Have you ever tried a fragrance, liked it, but didn’t think you loved it, but then found yourself “trying” it over and over again until you finally must admit you pretty much love the stuff? That’s what happened to me with Love, Chloe.Love, Chloe is a 2010 release from the recently up-and-running again house of Parfums Chloe. The Fifi awards fawned all over their 2008 release, which was good but I just didn’t understand why it was so uber-popular – was it the adorable yet classy little bottle? I guess for a mainstream department store scent all the recent Chloe perfumes have been a notch above the rest.
Love, Chloe has received some pretty nice reviews from other bloggers. It’s true, Love, Chloe is a powdery scent, but not baby powder, it’s a cosmetics-face-powder type smell. In fact, Love, Chloe almost smells like the inside of my purse – which includes a jumble of other perfume decants, lipsticks, pressed powder and some loose change. Love, Chloe is a blend of abstract florals, powdery cosmetics, with a chewy metallic vibe. Chewy -- you ask? Yeah, I definitely get a “chewy” sensation which I know has much to do with the heliotrope, powder, talc and rice notes.
Others have compared Love, Chloe to the original Chloe from the 1970’s, also to YSL Paris, Dior J’Adore and Bill Blass Nude. I do smell the slight association with the original Chloe, but for me, the fragrance it most resembles is an updated, younger and more frivolously fun version of Hermes 24 Faubourg. 24 Faubourg has a similar powdery vibe on top of a lovely abstract orange blossom. The most pronounced floral note in Love, Chloe is orange blossom. The fragrance starts off like an effervescent Flintstone children’s orange vitamin. This orange vitamin scent stays for the duration but I don’t find it unpleasant, I actually like it. I also smell a similarity with Kenzo Amour in its base, due to the chewy, rice powder and heliotrope notes. Another perfume I love with a chewy vibe is Loulou by Cacharel. I think it’s coumarin that makes Loulou a little chewy but nevertheless I wanted to expound upon this chewiness a bit more.
Love, Chloe, while completely modern has a retro 70-80’s vibe. Perhaps that’s why I like it so much. I was a teenager in the 80’s so all those sweet musky florals ever popular during that time made an impact on my growing perfumista brain. I wouldn’t call Love, Chloe classy or sophisticated like the ads with Raquel Zimmerman try to convey; instead I’d call it fun.
Longevity: good (4-6 hours)
Sillage: small to moderate (doesn’t project enormously but you can smell it on yourself)
Notes are listed as: orange blossom, pink pepper, iris, lilac, wisteria, hyacinth, heliotrope, powdery musk, talc and rice
Okay, so consider me curious. You had me at Loulou.
ReplyDeleteWell, yes. And I'd further divide it into two sub-categories: I keep going back because I strangely find myself enjoying it, and I keep going back because it is strange but I think I might enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteDans Tes Bras would be a little of both for me.
Anyway, interesting to hear you like it, too. I saw this pop up on year end lists, like a sleeper hit. I had taken note, as in "say, if I'm in a department store, I should check this out." Which is kind of a feint at trying, since I'm rarely in a department store.
But "chewy" could be my "raspy" for 2011...hooray for heliotropin, power, talc, and rice. You keep on ringing bells with references to Kenzo Amour, and (ssssh, don't tell) 24 Fauborg.
I'll search for it, with fun in mind. Thanks for the review!
I was thinking about this one, after Robin at NST said it was too ladylike for her personal taste ("too ladylike" for everybody else seems to hit MY personal wheelhouse).
ReplyDeleteBut orange vitamin, you say? The Dreaded Tang Dust Accord just kills me, so I think I will avoid. Also, not a big fan of orange blossom. Or that rice thing in Amour and HdP Violette Blanc: booooooring.
I'm looking at the list of notes for Love, Chloe, BTW, and trying to wrap my head around a similarity to the original Chloe, which I wore for a solid decade as a teenager in the 80s, and which strikes me now as a big flirty kitchen-sink white floral thing (how did my overprotective mother let me out of the house wearing that?)
Had a similar "don't think I like it, but gotta figure this out... hey, you know, this is pretty good stuff" experience with Nuit de Tubereuse. Which grew on me, once a) I stopped thinking of it as a tuberose fragrance and b) I got past that mildew aspect in the opening.
Wow, I have to try this one.
ReplyDeleteI loved it on first sniff ,loved it more and bought the body lotion. As gift sets get sold off half price I now have more . I agree about the advert for it it's more Zandra Rhodes not some woman looking like a smart business woman.
ReplyDeleteI've only tried this once but to me it smelled exactly like honey, like photorealistic, for the first stage. I'm surprised no one else is mentioning it. Maybe I just had honey on my lip that day.
ReplyDeleteScentScelf,
ReplyDeleteDans Tes Bras was one of those "keep going back" scents for me, too, but in the end I stopped going there. I couldn't get past the mushrooms growing in the basement.
Muse,
from your comments I would say Stay Very Far Away from Love, Chloe! It doesn't sound like your thing at all.
Marina,
Do try it. You might just like it as a fun and frivolous little number.
Angela,
Zandra Rhodes IS exactly it! Of course the company will always push the Raquel Zimmerman sort of sophistication, and never something quirky like Rhodes, but with Rhodes' funky fashion in mind I will wear Love, Chloe again today :) How's the body lotion, do you love it?
Elisa,
You sure you weren't wearing that Burt's Bees honey lip balm?!
But you know, it might have a honey-ish quality, because it's definitely sweet and the chewiness might make you think gooey like honey (but it isn't terribly sweet, at least not for me). Other bloggers have mentioned it, btw, I saw Octavian's review where he pretty much adores it, and Robin's at NST was overall positive and I also noticed someone (sorry, forgetting who) put it on their year-end 'best' list.
Ah, I meant, I was surprised no one else had mentioned the honey note -- making me think I need to re-sniff!
ReplyDeleteLove the body lotion as it's light and sometimes enough on itself.
ReplyDeleteI smelled this today. Kind of weird how well you described. I don't get honey so much--I guess because I'm used to thinking of Absolue Pour la Soir and Miel de Bois when it comes to honey--urine rather than sweet. I do get old Chloe in little bits and spurts, Kenzo Amour, chewy, Luolou. Make up and rice. I also smell a sort of baby powder fragrance wafting up but when I put my nose to the source it vanishes. Love this scent. Where are they generally stocking this?
ReplyDeleteBrian,
ReplyDeleteI think it's a Saks exclusive. That's where I bought it.
Angela,
I'm looking at the body lotion now...you bad, bad, person.
I have not tried Love, Chloe yet. This happened to me with Shalimar which is not my favourite. In the beginning it felt too terrible to wear. But then everything transformed in my senses regarding Shalimar!
ReplyDeleteSo for those of us in Hicksville USA, will it eventually end up in Macys and Dillards? I've recently seen the 2008 Chloe there and would rather save my pennies for bottles or decants than lose them on samples.
ReplyDelete