Forbidden Affair

A fantasy of red currant flower and sparkling fruity accords, the fragrance incorporates, for the first time, Cyclodextrin Technology. This allows the immediate first fresh topnote impression to “re-burst” over and over again for an ongoing sparkling fresh fragrance experience! The notes include lemon, red currant, blackcurrant, raspberry, rose petal accord, pomegranate, violet, cedar and musk. I find that an Anna Sui fragrance is a GREAT gift for some of my female friends who are very girly-feminine and are also a little over-the-top themselves. It might be a little loud, but it still remains classy and gift able (at least for me) :)

Just purchased this! I love it so far, and when I first tried it I couldn't help but scratch my head at what it reminded me of. It reminds me of wonderstruck by Taylor Swift, which I wore all throughout high school. Although I plan to keep it, I dont know if I will use it that much because its too nostalgic for me and I want a new essence.

One word: fruity. An alluring scent. Reminds me of a fruity wine somehow. A fair warning, this scent starts off very strong and alcoholic. Unfortunately, I have no idea how it fares for it's price since I got it secondhand. I've really enjoyed it! I like wearing it with my lolita coords.

One of my most pleasant surprises! I get rose, iris, berry, musk, sugar, and other floral notes. It is fresh and not overwhelming but sensual. It only lasted 1-2 hours on me but I hope it would have more longevity in the full sized bottle. Might repurchase.

have this in 30ml. and its finishing soon. gonna repurchase it. been using it for almost two years and still in love with the scent everytime I use it! not too headache-y and lasts till after office hours. this scent makes me feel relex and happy.

This smells good to me. Quite good lasting power too for the soft smell. I love the design. I still have just a few drops left and I plan to keep it that way. So I can smell it again when I want, though I don't plan on re-purchasing anytime soon.

This reminds me of escada perfumes and CLEAN perfums, but it also reminds me of daisy dream a bit. I think it's a beautiful scent, but I don't think it matches with the "forbidden affair" theme.

any of Anna sui fan would love this perfume,its very romantic, I get a hint of secret wish (one of my other favourite perfumes).the bottle is beautiful too.

Absolutely love. A fresh, fruity, tangy perfume. Dries down to a sweet powdery scent. Not the most sophisticated, just a fun berry scent with a little zest.

A perfume to wear to the ball! Flirty, feminine, edgy, sweet, seductive, sensual. A high-quality perfume with excellent longevity and silage.

Wow! Beautiful summer, fruity scent, so delicious! Anna suis finest! Smells like pomegranate

Husband says it smells like candy...which I think means he likes it!

The 4 reviews below this are oddly harsh about Forbidden Affair - no fruity or woody notes (what??!) .. the only perfume in the planet that creates nausea (clearly, someone who hasn't smelled enough perfumes - they should smell the 'original' Opium (now THAT really made me super queasy!) .. like stale menthol cigarettes (oh, c'mon!) .. citrus scented toilet freshener .. like cat pee in a bag of Skittles (whaaat??!), etc. Really, some of the comparisons are very laughable! Some people seem to have olfactory challenges!! Forbidden Affair is far from being a bad perfume, as those reviews imply, and in fact is a sweet, VERY fruity, slightly tart, 'girly' perfume that is quite potent in the beginning but dries down softer & warmer and, on my skin, has very good staying power, being 'whiffable' for many hours. It's also easily wearable by anyone of any age and for day & night, so it's pretty versatile too.. In my experience, this is the kind of perfume that many men seem to really like on a woman - sweet & girly, making many of them want to get closer! I got my bottle as a blind internet buy and at first wasn't too sure about it as it smelled SO very fruity & a bit potent for me, or if it would really grow on me, but I definitely didn't hate it and was prepared to give it a chance and I'm happy I did. When I wear it and it settles properly, it smells good and it's a definite grower for me. The predominant notes to my nose are lots of raspberry with tangy blackcurrant lurking behind, blended with the muskiness & cedar. In some ways this reminds me very slightly of Lancome's Tresor Midnight Rose, which I love, in that it's fruity with a little rose and, at first anyway, has a slight jamminess to it because it's so fruity'ish but the 'thickness' of that settles after awhile and becomes more subtle the longer the perfume is worn, and both TMR and Forbidden Affair have really good staying power. Also, Forbidden Affair is not dissiimilar to other fruity perfume ranges, such as the Escada range, so anyone who's into these kinds of perfumes should check this out!

I am madly in love with this scent! My nose detects the scents perfectly, and it works wonderfully with my body chemistry. I find it The delicious scent returns sporadically thru out the day due to the cyclodextrin technology does allow it to reburst when my body temperature during my workday, or with workouts. This is a fun and girly scent, but as a young at heart lady in her thirtys I have no problem pulling off this scent. I also have been getting great feedback, and lots of "what are you wearing and where can I buy it" questions. After spritzing it opens very loudly with a lemony- black current shout out. The initial 15 minutes would be much too powerful for office work, but once it mellows out it is perfect. I get a nice mellow red currant-pomegrante scent. On dry down the violet comes off sulty and sexy. Again, it does reburst with the red-black currant scent during the day anytime my temperature rises- and I love smelling that fresh bouquet. I am so glad I came across this scent! Just purchased a Anna Sui Coffret from Sephora so I can sample a few other Anna Sui scents.

This is a really great berry scent. Nothing specific ... strawberry? Blueberry? boysenberry? eh? Just berries. I understand none of those are actual notes, but I think the red & black current + the raspberry = berries of every kind wafting up as it goes on. It's also sweet without being a "heavy" scent - So, I guess where I'm going with this is a berry scent great for summer. And JUST as the rose and violet start to come out, you gotta reapply because it's that weak. I mean, you've got to reapply it while it's still wet and not even into the dry down phase. I am using this out of a mini splash bottle and I reapplied only at the elbows (in addition to my wrists), and now it's starting to make some noise. Soft and sweet noise, but it's at least talking at this point. The hubby loves it. The 13 y/o daughter loves it. The dry down is finally bringing out a light rose + violet while berry madness takes a back seat. Layered with Elie Saab's Essence No 6 Vetiver and I'm in serious love. I'll be getting a 1.7 oz and if it doesn't rotate enough, I'll pass it on to the daughter.

This perfume is a stunning fruity-floral scent that is not boring or typical. The black and red currant are very noticeable when you spray it initially, trickling down to the pomegranate smell. Personally, I'm a huge fan of these types of berry scents. I hate the red berries that seem to repeat time after time in celebrity fragrances. There is something fresh and youthful about this fragrance. I wouldn't peg it as 'mysterious' or 'seductive' like the name suggests, but great for the younger crowd. It sparks a similar chord to Marc Jacobs Daisy Dream, but I like this one a little more...maybe because it's less mainstream than Daisy. On my skin, the longevity is 3 hours or so before I feel the need to re-apply. I wasn't expecting more, because Anna Sui fragrances usually tend to fade. Compared to the other A.S. scents I've tried, this one is the most long-lasting. I would re-purchase if the price was right. I got the 50 mL bottle for under 20 USD.

This fun and girly perfume seems quite familiar to me. Maybe someone I that used to know used it as a signature scent. Forbidden Affair begins as a blast of very sweet, jam-like blackcurrant and raspberries, until it becomes... hairspray! Yup, it really does remind me of hairspray and the salon. I have no idea what note/s are creating this but I do think that it's pretty fun, although I'm just not sure how often I'd be keen on smelling like this. The dry-down is a musky-violet which unfortunately does smell a little bit plasticky. A moderate sillage that does eventually fade to a skin scent, but it's surprisingly long-lasting! Lasted for a decent 10 hours, then gripped to my skin like glue (even after a shower) and I could still smell a faint residue the following morning :)

This fragrances changes quite a bit during wear. Starts off with lots of sour berries, a bit sweet but not too much. It's very fresh and cool and pleasant at this point. After it settles, the fruitiness almost completely disappears there is a fairly strong almost masculine citrus note that develops and hangs around. It smells like lime to me, but lime isn't listed so maybe it's the lemon. I think this fragrances is all right but the name and marketing doesn't fit it. From the name, I would expect something richer, deeper and more seductive. From the advertising, I would expect something sweeter, floral and ultra feminine. This fragrance is neither. It's wearable for daytime, it's smells more serious than playful, and that touch of masculinity seems misplaced.

Like other Anna Sui fragrances, Forbidden Affair is sweet, but what sets it apart from the others is how it's not as innocent as it looks. I'd like to think of Forbidden Affair as a young red wine parading itself as grape soda: it opens with a burst of sweet (may be cloying for some) and tricks you to think that it's just that innocent but it quickly changes into something more complex. After a while, it stabilises into something that's fruity, sweet and yet fresh enough to not make you feel sick. It's demure but with an allure. The longevity is a plus too, but beware: sometimes it dries down to a very sugary scent after a few washes if you get it on your skin. Overall, I adore it, though. It's rebelliously pretty. Rating: 7/10

I generally enjoy all Anna Sui fragrances. I have a sampler set of five, but this is the first full size bottle I bought (at TJ MAXX because of the price point). Forbidden Affair, like most other Anna Sui fragrances, is light, sweet, and woody. What I would say sets Forbidden Affair apart from the rest is the sourness of this scent. A lot of people said this perfume reminds them of grape soda and I would have to agree, but the sourness give this perfume a little more depth. I really enjoy this perfume. I think the berries here are delicious and I love to put this scent on at night, before going to bed. My only complaint is that the scent does not last long on me (like most other Anna Sui fragrances).

This perfume is a stunning fruity-floral scent that is not boring at all. The black and red currant are very noticeable when you spray it initially. Personally, I'm a huge fan of these types of berry scents. There is something fresh and youthful about this fragrance. I wouldn't peg it as 'mysterious' or 'seductive' like the name suggests, but great for the younger age. On my skin, the longevity is between 2- 3 hours before I feel the need to re-apply. I wasn't expecting more, because Anna Sui fragrances usually tend to fade. Compared to the other A.S. scents I've tried, this one is the most long-lasting and the most intense with the dominant notes.

Smells VERY good. Close to Midnight Romance by Ralph Lauren. I feel like the drydown in this one is a little softer though. Which is making me like it more because sharp scents leave me not feeling well. I feel like both scents sit relatively close to the skin. They may smell stronger longer on clothes but I'm not sure as I haven't sprayed my clothes. I'd say it's definitely worth the small price you can find it for to get a smell so close to an expensive brand. I would also agree that it is in the same scent family as some Britney Spears' scents. So if you like her perfumes, you will likely like this.

The black currant gives this juice the purple vibe. Raspberry balances out this cat pee note but gladly does not overpower the composition. [I've recently grown tired of dominant raspberry notes in my collection, e.g. Ungaro Apparition, Taylor Swift Wonderstruck and Cabotine Floralisme]. Forbidden Affair goes to a cedar drydown in around 4 hours, but this has lasted an amazing 19 hours (and counting) on my forearm. It's not a standout in terms of scent. I like it, but not enough to purchase it for now. If you're a fan of the cedar drydown, go for this one.

I actually like it a lot! Much more better than any celebrities' perfumes. It's bright ,pretty and sweet but not the 'Fantasy' kind of sweet. I didn't buy it because I think it's suit for teens, like under 20? It's kinda Lanvin Jeanne 's sister perfume [I'm 22 and using that one] I wish I had this one when I was in high school T T it's so sweet and can make any girl feel pretty! EDITED: I changed my mind, so what if I'm not in high school, I'm gonna buy it anyway! LOL If you're kinda girl who smiles often this is for you, it's very suit me XD

I have a miniature. I first smell something citrusy, but blackcurrent or some kind of berry is predominant on me, and doesn't really change. The sillage is really poor; no one can tell that I'm wearing perfume when asked to smell. It's not very scandalous or complex - nothing that merits the name or concept. The way the perfume is coloured purple, and the black figures on the glass bottle kind of remind me of Lanvin eclat d'arpege. It's pleasant and can be worn by young girls, but I wouldn't pay good money for it.

Okay, lol. Thankfully this doesn't smell like a cat peed in a bag of skittles to me (lol), this is just super pretty to my nose. I'm getting grape, berries, rose, a faint musk. Quite lovely. Ever so slightly dark. I'm not expecting great longevity, which is usually a huge deal to me. But with the juice smelling this good, and dat bottle, I might, maybe, be able to forgive. We'll see! Edit - I got 4-5 hours wear out of this. Better than expected!

This is definitely my favourite Anna Sui perfume I've tried so far. It's nice, but as usual with Sui scents, it's sweet, it's young, but it's nothing special and doesn't last long. I get just the right amount of black currant: it's not overpowering the other notes for me, and it's enough that it stops the other notes making it too sweet. I don't get any lemon. I think it's fine to get on a blind-buy if you like most Sui scents.

Forbidden Affair opens incredibly sour, almost like vinegar, but once I got over that very first impression a couple minutes in, I started to really like it. Red currants don‘t get enough love, so I was excited to find it here. I don‘t get any of the black, but that’s fine by me. I also don’t get baroque gardens and royalty, just a fun little fresh-fruity fragrance that I might come back for.

*Very* fruity perfume. Mostly I think of fruit notes as fading away, but these stay strong. The raspberry/currant notes start off juicy and wet before mellowing with the fresh/soapy floral scents, but I can still smell fruit six hours later. However, I can't smell the musk or cedar and given that I really like woody notes, that's a little disappointing.

This is a sweet fruity scent that didn’t last an hour on my skin. I like it but wish it lasted longer. On my skin it smells like a doll scent from when I was a kid, candy like not fruity once it dries down. It is better suited for young girls I am in my 50s so this isn’t a good fit. I will use up the bottle I bought but won’t repurchase it.

I loved the jammy opening fizzing with sweet fruits but it somehow morphed into a scent I well know from the Body Shop: Rougeberry ...and unfortunately, it brings back sad memoried when my life was all crooked. Nice, fruity and fresh with a hint of mystery but not for me...

I picked up a little roller ball of this blind very inexpensively at a local discount. It is soft, sweet, both floral and fruity. Before I get much of a sense of it, it's gone. Fleeting in longevity and close to the skin. It's not objectionable but not special in any way.

Just got the 75ml today!!the bottle is soooo pretty!!and the perfume smells soo GOOOOD!!but it doesnt last for a very long time, my sis said that she couldnt smell it after 3-4 hrs..but i cant still smell it^^"

The bottle is really pretty so i bought it thinking i would love it due to the fruity forward notes. I was very much incorrect. Hate it. Its the only perfume in this planet that makes me nauseous.

Just got this on sale 30ml for £12 never smelt it before, its gorgeous deep fruity smell and reminds me alot of YSL parisenne its really pretty

I wish I could write a review about this but as soon as I put it in my skin, it is gone within 5 minutes. :(

Mine is a miniature dabber bought from Sasa. Upon initial application, the black currant and raspberry are the most dominant notes. About 15 minutes in, a faint rose starts emerging and stays pretty much the same throughout the course. My nose did not pick up any musk or cedar. The longevity is around 10 hours but very poor projection even in warm weather. Turns into skin scent in less than 30 minutes and I have to bury my nose to the wrist to smell it. The Cyclodextrin technology does actually work. At the 9th hour, I could still sniff the black currant and raspberry although it sits really really close to the skin. Overall a likeable fragrance but quite generic. I do prefer my Lalique Amethyst over this. May pass it on to my sister and definitely will not repurchase.

Smelled like raspberries soaked in clear alcohol for the first 5-8 minutes. First minute was extreme, like taking a shot of vodka when you first wake up. And then the dry down. Now it smells like one of those fragrance samplers you would get in magazines and you peel the paper apart to get to the scent and rub it on your wrist. Yea it smells like I did just that. It sits real close to the skin. None of these specific notes are detectable to me either over the alcohol smell except the raspberry and violet with some red currant. Kind of wanted more out of this.. not just smelling like an old magazine perfume sample. However!! The bottle and design are so pretty and I adore Anna Sui. Shes an icon!!

This simply isn't for me. I adore sweet, fruity scents but black currant is too biting. It is a distinctly berry fragrance rather than fruity. It reminds me of red-berries growing by the side of a foot-path. It is sweet, but with a spiked, sour edge. Like a sophisticated Ribena. The personality I am imagining with this is a cold, cunning but darkly beautiful woman.

I want to like this one, but it almost had a synthetic medicinal orange fragrance, which I'm assuming is the lemon! It also vaguely reminded me of "soaring over the world/California" from Disney's California Adventure. Like the ocean spray smell the puff out. Not the biggest fan, but it didn't smell bad either! Just not for me.

Light, sweet and fruity! The bottle is very cute. Fun little fragrance. But really nothing memorable about it. I like the idea and box/bottle design about it but the fragrance itself is boring and does not last for a long time. One of those "water in a bottle " fragrance.

The positive reviews sound like they are reviewing a completely different fragrance than what I have here, but no - it's Forbidden Affair, alright, but it's just plain horrible. If others get a bright, juicy, fruity fragrance from this, it must work wonders with their chemistry, and that's fantastic! On me, however, this was nothing but a disaster, and my review is intended to chronicle my experience only. I purchased this blind for $10, swayed by the pretty art on the box and black currant and raspberry as promised notes. This perfume isn't fruity, woody, or sweet, as the main accords here suggest. What I experienced at first spray was a sour and powdery blast of sickly artificial grape and rose. This was an almost instant headache inducer for me. So flat and lifeless was this fragrance, I was flabbergasted to see such an elaborate copy written for it on this site, which purports that this fragrance was made with some amount of dedication and care - completely contrary to how it smells. This does nothing to conjure up images of fairy tales, palaces or 18th century excess. This scent evokes discovering a spat-out grape-flavored Pez candy beneath the cushions of a dusty old sofa. It evokes the scent of cough medicine spilled on musty upholstery and sprinkled with ancient dollar-store potpourri. The violet quickly usurps the rose in pungency and soon the whole thing just slams my senses with overwhelming chalkiness, something I haven't had the misfortune of encountering in a perfume before. I smell absolutely no cedar, no pomegranate, and the lemon I do smell is akin to the astringency of lemon rind rather than the tart and fresh juice or flesh. It's bitter, it's powdery, it's dusty and sour and completely foul. And it digs its noxious claws into my skin and refuses to let go. I scrubbed with hand soap, I scrubbed with baking soda, I scrubbed with tomato juice. It would NOT go away. Lasting power aside, this isn't worth $60, and if I had paid $60 for this scent I would have had a conniption. It isn't even worth the $10 I paid for it. I've smelled better quality scents at dollar stores. My advice to others: if at all possible, sample this scent before you spend more than a couple dollars on it. Make sure it works for you.

Anna Sui’s Forbidden Affair is like a desperate attempt of making a ‘modern girly rose’ in a fruity floral way (which doesn’t really have much rose left), as a tribute to the floral Anna Sui’s Anna Sui (which is quite powdery pretty and I occasionally enjoy wearing). I’m not saying Forbidden Affair is bad or anything, it just its promising look and notes don’t meet the expectation I had. Ok, about the actual smell, it starts with really mouth-watering lychee kinda fresh juicy fruity smell, it smelt really genuine and I quite like it, however, it doesn’t stay more than 1 minute. Soon there’s the vigorous, acidic fruity smell cutting through the quasi-monotoned lychee smell: it reminiscent Live Your Dreams, also made by Anna Sui, quite a lot, but with some pomegranate fruitiness (I personally find it smell like rotten or going-to-be-rotten sweet-sour fruit smell, which Burberry Brit Shear also has) and some powdery undertone you can find in the original Anna Sui. Then it goes more powdery but still with the sharp fruitiness, I assume that’s the ‘’? However I find it really hard to wear and I’m more used to the traditional top-middle-base-notes dominant phase changing experience, I would expect a perfume to go ‘softer’ towards the end. The dry-down of Forbidden Affair is a disaster on me; it’s like something dirty, not in a sexy seductive dirty way, but in a literally musky dusty dirty way. It’s sweet, like inhaling solid brown sugar; it’s fruity, like the rotten ones; it has musk and cedar combo in the dry down, but I can’t smell the smooth nice or even ‘clean’ musk which I can find in floral fruities like Jeanne Lavine, Moschino Funny! , what I can smell and really want to run away from, is the weird combo of non-musk muskiness, non-floral flower smell. Somehow it reminds me of the drydown of Magnifique by Lancome on me, well, it’s not my cup of tea; however if you like Magnifique, maybe Forbidden Affair will work on your skin too. Try before you buy, since it’s not one of those easy to wear girly optimistic floral fruity out there. Also, I personally find the bottle tackier in real life (which happens to the little fairy on top of Anna Sui Secret Wish bottle too).

This perfume opens with a very strong syrupy grape or black current scent, as if I just poured a can of grape soda down my neck. However it soon followed with an lingering musky scent that smells quite nice. Within 30 minutes the syrupy smell would fade completely and leave a nice citrusy musk scent. That is when I can kind of smell other fruits. Lemon is the most prevalent, and maybe some raspberry if I convince myself. But if I trust my nose, I would say this scent has only 3 components: grape, lemon, and musk. There is nothing I hate about this perfume since I like all the notes individually, not to mention the gorgeous bottle it comes in and the little $10 I had to pay for the 50ml size. But the scent is not too impressive. However it's still a good addition to my collection because I rarely see blends of fruits and musk like this. Fruity floral and floral musk are more common. The citrus bridges well between the grape and the musk. It's like a combination of girly and sultry. Slightly contradicting but interesting. This perfume would be perfect for one of those days when I want to start it girly and innocent, then transform into an sexy being by the end of it. But I probably have to keep spraying since it doesn't last more than 2 hours on me. 6.5/10 is my score.

I wanted to love this so (cute bottle and I'm a fan of Anna Sui, mainly her cosmetics) but alas, it was not meant to be. I don't get black currant or any jammy fruits like I was expecting, but strictly a strong bathroom-cleaner lemon note that is extremely unappetizing. It seriously smells like bathroom cleaner! Not what I would ideally smell like given the choice. Good thing I got this for a steal at TJ Maxx. My overall impression of Anna Sui fragrances is that they're glorified drugstore body sprays (although Body Fantasies makes stuff that smells twice as good and last longer) for 10x the price. All of them I've tried are cheap-smelling and don't last long. A shame, as the packaging is to-die-for and the notes sound pleasing. This was just a disaster for me.

Oh my god was this awful! I like Anna Sui perfumes in general I have Rock Me and it's a beautiful smell but this.. it smells like synthetic grapes and it's not good. And I absolutely love Victorias Secret very sexy but I don't know who is comparing this atrocity to very sexy because vs smells great this perfume does not. On top of the fact that it smells terrible the scent lasts forever I had to shower twice before I could get rid of the smell.

Rasberry, pomegranate and black currant seem to come out strongly. I thought it strongly smelled like blue berries, when I didn't know the notes. It definately smells very "blue" (flowers/fruits). On my skin the citrus note came out strongly too. The lasting power wasn't so great and I would recommend it more for young girls since it's very young and playful.

This scent is so FRUITY and so LOUD...If you are not into scents that are loud then I wouldnt recommend this at all. I think I like it so far, but I'm defintely not in love with it & I highly doubt that I would repurchase. I also wanted to add that this smells very similar to bbw's black raspberry vanilla except this scent is more citrusy and loud.

When I saw the cute bottle and merchandise I totally fell in love with it. I bought it in the dark, just based on the looks of it...and I kinda of regret it. =/ The smell is so-so, very common...I was so sure it would be very light and sweet...but it turns out it's not! Well, at least it's good enuff to wear it.

Horrible on me. Humid lime-rose-berry toxic. Makes me feel sad. My darling husband bought it for me cause he knew I'd love the bottle and box. I do. But I'm just so surprised it smells the way that it does.