Lovelybrutal

As a child of the early 90's, my first memories of fragrances come from the days when Angel was newly launched and was probably one of the first goumand fragrances, kicking off a new age of sorts for this type of perfume.
I seem to remember that my grandma wore this fragrance, not daily, but every now and then. Accordingly, I associate some nostalgia with Angel...long summer afternoons, the houses across the street bathed in the light of the golden hour, the old rattan bench, looking for shapes in the clouds. All that was a very long time ago and over the years, after a move, Angel also disappeared from my life.

Now about 25 years later I rediscover old scents, including Mugler fragrances. During my last forays through perfumeries I more or less gave Angel a wide berth, not because I didn't like the scent, but because it didn't match my previous prey scheme. A giant light blue star, then the name and a designer fragrance you can get anywhere?! No thanks.
But since I now also like to give popular and well-known fragrances a chance again, I landed in the endless maelstrom of TikTok with the polarizing Angel. While some love it and completely fog themselves with it, others can barely suppress a gag. I, on the other hand, am clueless and can't imagine anything under the countless notes even if somewhere in the very back of my memories Angel is stored.
So the only thing that helps is to go to the perfumery.
Once there, I have to find the tester, which was hidden behind some packaging first; finally I held the huge star in my hand and the tension rose ...
There was only a splash on the right wrist and that was enough to be honest. Directly assaulted me earthy wet patchouli (not really my favorite note) and still a lot of pungent fruit. Okay...clear case of "I don't really need that."
Again, the scent felt familiar to me, but the positive associations didn't materialize for the next few hours until the wet earth mostly dissipated to reveal a blend of cotton candy, tonka and vanilla. There's no denying the patchouli base, but all the notes seem to have combined into an earthy cotton candy. A combination that is certainly not for everyone, but is absolutely special. A whole bottle I certainly do not need, but perhaps a mini version may move in - for the occasional trip to childhood.

Again and again in recent months I crept in the department store around Amouage fragrances. The flacons appealed to me by their unique design and massive weight but unfortunately could not convince me in the "quick testing" - partly on paper, but also on skin. Something always did not fit, sometimes I even found them unpleasant.
Nevertheless, I wanted to give Amouage another chance, this time without shopping stress and the possible olfactory overload with felt 30 other fragrances within a short time.
Finally, I got hold of a sample of "Crimson Rocks" a few weeks ago.
My expectations for the fragrance were relatively high. I promised myself a sweet-floral Big Red bubble gum in a bottle. Cinnamon gum is now perhaps not exactly the noblest fragrance you can imagine, but the combination of cinnamon and rose seemed very tempting to me purely from the notes.

So I distributed 5 sprays and got first a thick load of pink pepper off, pungent unpleasant just in the direct combination with the cinnamon. Okay, clearly the top note should not hold forever, but somehow I felt not quite comfortable with it...anyway, I have to go through now.
Distracted by some meetings, the scent had time to say goodbye to its annoying top note and evolved into a warm and velvety cinnamon and honey blend with a hint of rose. Just what I needed on a day like this, gray and cold.
So I can say that I don't regret buying this sample. Almost certainly I haven't smelled something similar lately, but do I need "Crimson Rocks" as a fullsize? No, at this price, the scent has to deliver exactly what I like from start to drydown. I use my few milliliters when I want that certain dose of cinnamon again.

After reading enough praise of the fragrance online, I had to try it for myself in the perfumery. Said - done.

Only I had already tested my way through what felt like 20 fragrances that day and both wrists were already occupied. So all that was left was to test it on a test strip. Just one spray was enough and the now light brown coloured strip immediately smelled quite sweet. The aforementioned top notes of bergamot and ginger didn't come out at all. I immediately got a full blast of lavender, which turned into a warm and cosy honey-vanilla scent.

For a designer fragrance, the stick left more of an impression than I thought it would and I went online after a few days to find a good deal without testing it on my skin and ordered it.

Now that I have tested the fragrance directly on my skin a few times, I can say that I don't regret the purchase, but that certain expected extra is missing.
First of all, the ginger lasts quite a long time on me. Not that the scent is fundamentally unpleasant, but it takes half an eternity for the desired warmth and cosiness to come across.
In the end, some honey comes through, but not in the way I wanted. In the end, it seems rather arbitrary and interchangeable.

I am now layering with sweeter scents to halfway achieve the expected effect.

Chloe was one of the first fragrances I bought myself. Light, fresh, clean and yet unmistakable. I keep smelling Chloe on others as I walk by and am delighted every time, even though the scent is neither new nor rare, because for a few years (between 16 and 18) it was one of my signature scents.
For me, it's clearly dominated by a powdery rose from the moment I put it on. Quite linear without much development - but it doesn't bother me at all.

Cheap fun with a 90s feel. What do I mean by that exactly? Hard to say. For a few years now, I've noticed that heavier and heavier fragrances (that's purely subjective again, of course) are popular and heavily hyped.
Cabotine, on the other hand, is quiet and reminds me in a good way of times gone by - but without seeming old-fashioned.
The fragrance was an absolute blind buy, I mean 10€ for 100ml, what can you do wrong? At first glance I thought the cap was supposed to be broccoli, but no, it's flowers....
So my expectation was a light and floral scent. The first spray made me cringe briefly: acrid and not exactly what I want to wear on my skin. But after a few minutes, green notes evolved into a bouquet of white flowers. And that's exactly how it stays. Unfortunately, I can't make out the base notes mentioned here, but that doesn't matter. It simply remains pleasantly unagitated.