Balenciaga Florabotanica

Many of you know that as soon as I start replacing my skincare products and many several orders from the Sephora website, I then have a brand new crop of fragrance samples to try and review.  The same holds true for all the skincare and primers that I have been ordering so far this month and now we are turning the tide and I am trying out the new fragrances that have been coming with my orders.  I have been trying to get as many different samples as I can and have been using my VIB points to try out larger sizes of fragrances that I really think that would suit me.  I have been looking for a new fragrance (or three) for the beginning of summer and now I am full onto that project!

Today I am looking at the newer fragrance from Balenciaga, Florabotanica.  I have heard very mixed reviews of this fragrance and initially ignored it when it was first released.  I really like the first fragrance from this line but this one left a bad taste in my mouth when I first heard about it.  I think that I was most turned off by the fact that Kristen Stewart was the face of this fragrance, I couldn't stand her when she was in the Twilight series and her overall style and the why that she carries herself does not appeal to me.  Using her as the muse of this fragrance immediately put me off of trying it and I went right by it for several months.  I don't think that I ever would have tried this fragrance had it not been a Sephora free sample and I decided that I really had nothing to lose by trying it for a few days...

I think that I ordered this sample when the choices were not the best and I really had next to nothing to lose with trying something very new and different.  I will admit that this is the first sample that tried when I got my package because I was so curious to see what a fragrance that had Kristen Stewart as the face of it would actually smell like.  This sample came with one of the first orders that I made for new skincare and I put off reviewing it for so long since I was somewhat divided on what my thoughts of it were...I hated it at first but then liked it more and more each and every single time that I used it.  This is one of the few times that I used through an entire sample without coming to a full conclusion as to what my thoughts were on it. 

The stars must have been shining in my favor because soon after this was listed as one of the large VIB samples from Sephora and I have a good sized vial of it and have used it enough to come to a conclusion.  My conclusion - I freaking love this fragrance but have a feeling that my love could turn to hate very quickly.  And then vice versa as soon as I don't use it for a few months.  I have never smelled anything like this before and I find this to be a harder fragrance to wear...so I have a new favorite!

"Florabotanica evokes ambivalent bewitching beauty. Velvety and thorny, flirting with hemp and vetiver roots. The scent is flowery, developed on a rose note with a narcotic hemp twist. The wearer is beautiful but dangerous, like some rare botanical species.  Florabotanica is the fragrance of the Balenciaga botanic garden. It instills the brand with modernity and colors. While Balenciaga Paris paid tribute to the genius of Cristobal, this scent celebrates Nicolas’s futuristic perspective. The various facets of Nicolas’s inspiration are reflected in the bottle and outer box. The rich and surprising mix match of architectural lines, vivid colors, and venomous floral prints recurrent in Balenciaga’s fashion are translated into Florabotanica’s unique packaging.", states the Sephora website.

The notes of the fragrance are: Carnation, Wild Mint, Turkish Rose Essence, Hemp Leaves, Vetiver Roots, White Amber.

When this fragrance is initially applied to this skin, it is nose burning strong.  It literally gave me a sharp headache the first time that I used it and my first thought was how fast could I get this fragrance off my skin.  The Mint and Carnation burn my nose and the Hemp notes only add to the effect...thank goodness that this initial effect only lasts for about two minutes and then begins to fade and settle down very quickly.  The initial notes remain and then the Rose and Vetiver notes come out and then fragrance develops in a full and unique floral fragrance.  This is when I fell in love with the fragrance and wanted a bottle of it for myself.  This fragrance took me several tries to fall in love with it and I will be investing a bottle very soon.

As much as I love this fragrance at the moment, I know that I will fall out of love with it very soon and I will find it overwhelming and it will begin to give me headaches.  I will stop using it for a few weeks and then as soon I try it out again...I will be in love all over again!  This is a unique fragrance and I am on the fence as to whether or not it could be used in a professional environment, I am leaning on a "yes" since once it calms down, it is much less strong than the original burst of Mint and Carnation.

I still don't like Kristen Stewart but I do have a new love for the fragrance that she is the face of.  This will be a fragrance that I buy a full bottle of but I still feel that I will buy more than one scent.  The fragrance is best for spring and then the fall and winter, I cannot see myself wearing this fragrance in the heat of the summer as I think that it will get too strong to stand and my love will turn to dislike very quickly.

photo courtesy of Sephora

Balenciaga L'Essence

The fall weather is now beginning to catch up with us, there is a chill in the air when I go to work in the morning and when I get out of class at night.  Now that the weather is really beginning to feel like the season is changing, I have begun to look through my perfume and sample collection and see what fragrances I will be wearing over the next few weeks.  With all the Sephora orders that I make, I still have a very healthy perfume sample collection and I will be digging through these for a fragrance that I would like to start wearing in the cool weather.  As of right now, I don't have room on my shelf to get any new bottles of perfumes out so I need to try something new from my sample collection and focus on using a bottle or two up before I am able to open anything else up.  Of course, as I work through my sample collection I am sure that I will only find more fragrances that I want to buy in the full bottles...

The first sample that I have decided to pull out of my sample collection is from Balenciaga, a brand that I have never tried a fragrance from before.  This couture line only has two fragrances out and Sephora is the only place that it near me where I can find fragrances from this company.  L'Essence is the fragrance that I requested the sample of, I always leap toward ordering samples of fragrances that I have never tried or heard of before since I can always throw the sample away if it smells awful on me.  I have used this fragrance for two days now and I have found yet another perfume that I want in the full bottle size!

I found the description of the fragrance and the notes on the Sephora website so I will pull the information from that website.  "Balenciaga L'Essence captures the essence of Balenciaga Paris with added intensity.  A feminine and modern fragrance, it gets as close to the skin as leather and vibrant woody notes express an assertive sophistication.  The fresh yet coarse scent of violet leaves exudes an exquisitely stimulating sense of purity and youth.  Ands it note of vetiver, at one wild, unruly and incisive, takes the upper hand.  Inspired by Balenciaga jewels, the bottle reflects the high quality and savior-faire of the brand.  The hematite cap and a pyrite collar, both true expressions of elegance and modernity, complement the green gradation of the bottle."

The notes of the fragrance are: Violet Leaves, Vetiver, Woody Notes.

This fragrance is very strong when applied to my skin and I will need to wear this during the cooler weather, wearing during the summer would clear an elevator (to say the least!).  This fragrance starts with a strong hit of violet, it very powdery and unique.  I have never used many violet fragrances in the past but now I love this fragrance and am also looking forward to trying the Violet Blonde fragrance from Tom Ford.  This was a very new type of fragrance for me and I am seeing my perfume collection head into a new direction.  The violet note stays on my skin for several hours and next the vetiver note begins to comes out and then the woody notes come out and the mixture remains on my skin for the next ten hours.  This fragrance is another one of those that lasts forever on me and will be a great purchase. 

This scent would be appropriate for any type of professional environment, it is clean and subtle (at least in cold weather) however this type of fragrance does need to be applied in moderation.  Wearing this fragrance made me want to put on heels and a pencil skirt and this is the only way that I would wear it, this is not a weekend fragrance.  I could also see this fragrance dressed up for night, it would still work weel with crisp tailoring and great heels. 

This fragrance will go on my shopping list however as I stated above, I don't even have room for on my shelf for the fragrances that I already own.  Realisitcally, I will use the rest of my sample over the best few weeks and then I will buy a bottle to put aside for next fall and winter.  I now want to try the other fragrance from this company and see if I love it the way that I do this one!

photo courtesy of Sephora