SirenexS

"Angel"...Mugler seemed to have taken a special liking to the celestial beings & meant well, considering the later equally intense, polarizing sister with the same initial letter. Fragrances for the heavens & beyond - so special that whether they are hated or loved, they will probably never be forgotten...

Fragrances simply burn themselves into the memory in a completely different way & some have their very own meaningful stories. It's the same with Angel for me.
To be honest, I don't know to what extent it is correct to say that I smelled Angel's sister Alien first - in order to understand that, I have to expand a bit.

When I was just 18 I had a "no name" perfume that came in an elongated bottle with a silvery lid in the shape of a heart & a dark blue decorative stone, which was called something along the lines of "La Couer" & the liquid inside was bluish. It was an incredibly special scent, very different to what I had known before & I loved wearing it occasionally. I treasured the rest of that perfume, fearing I would never get my hands on anything like it again, for years. In fact, I still have the bottle today, but after time & due to the quality, it's now tipped...

I wore it really rarely, out of the concern described above. In the intervening years, I came across Alien & had my first real Mugler fragrance contact with it.
Time passed again & suddenly I fell in love with a wonderful young man. In many ways he was my absolute type - not only visually, but also as a person - no one had come close to him before. He had dark hair, equally dark eyes with a deep penetrating gaze, was "alternative / goth" if you were to call his styling, was androgynous, had the most beautiful voice a man could have & a deep spirit like a good soul. And he smelled incredibly good everywhere. So good that I think he was one of the first men I ever asked what kind of perfume he was wearing.
He went into his bathroom, I followed him & there he presented me with this blue star-shaped bottle, which I had often seen but never smelled directly. Smelling the perfume directly was also a 10/10 for me, but smelling it all on him was simply a 100 out of 10. You know how it is - people have their own smell & every perfume smells different on everyone. These two simply resulted in the perfect, addictive symbiosis for me.
Angel is a classic women's perfume, but even if the notes seem so sweet, it is somehow not clumsily sweet like a dessert, it is so multifaceted & I would like to say spicy, even if this word again does not do it justice. Neither could the other adjectives that are commonly used, such as oriental or fresh, fully describe it, it's too special & unusual for that. And I think that's why Mugler named the celestial essence fragrances this way, because they are incredible in their mysticism, almost overwhelm you with their power & splendor, but can never be completely tangible for us mortal beings...
That's why I don't find it strange that a man wore it - celestial beings are, as we know, mostly gender-neutral.
As soon as he showed me the scent & I was allowed to smell it from the bottle, my scent memory kicked in - yes, of course, I certainly knew something like that! It smelled just like the old perfume I cherished and cared for & I knew I would have to add it to my collection one day (even if it would probably never smell as good on me as it did on him).
Time passed again & even though this love had been great, probably the greatest love of my life so far - this relationship was ultimately doomed to perish in our harsh modern times...

And time, as we have now learned, dear readers - never stands still, which is how I eventually came to have my own blue star bottle.
And yes, sometimes when I apply it today, I think of him & silently send him my love & gratitude across the universe & the sky.
That's how I got my own Angel.

Once the sister of an ex gave me this piece (she is a wonderful person, we had a great relationship, she really has taste, but unfortunately this perfume was well packaged before I tested it, so I assume she never smelled it before).

I'm honestly very surprised at all the positive feedback on this.
Because this pink egg, which comes around the corner so inconspicuously as a little mini pink hand grenade, is an absolute bugbear, indeed a downright insult to the fine olfactory bulb! Hand grenade is truly appropriate here - you know those stink bombs from school that smelled so unbelievably horrible that you had to leave the room because they made your eyes water? - Yep, this is worse xD I'd actually prefer the stink bomb to this "sweetie".
Some call it a granny fragrance - I think some granny fragrances are worlds (!) better. This one is grotesque, uncomfortable, smelly, in its own way - but absolutely not recommendable! I've never met anyone who has worn it & by God I'm grateful for that haha So honestly - I'm sorry for those who seem to like it, but for me it really doesn't work.
I really don't understand what Agent Provocateur was thinking - with their lingerie & this pink design, you automatically assume that there's something sweet, light, elegant, maybe even gourmand in it & then you realize that this agent just wanted to provoke at the lowest level - nothing more. It was so disappointing, I'd be afraid to try the other versions of them...

By the way - I still have it gathering dust on a shelf. Imagine, I also took it on trips - to the flea market, in the hope that someone might love this thing after all & it's just gone for me. A woman tested it & wrinkled her nose so much that we all had to laugh, including her, even though the smell is really no joke!

As I said - I'm otherwise open to a really wide range of scents, but this wouldn't even touch the posh grannies... I guess this thing has an incredible shelf life, like many horrible fragrances. In the best case scenario, you would say "beast fashion" - I find "monster fashion from the crypt" more fitting...

Today I found a small box of perfume testers at my old house that I wanted to use up at some point. But as is the case with testers, they are sometimes forgotten. So I thought I'd have a sniff through them today.
Many of these fragrances are around 15 years old... it's amazing how quickly the years have passed & unfortunately it's such a shame that some of these fragrances are simply a thing of the past, even the brands have changed really quickly with their range.

However, I actually found a sample of this fragrance. I have never smelled the OG Obsession fragrance that Michael Mittermaier liked to joke about in his earlier comedy programs (his criticism was only directed at the advertisement, not the fragrance itself). When I look at his profile here & what other fragrances other people who like him like, he could well fall into my "prey scheme"... So I found it all the more exciting that I have this flanker here - unsuspectingly sprayed on my arm, I thought to myself that I'm certainly unlucky anyway & it might have already been tipped long ago... Meanwhile I wanted to devote myself to the other samples until suddenly - Yes, but HELLO?!?!! What smells so incredibly good all of a sudden? - I could hardly believe it; this fragrance blew me away.

Spicy at first sniff, oriental but not biting but graceful. And it continues in a similarly sonorous way with wonderful woody notes - at the beginning very very present, the whole thing has a beautiful radiance, which unfortunately fades a little over time, I have to admit, but I don't know how much that has to do with the age of the sample, as I said, I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been completely gone. But no, it's wonderful! In the finish it becomes very soft, in general it comes across as more rounded - a little sweet, woody, spicy, it radiates warmth from beginning to end like a warm embrace from a benevolent loving person. And at the very end, as I said, it is very cuddly, a slightly "soapy" touch (but in a good way!!!) Not repulsively squeaky, but purely flowery and loving). Due to the slightly oriental/woody & the cuddly touch, I can understand that many people put it in the autumn category (personally, I wear fragrances mainly according to my mood and not entirely according to the seasons).
It is a mature, adult & feminine fragrance - I would easily classify it as a 90s top model a la Femme Fatale in terms of feeling - Eva Mendes was a good cover girl for the vibe, personally Cindy Crawford came to my mind, which is not far from each other...
Unfortunately, I can't personally confirm the poorer reviews, but that's completely okay, you don't just have to wear what others like. It's just a shame that it has fallen into a bit of disrepute here, which it really doesn't have to - I've smelled many old & new fragrances that were formulated worse by a large margin!

Which brings us to my dilemma - I'm in love with shock! And of course it had to be out of production :((
( Ps. If anyone reads this & knows any pretty close dupes / fragrance twins to this - PLEASE let me know here!!!)

By the way, I want to get rid of how much this annoys me - there were some really great fragrances from the early 2000s or even 90s & before that they were a blast & my heart still bleeds after some of them that the companies took them out. And it's also so incomprehensible, as their new fragrances have often become far worse! I think that's a topic that will always give me the creeps...

Well, I hope to dust off a few more bottles of this one or a twin so that it doesn't remain my "secret obsession" forever ;)

Just the other day, I found myself in the drugstore with my niece, eagerly searching for a completely different - also pink - dupe of another popular brand for those that should now be in the stores. The sobering realization; the said dupe has not yet made it into our stores, so the La Rive range catches my eye, especially this equally pink fragrance bottle - "Her Choice". Admittedly, from reading the title, it's not too much of a mystery as to whose fragrance twin this is supposed to be. However, since I only smelled the original briefly a few days ago, so that my otherwise so good fragrance memory still seems "flexible", I wanted to have at least smelled this dupe...

Well, what can I say? I wasn't actually planning to go home with another perfume, but I was particularly taken with this dupe. In English, we would now speak of "intoxication". Because that's exactly what this fragrance did to me!
Of course, the packaging alone might make you think of a classic "girlie girl" or others might even associate it with Barbie. Admittedly, visually & from the first tones I could imagine anything from a blonde young girl to an elegant blonde business lady. But that's pretty superficial & too limited for my taste. Personally, I don't find myself in any of these categories & can still claim to really celebrate this fragrance.

But here's the detail of the first sniff: The very first thing I notice about this fragrance is always a sweet component, but it doesn't feel heavy, many apparently associate it with chewing gum, it reminds me of a kind of sweet red candy ( á la Em- Eukal) or those classic cherry children's lollipops with a paper stem ( double cherry / red cherries) - from the past.
What remains shortly afterwards, however, is a delicate yet fully rounded floral anthem that is elegant, light and not squeaky. The only drawback with such dupes is, as always, the longevity, which could be longer, but for the price you can also simply top up more often.
Overall, "Her Choice" is feminine & fresh (and this freshness is not that monotonous fabric softener fresh laundry thing that many people hype, which can also be nice here but just comes across as more confident), which makes it a classic spring & summer fragrance for many. And it's not just a fragrance for Barbies or the like, but a really nice scent for anyone who likes it sweet & floral but also simply appreciates the vibe & lightness of the seasons. Simply a well-rounded fragrance that will hopefully be available on the shelves for a long time to come, because like the aforementioned cherry lollipops of yesteryear, it simply makes you "want more".