My Other True Love: Perfume

So we all know I love me some perfume, some might even call me a little bit obsessive. Besides mascara, it's probably the one beauty product I can't live without. I've actually been trying not to buy perfume recently because I need to use up the ones that I have. I'm doing pretty well, I've made quite a dent, considering the size of my collection. Last spring I picked up Acqua di Gioia, which I have absolutely loved. Notes of mint, brown sugar and lemon hover over jasmine, peony and pink pepper, and they all mellow out to cedar wood and labdanum. I love it. One of the best, hands down best perfumes I've ever used. It smells incredibly summery, and fresh.

However, I have, over the course of the summer, found three other perfumes that I really love. They're all pretty different, but in the same sort of floral, flirty, feminine family. The first was Stella McCartney Stella, which is definitely the most sensual of the three. Its main notes are rose, peony flower, mandarin, rose absolu and amber. It is the perfect date perfume, and is actually fairly unique in my collection. I tend not to go for deeper, more sensual scents, in favor of fresher, floral ones.

Now, I stumbled on Stella because I got a StellaNude sample in a Sephora purchase, and the other two I just kind of fell on (also in a Sephora) because I was wandering around looking for something new to buy. I had not been particularly looking for any new fragrance and had done no "research" of the type us beauty product junkies like to do. I should also preface this by saying that I'm not typically a huge fan of celebrity or handbag perfumes, I think a lot of the times they're mostly just hype and are often just eau de toilettes, which don't last very long on anyone's skin and are pretty much just overhyped, over-packaged and overpriced. However, Coach Poppy Flower is really incredible. I pretty much grade a perfume on how many compliments I get in the first few days I wear it, and who the compliments come from. Since buying and wearing Coach Poppy Flower, I have gotten a compliment every single time I've worn it, from people who do not normally pay much attention to scents and other such delicacies. I was also surprised at how quickly people noticed a difference. Coach Poppy Flower has top notes of wet ivy, citrus, and black currant, with a heart of jasmine, water lily, rose, peony and sugared raspberry. Its base is amber, musk, sandalwood and apricot skin. I've never heard of apricot skin in a fragrance. All in all this is pretty amazing.

The third fragrance I found is an Escada fragrance, Taj Sunset. This one is an eau de toilette, and so had me skeptical, but I find I am pleasantly surprised, although not bowled over. According to Sephora, this one has notes of alphonso mango, blood orange, watery blossom, sweet primrose, raspberry, coconut cream, musk and sandalwood. It's a little bit fruity, a little bit tropical and definitely fun. I can pretty much never resist anything that's tropical, I love it. Any way you cut it, these are three scents that are kind of atypical for me. I've gotten the most compliments on Coach Poppy Flower, and I think it might be the most "me", but they're all good on their own. Thus concludes another post about perfumes, I've done quite a few on scented products in general. Enjoy!