12/06/2023
ScentNebula
18 Reviews
ScentNebula
2
A fruit-salad custard tart adrift in a sea of ambroxan
Confession: I bought this purely for the bottle. I’ve wanted a Britney Spears Fantasy line bottle for forever. I really wasn’t expecting to like it given that I'm not into super sweet fragrances. Turns out I quite like the scent, and sometimes feel inclined to wear it as a cosy comfort scent at bedtime - but it’s so synthetic I struggle to get through the first few hours until it dries down to something less obnoxious. This is the fragrance that taught me I can’t do synthetics.
Electric Fantasy opens with bright candied fruits (I can’t detect any specific fruits, it just smells like a sugary fruit salad). I don’t smell any pink pepper, and I don’t know what heliotrope and benzoin smell like on their own, so I can’t comment on their existence here. In the drydown I mostly get custard, perhaps with a little nutmeg, and then something like a vanilla cupcake. It is very sweet, and I don’t understand why so many reviewers consider this to be a more mature or unisex Britney fragrance, because to me it smells a lot like girly body sprays from my teenage years.
When I first smelled this it reminded me of a custard tart with fruit salad on top that I used get from my local cafe. It’s quite delicious, but unfortunately these yummy notes are almost drowned out by a strongly synthetic “fresh”, ozonic, plasticky note that reminds me of deodorants and cheap body sprays, and combined with the fruits, reminds me a little of watermelon. Pretty sure this is ambroxan, which I’ve discovered I can’t smell properly. Ambroxan is in lots of things and doesn’t always bother me this much, but for some reason, in Electric Fantasy it’s incredibly irritating. Like physically irritating. It actually makes my throat scratchy, which is concerning.
On the topic of ambroxan, there is something really weird about the way this fragrance performs, and I know it’s not just me because almost every reviewer comments on the terrible longevity. But I think it’s an illusion, and what’s actually happening is the heavy synthetics dilute the other ingredients, while also causing olfactory fatigue.
I can’t smell it up close, can’t even smell it on the atomiser (or rather, I smell only ambroxan, which likes to do a vanishing act). Even so, if I get some distance from it, then when there’s air movement I can smell the sillage. It fades quickly on paper but on my skin, it gets stronger with time. I sprayed it at bedtime recently, one spray on each elbow crease, thinking it was quite weak…but after an hour or so of trying to sleep, I had to actually scrub it off because it became quite overwhelming. The vanilla cupcake smell also lasts forever on clothing, sheets, etc.
Given how sweet this is, I would advise against overspraying if you can’t smell it, you’ll just give everyone around you a headache. Actually, I'd advise buying a better quality fragrance, but you do you. It is very affordable, and quite pleasant if you aren't bothered by synthetics.
Electric Fantasy opens with bright candied fruits (I can’t detect any specific fruits, it just smells like a sugary fruit salad). I don’t smell any pink pepper, and I don’t know what heliotrope and benzoin smell like on their own, so I can’t comment on their existence here. In the drydown I mostly get custard, perhaps with a little nutmeg, and then something like a vanilla cupcake. It is very sweet, and I don’t understand why so many reviewers consider this to be a more mature or unisex Britney fragrance, because to me it smells a lot like girly body sprays from my teenage years.
When I first smelled this it reminded me of a custard tart with fruit salad on top that I used get from my local cafe. It’s quite delicious, but unfortunately these yummy notes are almost drowned out by a strongly synthetic “fresh”, ozonic, plasticky note that reminds me of deodorants and cheap body sprays, and combined with the fruits, reminds me a little of watermelon. Pretty sure this is ambroxan, which I’ve discovered I can’t smell properly. Ambroxan is in lots of things and doesn’t always bother me this much, but for some reason, in Electric Fantasy it’s incredibly irritating. Like physically irritating. It actually makes my throat scratchy, which is concerning.
On the topic of ambroxan, there is something really weird about the way this fragrance performs, and I know it’s not just me because almost every reviewer comments on the terrible longevity. But I think it’s an illusion, and what’s actually happening is the heavy synthetics dilute the other ingredients, while also causing olfactory fatigue.
I can’t smell it up close, can’t even smell it on the atomiser (or rather, I smell only ambroxan, which likes to do a vanishing act). Even so, if I get some distance from it, then when there’s air movement I can smell the sillage. It fades quickly on paper but on my skin, it gets stronger with time. I sprayed it at bedtime recently, one spray on each elbow crease, thinking it was quite weak…but after an hour or so of trying to sleep, I had to actually scrub it off because it became quite overwhelming. The vanilla cupcake smell also lasts forever on clothing, sheets, etc.
Given how sweet this is, I would advise against overspraying if you can’t smell it, you’ll just give everyone around you a headache. Actually, I'd advise buying a better quality fragrance, but you do you. It is very affordable, and quite pleasant if you aren't bothered by synthetics.