Hayven

I really cannot top Franfran20's review; he was able to get more out of it than I could.

After waiting for a couple of months for the full bottles to come out, I ordered received all five. All in all, I was disappointed. Despite the saccharine-sweet visage, not all of the perfumes are as sweet as I was led on to believe.

Bloody orange did have some sweetness to it. I smelled a faint orange oil floor wax spilled on spicy leather. Longevity was poor, no more than 2 hours on me.

I will be holding onto the bottles for collective reasons; but if you are seeking a new favorite or signature perfume, I say keep walking.

I'm a sucker for packaging, and sometimes I don't make the best choices for myself when it comes to the juice inside. I was going to buy this blindly online since I had a coupon, but I decided NO--let's take a trip to the store first and see if this perfume is worth a purchase.

90% of the time, going to the store is a buzzkill for me. I think I get my hopes up, and the fragrances I test end up being a disappointment. Too Too Pretty was no exception. I don't know why I expected it to be more complex with woodsy notes and vanilla; but look at the bottle. The fragrance is not meant to be a complicated, serious, or demure perfume. It's flouncy, it's hyper, a little bit ostentatious. I smelled mostly lemon and gardenia, notes I associate with spring or summer. Although I did enjoy this fragrance, I sniffed it in the wrong season. Too Too Pretty, you're cute and I like you, but it's time to throw on a sweater and some pants. I'll see you in Spring 2013.

copied from a review I did on another website:

I didn't like the top notes when I first tried this; they smelled like tropical fruit creme brulee, which is an odd mix. The top notes went away after about 20 minutes and left a delicious, creamy coconut dessert. I was hoping the sandalwood would give the fragrance some depth, but I never detected it in my wearings. It's less complex than the original Pink Sugar flanker, but I'm not complaining. If the licorice note in Pink Sugar bothers you, give this a try. It's not a groundbreaking perfume, but I don't find it boring at all--Gold Sugar is a comfortably sweet perfume without giving your nose a full out "toothache". I find it a fitting flanker for the Pink Sugar line moreso that Sparks does.

Longevity is not as long as Pink Sugar; at most I get 4 hours of wear from Gold Sugar.

Vanille frangipanier seems to have more cinnamon to it than Tendre Madeleine; also a bit of dry wood too. Frangipanier has a bit of a clean smell; not totally gourmand based on the notes, but it's heavy enough to last for a good 4-5 hours on me. I wore it before sleeping one time, and it was the perfume equivalent of drinking chai or a glass of warm milk before bedtime--very comforting.

One of my first non-store brand/celebrity perfumes was Nina by Nina Ricci. I looked up the other perfumes in the Nina Ricci house, and I found the Les Belles de Ricci collection. I found the bottles adorable (yes, I know it looks like a turd to some, but I thought they looked like fluffy cloud castles). I knew I "had" to have them, and Amour d'Amandier was my first purchase of the flankers.

This was my first blind buy, and so far it has been my best. I am a gourmand/sweets lover, and I fell in love with this on first sniff. It's very dreamy and slightly powdery; it makes me think of youth, babies with chubby soft cheeks, puppies and kittens. Perhaps I am too old for the demographic this line was aiming for, but nonetheless I still enjoy it.

The trouble with the perfumes I have come across with marzipan/almond combination (LUSH's Snowcake and Hugo Boss's Pure Purple) is they turn bitter at some point. In Amour de Amandier, they remain saccharine sweet from beginning to end. I suppose that's due to all the fruits involved, kiwi being most prominent. Amour d'Amandier is the more innocent, adorable sibling to the more sophisticated, reserved older sister Pure Purple.

I own both the edp and edt. It is really hard to tell the difference, but the edp is creamier. The lasting power is the same for both on my skin.