Love

During the pandemic, my perfume obsession was reignited. I admittedly have always loved perfume but it wasn’t until I needed a hobby that distracted me from the ensuing chaos of an all too darkening reality that I dove in deeply. In those early days, I started trying to become educated on Covid because it was slowly becoming the centerpiece of my daily thoughts and interactions. Unsurprisingly, I was led to dismal corners of the internet predicting that whole ice skating rinks would need to become makeshift morgues in order to house the expected death tolls. There was unrelenting fear mongering and divisive arguing taking place on my social media pages. It was such a paranoia fueled, bleak time for everyone. I found myself supplementing Facebook and YouTube with this site more and more to evade the drama. Inadvertently, this is when I first discovered Love, Chloé through scouring message boards. It was one of my first fragrance acquisitions after neglecting my collection for a while. Being fairly new to this world, I couldn’t appreciate the sophistication of LC. I sprayed it on my pulse points and it registered merely as a tangy, baby-powdery scent that overwhelmed me. It reminded me of a deodorant I had owned at some point and the settled way it smelled at the end of the day while I changed into my pajamas. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing but it wasn’t quite what I expected. I had a friend try this on and she said it smelled like Liz Claiborne’s Curve to her 🤔 I had no idea how to interpret LC initially and it definitely is a unique scent that has grown on me in the last few years. It’s the first perfume I tend to think of for a special occasion and that right there shows its place in my heart. My initial thoughts of it being powdery were accurate. But it’s not solely powdery. It could be the pink pepper or the starch from the rice but there’s this grounding warmth to this scent that just expands throughout wear time. There’s just the slightest aspect of wood/dirt hidden behind the florals that makes the warmth radiate even more. It reminds me of that old Campbell’s chicken noodle soup commercial with the snowman. The soothing heat causes the snow to dissipate revealing a chipper, comforted child. I know it sounds strange but this exactly how this perfume makes me feel! That must be why I have a preference for wearing it in cold months which are pretty frequent in my state. I choose this indiscriminately to weather and more so when I want to feel uplifted but I find that it performs equally well in all seasons. You would be hard pressed to find a perfume that performs comparably to LC in the current market with regard to longevity. I can still smell this in the morning. The unique array of purple flowers is fascinating because it would seem that they would make this scent feel dated. It feels retro but not old-fashioned. Perhaps if you bottled Lana Del Rey’s essence of reinterpreting old-school glamour... all the old rules apply but it’s a new game. The orange flower enhances the soapier, clean aspect that this fragrance morphs into about an hour in. I am a sucker for a fragrance that has intricate layers woven into the duration. This is definitely one of those. It’s a whole ass symphony for the senses. I can’t say enough good things EXCEPT how it’s been discontinued. What a shame that people can’t experience this scent anymore. If Chloé does actually decide to hear our woes and bring LC back, it would most likely be a hollow, replicated shell of its original exquisiteness. I have heard that Phyllis by Pull & Bear comes close to recreating LC. I don’t know if they discontinued that as well but it seems like it has fallen off the face of the earth. I have seen that the bottle design was altered but it looks like they just shelved it completely. Oil Perfumery has a decent dupe that I have tried. It’s the best dupe I have tried and does come close but it’s just an impression. I will disclose that I came close to selling my bottle at some point when I saw how much money the existing bottles were going for and really needed the extra cash. I did a little bit of whining while I took the pictures for the listing and edited them. I believe I even blurted out, “I don’t wanna!” In the end, I just couldn’t. I have never had such an attachment to a perfume I was listing like that before. My rationale on reselling perfume is usually that I might not be appreciating something in my collection that someone else might enjoy and get more use out of. The opposite happened with this fragrance. I kept thinking about what a void would be left if I parted with my bottle and how much less I would enjoy my collection if CL weren’t a part of it. Yes, I know it’s only perfume and yes, I have other perfumes (some would argue too many.) This particular perfume is special to me. I found it during such a hopeless time in my life where nothing felt glamorous, affirming, or comforting. This was my little reminder that those things were still tangible and I guess it still represents those things for me. My perfume passion has started to dwindle recently, as I think it has for a lot of us, but I will forever be inspired by scents like CL. The way they make you feel is indescribable but once they have imprinted on you, you can’t let go.

Warning: This is going to be long! Love Chloe is a dreamy powdery floral...clean, warm, distinctive, and has a vintage/nostalgic vibe to it that I love so much. I adore lilacs! There aren’t a lot of fragrances that feature this note and execute a composition so graceful and versatile...a true modern classic. The powderiness is reminiscent of luxury face powder, and you also get that clean feeling like you just got done taking a hot shower. You know that warm, fresh feeling after, you’re wrapping yourself in the fluffiest towel...and the scent of the best quality lilac shower gel that you used, it is heavily perfuming the steamy air around you. There is also that sweet musky smell of clean skin that adds an element of sensuality (this must be the rice steam and musk combination, it comes through more in the drydown and I adore that). I smell a vast green garden with blooming purple flowers, a romantic vision, and yet, I see a woman dressed in softly monochromatic neutrals (like the ad) in a more urban setting, beige cashmere sweater, below the knee pleated skirt...she has doe eyes and perfectly parted soft hair, a cool and distant sort of beauty, and she is sitting in a quaint cafe in Paris, warming her hands around a hot drink. Her clean and well-assembled appearance attracts attention as she looks somewhat out of place. She gazes dreamily outside the window into the rainy streets outside. Her beauty may be reserved and distant, yet her eyes reflect warmth, tenderness and perhaps a restrained sensuality...perhaps a longing for something, or someone, or a time gone by. Nobody knows if she is waiting for someone, or what she is thinking, or what she is feeling, but most likely she is just content with the moment, with her self, indulging in her reveries. This has been my signature scent since 2014. I was 27 when I first smelled this, and I immediately knew: ‘This is me’. Full stop. It was an instant love that never diminished. People close to me have even commented that this fragrance suits me so well. Before Love Chloe, my signatures were Miss Dior Cherie (2005 version), and then Lolita Lempicka (another evocative, powdery scent with a dreamy element to it...just sweet instead of classic like Love) after MDC got reformulated. I still wear LL to this day, but I had wanted something more serious, more polished and sophisticated than LL, more ‘clean’ than sweet, something that better reflected my maturing into my late 20s and beyond...however, I still required that innocent, ‘wet-eyed’, dreamy quality to my scent, that element of ‘fantasy’ that I never outgrew. Last but not least, I also wanted my signature to be distinctive and different from trending scents, something I can wear all year round, and with great projection and sillage to boot. And this scent fit the bill perfectly, it checked every single requirement and passed with flying colors (and that has never happened before!). I bought back up bottles when it was getting hard to find, and by now I am running out. I am looking for a replacement to be my new signature and it is so difficult! We should petition for Chloe for bring back this gem!

Uniqueness: 10/10 Longevity: 8.5/10 Overall: 10/10 Purity. Elegance. Naked skin. What can I say about this masterpiece? Love is the embodiment of refinement, of teacups and silk in a society of slathered lipstick and miniskirts. Love is undressing for bed, and beneath your clothes and jewelry lies your perfume. Understated elegance is the mantra here, nothing loud and everything intimate; Love is not for the woman who needs to make a grand appearance, but rather for she who knows that beauty lies in simplicity. A gorgeous tincture of lilac and rice, touched by pink pepper and florals. If there is a perfume of warm shower-fresh skin, it's this. Love is the scent of a body, an image augmented by the peach color of the juice and the gold brass of the bottle. The wisteria blends beautiful with the rice and lilacs, while the pink pepper highlights it just so slightly. Fans of Guerlain's Shalimar and Chanel No. 5 will find this attractive though they aren't in the same family. Some similar perfumes are Tresor (Lancome) and Burberry Body. As it dries down the rice and musk become softer and the florals remain, a delicate balance of iris and lilac. In my opinion the rice completes the whole picture. The musk alone is pretty but the rice takes the cake on this one. Overall, impressive.

Perfection in a bottle! Elegant, sophisticated, very well done perfume. Nothing to envy a niche brand whatsoever. This is not your every day generic type of fragrance. It is hard to describe but delicious to smell. It's definitely a powdery smelling perfume, albeit well-done. No baby-powder smell here (nothing against baby-powder scents, this is just not the case). To my nose, this is a very complex scent where pinpointing a note or two is hard (except for the powder and the pink pepper). It's neither sweet nor tart, definitely not your typical spring floral scent either, which makes it an unsafe blind buy. There is, though, a soapy quality about it that is absolutely divine. Let us behold the exquisite minimalistic bottle for a while. Suited for night time and/or cold days. The longevity both in skin and clothes is a monster and sillage is just perfect...not too Jean-Paul Gaultier "Hey look at me" (which I particularly dislike). No over spraying is required! In fact, by all means avoid it, unless you want to end up sneezing due to the pepper note. Unfortunately It has been discontinued. I only have one bottle that's holding on for dear life. This is my beloved signature scent. 10/10 hands down.

Mmmmmmm, this is delicious!!! When I was 14 or 15 "Chloe" signature was my every day fragrance... since then, I've stayed an arm's length away from ANY other Chloe fragrances... but this one is honestly AMAZING! It's another old-school vibe perfume, but modified into something slightly more modern and chic. An ode to purple flowers and powder, boudoir-inspired, retro makeup/retro hairspray feel to it. EXACTLY WHAT I'VE BEEN COLLECTING LATELY! The opening is a sweet vanillic powder-puff, with iris + spicy pepper with lilac right behind it. All things feminine and ladylike in this one! It's nice to own a peppery-powdery scent as opposed to the usual "Guerlainade" sweet-powdery scent (However, those are my favorites too!). The rice note creates a round, warm feel to the scent so it doesn't get overwhelmingly sharp, and all in all it feels like taking a luxurious pink bubble bath! The drydown features some dainty Hyacinth that's very pleasant to be followed around by all day. No other fragrance can be compared - this stands out on it's own! Absolutely in love with this one, makes me feel super glamorous! Performance gets an A+ too; polite but powerful sillage, and great longevity.