Fancy gets a lot of love on Fragrantica, which is where I first heard about it, so I thought I would try it as the notes do indeed look very good, and I hoped it would be a really good fragrance for cool weather. I ordered it blindly and wore it at least five or six times. I am sorry to say that of all my blindly purchased fragrances, Fancy was the biggest disappointment.
As so many reviewers have said, it is definitely sweet, and I definitely smell the caramel in it, but at first spray and for a good fifteen minutes or so thereafter, I mainly smelt nothing but florals, which surprised me. Later, the caramel and vanilla notes became quite noticeable. I have not really tried to pick out a lot of the other notes, but I agree this is definitely a gourmand fragrance with a dash of florals and not a floral fragrance with a bit of a gourmand edge. I definitely would not describe it as an Oriental, though.
I like Fancy's deep dry down much better than its top and heart notes. In the deep dry down I still perceive vanilla and a bit of caramel, but I also perceive a nice, warm amber. It remains very sweet into the deep dry down, too. Together the vanilla, caramel, and amber are nice but nevertheless quite foodie. I am not sure I would want to live through the top and heart notes every time I wore this just to get to the base notes.
Fancy is "okay" for what it is and for its price point, but it is not a fragrance I would have purchased had I sampled it first, and that is not because I dislike gourmands. (For example, I love B&BW's Sensual Amber and Cashmere Glow.) It is because Fancy has a quite STRONG synthetic smell to it.
After smelling Fancy, I can say for the first time that I truly understand what people mean whence they describe a fragrance as smelling "synthetic." It is best to smell this fragrance as it wafts up to your nose from your arms as it does not smell at all pleasant if you place your nose close to your arm to sniff it, which is untrue of every other fragrance I have tried.
I think anyone who likes Fancy could wear it, but on the whole, I think it would suit a younger person more than an older person. The floral notes give it a bit more sophistication than it would have without them, but Fancy is not a sophisticated fragrance. I could perhaps see myself wearing this whilst working around the house or working outdoors or cleaning out the garage in order to use up the bottle, but that is about all. I would not wear it any place where I wanted to be noticed for my fragrance, though. I also do not think it would be a good fragrance to wear to snuggle with your chap because as I said above, Fancy is best smelt as it wafts toward one's nose. If your chap put his nose against your neck whilst you were wearing Fancy, I do not think he would find it very nice.
No offence to anyone who loves Fancy, but I cannot recommend it. Anyone who really loves caramel as a note may want to try this, but beware that although there is a strong caramel note in it, the fragrance is very synthetic smelling. It has tenacious longevity and outstanding projection and sillage.
If anyone wants a celebrity gourmand fragrance, I recommend Queen Latifah's Queen over Fancy. Queen is boozy and gourmand, but it does not have the strong synthetic smell of Fancy.
As a side note, and interestingly enough, the nose behind Fancy also created Thierry Mugler Womanity, which I have not smelt.
I have to agree. The initial opening is very nice, but when it gets to the heart notes, the almond, caramel & florals are entangled in a synthetic dance.
AMGMoonHalo 5 years ago