Betsey Johnson Too Too

I feel like I haven't reviewed a fragrance in forever, I have been so caught up in Valentine's Day products and spring collections that I haven't been writing about a few of the fragrances that I have been testing out.  Right now, I am trying to work through the pile of perfume samples that I have gotten from may past few Sephora orders and visits and start trying a few out so I can decide if I want to add the full size bottles to my fragrance collection.  I haven't yet bought a new perfume for spring and I am ready to invest in at least one or two new fragrances.  I started with the new Betsey Johnson fragrance, Too Too.  I didn't really like the original so I was hoping that this one was radically different.  The first fragrance was more of a warm, creamy fragrance and this one is a true floral so they are very different.  That fact alone got me really excited for this scent.  Then I saw the bottle on the Sephora website and fell in love with it right away, this bottle is so Betsey Johnson and reminds me why I love all of her clothing (especially her cocktail dresses). 

Too Too's bottle looks as though it was inspired by a dancer, there is an actual tutu on the bottle and this would be one of the best ones that I have seen lately to display on my dresser.  This fragrance is another one of the sweet fruity florals that have been popping up all over the beauty industry in the past few months.  This does not look good for me really loving this fragrance since I wasn't that big a fan of this type of fragrance when the trend first began and I haven't yet found a great fragrance from this type of perfume.  In fact these fragrances are all beginning to blend together in my brain and the ones that I remember are the ones that I really hated...

As of right now, this fragrance is a Sephora exclusive.  "Betsey Johnson's love of dance and her passion for flirty fashion inspired Too Too.  Youthful and effervescent, the scent is comprised of passion fruit, mandarin, ginger, and strawberry leaves.  It's all spun together with an underlying delicate pink musk that suggests feminity and warmth.  To round it out, jasmine, Bulgarian rose, patchouli, sandalwood, and vanilla add just the right touch of radiance.  The bottle is a feminine figure with a glass globe at the base.  It's dressed in a bold and playful outfit of black fishnet, a pink tutu, and lightening bolt tattoo.  The 1.7 oz and 3.4 oz eau de parfum spray bottles are showcased inside a see-through dome that is inspired by an ornament that Betsey Johnson remembers from her childhood."

The notes of the fragrance are: Juicy Passion Fruit, Pink Musk, Ginger, Mara Strawberry, Tuberose, Jasmine, Oud Wood, Patchouli, Black Vanilla.

This fragrance is very much like the rest of the generic fruity florals out there.  It starts out all strawberry and passion fruit on my skin and then as the sweetness wears off, the florals begin to come through.  The first few minutes of the fragrance are the worst, it smells so sweet that it reminds me of a generic little girl fragrance, the strawberry note is so strong that I nearly gagged after first spraying it on.  The fragrance does improve after about 15 minutes though it still isn't all that great.  The jasmine note is the next one that comes out on my skin but it isn't near as strong as many traditional jasmine fragrances were.  I really didn't know that this note was jasmine, I thought it was more of a gardenia since it is so much lighter than many other jasmine fragrances.  After about an hour, this fragrance settles down to become a light floral that is actually a pretty scent, it is just not remarkable and so close to every other sweet fruity-floral hybrid out there.  The fragrance fades out after about two hours, the base note don't help the fragrance linger at all, they don't seem to have much of a purpose in the fragrance...

This bottle is so unique and remarkable and then the fragrance inside is just neither of those things, I would have loved to see Betsey put her name on a fragrance that was truely one of a kind.  I will finish up the sample that I received of this product but this one will not be going on my shopping list for spring.

photo courtesy of Sephora