Par Amour

Gee...sometimes do you ever wonder in the perfume world...how did I get here? I heard or read about this perfume somewhere and I saw that it had my fragrance Kryptonite in it. Roses and pink pepper....well, seeing as though some of my favorite fragrances are of that type, I jumped on this decently priced 1990's ADORABLY packaged perfume. As the pink pepper and roses rise to fame was at its highest, there were some fine, sexy beasts of perfumes released. One of which is the Agent Provocateur line. There is something for everyone in that line...worth looking into...in my opinion. But moving on, Par Amour is not a BAD perfume. It is just lacking in depth and fortitude. It is pretty. And it is a safe public, church, funeral, hugging type perfume. It will leave the person that hugs you smelling something nice but not WOW YOU SMELL GREAT. It is like a whisper. It's longevity is lacking and it's sillage is minimal. I just want more. I am happy to have anything in my perfume wardrobe because as with your clothing wardrobe there are certain things for certain events. This gets relegated to my non-offensive, non-remarkable pile. AND THATS OKAY....there is a shy person in all of us that want to be unseen in a crowd. WEAR YOUR "GOOD" PERFUMES EVERYDAY! BECAUSE EVERYDAY WE ARE ALIVE IS A GOOD DAY! -AGC

The commercial text says that this is a fragrance for young ladies, strange, I think it is rather for mature wearers. Par Amour opens with an almost cosmetic sensation: that of saturated, moisturized skin. This opens my nose to the resinous-rosey-woody core notes. The resins are quite intense: sweet in a deep, spicy sort of way. Wrapped around the composition is a nose tickling pink pepper accord. The fragrance impresses me as calm and rich: full of good ingredients, well-blended. It can fill a room with its warm, sweet and somehow somber presence. It keeps interest even in the dry-down, when it becomes spicy-woody. (good lasting power) In my mind, PAR AMOUR projects the image of a well-groomed person. To be overall "bien soignee" as opposed to be "parfumee" is what I like when wearing this fragrance. This-one I spray on clothes and hair, happens to work much better than spraying directly on my skin.

I recently became reacquainted with this gem after about 25 years. Back then I thought it was too strong and mature for me. It's still quite strong to me, but now I can appreciate the beauty of it's cold amber with sandalwood and a hint of rose. The rose really sits in the background in this perfume, which is quite unusual. It gives it a touch of sweetness and warmth but doesn't overpower it. I love the nostalgia of this scent but I can see that, without the memories, I probably wouldn't love it. It has a very dated, cold feel to it.

One of my all time favorites. A warm, friendly, woody scent, which for me, has longevity of several hours, contrary to several of the reviews below. In my country, where smelling of perfume is usually considered as an offence to others (as half the population thinks they are allergic to all scents), the hopefully low sillage is a great asset!

I miss this perfume. It was romance in a bottle. I wish they would make it again, even to bring back old memories. I wore it when I was young and care free. Honestly, I went through so many bottles at the time and I loved it, it was floral and just so beautiful.

I have a macerated bottle of this from my mom, smells really ambery on my skin! Love wearing it while cycling, somehow it makes the scent even sexier!

I love this! It's the only perfume i wear. I tried Par Amour Toujours as well but didn't like that as much. I am sad Clarins have discontinued it.

After wearing my last precious mini of this sadly discontinued beauty,the closest perfume it resembles is Burberry Touch(my fav. Burberry).

I received a sample of Par Amour recently, alongside its flanker, Par Amour Toujours. I like Clarins Eau Dynamisante and Eau Ressourcante primarily as restorative aromatherapy scents - I don't think of them as perfume in the classic sense. PA is light, refreshing and smells all-natural, in line with its marketing - not a far cry from the aforementioned Clarins scents that I am familiar with. It is a fresh woody-rose scent with some fruitiness in the opening. It is timeless, ageless and inoffensively elegant, but not terribly exciting. Unimportant, considering how nicely judged this composition is. PA opens with the typical floral-spicy nuances of pink pepper, followed by a hint of juicy blackcurrant. Uplifting and fresh, the opening paves the way to the central rose note after a little while. Realistic, green and dewy, it is reminiscent of the roses that my grandmother used to grow in her garden. Woody notes round it out - more cedar than sandalwood - a great example of the classic woody-rose accord. As it dries down, a softly sweet vanilla-amber accord emerges in the base, smooth and slightly resinous, complementing the woody rose heart to perfection. This fades, becoming a slightly musky skin scent. Sillage and longevity are moderate. A very pretty rose scent, PA delivers timeless feminine elegance in spades, while being versatile and understated. Ideal for spring/summer days. Simple, but well-composed with high-quality, natural ingredients, it is really quite lovely. What a shame that it has been discontinued. 4/5.

I have lost count of the number of miniature bottles of Par Amour I have scored over the years included in gift with purchase initiatives I have accrued as the loyal devotee of Clarins skincare products that I am. I have never cared for it to be frank. I just did not get it. Par Amour evaded me on all levels. Hence family and friends enjoyed the tiny little miniature bottles. A few nights ago I was attending a Christmas VIP Event at my local Clarins salon and the regional rep was in attendance offering advice etc to the invited guests and she smelt exquisite. I found myself following her around like a hound (very discreetly I must add). We started chatting and she assisted me with my purchases (life really is more beautiful with Clarins!) and before I knew it I had asked her the magic question: "What (fragrance) are you wearing?" "Par Amour". With that she escorted me to the Fragrance tester bottles and started squirting Par Amour through the air on blotter and finally on my left wrist. My Tom Ford Voile de Fleur was on its last legs after a big day in the office so I didn't really mind. Long story short I left the salon with numerous bags filled with goodies and a bottle of Par Amour! It smells beautiful on me too! I wore this yesterday on clean skin and even this afternoon freshly showered and fragrance free Par Amour lingers with a memorable peppery cardomomy vanillary rose.

Wow, what a surprise! I'd thought that I was about to continue my leisurely stroll down a rose petal-littered path. Instead, wearing Clarins' PAR AMOUR, I find myself in the midst of a dark forest of leafless sandalwood trees studded with thousands of tiny pink peppercorns! There are surely roses here somewhere, but they are very challenging to tease out... As a rose scent, I'd have to say that PAR AMOUR doesn't measure up. However, as an oriental woody, it is really quite nice. This strikes me as another case where the marketing image and the product diverge rather drastically--with what must have been disastrous sales effects. All expectations of sweetness and light (and roses!) are swiftly defeated with the opening spritz. There may be a few people around who associate love with pink peppercorns and sandalwood, but I'd venture to guess that they are rare indeed. Yet those who might genuinely appreciate PAR AMOUR would never find out--driven away as they would by a fear of everything that this fragrance is NOT. I'm thinking of woody scent lovers, men and women alike. From the peppery opening to the last fade of the dusty sandalwood drydown, this is a warm, woody scent.

I received this perfume as a gift from my uncle who worked for a Clarins retailer. I was about 16 years old. It was the first time I own a perfume by a respectable brand. At first, I kind of hated it, and thought it was a bit old for my age, but wore it anyway because I already have it and I don't even own any other perfume. It wasn't until everyone around me started giving me compliments for how I smell that I started to appreciate it. All males, and I mean literally every single man or boy of any age would comment about how nice and sexy I smelled! I felt like a sex bomb when I wore it lol. But even with all the compliments I still couldn't really like it's smell! I wore for sooo many years as I spared it for very special occasions, and it remained as good as new throughout the years. So sad it was discontinued.

As Janina already described it: this is an excellent and wellblended perfume and one of the mostloved in my perfume collection. As a member of the oriental floral family this scent is not too heavy and can be worn on a daily basis. In this composition the peppery-woody-musky notes are so well put together. Compared with music they evoke dark tones of a stringed instrument like a cello or viola da gamba. This scent is a bit similar to 'B' by Boucheron (which is another favorite of mine) but not as profound and rich, which makes Par amour easier to wear daily. Love it!

this opens with rose and a large dose of pink pepper, then along comes some blackcurrant and sandalwood. fragrantica doesn't show the launch date, but this smells very early 2000s or late 90s to me. later on i get a lot of amber and benzoin warming things up. it's kind of a clean and cozy scent. i've never tried any clarins before this, but this is right in line with the image they portray. i like it-it's more interesting than a lot of modern scents but also uncomplicated and sort of comforting when you want something along those lines.

Second bottle. Gorgeous Rose/pepper/sandalwood/Cassia/Vanilla/Benzoin/amber mix. Soft but intensive at the same time. Fresh wiffs around me all day long. Longlasting on my skin. Timeless - for both younger and middleaged women in my opinion. Andra flaskan. Ljuvlig mix av Ros/peppar/sandelträ/svarta vinbärs/vanilj/benzion/amber. Mjuk men ändå intensiv på samma gång. Fräscha doftfläktar runt mig hela dagen. Hållbar på min hud. Tidlös- både tjejen och kvinnan passar i denna.

this is a wonderful soft scent - When I had it, I used it daytime at the office - perfect. Soft and a mild scent where roses, and vanilla stood out most. Longlasting power too - about 5 hours. Härlig doft - som jag använde dagtid på arbetet (kontor) härligt mjuk doft där rosor och vanilj framträdde mjukt men tydligt. En doft som stannar nära den som bär den. Håller - på mig - ca 5 timmar, vilket jag tycker är bra.

The bottle is adorableand the box, with the the little envelop is utterly adorable if you're looking for a Valentine's gift or you're a guy looking for a special gift for a gal. But I found the top notes not strong enough for my tastes, but I can't say that I don't like it. let's just say that the inside is not that special but the bottle is great to show off

I bought it for my mom long-long time ago. What I remember is, it being extremely naturalistic. As in "not synthetic, chemical, or perfumy". My mom complained, it was weak. But I don't trust the wearer on assessing how long a perfume lasts, especially her :)

Smells like baby powder. I love baby powder scents. I think I like this because of the sentimental value though, my mom got this as a present and felt it was too immature so she passed it down to me when I was like 10. I mostly played with the bottle.

Reminds me of being in love, very soft, warm with a sweet peppery smell. That's how I would feel when I wore this fragrance. I cannot find it anywhere in Southern Africa perhaps it has been discontinued. A good buy and great fragrance.

feminine yet classic, a bit sweet, elegance, i love it, just a little spray but it lasts

I don’t understand why this has been labelled by Clarins as a fragrance for young ladies, because it’s quite ageless. It’s a pretty inoffensive typical Clarins style of fragrance, the pepper and woody notes give it a scent reminiscent of pencil shavings, and there’s a floral muskiness to it as well. This isn’t going to set my world on fire, but it’s a perfectly acceptable office safe fragrance, with low to average sillage and longevity. If it had to evoke a colour, I would say a rosy beige.

I got this as a gift and, since my mom has been using clarins cosmetics for several years now and they all feel and smell great, I opened the package without a second thought. Wrong! I hate it. There is a woody smell in it I call"school pencils". Where are all these beautiful ingredients?

Quite sweet, nice and likeable - but not for me. I also had the impression that the staying power wasn't too good.

I dont like it,i can smell something really green in it and i hate green scents..

this is how joyful spring cleaning can be. underneath a stack of fabrics awaiting transformation into my next couture collection i came across a box. hm, i thought. is this the rest of the alchimie gift i got a few years ago? or is it a box of soaps??? doesn't smell like my soaps, they are held in limbo until their scent has faded enough that i can use them. wait a minute! i recognize that red! up it came: a lovely presentation of clarins' par amour. hmmm. i don't even recall having received this - oh wait, yes i do! several years ago now. it has been waiting patiently to be opened, in a very dark, cold place, so - let's open it and give a blast of eau de parfum. . . . strange on me. a first blast of beautifully blended flowers and aldehydes yields to: CUCUMBER! oddly it lasts for about two minutes, then disappears entirely, leaving soft woodsy, ambery, comforting notes. the oddity of the disappearing top notes might be explained if they managed to sneak out of an entirely intact, unopened bottle. but that would be specific to this situation. fact is that this evanescence is noted by most of the other reviewers and ought to be noted by the clarins company. it ought to be beefed up considerably, most notably in the top and middle notes. (c)2013 bluemlein

My mother used to wear Votre by Charles Jourdan. After that, she lost the way and used many inadecuated parfums. Finally, I tired of smell in her awful fragrances, decided give her a feminine and soft parfum and choose Par Amour. Infortunely, it wasn't for her and she gave it to me.(Instead i gave to her my precious Jardin Sur Le Nile)At first, the benzoin is too strong, lately, rose bright and is delicious, in the end the spices become and is perfect to me. Is complex, is inusual and I lOVE IT. Isn't for old people. I think it is shiny. It made me feel in a huge field with grass, sun and daisys. A very happy and beautiful day must to smell like this fragrance. Sadly, the sillage isn't good.

I like par amour toujours more than this one,but this is lovely too. though it's a florential fragrance,I don't consider it powdery.in fact the first notes are just spicy,with some hints of sweetness. but the best part of it is the middle notes.the rose is very alive and present and the sweetness of vanilla makes it softer and a bit creamy. as it remains on skin it becomes warm.the rose never disappears and the cardamon is well mixed. I should agree with the reviewers.though it's lovely,personally I won't go to buy it.the bottle is a bit cheap and the fragrance is something between what the middle aged ladies like and what the young girls like,but don't satisfy neither of these groups.

Transparent rose, blackcurrant and cedar would make this sound like the recipe for a Lutens “bois de [insert note]” fragrance. But this doesn’t seem like any of the bois fragrances except for a shared sheer-but-sweet quality. This is more sugar-sweet than fruity-sweet, which would usually scare me off, but something in the undercurrent of this fragrance keeps it from getting too ditzy. I think it’s the pepper-like benzoin. As the scent evolves the sweetness and the blackcurrant fade and the cedar/rose combination wins out. The pepper lasts as well, enhancing both the rose and the cedar, and Par Amour ends up seeming like Barbie’s version of Parfum Sacré.

This is a lovely fragrance which unfortunately fades into a sandalwood whisper. I can only imagine HOW gorgeous it could have been in a heftier formula. Although described as a "fragrance for young ladies" I can't understand why perfumes must be categorized as "old" or "young." Our olfactory sense is very subjective and what one person loves, another detests. I often laugh uproariously at the reviews because one person will say a fragrance smells like "musty underpants soaked in toilet bowl cleaner" and another claims it is "the most beautiful fragrance in the world." Let's all step back and savor what fragrance is...without biases or limitations.

wow. i am going to have to be the one to go against all the rave reviews... i tried this today based on the ingredients all matching notes that i love (and the love, love, love reviews!!)... but i really don't love this at all... :( pros: it's well balanced. lasts pretty well... if u like the smell, then it's a winner all round... cons: not my cup of tea at all... it has this woody pong note that is there from the start to the end. i don't know if it's the type of sandalwood, or the bezoin... really dislike it.

I'm blind purchasing this - I wasn't aware Clarins even made this perfume and I am going to start working for them in December! Have never come across the product before but it sounds delightful. I am hoping the blackcurrant tones will be reminiscent of Lancôme's Trésor Midnight Rose which I love? Even if it doesn't at least I will have a new fragrance to add to my collection that I am sure I will love. UPDATE Britons - you can buy 100ml of this at...TESCO! £36 for 100ml.

Best perfume ever! It's definitely made for love as it named. Oh Gosh...it made me fall in love at the very first sniff. I feel beautiful, I love myself more than ever and definitely love how it glow on me. I keep sniffing myself over and over again like crazy. I take my words back if I ever talked about best perfume before because this is truely The Best! Rosy Woody Sultry, no grandma's smell at all. I'll love this till dead.

Very hard to find as this was discontinued a few years ago but can be found very cheap on the UK site "Cheapsmells" - its around £33 for a 100ml EDP bottle. Not sure how long its going to be around for so if its something you've been looking for, maybe its worth checking out :)

Very powerful, a very floral and powerful combination, I think is most appropriate for the office. Even if it is a very invasive EDP I find it a very attractive aroma, I think they would turn to see any girl who brought this perfume.

The bottle KILLss me. I love it. I love it. I have to agree with a mix of all the previous reviews. While I love the scent, it is fleeting, and not really worth the purchase.

its a beautiful scent i think, its not very strong, but feminine, and its true that its not for young, but not even a typical old lady smell, i think its ok

It is not discontinued yet in Laval, as I was just at the warehouse sale and they had it. It wasn't for me but definitly a more mature person.

Review for mini bottle : Sheer elegance. Feels like a luxurious, soothing body lotion. It’s warm, good-natured, meditative. I really like it.

What a beautiful perfume. Sheer yet fragrant, with lots of rose and amber and woodiness and a dash of pepper. Elegant.

Iove, love , love Par Amour, can't figure out how to open the refillable bottle. HELP!

beautiful bottle, unfortunately with nothing interesting inside. powdery and sultry.