Desirade

I found a 100mL bottle for a steal, and after doing a quick read of reviews here, I purchased. My first thought when deboxing was that the cap had cracked, but it was just the cap design. The whole bottle is unsightly to me. It's so tall and top heavy. It towers over my other perfumes and for some reason looks like Dorothy from Golden Girls to me-- taller than everybody else, broad imposing shoulders, stately and rigid. I like Golden Girls, but not in this context. I immediately ordered a vintage style glass atomizer so I can decant it out. I sprayed on a card and wasn't impressed. On the card it was very musky, and a bit floral, but nothing too exciting. I finally sprayed it on skin. It is just so beautiful! I couldn't place the primary note (I'm still new at this fragrance-ing) and after some research decided it must be the osmanthus. It is just as described, apricoty and leathery, and just plain gorgeous. I went in search of an osmanthus absolute so I could get to understand it better, and it turns out it is about $20 a mL and a very precious ingredient. I agree with everyone else that it is worth a try. It is wildly affordable and so sensual and yummy. It is sweet, but a powdery sweet, so not syrupy. The musk is light enough to recommend to musk haters as a introduction to the genre. The ylangylang keeps it fun all the way through the dry down. But it's the osmanthus that shines. Moderate sillage, and lasted about 5 hours on my skin before becoming a ylang, patchouli, sandalwood, vanilla skin scent.

A gorgeous, 80's style floriental which does indeed share some notes with Boucheron. But on my skin, the long and LOVELY drydown smells similar to a Sweeter, more cloying Ysatis. I should also add that it lasts considerably longer, with killer sillage. And in this case, I mean 'cloying' in the nicest way possible, as tribute to the very richest and most dense ylang ylang and floriental goodness! As if anything could smell precisely like Ysatis... But. Considering that nearly all of the classics have been reformulated to thinness recently, I highly suggest Ysatis lovers get their hands on a bottle of this budget beauty. It's got that same dirty-honey accord that makes Ysatis so devastating. Yes, dated. But can you imagine being lucky enough to come upon a current creation so decadent?! If so, I would buy it at once, without thought of era or age category. Gorgeousness does NOT require apology. Update - I am impressed by Kvan's assurances that Desirade smells quite similar to Revlon's Scoundrel, as advertized by that marvelous 80's icon, Joan Collins. This would indeed be suitable for her character of Alexi, but perhaps also Joan in real life.... Hard not to be impressed by a fragrance with such personality. Scoundrels this appealing narrow down the competition considerably! Summary - Lush and Heady Stupendous sillage Excellent longevity Seduction in a bottle!

This is an exceptionally good buy! Beautiful, sweet slightly incensy vintage fragrance. This is the kind of fragrance, for me, that you must wear for awhile to thoroughly enjoy and appreciate. It's all in the dry down. When this fragrance heats up with your skin it is marvelous. It is not a loud powerhouse fragrance bomb for me, it sits close to my skin but I can smell it and that's the way I like my fragrances. My family has positively commented on this fragrance as well. Nice bottle but the cheap plastic cap is just awful, a minor thing when you consider how wonderfully this fragrance performs....it's really good! February 2021 The more that I wear Desirade the more that I LOVE it! Really one of the most beautiful, best performing fragrances in my ever growing collection. A true sleeper in the fragrance community in my humble opinion. Inexpensive and well worth a blind buy if you like vintage type fragrances!

Another blind buy to bulk up an order. Holy moly what a stunner! I don't have anything that smells similar, on me this is a gorgeous woody oriental with a bit of powder which is my favourite part, I assume that's the Sandalwood. The Ylang-Ylang and raspberry are also quite noticeable in the background. Longevity is great at around 8 hours and sillage is quite heavy. This is a real winner for me. I can't believe I've had more enjoyment from these inexpensive labels than I have from the designer frags. This is really a superb power house, a true performer and I am in love with Desirade.

One day I went bananas at Ross going through their multitude of celebrity and less expensive fragrances (LITERALLY over a hundred different bottles!). I rushed to the car with my haul and spritzed this one on first and fell head over heels! Seems like the majority of my fragrances are floral or oriental floral. Anywho, I went back in to get ANOTHER bottle of this because a 100ml bottle was $8 *blink* I got 4 compliments making that run. For an very inexpensive fragrance, this is one of my favorites!