Top Notes 
Jasmine
Bergamot
Blackcurrant leaf
Coconut
Cotton candy
Mandarin orange
Melon
Pineapple
Heart Notes 
Honey
Apricot
Blackberry
Orchid
Caraway
Lily of the valley
Nutmeg
Peach
Red berries
Plum
Rose
Base Notes 
Patchouli
Amber
Chocolate
Musk
Tonka bean
Caramel
Sandalwood
Vanilla
Theoretical Shoelace
PetitePinup
28 Reviews
PetitePinup
1
A *star* in the La Rive, and my own, collection
Wow! This one hit me like a ton of bricks, sheesh... I already had 2 La Rive perfumes (Vanilla Touch and Eternal Kiss, blegh and decently yummy respectively), but I really wanted to try a few more. They're being sold on the most fancy perfume site of my country, making me think that if théy connect their name to La Rive the others must be at least decent.
A few weeks before Xmas 2021 I decided to make sure Santa's bag would be full of delicious smelling goodies. That turned into a LA RIVE haul to be precise. (Fleur de Femme, Taste of Kiss, My Delicate, Cash, Beauty Prestige, Wave of Love, Cuté, Moonlight Lady Prestige, InFlames, and River of Love). I had plenty of testing to do and decided River of Love would be the 1st try. I'm used to certain "cheapies" needing chill time after travel and if you let them sit their alcohol clouds will disappear and their true scents appear... stronger with each week.
Angel...uhm, cough...I mean River of Love decided to show me that not every cheapie is a mess on arrival. As the 1st exception to (part of) my rule, in a very good way, it turned out to be surprisingly well crafted, and most likely had at least sóme maceration.
I sprayed on my wrist and BAM... a wonderful, alcohol-free (in smell and coughs-inducing experience I mean) scent appeared and it was Strong with a capital S! That opening is pretty much a close dupe of what I remember from Thierry Mugler's Angel. While my memory could be a tad hazy, I don't think so. Muglers star perfume is rather particular in its opening and you don't forget that.
The opening and the step to the heart and base do happen in extremely quick succession and as with most perfumes that have 101 notes I can only catch a few - none of the fruits unfortunately, at least not clearly noticeable, except a fresh bergamot that becomes a softer opening note as soon as the maceration starts. It remains, but as a vaguer citrusy whiff that disappates very quickly as a note that can be pointed out, but will soon become part of the blend.
No screechiness, no rather loudly screaming notes...I am guesstimating it's a good blend as far as my nose is a "Nose".
After the initial opening met with different incarnations of RoL over the course of 2-3 months- all pushing another note forward as the strongest. That was surprising too, as the first spray showed a full blend. Still, the maceration that happens automatically as soon as you've sprayed had quite an effect on some parts of the pyramid. At one point it was a horrifying Bergamot bomb and I prayed that would change asap. As you could read above, it certainly did.
The La Rive I have now has been steady in its scent for over a year, say since March '22 (bought November '21). The dry-down leaves me with a strong honey, that's mixed with a whiff of bergamot, luscious vanilla, some nutmeg, a soft accent of sandalwood and amber, and a sweet jasmine. On some days, influenced by hormones or diet probably, maybe climate, I get caramel, green patchouli and a bit of chocolate as well. A shame those notes don't always remain, the first description is 99% of the time the fragrance on my skin. They were actually all present in the very first sprays, clearly too, meaning that ironically the maceration brought River of Love further away from Angel, not closer.
I remember Mugler's hit being a tad more spicy, with stronger patchouli and caramel, and always chocolate forward on me. So River of Love isn't an identical twin (at least not on my skin. Not anymore), but certainly coming close.
In my humble opinion that's really okay. It's still close enough to be a decent replacement for anyone who has either little budget or who doesn't like the reformulation. If you have never tried Angel, and were just salivating over the pyramid and/ or looking for a perfume that isn't a dime a dozen with Oriental, Gourmand and Chypre accents, River of Love is also a great buy.
Besides its relative dupe quality and bizarrely low price, RoL is simply yummy and highly addictive to me. Making it worth a buy, even if I wasn't looking for a Thierry Mugler dupe (not a L'Oréal one, thank you very much).
So, what about that SPL, eh? Probably sucks for a €7 perfume, right?
Wrong! In the very beginning it seemed to lose the intense projection it had at the start. To be fair: I had just opened the bottle. And indeed, once RoL calmed down and became the scent I have had for over a year it also performed steadily. Steadily above average.
I sometimes get anosmic to the smell (strangely enough not every single time), but have learnt that others can still smell me just fine. The scent projects at armlength (don't know about sillage, alas) and beyond that in the first two hours. Also, the longevity is really good. I have very dry, perfume eating skin and can count the fragrances that last beyond the 3-4hr mark on one hand (I have 180 perfumes atm and about to do a haul soon, as I'm planning to sell off about 1/3rd of my collection).
La Rive's little star stays with me for about 6hrs before it turns into a very soft skin scent. And I don't even need to overspray as is normal with most of my fragrances. Layering with, for example, a honey, jasmine or chocolate scent - oil or edp - helps to boost that to more than a full workday, including your travel time. The real Angel, Thierry's Angel, stayed longer, thrice as long, yes. But expecting the same quality of a 7 euro fragrance as its 100+ euro counterpart is, quite frankly, asinine behaviour. And ridiculous. RoL performs great and I'm going to assume that it'll be an absolute gem in SPL terms on most people with normal skin. Beastmode, I assume not. But certainly one to stay, stay, stay... and not to overspray!
For the price I'm truly amazed what you're getting. I hope La Rive will keep the prices low and not suddenly kick them up while messing with formulas like some other dupe houses I know (Zara *cough* Zara). I know by now that this is going to be a keeper. And with my bottle closing on empty I'm already looking for a new one.
Season wise this La Rive is definitely suited to the colder months for most people. Even though I'm a live and let live kinda person and think you should wear - clothes and perfume - whatever you want, whenever you want, I have noticed River of Love is simply too much on a warm day when the temperature reaches 20, 25 and up in degrees Celcius. It's why I wear it the other three seasons (or on those typical Dutch cold, rainy, windy summer days), though I'm sure many won't use it in spring either. I do like it the most in Autumn and Winter. It's when I prefer to wear my gourmand-like fragrances. But you do you.
I definitely recommend River of Love to anyone, whether you can afford niche or barely have a euro to scratch your behind. Of all the La Rive's I bought it's one of the few that has ended up in my regular collection (ones that remain there for years). I'm about to test a fancy-schmancy dupe for Angel soon (€52/100ml as opposed to €7/90ml) if I can get all the funds together, mostly because A. RoL only has 3 more days in him B. the packaging of this new perfume is divine, and C. I'm very curious how different it'll be on my skin. With those gazillion notes it wouldn't be that surprising if the Maison Des Rêves I'm talking about smells entirely dissimilar to River. Whether it does, or not, a second bottle of this just reviewed delicious blue liquid will absolutely find its way to me again!
A few weeks before Xmas 2021 I decided to make sure Santa's bag would be full of delicious smelling goodies. That turned into a LA RIVE haul to be precise. (Fleur de Femme, Taste of Kiss, My Delicate, Cash, Beauty Prestige, Wave of Love, Cuté, Moonlight Lady Prestige, InFlames, and River of Love). I had plenty of testing to do and decided River of Love would be the 1st try. I'm used to certain "cheapies" needing chill time after travel and if you let them sit their alcohol clouds will disappear and their true scents appear... stronger with each week.
Angel...uhm, cough...I mean River of Love decided to show me that not every cheapie is a mess on arrival. As the 1st exception to (part of) my rule, in a very good way, it turned out to be surprisingly well crafted, and most likely had at least sóme maceration.
I sprayed on my wrist and BAM... a wonderful, alcohol-free (in smell and coughs-inducing experience I mean) scent appeared and it was Strong with a capital S! That opening is pretty much a close dupe of what I remember from Thierry Mugler's Angel. While my memory could be a tad hazy, I don't think so. Muglers star perfume is rather particular in its opening and you don't forget that.
The opening and the step to the heart and base do happen in extremely quick succession and as with most perfumes that have 101 notes I can only catch a few - none of the fruits unfortunately, at least not clearly noticeable, except a fresh bergamot that becomes a softer opening note as soon as the maceration starts. It remains, but as a vaguer citrusy whiff that disappates very quickly as a note that can be pointed out, but will soon become part of the blend.
No screechiness, no rather loudly screaming notes...I am guesstimating it's a good blend as far as my nose is a "Nose".
After the initial opening met with different incarnations of RoL over the course of 2-3 months- all pushing another note forward as the strongest. That was surprising too, as the first spray showed a full blend. Still, the maceration that happens automatically as soon as you've sprayed had quite an effect on some parts of the pyramid. At one point it was a horrifying Bergamot bomb and I prayed that would change asap. As you could read above, it certainly did.
The La Rive I have now has been steady in its scent for over a year, say since March '22 (bought November '21). The dry-down leaves me with a strong honey, that's mixed with a whiff of bergamot, luscious vanilla, some nutmeg, a soft accent of sandalwood and amber, and a sweet jasmine. On some days, influenced by hormones or diet probably, maybe climate, I get caramel, green patchouli and a bit of chocolate as well. A shame those notes don't always remain, the first description is 99% of the time the fragrance on my skin. They were actually all present in the very first sprays, clearly too, meaning that ironically the maceration brought River of Love further away from Angel, not closer.
I remember Mugler's hit being a tad more spicy, with stronger patchouli and caramel, and always chocolate forward on me. So River of Love isn't an identical twin (at least not on my skin. Not anymore), but certainly coming close.
In my humble opinion that's really okay. It's still close enough to be a decent replacement for anyone who has either little budget or who doesn't like the reformulation. If you have never tried Angel, and were just salivating over the pyramid and/ or looking for a perfume that isn't a dime a dozen with Oriental, Gourmand and Chypre accents, River of Love is also a great buy.
Besides its relative dupe quality and bizarrely low price, RoL is simply yummy and highly addictive to me. Making it worth a buy, even if I wasn't looking for a Thierry Mugler dupe (not a L'Oréal one, thank you very much).
So, what about that SPL, eh? Probably sucks for a €7 perfume, right?
Wrong! In the very beginning it seemed to lose the intense projection it had at the start. To be fair: I had just opened the bottle. And indeed, once RoL calmed down and became the scent I have had for over a year it also performed steadily. Steadily above average.
I sometimes get anosmic to the smell (strangely enough not every single time), but have learnt that others can still smell me just fine. The scent projects at armlength (don't know about sillage, alas) and beyond that in the first two hours. Also, the longevity is really good. I have very dry, perfume eating skin and can count the fragrances that last beyond the 3-4hr mark on one hand (I have 180 perfumes atm and about to do a haul soon, as I'm planning to sell off about 1/3rd of my collection).
La Rive's little star stays with me for about 6hrs before it turns into a very soft skin scent. And I don't even need to overspray as is normal with most of my fragrances. Layering with, for example, a honey, jasmine or chocolate scent - oil or edp - helps to boost that to more than a full workday, including your travel time. The real Angel, Thierry's Angel, stayed longer, thrice as long, yes. But expecting the same quality of a 7 euro fragrance as its 100+ euro counterpart is, quite frankly, asinine behaviour. And ridiculous. RoL performs great and I'm going to assume that it'll be an absolute gem in SPL terms on most people with normal skin. Beastmode, I assume not. But certainly one to stay, stay, stay... and not to overspray!
For the price I'm truly amazed what you're getting. I hope La Rive will keep the prices low and not suddenly kick them up while messing with formulas like some other dupe houses I know (Zara *cough* Zara). I know by now that this is going to be a keeper. And with my bottle closing on empty I'm already looking for a new one.
Season wise this La Rive is definitely suited to the colder months for most people. Even though I'm a live and let live kinda person and think you should wear - clothes and perfume - whatever you want, whenever you want, I have noticed River of Love is simply too much on a warm day when the temperature reaches 20, 25 and up in degrees Celcius. It's why I wear it the other three seasons (or on those typical Dutch cold, rainy, windy summer days), though I'm sure many won't use it in spring either. I do like it the most in Autumn and Winter. It's when I prefer to wear my gourmand-like fragrances. But you do you.
I definitely recommend River of Love to anyone, whether you can afford niche or barely have a euro to scratch your behind. Of all the La Rive's I bought it's one of the few that has ended up in my regular collection (ones that remain there for years). I'm about to test a fancy-schmancy dupe for Angel soon (€52/100ml as opposed to €7/90ml) if I can get all the funds together, mostly because A. RoL only has 3 more days in him B. the packaging of this new perfume is divine, and C. I'm very curious how different it'll be on my skin. With those gazillion notes it wouldn't be that surprising if the Maison Des Rêves I'm talking about smells entirely dissimilar to River. Whether it does, or not, a second bottle of this just reviewed delicious blue liquid will absolutely find its way to me again!
Precious
RossiFee
Heikeso
Estefania
MisterRossi
Sublim22
Ayana
Taderfit
Wiesenblume
Annke
