Fragrances -Chanel - Coco
browneyedelise 2/27/2013 12:54:00 PM
With Coco, Jacques Polge took the Opium trend, dialed it back down about 5 notches and added more blossoms. The result is a gorgeous balmy blend of orange blossom, tonka and resins. You will find the EDP far more heavy on the blossoms than on the spice, and I happen to love the simmering spices that are brought out more in the EDT. This one is sweet and yes has a touch of the 'cola' note upon first spritz, which I imagine is the tonka blending with the sweeter flowers. Make no mistake - it is quietly classy, warm and sexy. This is about as far from the cleaned up, almost metallic patchouli of Coco Mademoiselle as you can get. One of my signatures.
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Guerlain - Mitsouko
browneyedelise 2/27/2013 12:49:00 PM
For the new EDP: at first spritz it's a blast of pure moss and spice, then quickly dries down to a cinnamon-y boozy peach. I can't stress enough that the peach is not going to be the sweet fresh peach you might expect. This is a peach that's been made into an aged, dry liqueur. Takes some getting used to, but this scent is indisputably glorious. The mossy drydown lasts and lasts and smells of sophistication.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Miller Harris - L-Air de Rien
browneyedelise 7/5/2011 3:48:00 PM
I love Jane Birkin desperately so even though I am a die-hard floral girl I had to try this. And I fully expected to hate it and not want a bottle but try to bring myself to like it because of the person who made it. And for some reason, upon first sniff I was in LOVE. I don't smell mud or feces or anything like that. To me it smells like a particularly hip thrift store, if anything. The top is almost effervescent, and the base is very dark and almost...fuzzy...in a way. It reminds me of Jane, and if I had an extra hundred or so dollars I'd buy a bottle in a heartbeat. As it is I'll content myself with her daughter's fragrance by Balenciaga (an urban violet).
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Serge Lutens - A La Nuit
browneyedelise 6/29/2010 10:49:00 AM
I am rewriting this review, my previous one just couldn't do this justice..... Every once in a while you find a perfume that is like a cloud of heaven, and makes you feel like even though the world is full of sad and terrible things, at least this heavenly olfactory sensation makes life positively delicious. For me, A La Nuit is that. As I have stated in a previous review, jasmine is my favorite smell in the world. Yet it is so difficult to get right that the transience of a the plant's scent used to make me almost cry that no one could ever get it right. I stand corrected. In all my jasmines, this is the most lush, true, and beautiful. It follows me like an iridescent cloud and seems to emanate from my pores. It is just pure, sweet jasmine, with a hint of indole accented by the benzoin and clove that pattern the base of this creation like autumn leaves do the forest ground. As a true perfume-lover I could never reconcile myself with the concept of a signature scent, but this one clings to me and enchants me and demands my devotion as the tribute I owe it for melding with me so well. Other jasmines are too heavy or too light, or musty and traditional. Other fragrances still mask the beauty of jasmine by combining it with other white flowers, but while there are some that do this that are lovely, the jasmine is still queen and I want to worship her alone. This perfume tugs my heartstrings in the way that staring at Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring does, it is so lovely. I'm sorry to wax so poetic, but it's true that nothing has ever captivated me so much. If you love jasmine, this may very well be the one to end your search for the perfect one, or it may accompany you on your further endeavors like a true friend.
11 out of 12 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Cleansers -Olay - Purifying Mud Lathering Cleanser
browneyedelise 6/4/2010 4:53:00 PM
I actually like this product a lot. I can imagine it would give you problems if you used it plain, but the key to my success with it is using a squirt of it on an Olay Daily Facial cleansing cloth (or any brand of cleansing cloth). I lather it up and scrub my face with it and my skin is absolutely immaculate. It does sort of leave a film, but this is a cleanser with lots of detergents so it's inevitable. I like the smell and the weird silver color. It's a good deep-cleaning option, frankly.
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Lotions/ Creams -Curel - Natural Healing Lotion
browneyedelise 4/3/2010 5:23:00 PM
Good quality ingredients, very smooth and creamy, it absorbs just fine unless you really like to put on lots of cream after a shower, but that's not the lotion's fault. But the smell is terrific. I don't know if any of you remember the way Bath and Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar USED to smell, like when it first came out (when I was in seventh grade) but this smells exactly like the first version of it, before they did all the cheapo reformulations. Yum.
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Fragrances -Chanel - No.19
browneyedelise 3/15/2010 2:24:00 AM
Contrary to the previous reviewer's opinion (which I respectfully disagree with), this is one of the most womanly fragrances I've ever possessed. In that it satisfies ME. I love jasmine and violets and roses, but they have their place, and they don't necessarily communicate what this scent does. A bundle of roses, iris, oakmoss, dirt, and a clear watery note (in the EDT) that I love, this is a take-charge perfume, where I can be myself, but I don't feel any less feminine. This is not candy sweet, but fresh and authoritative.
9 out of 10 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Hair -Alberto Vo5 - Strawberries n' Cream Smoothing Shampoo/Conditioner
browneyedelise 1/3/2010 2:08:00 PM
Other reviews kind of freaked me out about this--I was expecting hair breakage, clumps of wax, tons of buildup, frizz, static, swine flu when I stepped in the shower armed with a bottle of the shampoo and conditioner each. But I've been using it for a while, and I quite like it. I've noticed no buildup--it makes my hair a little limp but my hair's been kind of limp anyway lately (dry air in heated buildings, I suppose). I was also getting some static on the lower part of my hair, but that remained the same even when I used some Alba Botanica shampoo and some Suave Clarifying for a couple of weeks. Point is, I don't think there's anything wrong with my hair after using this that isn't wrong with it with any other product. I just have to assume that winter sucks and my nice hair will be back with summer along with inordinate amounts of sweat and sunscreen buildup (hurray). Strangely enough my hair kind of gets a weird chocolatey smell if it gets wet, though. Whatever. It doesn't leave that nasty post-high fructose corn syrup aftertaste in my mouth, so it's all good. EDIT: This does really tangle my hair up. Boo.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Masks -Queen Helene - Mint Julep Masque
browneyedelise 12/22/2009 9:12:00 PM
There is no menthol that I can see in this. I suppose they included some sort of mint oil (which of course would include menthol as part of its make-up) to give it its trademark minty tingle, but on the package as I look at the ingredients, I see no menthol as a stand-alone additive. The strong fragrance, I can understand taking issue with--I have no issue with any strong fragrance of any kind but the intense minty scent of this made my eyes water a little. Perhaps the menthol-feel and the mint scent are from the same ingredient or something. That said, I've used this mask on and off since middle school. Now in college, I had not used it since high school and was a little nervous upon reading the ingredients list. I wondered if it was too harsh; but my usual mask, Origins Clear Improvement, was really expensive and really starting to irritate me and make my skin red and flaky and dry whenever I used it. Sexy! I found a tube of this at Whole Foods, bit the bullet, slathered it on, wiped it off, looked in the mirror. Wow..? Well, it did a good job of bringing all the junk to the surface. However, due to my skin's sensitivity with being poked at, I remain uninterested in extracting things or using pore strips. I kind of wish it would remove things a bit better, which is why I took off a lipstick. I suppose a few more uses will get rid of the surface gunk this gets, gradually getting it out more and more. For now I'll use a facial scrub after I remove this to get all the residual crap. But it still bats the Clear Improvement out of the park.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Tocca - Brigitte EDP
browneyedelise 11/30/2009 8:54:00 PM
I didn't know that it was possible to bottle racism so prettily, but here we have the scent of rabid anti-Islamic hatred all done up with a bow! Joking aside, this is a nice, fruity floral. Kind of plain. A little sharp on the drydown, I can smell rose and fruits mostly. As you could infer, not so big on their choice of muse. I prefer Cleopatra, as I am, as always, a white flower lover.
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Fragrances -Frederic Malle - Carnal Flower
browneyedelise 11/24/2009 2:16:00 AM
I love this, the spicy sweetness of tuberose, the mysterious packaging. When I wear this, I am transported to a dark, dive bar in Argentina, with yellowed old photographs of famous people or magazine cutouts on the walls, with the cloud of cigarette smoke obscuring the gazes of other people. I sit there in a gauzy white dress, with tuberoses in my hair. Carlos Gardel comes up to me and asks me to dance a tango with him, and I give my consent, with a slow provocative smile. I put aside my pride in my strong femininity to put myself under his control for the dance, he hums "Mi Noche Triste" to me and me alone. After dancing half the night and making love the other half, the sweet, creamy scent of tuberose still envelops me, and remains on my skin like the imprint of a kiss. Sadly, the Carnal Flower-Gardel fantasies don't come cheap, so Carlos and I will just have to make do with A La Nuit. ;-)
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Fragrances -Thierry Mugler - Angel
browneyedelise 11/21/2009 3:45:00 AM
Oh, no. Nooooo. Awful. Like peanuts and stale wet coffee grounds. Absolutely not. Just, no.
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Fragrances -Serge Lutens - Fille en Aiguilles
browneyedelise 10/27/2009 2:56:00 PM
Ohhh, this is so pretty. Imagine all those pine-scented candles and sprays around Christmastime, but more sophisticated and lifelike. The undertones are, as another said, candied fruit, but they blend into the skin and make this an actual scent rather than Eau de Pine Needle. It's a bit sharp, but in a way that emphasizes the beauty of the pine note. Just putting it on changes my mood.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Red Flower - Indian jasmine - bath, body and massage oil
browneyedelise 9/4/2009 7:42:00 PM
This is awesome and I wish it came in big vats. The jasmine is so perfect I can't even say, a delicious sweet jasmine without indoles to complicate it. I love how moisturizing it is too. Just rubbing it on after a shower makes me feel so beautiful. Products don't get much better than this.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Jean Patou - Joy
browneyedelise 9/3/2009 2:48:00 PM
Hmm---I'm a jasmine lover, and often rub pure jasmine oil on myself after a shower (and follow it with perfume, of course). As far as single notes go, jasmine is really the definition of who I am, how I want my skin and essence to smell, what I want to surround myself with (generally if it says jasmine, I'm there--laundry detergent, toothpaste, hand cream; like a lavender lover, except that I hate lavender with a passion). So I don't like it when the glorious jasmine note in Joy gets stifled with rose and the animalic notes underneath that give it its "old-lady" undertone. The effect is somewhat like bubblegum, not sensual at all. I find this to be kind of like a big bouquet of beautiful jasmine and gorgeous roses that would be better kept apart but are smushed together in their cut-glass vase, in an old library packed with the scented gloves popular in Louis XIV's reign. It's all right, but it just doesn't seem to mesh as well as it could. On the other hand, I feel like Patou 1000 allows the same type of jasmine note to express itself a bit more--maybe it's the violet. This one is just not for me.
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