Vibrant and bright citrus that is sweet and refreshing, like a honeyed ice-tea.
Yuzu Citrus opens with a startling bright green galbanum note, which leads the way to citrus scented lemongrass and lemon verbena leaves, the sweetness of honey and yuzu (the sweet effervescent Japanese citron) with a hint of floral notes, and based upon a balsamic-herbal foundation of clary sage and frankincense.
Galbanum notes weave in and out of the perfume as it evolves – at times green and bright, and other times balsamic and resinous with great staying power. Despite the use of yuzu in the perfume (and the name), this is not a disctintively yuzu scent. It is a green, honeyed, sappy galbanum.
Yuzu Citrus is the most fresh and citrusy of her line. It is a green-citrus scent that is both refreshing and long lasting.
Top notes: Galbanum, Lemongrass
Heart notes: Yuzu absolute, Lemon Verbena, Honey, Harshingar Flowers
Base notes: Frankincense, Clary Sage
Katy has sent me this as part of a few ScentBloggers’ little game of Blind Scent Reviews. In her infamous humorous wit, Katy has titled this blind sample “Hermitt McDermitt” (named after a song title I am not familiar with, and therefore I immediately associated this with Hermitt the Frog!).
This deliciously refresghing green froggy-juice feels like a lemongrass tea sweetened with honey and made of steeping the fresh long fuzzy leaves – I can feel their roughness on my tongue as I sip it, I mean – sniff it. This scent really creates the illusion of being a drinkable, thirst-quenching tea! The galbanum is very dominant, but in a most appealing way as its balsamic qualities shine through and any sharpness is rounded off so all you get is the green of a fresh cut grass and sappy tree branches. There is geranium, lemongrass, galbanum and honey at the top and heart notes. The dry down is rather earthy, with patchouli, cedar and sandalwood and that are finally taken over by woody and earthy vetiver.
Top notes: Galbanum, Geranium, Lemongrass
Heart notes: Honey
Base: Cedar, Patchouli, Sandalwood, Vetiver
To read Katy's review of this fragrance, click here. To read the Blind Scent Reviews of both Marlen and Myself - visit this page.
bourre, originally uploaded by moonchild.
The Liquid Satin has a slightly different opening, in which I can detect top notes of lemongrass (which I do not smell in the alcohol based fragrance), which is sharp and grassy, but thankfully fades out rather quickly. The patchouli note is also more pronounced at the opening. I have a feeling that this silicone based version is more true to the original concoction made by Sarah Jessica Parker herself. It just has that authentic impression of a perfume enthusiast blending scents together that will bear her own character.
Lovely has been compared often to Narciso Rodriguez, and while I agree that they are very similar, I still think of Lovely as an original fragrance. These are both light musk scents, very modern and abstract, with a suggestive floral heart, and an effervescent, boozy opening. But Lovely has a certain dry, almost rough edge to it that makes it stand apart and prevents it from looking like an imitation of Narciso Rodriguez (which I intend on reviewing very soon).
Top notes: Rosewood, Apple Martini, Lavender, Madarin, Lemongrass
Heart notes: Paperwhites, Orchid
Base notes: Patchouli, Cedar, White Amber, Musk
*My nose finds that Be Delicious is the queen of musty apples, and I just can’t even sample it without thinking all the time of biting into a perfectly round from outside apple, with a completely rotten core; a disappointing experience I am not particularly enthused to experience the perfume version of.
HONEY, originally uploaded by chrissie2003
After application, I instantly recognized something familiar. It took me a while to get it - Tocade! Indeed, the two perfumes do share some striking similarities: both contain magnolia, bergamot, orris and vanilla. Tocade has a lot of roses, and in many aspects this is the main difference between the two. In fact, l’Instant is so similar to Tocade that I am surprised nobody picked up on it before. I will not be surprised if it is a tweaking of the Tocade formula – accentuating the magnolia rather than the rose and being a bit lighter on the powdery notes, with the addition of the new notes – like the crystalline musk and the citrus honey. The two also share in common the clean, crisp synthetic bergamot top note.
As the scent evolved on my skin, I got occasional familiar whiffs of pleasant memories – one originated in a magnolia body milk splash I had about 7 years ago, and the other was almost identical to a festive jar of lemon-scented honey (citrus honey with the addition of lemon flavour). Citrus honey, by the way, is honey which is produced form citrus flowers, and it usually has a much lighter colour and flavour than other types of honey.
Overall, l’Instant is a sheer and cheerful modern floral; Very pleasant and easy to wear even if not at all sophisticated or complex like most Guerlain scents are. I would take this any time over most of the recent (non-boutique) Guerlain launches such as the Aqua Allegoria line, myriads of other fruity, floral and ambery-floral modern releases, and definitely won’t hesitate to pick this one over Insolence in an instant!
The crystalline base adds a somewhat aloof sensuality and sweetness – that is not unlike other modern orientals and florientals (i.e. the base in Addict, Nu, Kingdom and others).
Top notes: Rosewood and lilac notes, Bergamot, Mandarin
Heart notes: Magnolia, iris, citrus honey with some light lemon and orange blossom notes
Base notes: Benzoin, Vanilla, Crystalline Amber.
