Top Notes 
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10/11/2023
Exciter76
76 Reviews
Exciter76
2
A Summer-Appropriate Hot Mess
Originally reviewed on June 22, 2009:
I want to love this fragrance. Really, I do, and in the most desperate of ways. Now is the creation of two of my favorite noses--one of my all-time favorite noses, Annie Buzantian--and it is composed of some of my all-time favorite notes. I have no clue what went so horribly wrong but at this present time it is all I can do to bring myself to even tolerate Now.
I do adore the work of Annie Buzantian. However, I've noticed a signature pattern in Buzantian's work where she incorporates notes that teeter a fine line of poetically dissonant and uncomfortably discordant. Typically, this fine line makes her creations works of olfactory genius; take the unexpected pepper in Sensuous, the seemingly opposed praline and patchouli in Flair, or the rose bouquet secretly spiked with cognac in So In Love. Somehow Buzantian makes the unthinkable meld in the most lovely way. Sadly she did not perform her usual magic with Now.
Buzantian and Morillas mixed what should have been the most delicious and decadent tropical elixir: tiare flower, passion fruit, lime, rum. What we are left with is a concoction that cannot decide if it is a men's cologne or a fluffy "I-just-turned-twenty-one-today" tropical drink brimming with over-the-top sweetness. The split personality of this mad scientist's perfume left my nostrils confused and offended many around me. One friend asked if I had gone through his collection of colognes and sprayed myself silly. At times I had to ask myself the same question.
Compulsively I continue to reach for this fragrance but I know this is not for me.
__________________________________________
Update: I tried to part with this one. Before I was to give it to my friend I decided to give it one last try. Though I find the top notes to be nauseating, the drydown is what made me decide to keep it around. I also found this fragrance can be steered in a more tropical (and less tropical-drinks) direction when layered with a complimentary fragrance such as VS's Forbidden Fantasy (I know, it was discontinued and may they have the decency to bring it back) or BBW's Tropical Passionfruit.
I do not hate this fragrance. I might even wear this one a few more times. However, I will not be replacing the bottle once it is done.
It's October 11, 2023 and I realize I've been scrutinizing Buzantian's work:
I didn't do this intentionally, at least not in 2023. It just happened. I left a glowing updated review for Buzantian's Pure Turquoise, but with Now Women I need to drag her name through the mud.
On paper, this should've been a hit. I was deep in a tropical-centric perfume obsession; I mentioned in previous reviews that I go through obsessive phases, like my present obsession with tuberose/gardenia perfumes as of late. There were votes indicating the strong presence of tiare, which was enough to captivate me. But what unfolded was truly horrific. This may have been the scent to shock me out of that obsession and onto a soap-driven one.
This scent triggers a kind of PTSD in me. Not because something terrible happened to me while wearing this. The scent itself and the inability to scrub it off was traumatic. I'm genuinely envious of anyone whose skin is wearing this as something remarkable.
I want to love this fragrance. Really, I do, and in the most desperate of ways. Now is the creation of two of my favorite noses--one of my all-time favorite noses, Annie Buzantian--and it is composed of some of my all-time favorite notes. I have no clue what went so horribly wrong but at this present time it is all I can do to bring myself to even tolerate Now.
I do adore the work of Annie Buzantian. However, I've noticed a signature pattern in Buzantian's work where she incorporates notes that teeter a fine line of poetically dissonant and uncomfortably discordant. Typically, this fine line makes her creations works of olfactory genius; take the unexpected pepper in Sensuous, the seemingly opposed praline and patchouli in Flair, or the rose bouquet secretly spiked with cognac in So In Love. Somehow Buzantian makes the unthinkable meld in the most lovely way. Sadly she did not perform her usual magic with Now.
Buzantian and Morillas mixed what should have been the most delicious and decadent tropical elixir: tiare flower, passion fruit, lime, rum. What we are left with is a concoction that cannot decide if it is a men's cologne or a fluffy "I-just-turned-twenty-one-today" tropical drink brimming with over-the-top sweetness. The split personality of this mad scientist's perfume left my nostrils confused and offended many around me. One friend asked if I had gone through his collection of colognes and sprayed myself silly. At times I had to ask myself the same question.
Compulsively I continue to reach for this fragrance but I know this is not for me.
__________________________________________
Update: I tried to part with this one. Before I was to give it to my friend I decided to give it one last try. Though I find the top notes to be nauseating, the drydown is what made me decide to keep it around. I also found this fragrance can be steered in a more tropical (and less tropical-drinks) direction when layered with a complimentary fragrance such as VS's Forbidden Fantasy (I know, it was discontinued and may they have the decency to bring it back) or BBW's Tropical Passionfruit.
I do not hate this fragrance. I might even wear this one a few more times. However, I will not be replacing the bottle once it is done.
It's October 11, 2023 and I realize I've been scrutinizing Buzantian's work:
I didn't do this intentionally, at least not in 2023. It just happened. I left a glowing updated review for Buzantian's Pure Turquoise, but with Now Women I need to drag her name through the mud.
On paper, this should've been a hit. I was deep in a tropical-centric perfume obsession; I mentioned in previous reviews that I go through obsessive phases, like my present obsession with tuberose/gardenia perfumes as of late. There were votes indicating the strong presence of tiare, which was enough to captivate me. But what unfolded was truly horrific. This may have been the scent to shock me out of that obsession and onto a soap-driven one.
This scent triggers a kind of PTSD in me. Not because something terrible happened to me while wearing this. The scent itself and the inability to scrub it off was traumatic. I'm genuinely envious of anyone whose skin is wearing this as something remarkable.
