California Rêverie Van Cleef & Arpels 2014

I blind bought a decant of this perfume because I had never tried this brand and have seen so many great reviews.

Imagine my surprise when I sprayed it on and I smelled my grandmother for the first time in many years! I’m so happy I could cry!

I know she didn’t have the money to buy this brand, but whatever she wore is super close to it. I’ve been trying to guess for years what perfume and powder she wore.

It’s all so lovely... the jasmine and beeswax and orange...

I’ll definitely buy a larger bottle, even though it won’t bring my grandmother back it certainly feels like she’s hugging me.

I'm in love. This is another perfume I'd gladly add to my collection.
It opens citrusy and then evolves in a creamy floral that almost moves me for its realism. I adore frangipani but here jasmine is something wow, crazy, it feels like having flower petals right under my nose.
Unfortunately it doesn't have a big sillage and also the persistence is not remarkable.

Wonderful concoction, neroli and beeswax with a hint of frangipani and mandarin orange. I do not smell at all jasmine here.
Sadly, no longevity or sillage. Why, oh why!

This would have been even better. Still, a great fragrance!

I have never experienced Californian weather myself, but the combination of jasmine, mandarin orange, beeswax and vanilla is very nostalgic and reminiscent of Greek summer in my mind, particularly like mountain villages on the mainland. As in the scent of night blooming jasmine, aromatic herbs, fir, dry warm stone, beeswax candles and sweets made with citrus fruits. California Rêverie smells warm like mediterranean summer, sunny, aromatic and sweet.

This fragrance is sweet and floral, slightly waxy, but still clean and light. It is not sharp or artificial, but rather soft and natural. The only negative aspect to me is the longevity, which is not very strong unfortunately. It does not project a lot either, but this can be preferable in hot summer weather. On my skin it lasted about 2 hours before becoming faint, and a couple of hours longer when sprayed on fabric.

The quality in general is similar to other Van Cleef fragrances such as Néroli Amara and Santal Blanc. In my experience most of their fragrances are on the lighter and softer side in terms of longevity and sillage, but all very clean and elegant. I own a 7,5ml vial of this, but can easily see myself purchasing a full bottle in time for summer once it runs out.

It smells so natural, the flowers combined with the citrus end up smelling like honeysuckle in spring. Gorgeous. You can tell there is some jasmine (the kind you have growing in your back yard, not the exotic Indian kind), you can smell the orange blossom. Not intrusive, appropriate even for the office. It isn't very complex, but you can smell the quality of the ingredients. The first spray was not great for me, I could only smell the base notes, but after a month it transformed into a wonderful concoction.