Saturday 1 November 2014

Silver-blue Saturdays with Narciso Rodriguez

After my morning pilates class, (see, I'm still doing it - nyah!) I had to go shopping in town today so I thought I would a pair of classic nude patent Louboutin slingbacks to a quite casual outfit for a bit of a lift:

Top: Vivienne Westwood Anglomania
Pants: David Lawrence
Shoes: Louboutin
Bag: Chloe
 I love these pants, especially the colour, it's so crisp and cool for warm weather, but they're just starting to look a tiny bit big on me - sad face!! I'm going to keep washing them and drying them in the hope that they shrink a little bit!

One of the things I wanted to do in town was try a new fragrance.  I tend to divide scents into three categories:

Work
Weekend
Romance

I don't strictly apply them to these functions - sometimes I will wear a more traditionally evening/date night perfume for weekend brunch, or bring something from the weekend into work - it's just that it's definitely more usual for me to wear my clean understated white florals for work and softer florals/woods/orientals for weekends when fragrance can be more of a feature.

And Romance...ah, Romance, you coy creature. I once achieved perfection in my Romance fragrance - Prada L'Eau Ambree - so naturally, the gods decided to poop on my head and the fragrance was discontinued.  I have been looking for a replacement fragrance ever since, with no success. I mean, I can slide in Chanel Allure EDT when all else fails but it's a poor cousin at best. It always smells like the fragrance of a much more preppy, simple, sweet girl than I am.

To my way of thinking, Romance fragrances can't be simple.  They need to present with layers: a knock-your-socks-off opening combo that hints at the deeper complex notes to come, something that immediately catches your eye and keeps you interested. 

Sadly, far too many fragrances are 3-note wonders and there's nothing intriguing about them. And amongst the complex, stunning fragrances out there, to date none of them made me think sex. Now, I'm not being crude: it is simply the case that fragrance plays a role in seduction, seduction being a beast that changes as we change.  You cannot, as a 30-something professional seduce your 40-something fiancĂ© whilst wearing Tommy Girl - it's weird and oddly-juxtaposed - and don't try to suggest otherwise.

I tend to read Now Smell This for fragrance reviews. I don't read reviews to tell me what I will or won't like, taste in fragrances is after all extremely subjective.  I don't have any real knowledge of 'notes' or fragrance families or any of that, I defer in that regard to the experts.  However, I do find that NST tends to pick out 'good quality' fragrances from the vast array of commercial sugar water for sale out there. 

Narciso by Narciso Rodriguez got a great review as a 'clever' scent, so I thought I would give it a try. For Her by NR is one of those musk-heavy scents that I've always admired on other people whilst being entirely unable to wear with any credibility myself. I was eager to see whether the latest offering from the designer would be something I could pull off - could it be my long awaited Romance fragrance?

Narciso by Narciso Rodriguez - 50ml

Obviously, a bottle came home with me from Myers! I have to say, it is a very interesting and intriguing fragrance and I think it is going to become one of my new favourites. It's not as 'seductive' as I perhaps would have liked (L'Eau Ambree, I miss you so) but it's definitely getting closer to what I'm after.  It also feels very transitional. I feel I could quite comfortably wear it on weekends as well as on dates.  

Superficially, I am LOVING the bottle, no?

If you're in the market for a new perfume, I would definitely recommend trying this. It doesn't fit neatly into any category so if you're not a floral person and you read that it has rose notes, don't let that put you off. It's something you need to wear on your skin to truly see if you like it.

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