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06/21/2012
Sherapop
1239 Reviews
Sherapop
Helpful Review
3
Mushy Fruit Cocktail (on my skin...)
I always try to guess the "official" category of fragrances which I plan to review on the basis of a sample vial (unlike FBs, which I usually wear many times before writing a review--since I have that luxury...), so upon initially spritzing JOHN VARVATOS, which I had been looking forward to with great anticipation, given the hype, my first reaction was: "Oriental Floral". A few seconds later: "Fruity floral". A couple of minutes later: "Floral Woody Musk". What I would never have guessed in a million years was the "correct" answer: "Chypre Floral"!
JOHN VARVATOS is truly all over the map, as they say, but not in a pleasant way. The problem for me is summed up well by another reviewer (at another site), who also demurs from the chypre categorization of JV. There's something somehow stale or old about the fruits and the flowers. Or maybe the canned fruit cocktail cubes and spheres, in their washed-out, almost pastel oranges and yellows, have sapped the flowers of their freshness. Don't know. Don't really care. Not on my wish list.
I should say that the patchouli drydown is okay, but the trajectory this fragrance follows in getting there is not a mellifluous journey--although honey is listed as a note. Rather than manna from heaven, JOHN VARVATOS is to me more like canned fruit cocktail, rather mushy and devoid of well-defined flavors.
All of that said, some of my best perfume pals love JOHN VARVATOS, so it's going to vary from person to person: try before you buy.
JOHN VARVATOS is truly all over the map, as they say, but not in a pleasant way. The problem for me is summed up well by another reviewer (at another site), who also demurs from the chypre categorization of JV. There's something somehow stale or old about the fruits and the flowers. Or maybe the canned fruit cocktail cubes and spheres, in their washed-out, almost pastel oranges and yellows, have sapped the flowers of their freshness. Don't know. Don't really care. Not on my wish list.
I should say that the patchouli drydown is okay, but the trajectory this fragrance follows in getting there is not a mellifluous journey--although honey is listed as a note. Rather than manna from heaven, JOHN VARVATOS is to me more like canned fruit cocktail, rather mushy and devoid of well-defined flavors.
All of that said, some of my best perfume pals love JOHN VARVATOS, so it's going to vary from person to person: try before you buy.
