These scents were not impressive enough, so I couldn’t write a whole post for each of them. Featuring: Tory Burch Bel Azur EDP, Donna Karan Cashmere Mist EDP, and Versace Dylan Blue EDP.
Tory Burch Bel Azur EDP
A simple, fresh scent. Citruses and sea breeze, crisp starched white linens, a touch of sour “rocky” pears at the very start. I smell neither the peony nor the cedarwood the description promises. All in all, the scent is pleasant, but there’s no spark in it. When I smell another fragrance of this sampler set, Light Blue Dolce&Gabbana, it brings me to an Italian beach in summer faster than my Space-Time Machine ever could. Light Blue is magic in a glass vial. Bel Azur is a mediocre fresh citrus feminine cologne.
Donna Karan Cashmere Mist EDP
Its advertising campaign says, “We wanted to recreate the feeling of a cozy cashmere sweater.”
Cozy sweater my ass. I tried this one several times. It stinks — not smells, but stinks! — of old-fashioned naphthalene mothballs. Mothballs and old wet wool. I can’t understand why it’s a bestseller.
Versace Dylan Blue EDP
Firstly, this perfume doesn’t have anything to do with its listed notes. I can’t scent any of them. Secondly, there’s almost no scent at all. Only if you spray it all over your neck (on both carotids, behind both ears), then you are going to feel it. It’s like being inside a white cloud of freshness. The aroma envelops you completely, yet it isn’t suffocating. It’s all white, sometimes there are hues of pastel pink, but the scent turns back to the whiteness. It’s the scent of your classical cold cream, snowy white tenderness in a tin. In a nutshell, if you use this perfume, you are going to smell like you’ve just used moisturizing face cream. I, for one, was completely new to this concept of “clean, fresh and snowy white” — I usually choose intoxicating white flowers, leather, spices, and resins — and I decided that I definitely need something like this in my collection of fragrant impressions. This smell is a paradoxical combination of impenetrable armor and soft tenderness. If cotton balls were made of silk, they would be this smooth and fluffy at the same time. It feels so soft and pleasant to touch and yet an unbreakable shield that will protect you.
And yet, notice that I am saying, “I want something like this” — not “I want this.” I described the most magical moments Dylan Blue can bring, the pinnacle of my experience. These are but fleeting moments, alas. Most of the time, the perfume smells like “the body cream you use after shower” or just like plain soap — nice enough, but not remarkable at all. And after a couple of hours, with a glimpse of green apple and dog rose, the scent becomes more and more suffocating. It never becomes so obnoxious that one has to wash it off, and the dry-down brings some sweet woody notes. But the general impression Dylan Blue gives is too uneven, unkempt, and far from perfection.