Fragrance Reviews by coumarin

I got this fragrance in the solid hangtag case, and am really enjoying it. It's a bright, cheerful fragrance with ripe musky mango and green notes on top and enough woodsiness in the base to give the drydown some complexity. I don't usually favor sweet fruity scents, and to my nose Coach is neither as fruity nor as sweet as the composition would suggest -- the honey and vanilla notes lend creaminess without overwhelming.

Though it says spring to me, this is not a sheer summer fragrance -- I can imagine wearing it to brighten my mood in colder weather as well. I can also imagine Coach smelling really terrific on an adventurous man with the right skin chemistry.

Reminds me of waking up early on the first day of summer vacation, dew still on the grass and a hint of coolness where the sun doesn't reach. I love the way the crisp green notes counterbalance the sweeter floral notes -- on the whole, the composition is more leafy than floral, with just a hint of ozone. The musk in the base is not very pronounced, even less so than After My Own Heart, and the chypre accord is very subtle. This is a fresh, bright scent perfect for warm weather.

Described by the perfumer as "the scent of fresh lilacs floating on the early evening breeze," After My Own Heart (also called A) is a lilac soliflore with marine, sandalwood and musk notes.

It opens with fresh lilac over green notes, gradually joined by a whiff of sea breeze. The sandalwood and musk in the dry-down enhance the lilac without drawing undue attention to themselves. This is not a fragrance designed to precede you into a room or make a big statement -- it's subtle and stays close to the skin.

I find A could use more staying power, but my dry winter skin is probably a contributing factor. This would be a lovely spring/summer fragrance.

Ineke is a San Francisco-based perfumer who trained in the French tradition, studying with Isabelle Doyen and Dominique Ropion. More info at: http://www.inenke.com

Maybe it's my body chemistry, but for the life of me, I can't figure out why this is classified as a daytime/office fragrance. On me, the sultry notes seem to pop -- oakmoss, musk, woods and something not quite incense.

I'm usually not big fan of greens, and I respect but don't really love most Chanels, but I love this -- it's wonderfully earthy, dark and complex without being overpowering. It's the perfect day fragrance for someone like me who needs a work frag, but tends to find most day/office scents a bit dull.

I like it best applied with a fine mist over a lot of territiory rather than in concentrated doses on the pulse points. The EDT I got online (Chanel label, not a decant) smeller dry, with a lot of incense and not much green. The full bottle of EDT smells greener, which leads me to believe the green notes may tend to fade over the life of a bottle.

The orginal formulation was may favorite inexpensive everyday scent for years. I wore it until I couldn't smell it anymore (pretty scary in light of its reputation as an in-your-face scent).

I've been told I am one of the lucky people this fragrance smells good on, and got complements pretty frequently. On me, it's a spicy, woody chypre with little or no discernable rose, and not the faintest hint of anything like fruit or vanilla. This is the polar opposite of a sweet or gormand scent. The top notes are sharp, but the dry-down has always struck me as warm and spicy.

A little goes a long way. I agree with the poster who suggested that the moisturizer gives you a softer, creamier version of the scent, and (when you can find it) the solid does as well.

The New York Times ran a story recently about actress Arielle Dombasle (NYT calls her "perhaps the Frenchest person alive") who mixes this with white musk and Chanel Cuir de Russie to make her signature scent (which she carries in her purse in 18th century crystal vial). I've been giving Aromatics Elixir a rest of late, but this has me wondering whether I might try mixing it with something less angular.

I love the way the openning of this fragrance alludes to Chanel No. 5, plays with the references, and develops from something familiar into something entirely new.

The top notes are bright and floral. There is a candy note, but without the cloying honey-vanilla that usually turns me off in a sweet fragrance -- it's pastilles, not baked goods or bubblegum. The dry-down has a lovely hint of incense.

There is a brightness about the fragrance that reminds me of a cloudless morning with the sun reflected off fresh snow -- to me, it's an optimistic scent.

The top note is pure, fresh, wonderful garden rose. The next phase evolves with a velvety note of the warmest, richest dried rose petals ever. The dry-down is still distinctly rose, but dusky, with a glass of good bordeaux and a roaring fire nearby.

This strikes me as a rose that manages not to be flowery or girly in the usual sense. I can imagine this dry quality might not appeal to everyone, but I find it wonderfully chic: deceptively simple on the surface, but really quite subtle and sophisticated.

I also find this scent very relaxing -- must be the wine ;-)

As a long-time Guerlain fan, I was in the market for a lighter scent and really wanted to like this -- the floral and citrus notes sounded fresh and lovely on paper -- but on me, the vanilla and honey notes just drown out everything else, leaving nothing but...yellow cake batter. I'm not a gourmand fan, and to me the dry-down is pure Duncan Hines.

The burst of fresh lilac in the top note is entirely lovely, but fades much sooner than I would like. The dry down is definitely a water scent -- over enthusiastic application left me with the briny cucumber note others have alluded to, but when I applied less it smelled soft and fresher, like outdoor wetness with a hint of salted melon.

In general, I would say this works better as a warm weather fragrance, meant to be appreciated from close range. It is well named, as the frangrance is both subtle and fleeting.

The first thing that this fragrance brought to my mind was Christmas -- midnight mass to be specific -- wreaths and maybe a whiff of incense, and spice cookies baking down the street.

I like woods, incense and spice notes individually, but something about the combination is slightly off-putting on me over time. I think the scent seems more like room fragrance than perfume -- like something they spray in an upscale gift shop to encourage holiday spending.

In fairness, haven't had much luck with Lancome fragrances over the years, but this might be nice around the holidays.

I get a heavy whiff of eucalyptus in this scent, though it is not listed as an ingredient. It's intriguing in crisp, cold weather, but can get overpowering. It's entirely unwearable in summer. I'm beginning think the main reason I keep coming back to it is the bottle -- great bottle.

I got the EDT for daywear and I love it -- warm and spicy without the heavy fruitiness of some orientals, and the vanilla note is understated. It's feminine without being overly flowery, subtle but with good staying power.

I don't find it especially fruity as others have suggested, and I don't get tuberose at all -- a funtion of the wearer's body chemistry, maybe?

I got this as a softer daytime alternative (I love Nahema, but not for the office.) I loved this when I first got it (EDP) but after a year or two, I started getting the headachey reaction other reviewers have mentioned, unless I used it sparingly. I'm wondering if it was just a matter of the bottle getting old.

I miss it now that the bottle is empty, but I'm wondering if I'd be better off with the EDT this time.

This has been my favorite sexy dress-up scent forever -- one I keep coming back to. To the previous comments, I would only add that you really need a fresh bottle to get the full complexity -- too bad it's so hard to come by.