I love Pina Colada, Malibu and the taste of coconut. The same goes for perfumes, of course. This summery vibe and the images of sun, beach and sea that I associate with it are just great. That's why I'm always on the lookout for fragrances that do a great job with coconut. My absolute favorite and King or Queen of the Hill so far is
Virgin Island Water by Creed.
Admittedly, I have not yet been able to test many other perfumes with dominant coconut. i have
Le Beau, which is good, but doesn't come close to VIW.
Paula's Ibiza has no taste of coconut for me, with
Boss Bottled Pacific I can only sense it.
So today I was able to test Blanc Ensoleillé from Zara. I ordered and bought the perfume as a blind buy. First things first: VIW remains on the throne for me, but that was to be expected.
I don't want to make a direct comparison here, although I sprayed VIW on the back of one hand and Blanc Ensoileillé on the other for the test.
Blanc Ensoleillé starts off brutally alcoholic for me. So penetrating that it almost stings my nose if I get it too close to my skin. The bergamot is also easy to smell and clearly defines the top note. Together with the strong taste of alcohol, this gives me the scent of a caipirinha.
Fortunately, the alcohol soon evaporates and the coconut (milk) and fig flavor slowly emerge alongside a slightly retreating bergamot. I find the fact that I smell fig here rather irritating and only fits in here to a limited extent, but I don't really like fig either.
Perhaps a quarter of an hour after spraying it on, the creamy coconut flavor slowly but clearly emerges and immediately makes me think of the white round balls. I find the taste strikingly similar. In the meantime, however, there is already a hint of musk. Interestingly, the fig is clearly more dominant in this phase on the test paper, but not on my skin, where it has faded discreetly into the background and adds this somewhat "dull" component to the flavor cocktail.
Nothing really new happens for me in the drydown. It may be that the musk and something woody comes to the fore even more. But for me, the fragrance that developed in the heart note simply recedes and disappears after just under 3-4 hours.
Conclusion: Fresh from the jar, Blanc Ensoilellé is good, especially for the price, but it doesn't exactly knock my socks off at the moment. For me, the main reason for this is the lack of finesse and the rather disappointing shelf life. As I'm writing this, VIW is performing brilliantly while Blanc Ensoilelle is fizzing away.
However, I also had to let VIW mature (fresh from the jar, the performance was rather poor), and I will do the same with the Zara fragrance. And: summer is still to come. So it's quite possible that I'll adjust the ratings upwards and, if necessary, add some additional text.
LeMaleExtra
