Carat

Now I’m gonna tell you about my Unbeatable Top 1 Signature Scent of all time. That is Carat EDP by Cartier. It was launched in September 2018, and I owned it since then. My love story with this fragrance was that it was not a love at first sniff but a love at first shift. The very first spray of Carat in my life, I was mehhh, I thought it was too soft and too green, it was like I sprayed nothing. However, after about 10mn, I seriously felt like “oh no! I’m sorry baby, I wronged you, please forgive me. You’re the love of my life. Would you marry me? I will never go off your hand, and we gonna live happily ever after.” The smell is just amazing, it’s a spring in the bottle. It develops so well after spraying, no longer green, it’s like a plant full of leaves starting to produce flower buds then blooming larger and larger until there’s no more leaves and left with full of flowers, and it projects so well. It’s a very smooth and well balanced blend of citrus and sweetness, it also contains a hint of warm and cozy yet very fresh and clean. The most special part is that it gives off a very shiny feeling, it’s like there’s something bling bling around you, it’s like diamonds under sunshine. Despite being fresh, the longevity is great, I can still smell it from morning till late afternoon. I may own more than 40 fragrances, and they are competing with each other for my attention, but this one is in different league, it has no enemy and it stays on top of the throne.

Smells like a fresh bouquet of flowers. It's a feminine, formal fragrance. I found this in a perfume shop while looking for something else and the moment I smelt it, something in me calmed down. It reminded me of the childhood where I ran to the garden to play every morning, the combined smell of beautiful flowers and grass; it also reminded me of the beautiful parks I have sat in to decompress from a day's stress. Such a happy and peaceful memory to be reminded of! This smell is very unique, the florals are fresh, unlike the concentrated floral scents in other perfumes. The flowers show up one after the other when you move around. They smell like actual flowers still on the stem of their plants, unlike other floral perfumes which are obviously flowery, this is a very intelligent blend of what nature smells like at its prettiest. For a person with sensitive skin and allergies, I have found this to be hypo-allergenic. I can smell the flowers on me when I was my face the next morning, although the sillage fades in a few hours. It causes smell numbing very fast and the one wearing it can barely understand how powerful this fragrance is. 2-4 sprays are enough to last a day. One may want to top up with 1-2 sprays to bring back the top notes again after 6-8 hours.

Carat is, fittingly, a bright, sparkling green floral. Its radiance is achieved without aldehydes, which is impressive. It is a light, fresh floral bouquet infused with fruity sweetness and with a dewy green undertone. Carat opens with a fresh green accord, dewy and sap-like. Realistic, juicy pear adds aquatic fruity sweetness. Sheer and refreshing, it forms the perfect backdrop for the floral accord that follows. A heady hyacinth note leads the way, a flower that really says springtime to me. Grassy narcissus follows, and clean white florals round it out. The lily note is a lovely inclusion here, light but realistic. The greenness adds a stem-like effect. As it develops further, the white florals become honeyed, giving a pollen-like effect. Powdery, shimmering mimosa enhances the effect beautifully here. It fades to a sweet, musky skin scent with the florals remaining until final fade. Sillage and longevity are moderate. A sophisticated springtime scent, this is fresh, floral femininity at its best. Elegant and beautifully crafted, this is an excellent everyday scent for warm weather. Another gem by the inimitable Mathilde Laurent. 4/5.

I always have a thing for cartier perfumes for the beautiful bottles... they are not fancy, but timelessly classy, elegant. However I tested a couple of them and they all have an old lady feel... maybe my nose doesn’t agree with the woody notes. This newly launch perfumes makes me go to the cartier boutique to have a try. Unlike duty free or department store, the cartier boutique services is always excellent. I m trying the carat perfume n they make me feel I m trying a carat of diamond ☺️ My judgement maybe affected by the whole environment but I do like this perfume at first sniff. My husband likes it too. It’s a boutique of flowers, wit a hint of sweetness. The right amount of sweetness against the sea of syrup perfumes in recent years. It doesn’t have the old lady feel issue like other cartier perfume. This one is like a young woman in pastel color maxi dress holding a bouquet, romantic n fairy like. It reminds me of a less fruity n more floral jo malone blue bell. I do agree with other reviewers that it belongs to spring. I still but it right away. Can’t stand missing this beautiful bottle n beautiful scent.

I think I must have sampled Carat three times before finally settling on getting a bottle of it. Upon testing it in the store, the longevity just didn't seem promising, but I kept going back to it, thinking about how lovely it smelled. With that said, this is one of the prettiest florals I have found in quite awhile - even the lily, a note that doesn't often compliment me, is beautifully blended with the other floral notes. The green-ness provides an added sparkle and it eventually dries down to a very light and sweet powder. I find this fragrance so girly and ethereal (as though she's the fun little sister among the more powerful Cartier florals). It's sparkling, fresh, and an overall happy fragrance - one that makes me think of an early Spring morning as the sunshine hits the crisp and dewy blooms. As for longevity, it's the only thing Carat could improve on, but with the decent projection and the 2-3 hours longevity, I really don't mind respraying this more; it's truly that beautiful.