Patou - EnJoy
LaGardenia 5/5/2011 10:27:00 PM
I liked this a lot! But love it . . .? Maybe not quite. To me this seemed like a simple and subdued pretty fragrance (not a bad thing, but in stark contrast to Joy or 1,000). EnJoy smells to me of a softer, more feminine and more youthful woman than Joy. I don't really get any of the fruit notes that some mentioned. I'm not sure that this scent is *right for me* but I did EnJoy it much more than those other illustrious scents of Patou. ;)
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Fragrances -The Body Shop - Love Etc
LaGardenia 5/5/2011 10:15:00 PM
This smells like cheap Walgreens children's bubble mix (you know, with the bubble wand for blowing bubbles?), early nineties Bonnie Bell perfume, dish soap, and scented laundry detergent. Not awful, or even bad per se, but not good. Certainly not $30 good. Thankfully this was a freebie. I do not recommend this.
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Shampoo -LUSH - Trichomania bar
LaGardenia 5/5/2011 10:07:00 PM
First of all, I love the name:Trichomania. It comes from Latin, meaning "Crazy about or obssessed with hair" and it is a play on "trichotillomania" which is a symptom of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This smells lovely and produces a nice creamy and rich feeling lather. The coconut scent is fairly long lasting as well, prompting people to ask me what perfume I was wearing! Alas, it strips the natural henna & indigo dye from my hair and somehow manages to react with my hair and scalp pH to be drying rather than moisturizing. Very strange. I have naturally straight, dry, brittle, coarse, wiry color-treated hair. I'm half European, and half Latin American Native, so maybe us Native American/Latina folks will have mixed results since a Cherokee girl on the forum seems to have experienced the same thing.
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Polishes -Essie - Mademoiselle
LaGardenia 5/5/2011 9:48:00 PM
I was really pleasantly surprised by this drug store polish! Pros: * A beautiful shade of delicate seashell or lingerie pink that appears "natural" on my nails but "enhanced" just enough to be noticeably pretty. It gives an effect similar to a French manicure/pedicure without all of the work. * Paints on more smoothly and beautifully than any other drug store polish I've tried. Even someone as uncoordinated as me can turn out a lovely result. * My nails, especially my toes, tend to chip immediately. This polish has lasted weeks even on my feet without any chips! Cons: * This is a very sheer light polish, which makes seeing the lovely intense color in the bottle compared with my more subtlely polished nails somewhat disappointing. I think the polish is still exceptionally pretty despite needing multiple coats to get more color, but that might piss some bold color-loving people off. * This stuff is pricey! Cons
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