Escada
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The candied apple top note arrives with almost startling synthetic brightness—a tart, crystallised quality that immediately reads as artificial fruit rather than natural juice. Within moments, this sweetness threatens to dominate entirely, creating an effect reminiscent of walking past a sweet shop window.
As the opening's sharp edges soften, the Rosa Centifolia emerges with a perfumed, slightly powdery character that mirrors the rose flavouring found in confectionery rather than botanical bloom. The vanilla cream begins its ascent, creating a distinctly gourmand middle phase where apple, rose, and creamy sweetness form an almost cohesive candy composition.
The vanilla cream assumes dominance, becoming progressively softer and less distinct as the fragrance settles into skin. Within a few hours, only a gentle sweet residue remains—more of a scent memory than an active presence, fading to near-imperceptibility on the skin.
Escada's Candy Love is a remarkably candid fragrance that wears its gourmand intentions without apology or pretence. Amandine Clerc-Marie has crafted something that sits comfortably between dessert and perfume—think less sophisticated gourmand and more genuine confectionery enthusiasm. The candied apple top note arrives with a peculiar synthetic brightness, almost plastic in its sheen, which gives the opening an artificial sweetness that's neither cloying nor particularly refined. It's here the 64% synthetic accord reveals itself: this isn't attempting naturalism, but rather leaning into the unabashed artificiality of sweets.
What makes Candy Love intriguing is the Rosa Centifolia's role in the heart. Rather than softening the candy-coated apple with traditional floral elegance, the rose responds to the gourmand base notes by taking on a slightly perfumed quality—like rose-flavoured Turkish delight rather than a proper bloom. The interaction between the synthetic fruitiness and this somewhat saccharine rose creates an almost novelty fragrance effect, the sort of thing that appeals to those who genuinely enjoy candy and fruit sweets, not merely those performatively seeking nostalgia.
Add fragrances to your collection and unlock your personalised scent DNA, note map, and shareable identity card.
3.6/5 (136)