By Dane
Is it that wrong to want a perfume just for the bottle? I can't always be a purist...sometimes the pretty packaging wins me over even if the scent doesn't.
Balenciaga Paris (so creative) is the house's first major release since the late nineties, and in the commercial sense, they hit it out of the park. It avoids all the usual fruity-floral cliches not by use of ingredients, but by restraint in volume. The composition is essentially a green violet with fruity undertones, but instead of attempting to compete with the cotton-candy teen scents or the prim aldehydic florals, it found a nice spot somewhere in the middle...no doubt hoping to land clientele from both camps.
My issue with the fragrance is that they almost played it too safe. While this once could have been a grand chypre, ingredient regulations and cost instead omit the sparkling citrus and mossy base. What you're left with is a mediocre fruity topnote and a tidy shampoo backdrop. Some of you might also notice an unpleasant synthetic amber that attempts to fill in the stops where something expensive and interesting should have gone. Overall, the quiet nature of the composition leaves it inoffensive and unremarkable...but marketing and packaging will make it a big success, so in that respect, they've accomplished what they set out to do.
Seriously though, that bottle should win an award.
Year: 2010
Perfumer: Olivier Polge
Notes: Violet, Cedar, Patchouli
I'm usually too ashamed to admit wanting a perfume for the bottle. But as you've admitted it already - it doesn't seem so bad. In fact it's not even the bottle I love - it's the lid!
ReplyDeleteShame that the perfume isn't actually so great though.
You're totally right...it's all about the cap!
ReplyDeleteOf course it's not wrong. Because I want the bottle, too. If i didn't like the bottle, it would of course be a shallow and extravagant impulse.
ReplyDelete