Sharp

At first I get a fizzy candy like orange. Almost sweet but not quite The vanilla is there throughout. The. Orange is there but buried underneath a dusty vanilla. Very nice but on my skin it does not last long. And I have oily skin so most perfumes last a long time on me. If there is musk it is clean and vegetal not animalic.

I expected this EdP to be ... well ... sharp, full of aldehydes and galbanum, or something of the sort, but it’s not. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. It’s soft and matte, more a light woody vanilla gourmand than anything else. It’s like white almond nougat, mostly just sugary sweet with traces of egg white, toasted almond and vanilla. What makes it different is the woody aspect, as if it had been made in an oak barrel. The whole thing is underscored by white musks, not obtrusive, but filling out the composition. After my initial encounter I read the list of notes, which are pretty much in line with what I smelled, except for the orange blossom, which is minimal at best. In the end, it just ends up as a standard-issue vanilla musk with moderate sillage and longevity. I was liking this gourmand musk scent a fair amount until I read the manufacturer’s list of notes and found out that it's a sort of celebrity perfume made for an Icelandic artist I had never heard of by an unnamed perfumer working for an anonymous commercial French manufacturer, and lists silly notes like “angel skin” and “soothing softness”. Am I missing some intended absurdist artistic irony in calling a perfume full of “soothing softness” “Sharp”? In any case, when I first tried it, the concept evoked a complete blog post on silly perfume notes. It did not make me want a bottle of Sharp.

I keep going back to this in a little chic clothing lifestyle boutique in Australia, trying to narrow down my 2 favourites from this line...between SHARP & SMART. I think SHARP is winning here. This scent needs time to develop on one's skin & this may take several hours to play at it's optimum exquisiteness & to fully realise & declare itself. The first half hour I do struggle with this as it releases what I can only describe a 'vegetal fruity ' aroma...a bit like potato or other vegetable peel..weird I know but it is my nose. Several hours later I find it SO beautiful & comforting that I seriously wish my body could exude this scent forever on me. It's warm, creamy, powdery & very feminine.I do not know if this is what it's creator was aiming for, & it does take you on a journey of discovering a cascade of notes that seem more beyond the stated 3 listed here. It is a gorgeous trip for sure.

A well deserved name, Sharp is...well, sharp. To be fair, the opening is quite sharp, like a slap in the morning to wake you up. I smell neroli, very green like young leaves and twigs from an orange tree. Right when I was about to scream -I can't take it anymore!; the vanilla made its entrance bringing a needed sweetness to calm down the orange explosion. I have to say that the opening was not very inviting (to me) but then after the orange blossom/neroli mingles with vanilla and musk this fragrance became a delight. It feels like when you get a lemon sorbet and a chocolate gelato and you taste one first, then the other and then both at the same time. Very nice, unexpected.

I like orange blossom and I tried it on. At first, it's really sweet, and a little metallic, and orange blossom is intensive. After 2 hours I can only smell vanilla on myself. I would suggest it to a woman, absolutely not on a man.