Glow After Dark Jennifer Lopez 2006
2
Fruit To Lure You, Oakmoss/Patchouli Greenery To Trap You
Originally reviewed on February 20, 2012:
I’m always a bit apprehensive about perfumes in rollerballs. I am certainly not above collecting them; I have many and I think they are a great way of possessing much-wanted scents without breaking the bank. However, I do wonder about crushing the top notes due to the way it is applied. Typically, this has not been a problem but I really have to question if rollerball application had affected this particular scent.
I did not get much in the way of fruit with GAD. Secretly, I am glad. I love the occasional fruity floral but this aspect does grow wearisome after a while, especially with J. Lo’s fragrances. Instead, I got the boyfriend-bar-of-soap, Zest. Very “Zestfully Clean” scented. This went straight to greens and woods, which gave a wink and a nod to clean masculinity but not a blatant blast of men’s cologne. I really loved the four or more hours of this.
Then there is the weird drydown. I love patchouli but it is very hit-or-miss with my skin’s chemistry. Here, the patchouli and oakmoss begin “zestfully” clean but turn powdery. Like flea powder for cats, powdery. It’s weird and strong. Longevity is one of this fragrance’s strong points and, like a double-edged sword, a point of contention. I put this on my wrist at 6 pm yesterday and now, at 11:30 am and many hand/wrist washings later, I still smell it. When it smelled like soap, I was overjoyed about this. Once it hit the powdery phase, not so much.
This is definitely a unisex fragrance so do not be deterred by the oft-mentioned suggestion that this could pass for a sex-shop purchase; there is something abstractedly perverse about the bottle. Do not be especially deterred by the J. Lo name. This is all about the juice. Strange as the drydown may be I am willing to look the other way on this one. I think this might be best sprayed on clothing to avoid the flea powder scent.
It's been twelve years almost to the day (February 26, 2024) and I have some thoughts...:
I was obsessed with all things J.Lo when I reviewed this perfume. I had the CDs, the perfumes, the butt-enhancing jeans, the velour sweatsuit, the "Out of Sight" DVD and so on. I held all things J.Lo to a higher standard, including perfumes. Especially perfumes. So imagine the devastation this scent caused me, smelling of notes that—unbeknownst to me—did not agree with my skin's chemistry.
I didn't understand that somewhere along the way in my perfume journey oakmoss became an adversarial note; I was confused because it was once a dearly beheld note. More often than not, my skin amplifies oakmoss and turns it into dust and rotten leaves in a long-forgotten locked attic. I rarely get the dark, inky, and moist facets of oakmoss. I'm older and wiser and further along in my perfume journey to realize a perfume isn't terrible just because it has oakmoss; my skin is terrible for not allowing me to enjoy it for the goth forest note it is. I could feel the beginnings of such an oakmoss here in GAD, but it was hijacked by the musty oakmoss I'm often met with. I didn't get to enjoy fruits or flowers, just a dusty, claustrophobic oakmoss/patchouli combo.
At a time when oakmoss and other unabashed green notes were no longer en vogue, it was brave of J.Lo's team to go ahead and use it here. Oakmoss and patchouli together!? Bravo! Hypothetically, this should've made GAD a wonderful anomaly among the celebrity glut that was out there in the mid-aughts. But, it was a reminder that oakmoss (and sometimes patchouli) are not always friends with my chemistry. And, sometimes, that's okay. For the sake of being a little outside the norm and to introduce these green notes to a new generation, I'm okay with GAD not being for me.
I’m always a bit apprehensive about perfumes in rollerballs. I am certainly not above collecting them; I have many and I think they are a great way of possessing much-wanted scents without breaking the bank. However, I do wonder about crushing the top notes due to the way it is applied. Typically, this has not been a problem but I really have to question if rollerball application had affected this particular scent.
I did not get much in the way of fruit with GAD. Secretly, I am glad. I love the occasional fruity floral but this aspect does grow wearisome after a while, especially with J. Lo’s fragrances. Instead, I got the boyfriend-bar-of-soap, Zest. Very “Zestfully Clean” scented. This went straight to greens and woods, which gave a wink and a nod to clean masculinity but not a blatant blast of men’s cologne. I really loved the four or more hours of this.
Then there is the weird drydown. I love patchouli but it is very hit-or-miss with my skin’s chemistry. Here, the patchouli and oakmoss begin “zestfully” clean but turn powdery. Like flea powder for cats, powdery. It’s weird and strong. Longevity is one of this fragrance’s strong points and, like a double-edged sword, a point of contention. I put this on my wrist at 6 pm yesterday and now, at 11:30 am and many hand/wrist washings later, I still smell it. When it smelled like soap, I was overjoyed about this. Once it hit the powdery phase, not so much.
This is definitely a unisex fragrance so do not be deterred by the oft-mentioned suggestion that this could pass for a sex-shop purchase; there is something abstractedly perverse about the bottle. Do not be especially deterred by the J. Lo name. This is all about the juice. Strange as the drydown may be I am willing to look the other way on this one. I think this might be best sprayed on clothing to avoid the flea powder scent.
It's been twelve years almost to the day (February 26, 2024) and I have some thoughts...:
I was obsessed with all things J.Lo when I reviewed this perfume. I had the CDs, the perfumes, the butt-enhancing jeans, the velour sweatsuit, the "Out of Sight" DVD and so on. I held all things J.Lo to a higher standard, including perfumes. Especially perfumes. So imagine the devastation this scent caused me, smelling of notes that—unbeknownst to me—did not agree with my skin's chemistry.
I didn't understand that somewhere along the way in my perfume journey oakmoss became an adversarial note; I was confused because it was once a dearly beheld note. More often than not, my skin amplifies oakmoss and turns it into dust and rotten leaves in a long-forgotten locked attic. I rarely get the dark, inky, and moist facets of oakmoss. I'm older and wiser and further along in my perfume journey to realize a perfume isn't terrible just because it has oakmoss; my skin is terrible for not allowing me to enjoy it for the goth forest note it is. I could feel the beginnings of such an oakmoss here in GAD, but it was hijacked by the musty oakmoss I'm often met with. I didn't get to enjoy fruits or flowers, just a dusty, claustrophobic oakmoss/patchouli combo.
At a time when oakmoss and other unabashed green notes were no longer en vogue, it was brave of J.Lo's team to go ahead and use it here. Oakmoss and patchouli together!? Bravo! Hypothetically, this should've made GAD a wonderful anomaly among the celebrity glut that was out there in the mid-aughts. But, it was a reminder that oakmoss (and sometimes patchouli) are not always friends with my chemistry. And, sometimes, that's okay. For the sake of being a little outside the norm and to introduce these green notes to a new generation, I'm okay with GAD not being for me.
Exciter76
