GUERLAIN

I am not quite sure what fo think about this because I got the shade clair-light and when I use the individual shades I am just not seeing any color difference between the bronzer shade and the contour shade. The light highlighting shade, well, I am simply just not seeing it at all on my skin tone. The compact is too small to get a brush into the individual parts so I know I am picking up the other shades. So this leaves me no other choice than to swirl my brush over the whole thing and therefore I feel it’s just better off to stick with the original terracotta bronzer.

Best foundation tried out so far. Natural coverage, easy to blend, a little goes a long way. Great product (also for senditive skin) and the price is very affordable.

I am sniffing some 1980's-vintage SAMSARA EDT on my hand now. After not having experienced it for years. I had remembered I once liked it, but now might have to re-evaluate.

I know it had been initially released during the rise of the New Age/Yoga movement, intended to be a relaxing and meditative and "spiritual" fragrance-- the ad of the silhouetted nude lady sitting cross-legged before a dramatic sunset.

Yet that's not how I'm reading it now. I am very surprised to see just how powerful the aldehyde topnotes are... the "cosmetic" components of the scent, which make it seem very "perfume-y" indeed, almost hairspray-like, and not as "mellow" and woody as I thought I'd remembered it...

The scent on my hand here is tart, un-sweet floral and brilliantly aldehydic, with the aldehydic topnotes not evanescing quickly at all... They last for a long time, with an almost "coriander"-like sharpness... plenty of iris (almost cocoa-carrot-y), ylang in her "green banana skin" guise, a hint of aromatic menthol, and hints of something anisic-- tarragon?-- in keeping with the "Guerlinade" that haunts things like L'HEURE BLEUE (which used to be much more licorice-y than it is today).

And of course, I'm getting the signature heliotrope with its hint of vanilla and faux almondy/face powder, and what seems to be a synthetic fruit note, daubed with a balsam (peru? tolu?)

Oddly the sandalwood here seems very restrained... not especially "mystical" or "Indian" or "meditative". It has no chance to get milky/spicy/warm, what with the intense, sharp green-floral-aldehydes here. At the time of SAMSARA's release, the buzz was that it contained a decadent amount of real santal in it. I'm guessing the EDP and Extrait offer more of that quality than the EDT?

I'm pretty sure I detect ambergris, with its curious quality like a woman's lips, breath and skin. SAMSARA is much more "femme" than I had remembered it.

Guerlain always does a good job... even their lesser-scents have an undeniable quality and integrity. I even like the grapefruit tomcat-piss of PAMPLELUNE. (The only time Guerlain has ever alienated me... was with their ghastly, nasty new version of HABIT ROUGE in the parfum). And this is indeed a fine, quality perfume. Cosmetically pleasant enough, but not really my thing... No offense to those who are smitten by it. Maybe if the Croatian siren Oja Kodar stepped, nude, out of the frame of Orson Welles's THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, her brown skin smelling of it, might I change my mind.

I much prefer the in-your-face, animalic, smoky, oily, sweetness of SHALIMAR in the EDP. If I'm going to do sandalwood, I like her in a more dark, incense-y, nigh-headshoppy mood, the old hippie that I am. SHALIMAR is far less subtle and modern than SAMSARA, and I think I like that "more-is-more" quality of it...

As another has posted here, SAMSARA may be the least Oriental Oriental there is. Sorry, kids, I'm gonna have to scrub this from my hand...

I adore this fragrance! It's like a fluffy raspberry candy cloud with violets and powder mixed in. It's not super complex, but it is beautiful, girly and flirty. There is a distinct cosmetic powder note that smells kind of like Airspun powder, but the candied raspberry note sticks around.

A well-behaving leather, so much so that I think of it as white suede sitting on gourmand notes. For some reason, it makes me think about the smell inside a tidy wardrobe. The 'cuir' is so soft and safe that I perceive it more as a vanillic, gourmand fragrance with just a whiff of suede. It makes me think of white chocolate actually. It is well made, it is pleasant but it surely does not travel in danger zones and that's where I enjoy leathers. Cuir Beluga is more like a winter comfort scent. I have nothing against that genre but there are so many lovely and easily accessible fragrances in that category that I personally see no need to seek this.