MACY'S FRAGRANCE SAMPLE

I was finally able to snag samples from Product Samples!

WOOD SAGE & SEA SALT BY JO MALONE

This is my second time receiving this sample. I first received this sample from Sephora. A soft, clean, and inoffensive fragrance. An office fragrance, or for people who are sensitive to strong smells. Light sea salt and ambrette. If you like You by Glossier but want something less floral, this is for you. Lightly musky. This scent is better suited as a home fragrance than as a personal fragrance. As a linen spray or laundry detergent, fabrics will smell clean and crisp.

I feel the same I did years ago: unimpressed. Whenever I see a Jo Malone store or counter, I go in to check out the fragrances, hoping for the best. I am too generous with the chances. I always leave empty-handed without a desire to return for that one/any particular scent. 

MY DEVOTION EDP INTENSE  BY DOLCE & GABBANA

I still have the Devotion EDP sample... It's been over a year. This is why I haven't purchased any more decants to try!

Briefly revisiting the original flanker: it's sweet, with a hint of citrus, and I was right about the ChaTraMue Thai tea leaves mix. You also need to pay attention to spraying the dark juice onto clothes. There is a smoky drydown that smells like sandalwood. I prefer the drydown over the opening. 

It's great that I still have the OG so I can do a side-by-side. 

The EDP Intense version isn't as sweet and gourmand as the original flanker. It's gourmand differently. It has a sweet, juicy pear note with a subtle peony musk. I don't smell the vanilla. This version completely surprised me. As the intense version, I expected it to double down on the gourmand and be noxiously sweet and unbearable. I didn't expect something airier, fruity, and fresh. It's hard to believe they're part of the same line. I can't draw any commonalities that would link them. Is the brand playing on the citrusy opening of the original? An interesting and unexpected decision to riff off.

If you were to draw a family tree, and Devotion was the ancestor, the EDP intense version would be someone who marries into the family. A step-family or in-law situation. I cannot see the family resemblance, so they must not be related by blood. 

People on Fragrantica think it smells like Hazelnuts, and I am looking at them like they sprouted two extra heads. Where? It's not nutty. You're nuts!

Lastly, the juice is clear. 

PERFECT ABSOLUTE BY MARC JACOBS

Oh... Oh no... Cough syrup. I'm reading the card where it says it's an unapologetic statement. Check. Precious and bold? Not precious, but a little too bold. It smells like the jasmine, orange blossom, and tonka bean trifecta that's omnipresent in all designer fragrances on the market, which doesn't work with my skin chemistry. People say it smells like caramel, but I don't see it. The card says caramelized fig. There's no greenery or creaminess that I attribute to figs. Once again, there isn't a toasted/burnt sugar that can be considered caramely. The jasmine, like I mentioned before, is there. The juice is the color of Mott's apple juice. 

VIVA LA JUICY BY JUICY COUTURE

The card scares me. They're the only brand to include pictures of the notes: mandarin, gardenia, and caramel. It's the white serif font on hot pink for me. Smells coconutty. There is a bitter, plasticky, and artificial quality. It smells exactly like a burning candle and the smoke that comes from blowing out the flame. There is more bitterness ("caramel") in this fragrance than in Perfect Absolute. Surprisingly, not that saccharine sweet. The gardenia isn't prominent. The mandarin is more prominent than the gardenia. 

FOR HER EDT NARCISO RODRIGUEZ

OMG. I found a cheaper dupe for Ylang 49 by Le Labo. Super floral, sultry, and musky, though not as powerful as Le Labo's. A little powdery. The EDT smells more like ylang-ylang, lily of the valley, and bits of iris than the orange blossom and osmanthus that it's supposed to smell like. This is a hit for me. Best fragrance I received from this sample box. Though I must concede this is a more mature perfume. I can pull it off if I were the age people assume I am... Getting called ma'am by a boy just a couple of years younger than you. Getting called auntie in Chinese by a thirty-something-year-old who asked if she still needed contraception when she was pregnant... I'm in my mid-twenties! 

You know what? I can pull it off. Time to get Givenchy L'Interdit back in rotation. I am in my Madame era.

LA VIE EST BELLE BY LANCÔME

Just when I finally got rid of my previous sample, it comes back to me. Begone, odious fiend! I don't know what it is about this fragrance that makes me feel sick to my stomach. My stomach starts churning when I smell it. First, it's sweet, then it's even sweeter, and finally, there's a musky flower under that huge pile of sugar. Powdery + sweet = powdered sugar.