Top Notes 
Heart Notes 
Base Notes 
10/07/2022
PetitePinup
26 Reviews
PetitePinup
1
Confusing freshie that's strangely addictive
IMPORTANT FACTS BEFORE READING:
1. Tested in Fall
2. 2. Tested on Dry-dehydrated skintype
3. 3. My skin chemistry 'eats' perfume & often negates sweeter (base)notes.
One of my favourite things is going to the hairdresser's and have my hair washed. Not only does it relax me - the good ones massage your scalp in very nice ways ️- but my hair always smells divine when I leave the salon.
I've no idea what they use, I've never been able to find a shampoo and/or conditioner with the same yummy fresh-sweet smell. But that no longer matters. If I want to smell like a great, luxurious salon shampoo I now have the perfume to recreate that effect for me.
Blind buys are risky. That's why they're blind buys. But with the fragrances of the Arabian perfume houses you have little to no choice (anyone in Noord-Holland, The Netherlands knowing of a brick & mortar store that has a decent collection IRL Middle Eastern perfumes, please DM me! ) in my country, unless you're able to find - also not very easy - someone selling affordable decants/samples. I'm lucky to be quite self- aware and that covers my fragrance preferences as well. A scent pyramid will immediately tell me if this'll be "up to sniff" and usually how it'll *could* be on my skin. Only then my skin chemistry acting up or a failing quality might then lead to disappointment.
In the case of Armaf's Le Femme though... this pyramid acts so different on my skin than expected. Top notes of gardenia, orange, plum & bergamot, with heart notes of jasmine, saffron, rose and lily of the valley on a base of patchouli, white musk and vanilla; and I get shampoo? A fruity-ish sweet fancy shampoo, but still...shampoo! I've never had that effect with these notes. Honeysuckle - while a love - is usually one of the few flowers that can give me a soapy vibe, but not the notes mentioned here. Especially not with that saffron. Where is my darn saffron!?! So, yeah: confused. But it is what it is. My help N, who loves perfume and gives me useful insights with the way fragrances react on her - different- skin, got the exact same scent (that she loved). Now, two test subjects don't make a scientific study, but it is 'fair warning' at this point. (I blame the Lily-of-the-Valley!)
Armaf's Le Femme is, according to the Parfumo stats, a yearround fragrance w/ a few less votes on Summer. Now that I've tested it on my skin that pie chart comes as another surprise. Eventhough I feel strongly about the fact everyone should spray whenever and whatever they want on their body - this perfume's DNA screams springtime and Summer to me. The peach and melon scent I get - wth is up with this fragrance?? -is strong throughout the entire pyramid and only gets a little help from some flowers that are hard to distinguish, but could be a few fresh dewy, rosepetals and some...h*ll, I just don't know, but it smells "white". There also seems to be an aquatic accent. It's overall a very fresh fragrance on my skin, despite its sweetness, making it at least less expected for cooler weather.
There are however some connotations to Le Femme that make me understand the use of it in lower temperatures. One other thing I really enjoy in the relax department: crawl under clean sheets when I'm tired after I just had a shower with my favourite products- especially in months with an R. Le Femme has the scent to evoke that "just took a hot shower and now I'm squeeky clean and shoving my feet under the covers of this newly made bed". Le Femme for a rainy, stormy day ? Le Femme on a cold, snowy night? Yes, when you put it like that it not just fits but will be lovely too. I'm not really a fan of perfumes that smell like shower products. But, even though chances are Armaf's "Woman" might not be a repeat for my collection due to its shampooy scent-qualities I will definitely enjoy using it now. Little secret: the longer I smell it, the more I want to take it off my dresser and/ or put my nose to my skin. Shower connotation or not, Le Femme does have a slightly addictive effect. Another surprise...
I think this fragrance would be particularly popular as a hair mist too ( or wait - gasp - a dry shampoo!!) All the delicious salon-scented locks without having to spend time or money there? Sign me up! But for now it'll primarily have to be used on my body though.
Those were all the - slightly confusing - positives for this Armaf perfume. I don't think we need to discuss the monstrosity they call bottle, do we? I mean... stone heavy. Square-ish. Blegh faux gold. Black leather sleeve. Weird-ass useless key. Had this been a strong masculine, interesting unisex, or otherwise at least a dark, spicy female fragrance, that design would've made some sense. But this isn't just a freshie. No. It smells like frigging "model has dancing in the wind-blown flowy hair in the commercial while frolicking in a flower field". Which Armaf employee thought this was a good idea?
Darn it, now I still discussed it! Let's get to more important things, like longevity, projection and sillage (I really need to start with an abbreviation here, like LSP ). Unfortunately Le Femme doesn't score amazing here. Longevity is around 3 to 4 hours with the majority of that time it being a skin scent - a tad disappointing, but its lack of longevity is actually very common for freshies on my skin. Also with designer perfumes. Others might therefore have better results. The projection is there in the first minutes after spraying, at least armlength, but you lose that so fast I wonder if it counts. Sillage is in the same ballpark.
On me Le Femme is what I've dubbed a Travaloperfume©️ or podfume©️; meaning I need one of those cute, small refillable travelsprays so I can freshen up the scent every few hours, or more. If you checked the Important Facts above the start of the review you'll understand why I have 6 of those.
Since I consider this more of a Spring & Summer fragrance I think a disclaimer should be added: many freshies or sweet freshies simply perform subpar in colder weather and excell during the sunny days. Chances are Le Femme scores much better May or June next year. That doesn't negate the pie chart on perfumo though, with that rather large Fall/Winter chunk. It could therefore also mean it will indeed perform better at one point in time, but in this case once temperatures drop even more and we're into full Fall rainstorms and eventually the dark days that bring (Dutch) snow. If you're on the other halfround you can test my original theory;). If I notice changes, I'll edit my review (I've done the promised edit for Dirham Wardi already).
Okay, I'm off to bed now. My sheets were just changed, so I think you already know what's going to be spritzed on & around my body right about now …
Smell ya later!
1. Tested in Fall
2. 2. Tested on Dry-dehydrated skintype
3. 3. My skin chemistry 'eats' perfume & often negates sweeter (base)notes.
One of my favourite things is going to the hairdresser's and have my hair washed. Not only does it relax me - the good ones massage your scalp in very nice ways ️- but my hair always smells divine when I leave the salon.
I've no idea what they use, I've never been able to find a shampoo and/or conditioner with the same yummy fresh-sweet smell. But that no longer matters. If I want to smell like a great, luxurious salon shampoo I now have the perfume to recreate that effect for me.
Blind buys are risky. That's why they're blind buys. But with the fragrances of the Arabian perfume houses you have little to no choice (anyone in Noord-Holland, The Netherlands knowing of a brick & mortar store that has a decent collection IRL Middle Eastern perfumes, please DM me! ) in my country, unless you're able to find - also not very easy - someone selling affordable decants/samples. I'm lucky to be quite self- aware and that covers my fragrance preferences as well. A scent pyramid will immediately tell me if this'll be "up to sniff" and usually how it'll *could* be on my skin. Only then my skin chemistry acting up or a failing quality might then lead to disappointment.
In the case of Armaf's Le Femme though... this pyramid acts so different on my skin than expected. Top notes of gardenia, orange, plum & bergamot, with heart notes of jasmine, saffron, rose and lily of the valley on a base of patchouli, white musk and vanilla; and I get shampoo? A fruity-ish sweet fancy shampoo, but still...shampoo! I've never had that effect with these notes. Honeysuckle - while a love - is usually one of the few flowers that can give me a soapy vibe, but not the notes mentioned here. Especially not with that saffron. Where is my darn saffron!?! So, yeah: confused. But it is what it is. My help N, who loves perfume and gives me useful insights with the way fragrances react on her - different- skin, got the exact same scent (that she loved). Now, two test subjects don't make a scientific study, but it is 'fair warning' at this point. (I blame the Lily-of-the-Valley!)
Armaf's Le Femme is, according to the Parfumo stats, a yearround fragrance w/ a few less votes on Summer. Now that I've tested it on my skin that pie chart comes as another surprise. Eventhough I feel strongly about the fact everyone should spray whenever and whatever they want on their body - this perfume's DNA screams springtime and Summer to me. The peach and melon scent I get - wth is up with this fragrance?? -is strong throughout the entire pyramid and only gets a little help from some flowers that are hard to distinguish, but could be a few fresh dewy, rosepetals and some...h*ll, I just don't know, but it smells "white". There also seems to be an aquatic accent. It's overall a very fresh fragrance on my skin, despite its sweetness, making it at least less expected for cooler weather.
There are however some connotations to Le Femme that make me understand the use of it in lower temperatures. One other thing I really enjoy in the relax department: crawl under clean sheets when I'm tired after I just had a shower with my favourite products- especially in months with an R. Le Femme has the scent to evoke that "just took a hot shower and now I'm squeeky clean and shoving my feet under the covers of this newly made bed". Le Femme for a rainy, stormy day ? Le Femme on a cold, snowy night? Yes, when you put it like that it not just fits but will be lovely too. I'm not really a fan of perfumes that smell like shower products. But, even though chances are Armaf's "Woman" might not be a repeat for my collection due to its shampooy scent-qualities I will definitely enjoy using it now. Little secret: the longer I smell it, the more I want to take it off my dresser and/ or put my nose to my skin. Shower connotation or not, Le Femme does have a slightly addictive effect. Another surprise...
I think this fragrance would be particularly popular as a hair mist too ( or wait - gasp - a dry shampoo!!) All the delicious salon-scented locks without having to spend time or money there? Sign me up! But for now it'll primarily have to be used on my body though.
Those were all the - slightly confusing - positives for this Armaf perfume. I don't think we need to discuss the monstrosity they call bottle, do we? I mean... stone heavy. Square-ish. Blegh faux gold. Black leather sleeve. Weird-ass useless key. Had this been a strong masculine, interesting unisex, or otherwise at least a dark, spicy female fragrance, that design would've made some sense. But this isn't just a freshie. No. It smells like frigging "model has dancing in the wind-blown flowy hair in the commercial while frolicking in a flower field". Which Armaf employee thought this was a good idea?
Darn it, now I still discussed it! Let's get to more important things, like longevity, projection and sillage (I really need to start with an abbreviation here, like LSP ). Unfortunately Le Femme doesn't score amazing here. Longevity is around 3 to 4 hours with the majority of that time it being a skin scent - a tad disappointing, but its lack of longevity is actually very common for freshies on my skin. Also with designer perfumes. Others might therefore have better results. The projection is there in the first minutes after spraying, at least armlength, but you lose that so fast I wonder if it counts. Sillage is in the same ballpark.
On me Le Femme is what I've dubbed a Travaloperfume©️ or podfume©️; meaning I need one of those cute, small refillable travelsprays so I can freshen up the scent every few hours, or more. If you checked the Important Facts above the start of the review you'll understand why I have 6 of those.
Since I consider this more of a Spring & Summer fragrance I think a disclaimer should be added: many freshies or sweet freshies simply perform subpar in colder weather and excell during the sunny days. Chances are Le Femme scores much better May or June next year. That doesn't negate the pie chart on perfumo though, with that rather large Fall/Winter chunk. It could therefore also mean it will indeed perform better at one point in time, but in this case once temperatures drop even more and we're into full Fall rainstorms and eventually the dark days that bring (Dutch) snow. If you're on the other halfround you can test my original theory;). If I notice changes, I'll edit my review (I've done the promised edit for Dirham Wardi already).
Okay, I'm off to bed now. My sheets were just changed, so I think you already know what's going to be spritzed on & around my body right about now …
Smell ya later!
PetitePinup
