Had a chance to get a good sample of Covet today, and I really enjoy it. It's a very nicely crafted fragrance, and it's full of personality, something I really look for in a fragrance.

The opening notes are bright and spunky, with geranium leaves, green notes, lavender, Sicilian lemon, and I found the top notes fade fairly quickly and the heart notes really start to take control, and that's where it gets interesting. The heart notes have a gorgeous sweet-but-not-too-sweet chocolate note that I absolutely love, plus a blend of honeysuckle, lily of the valley, and magnolia, making the heart sweeter and gentler than the more strident top notes, but, I'm happy to report, it's not very sweet. Regular regular readers will know that I can't tolerate fragrances that are too sweet, mostly because my particular chemistry makes them go even sweeter and it can be really overwhelming. I'm happy to say that there are a few sweet fragrances I can wear, though, and this is one of them. Yay for chocolate!

The heart notes lasted a fairly long time on my skin before they started to very gently give way to the softly sensual base of vetiver, musk, teakwood, amber, and bois de cashmere. I'd like to comment on that last note. I have no idea what that might be. I did look it up, but I can't find any perfumer references to it. I suspect it might be a "made up" fragrance, in the same way that one Donna Karan fragrance has a note of "white t-shirt" and one of the Britney Spears line has a note of "cupcake". I suspect that "bois de cashmere" is meant to be a cross between an exotic wood and a wool type of scent. Whatever it is, I really like it, and the base of this perfume is a real delight to my rather picky olfactory sense.

I'm not the biggest fan of "celebrity" fragrances, I must admit. I'm generally willing to give them a sniff, but far too many of them are really lacking as perfumes, in my opinion, having no real character or style. Covet, however, is a fragrance worth getting to know. It's got personality. And chocolate. Gotta love that.

Too Many New Fragrances and Stagnating Sales Lead Some Brands to Go Upscale

I have a great deal of respect for Kylie Minogue. I wouldn't say I'm a "fan", exactly, but I recognise that she works very hard and is deeply dedicated to her career. She's also a breast cancer survivor and has come forward to speak about it, which I find courageous and I think it's using her fame in positive ways. I'm afraid I can't say the same for Darling, her perfume.

Oh, it's not horrible. I didn't want to wash my skin or anything. But it was so... ordinary. Pink, fruity, floral, been there, done that, a hundred times. Honestly, the perfume is a yawn. It has apparently become a top seller in the UK, which is fine for Kylie (as I said, I actually have nothing at all against her), but how much must this perfume contribute to the stereotype that the English are boring and predictable?

The top notes are the extremely common and entirely dull combination of freesia, lychee, and (passionless) passion fruit, followed by some other floral notes that apparently include boronia and lily. The only part of the perfume I particularly liked was the base, which is a nicely balanced sandalwood and amber, with a touch of vanilla.

I found the fragrance to be reasonably long lasting, and fairly well constructed, as these things go. What a shame that the fragrance is so very, very dull and so very, very boring. Surely, Kylie isn't dull and boring (at least, I shouldn't think so), so why would she settle for this oh-so-ordinary pink, fruity, floral when she could have had something that would really sparkle?

Maybe I'm just a perfume snob, I don't know. I mean, I've smelled hundreds of perfumes, and I've got a pretty strong sense of what I like and don't like, so maybe that's why I was so completely unimpressed by this fragrance. And my apologies to anyone from the UK (I do know that being boring and predictable is only a stereotype!) and to anyone who loves this perfume. I'm sure it's nice on many, many, many people. Just like beige skirts and brown shoes.

Eau de barrel scraping was the big fragrance of the year, with notes of Z list and undertones of desperation combined to create a new low in celebrity-endorsed perfumes.

Perfume-Smellin' Things Perfume Blog: Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh: The Gifts of the Magi in Perfumery

Wouldn't you like to smell like the Pope? Well, you can! Apparently, The Pope’s Cologne is a classic Old World cologne made from the private formula of Pope Pius IX (1792-1878). It is, they claim, made from an exclusive 150 year old formula, using the original essential oils as were used by the perfumers of old, creating a fresh fragrance with "surprising" notes of violet and citrus. (I can't imagine what's so surprising about violet and citrus, other than possibly it being a suprise that a Pope smelled like flowers and fruit?)

You can even get a free sample (USA only, I would imagine, given postal laws regarding shipping hazardous goods and flammable liquids). The website even has a collection of interesting pictures of the Pope you can smell like!