Cacharel
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The initial spray delivers an aggressive burst of blackcurrant that immediately dominates, backed by a citrus medley where grapefruit's bitterness provides the only respite from the oncoming sweetness. Cassia adds a subtle warmth, though it's barely perceptible through the fruit haze that smells somewhere between a teenager's body mist and premium cordial.
Jasmine and rose emerge after fifteen minutes, though they arrive already candied, their natural indolic qualities smoothed away by apricot's peachy sweetness and a lily accord that reads more functional than decorative. The florals feel less like individual blooms and more like a unified fruit-flower syrup, pleasant if you embrace the artifice, cloying if you don't.
Vanilla and tonka bean create a predictable sweet skin scent that's comforting in its familiarity, whilst amber adds a golden warmth that almost tricks you into thinking there's depth here. The cedar and musk are ghost notes at best, leaving you with what amounts to sweetened skin—soft, uncomplicated, and entirely unapologetic about what it is.
Amor Amor is Laurent Bruyère's study in maximalist fruit-forward florals, a fragrance that announces itself with the subtlety of lipstick on a wine glass. The opening is a riot of blackcurrant and citrus—grapefruit's bitter pith fighting for space against the jammy sweetness of cassis, whilst mandarin and bergamot attempt to maintain some semblance of brightness. There's an unmistakable synthetic quality to the fruit accord, that particular early-2000s reconstruction of fruit that smells more like a luxury body spray than actual produce, yet it possesses an earnest charm in its refusal to play coy.
As the citrus storm subsides, the heart reveals jasmine and rose swimming in apricot nectar, their petals sticky with sugar. Lily and lily of the valley provide a fleeting freshness, though they're quickly overwhelmed by the fruit-floral syrup that dominates proceedings. This isn't a fragrance for those seeking nuance or naturalism—it's a love letter to artifice, to the kind of sweetness that sticks to your throat.
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3.4/5 (79)