Extraordinary

So nearly two years later, I'm still blown away by this fragrance, but now I have better knowledge with which to describe it. Extraordinary absolutely lives up to its name. If there was a fault of Avon in the release of this scent, it is the fact that it was released ahead of its time. In the recent influx of gourmands and creative blends, this fragrance would be right at home . . . except that it's not a fruity-floral. So let me rephrase this: this fragrance would be right at home among niche fragrances. Had Harry Fremont pitched this differently, to a different company, it would be wildly successful. But alas, it is another Avon genius discontinued and sold for pennies on eBay. The fantastic thing about this fragrance is the blend. A brilliant blend will sell me every time, and this one has it. Taken all at once, I smell something woody, sweet, fresh, and warm all at the same time. I can't describe the scent. I might categorize it as woody or even as an oriental. But initially I would never have been able to name the individual notes. Give me a list, and I have an "ah-ha!" moment. In my opinion, there is no one dominant note. Chocolate and vanilla are present, but this is no gourmand. Black pepper and ginger are here, but this is not all that spicy of a scent. I get orange and raspberry more than the grapefruit, and they are fresh and lovely, but this is no fruity fragrance. The sandalwood carries the whole thing, and finally at the very end of the remarkably long life of the fragrance, it stands out. But up until this point, I did not find this to be a sandalwood scent. There is a hint of the orchid and the lotus, but absolutely this is no floral scent. SO how would I categorize this scent? In my opinion, it's the musk that carries it. It makes for a creamy, rich base, almost like a luxurious cream or lotion. It's not a sharp or "skanky" musk at all. It's a clean, pure, fresh musk. Two other fragrances that have this same immaculate blend with musk are mark. Bohista (another Avon fragrance), and Jil Saner Sun. In addition to the remarkable composition, this beauty has outstanding longevity. Today I sprayed once on each side of my neck and once on my left forearm for sniffing-convenience, and it's still strong at 8:30 at night. It's not overwhelming at all. Those around you will notice it for the first couple of hours at least, but I consider the silage to be moderate. And because the fragrance is so pleasant (to me), I can't imagine anyone being put out by it. I first wore this first in the spring in Minnesota. It later became my fall scent. Now I'm in Haiti and today the temperature was at a high of 90s (F) and now has dipped into the 70s (with low humidity). I think that the heat helps this fragrance to balance to beautifully. It's a full-bodied, complex fragrance, but one that I find very appropriate for the heat. Please do yourself a favor and buy this fragrance! Then once you fall in love with it, you can thank me by emailing Avon and asking them to bring this and all their other gorgeous discontinued fragrances back!

I do not always agree with the site's review at top, but in this case they nailed it. I have a high appreciation for remarkable scents at a budget price. Avon's Extraordinary fills the bill. I find this fragrance to be absolutely Extraordinary, in fierce competition (if not a clear winner) over some of the most expensive scents in the world. Champagne sparkly with cocoa and ginger notes makes for a highly interesting, unique and gorgeous blend. This is a rich and sexy frag! It is an exquisite designer evening gown with no jewelry (unnecessary, the dress is the jewelry) or a tee shirt and distressed jeans with diamonds and blingy mixed metals. It is sensually serious and fun at the same time. This frag makes me smile and lifts my spirits sprayed with no makeup wearing my sloppiest attire. Smells elegant and fitting dressed in my finest. I am happy to see this listed as an oriental as it should be. Despite the large cocoa blast this is not a gourmand. Extraordinary is not for the die hard jelly bean and choco candy frag lovers. It is more sophisticated than that and its complex blend so very well done the price is a steal. I am honestly glad some people dismiss Avon frags for fear an Avon scent be seen on their vanity or found hidden in a cabinet. I often see Avon referred to as "linear" which I disagree and think that kind of thing varies with skin chemistry. If the scent smells beautiful from beginning to end I have no complaints, as certain reactions can occur in the changelings which are not always a good thing. Avon's well done scents stand competently toe-to-toe with the finest Parisian "parfums" in the world. Avon's Extraordinary is definitely one of those scents. Lovely! Very, very Extraordinary canary House of Avon Extraordinaire!

On my usual round of thrift and vintage stores, I found Extraordinary, an Avon fragrance I wasn't familiar with from the past. Checked the notes, thought they were interesting, and knew I would buy it. The sales associate that had taken it from the display case, pulled the bottle out of the box, sniffed it before handing it to me and announced, "Oh, smells like another Avon perfume!" (Thank you for your poignant assessment, ma'am. I'll keep it in mind if I decide to make a purchase today.) Now I love my patchouli. Funny thing is, I hardly get any from this scent. But I do get chocolate. Chocolate as if I grated a bar of baker's chocolate over a warm, thick, creamy custard. It's not a sweet chocolate that's cloying, just comforting and relaxing. There's a hint of spice in Extraordinary, it's the ginger that lays very low sprinkled on the sweet patchouli leaves that are sitting on the side of the custard plate for decoration, but their soft aroma wafts upward to your nostrils from the heat of the dessert. Uplifting and fresh to start, Extraordinary's notes are blended to give this perfume a gourmand-like flair with an excellent run. A good eight hours later, I still sensed a musky scent with chocolate and spices that was soft and sensual. A very rare occurrence for me. The name, Extraordinary, along with swirling patterns, similar to a fleur-de-lis design, is embossed in gold on the back of the bottle so you can see it through the front of the tall rectangular glass. Wonderful by itself, delightful for layering and absolutely beats many other far more expensive chocolate fragrances on the market. Quite a happy purchase for me and yes, this fragrance is extraordinarily delightful.

The chocolate note convinced me to get this, but the back of the box reads chocolate orchid (what's that?) and ginger flower? Anyway first spray out the bottle is a ton of ginger and pepper, I like ginger. I waited for the chocolate to appear but it never did. How did people vote for chocolate? I get a lot of sandalwood and patchouli in the dry down. It's a nice fragrance and could have been guessed as a designer scent if I didn't know it was Avon. It's just not as Extraordinary as I would have liked. Lasts for ages and reminds me of Believe by Britney Spears. The picture here is much prettier than the actual bottle. **Update**-a few days later: (September 30th 2016) So I sprayed this on today and I got a whole heap of smooth dark chocolate just like the majority of you say! I guess a few sprays had to get out of the bottle first, due to it being there so long. My box says limited edition 2005, so it's been there for eleven years! My advice to people ordering this is to get the first four or five sprays out the way then test after. This is so chocolatey and rich smelling. Chocolate, ginger, sandalwood and patchouli are what I get and I really really like it. Makes me wish I had asked for two bottles because I am going to be using this so sparingly to have it around for as long as I can....Extraordinary indeed. Avon please relaunch this! Please! This and Today Tomorrow Always Gold.

Luxury in a bottle with one spray your addicted! the opening starts off with a blast of Rich dark Chocolate with a nuance of pepper and an unsual concoction of tangerine and grapefruit for the drying down. Ginger is easy to detect but the chocolate is the dominate note here orchid with it's semi-sweet Orchid as the suporting basis. the drydown has an bitter end with sandalwood the patchouli is barly noticable the musk makes it sexy with musk can make perfumes sexy. animalistic qualties are prevalent in one single spray. the bottle is so elegant i thought is wasn't from avon; avon are know for there tacky cheap scents but this can be a Relative to Dolce & Gabbana because it's so different from other avon perfumes. one spray i'm transported to an Mansion in Beverly Hills and the paletes of Gold and black in the Bedroom where a luxious bed with golden sheets gold and black pillows with an black canopy with gold trimmiing a tall sender woman with long wavy blonde hair with gold stletto's and a shiny golden top just there seductivly staring and eating chocolate dipped srawberries. it maybe from Avon but it's a Great Perfume.

There are a few scents that moved in my head and just live their little special lives in there rent free. This is one of them. It is such a beautiful creation, I keep searching for it on Ebay. Miss it even 18 years after I had it. Funny how this works, my skin has a taste of its own. She likes Mugler Magic, some lighter scents with a twist (jimmy choo flash, marc jacobs freshies) and This!. (Not a la vie est belle kinda girl nor a good girl type, none of that... guess we're old school, lol) Its a complex gourmand with earthy tones on me. Back when I had it, people were running around wearing DKNY classic, Light blue and the likes. I remember feeling like some fairy from the woods arriving in the city wearing this. So special. Why don't they create scents like this anymore? If this came back, I am pretty sure people would pay a much-higher-than-avon price for this magic in a bottle. Continue my hunt for this . If you ever come across one, buy it, its amazing.

Extraordinary is certainly one of these fragrances that an oriental floral lover simply must have. While chocolate note is very prominent, the whole composition does not resemble a gourmand mediocre perfume mass market. Chocolate note is entwined by the spice and earthiness of pepper, patchouli and just a hint of fruity note. I purchased Extraordinary in blind and must admit that for a fragrance under a tenner, it does the job. It generates compliments, it lasts quite a while (good 4-5 hours), it has noticeable silage (I get oriental delicious whiffs during cool weather mornings). It is most definitely a keeper for winter time, I cannot comprehend why has the fragrance been discontinued, from the reviews I can tell that it seems to appeal to oriental lovers, it possesses the quality of some of the expensive designer creations, so how about you bring it back, Avon? Notes: 9/10 Lasting power: 8/10 Silage: 8/10

Extraordinary IS... extraordinary. One of the rare instances where product puff matches the reality. How to describe this one.... To start, subtle. Intimate sillage. You’ll be perceived as smelling wonderful but no one will quite be able to say why. A Your Skin But Better (YSBB) in the sense that it could just be soap, nice lotion, shampoo, you’re wearing clean clothes. But there’s also an almost subliminal chocolate. Not, as has been pointed out, vanillic/sweet but dark and dry. Clean, comforting, elegant, approachable. Imagine a very light lily-rose, touch of lotus or white musk making it airy. Imagine under it a very light, dry, chocolate basenote. An elegant woman in a cashmere sweater who is calm, likes to do fun things, comfortable to be around. This is an extremely wearable scent. And the bottle is STUNNING!

On first spray, this was a pepper blast and I had no orange or chocolate, which is what I was hoping for. I did as another reviewer recommended and sprayed it about 15 times and that pepper was much better - I got the orange or mandarin and some chocolate, even a little orchid. As it went on, I found it to be strong on the ginger, which lasted about 2-3 hours. It has since dried down to a mildly citrus, sandalwood, slightly chocolate base. This is gorgeous. It reminds me of a homemade pomander mixed with gingerbread, very festive, and lasts at least 7 hours on my skin. Update: This has become one of my favorites in my collection. I also layer it with many fragrances, including Chocolate Ganache and it really brings out the best in Extraordinary. Beautiful around the holidays.

After the review by Champagne.Supernova0107, I was reminded how much I liked this perfume when it came out ages ago and went straight to EBay. I got a sealed 2005 bottle for less than $20 and it arrived today (so fast!) Amazingly, none of the notes have “gone off” and it still smells as I remember it. Initial blast of pencil shavings (likely from the patchouli and sandalwood combo) gives way to a deeper chocolate and vanilla adding sweetness while keeping its complexity. The perfumer behind this has also created some of my other fragrance faves (CK1, Lucky You, David Yurman Delicate Essence) so it’s not shocking that I love this one (although none of those perfumes share anything at all in common with this one). Apparently I just like his nose and ideas!

Yummy! I ordered this off Amazon because of reviews that listed it as one of the "cheap" perfumes that smells expensive. Wow. At first whiff I was thinking, "oh no, here's that Avon stank again." But then a couple of minutes later I was blown away. There's chocolate and ginger and all that loveliness, but there's also this gorgeous sandalwood that I've never noticed that way in another perfume. It is a stunning scent. I also was confused because the embossed name and design was backward, then I turned it around and figured that might be the intended way to view the name (through the perfume) so I guess it was ok.

Avon Extraordinary lives up to its name. When I wear it, I am surrounded by a creamy sweet peppery cloud that is feminine and sophisticated without being too heavy. The champagne notes lift the heaviness of the woods making it fine for day or evening. The chocolate notes are intoxicating. It is at once sweet, but not cloying or girly; peppery and woodsy without being masculine (although I think that some men could actually wear this quite well.) It's not a hot weather scent, since this fragrance is probably too musky and peppery for that time of year, but overall, it's one of Avon's winners.

I really enjoy this one. I was on the search for a chocolate scented perfume and I read about this one on the thread. I find it to be a really nice chocolate scent with a decent longevity. I layered this with Chocolovers and the two makes a perfect combination. If your looking for an inexpensive chocolate scent give this one a try. Edit: I have officially fallen in love with this beauty. It is so much more than a chocolate gourmand scent. There is something very sexy and enticing about it. The more times I wear it the more I realize just how beautiful and unique a scent this is.

People sure are polarized about Extraordinary. Maybe that is why it was discontinued. On me it is dark chocolate and a sweet orangey spice, like one of those pomanders people used to make back in the seventies, the kind made by sticking eleventy dozen cloves into an orange. Really this is beautiful and unique in the dry down. Nothing else exactly like it. While it is obviously not an expensive niche, it is original and comforting to wear. If it reminds me of anything, it would be SJP Covet, but only about 50%, mainly from the chocolate. Soapy bitter cocoa powder.

I can't believe this is Avon. You could say this was Serge Lutens and I'd believe it. Whenever I spray this, the redolent, mossy, warm tones just surround me. I feel like I'm a creature of the earth, all clay and spice and animalistic warmth. It's sweet, too, but a very nature-made sweet - not gourmand at all. I smell chocolate, too, but it's that Mayan hot chocolate, with powerful cacao and none of that milkfat. "Extraordinary" lives up to its name- it is mature, intriguing, and piquant, while still being wearable and even cozy.

I was the first one to mention that this is like a lighter version of black orchid, but well, somebody else noticed it wich is a great thing; i get a metal/mineral note along the chocolate and the ginger and some kind of refreshing note of champagne (i love wine too) so bright and complex i dont know why avon does this kind of stupid things again and again sending away the best fragrances and keeping mostly the garbage in their catalog...i bought three bottles so im kind of having a stock of this great fragrance.

One of my favorite scents of all time. My absolute favorite is the original formula Miss Dior Cherie, to give you an idea of what my tastes run to. This one I was told I would love by the Avon lady. I sprayed it on, didn't like it, sniffed again, started to like it, smelled some more, put my nose into my wrist and breathed deep, then I bought 2 boxes. It's fizzy orange-y chocolate and I've never worn it when someone didn't compliment me. This is perfect for winter when you want to feel cozy and warm.

OMG... this is so rich and refreshing. Zingy and creamy sweet at the same time. Chocolatey good, peppery, tangerine, guava, ginger, orchid, sandalwood,musk, patchouli and vanilla. Well blended exotic. This scent makes my eyes roll back when I put it on with goodness. I have owned this fragrance for years and it never fails to impress me. ****************** Very underrated GEM*** A true love. Cute bottle. Long lasting/ Great sillage Rating 10/10

Very good actually, the first thing you smell is chocolate and the brightness of champagne mixed with citrus and pepper, in the drydown is amazing, look out the delicate aromas of orchid and lotus flower, but dominated by raspberry and begins to be very sweet. good combination with the woods and vanilla. It is pure sophistication! I receive many compliments when I wear it. It goes with my skin chemistry. Gorgeous.

Opens citrus and pepper, too much grapefruit for me personally, but warms up to an interesting ginger and dark chocolate with touches of orchid, patchouli, and musk. Drys down about 4 hours later to a sweet musky vanilla with a hint of chocolate still lingering. I actually ended up really liking Extraordinary. Sillage goes from inches to skin, and lasts over 6 hrs total on me.