Life Fresh 2013

I like big strong perfumes that you can smell all day and that slap you in the face. A close worn, skin like scent is the complete opposite of that.

This is a good mix of the two. It is a strong, long lasting scent that has a fair amount of siliage, but it's not terribly overpowering and doesn't broadcast I'M WEARING PERFUME. It's more I HAVE AWESOME LAUNDRY DETERGENT.

...which is lovely! I purchased this a few years ago as a vacation scent and have found that I continue to reach for it on summer, hot days, the clean scent fits hot sticky weather perfectly.

I found this even too chemically to recognize the underlying direction of freshness it was intended to go in. In the style of the "CLEAN" scents, this scent is obviously hoping to replace the need for showering with massive dose of the fragrancing agents from someone's favorite line of laundry soap and dryer sheets. Now don't get me wrong, there are several winners in the Fresh line, and Fresh Life probably makes a gorgeous light signature scent on somebody else. On my skin, this sits ontop and does not mix very well. Within about 30 minutes I have to make a panicked stop to the nearest washroom to remove it. It actually hurt my nostrils. I will have to go back in a few months and re-evaluate this later, but for right now it has made my "Do Not Fly List". Ouch!

I was fully prepared to dislike this fragrance, on the basis of the stereotype of those fragrances that are marketed using a combination of these words: "transparent" "floral" "aquatic" "crystalline" "clean" "white musk." You know, laundry detergent.

But this is actually a powerhouse of a laundry detergent fragrance. Clean? Yes. Fresh? Aggressively so. Synthetic? Absolutely. It's like getting punched in the nose with fabric softener. But most shockingly, I like it!

Why? Because it is neither transparent nor evanescent. It projects, and it lasts. I see it as a very good choice for a hot summer day -- and it won't require constant reapplication.

This fragrance opens with a blast of citrus, and something green. I get mostly grapefruit, but in a few minutes, some aspects of orange and bergamot. Soon, a sweet floral emerges, very like lilac, but modulated by cucumber.

The green and citrus persist throughout, but the drydown is more herbaceous than the opening. Hours later, I get lemongrass.