Donna Karan

Imagine a black swan, with opulent wings with golden feathers. The same exotic bird from which your bottle was inspired. A wild, free and dreamlike creature, born in a lustful fantasy. With each breath of its wings, it emanates a gold dust... whose essence is powdery, but above all animalic. Donna Karan opens on my skin with an incensy suede, somewhat different, a chord between rustic classic leather and soft suede, along with a good dose of blackcurrant, which gives a green sweetness to this unusual combination. Following with an obscure nectar, of substantial weight in fruity aromas, with apricot, pineapple and peach, accompanied by floral touches of orange blossom, osmanthus and ylang-ylang. The heart emerges, other flowers bloom in a spicy and carnal floral accord, with carnation, orchid, jasmine and lily. The fruity sweetness significantly decreases, exalting the incense and musk base. Heliotrope and tonka bean present themselves, especially in the middle of the performance, adhering to the fragrance a subtle powdery aspect... a modern, unisex makeup scent, with an incense base slightly sweetened by benzoin. Little by little, this swan swims towards the end of this show: a lot of amber, combined with wood, especially sandalwood, on a white musk. The incense and suede remain, the latter now much smoother. There are still some light florals around. The evolution of this fragrance is simply fantastic. A ballet full of contrasts, like in Swan Lake. Floral and balsamic notes give femininity and life to the more masculine and rough leather. It gains an oriental air, but never enters into a solid orientalism... Donna Karan keeps this fragrance in the empire of modern NY. From fragrance to bottle, Donna Karan's debut perfume is a work of art. Launched in 1992, it exquisitely captures the sophisticated charm of an early 1990s Manhattan. When I feel this fragrance I think of crowds of fashionistas, boho-chic groups, artists, models, photographers, backstage... all of fashion week, including the parties. It has an air of the future and the past... in a fashion underworld. At the time, Donna Karan was a big name in fashion, creating for the modern and stylish NY audience. It is regrettable to see how the brand lost relevance in fashion and perfumery... after being sold to the Estée Lauder group, nothing compares to singular works like the one I describe to you, DK Men, Chaos and Black Cashmere. Donna Karan Signature also reflects a non-mass, authorial perfumery style that came before the 1990s. The bottle itself is already unusual; a postmodern art sculpture, unlike any other, signed by the stylist's then husband, Stephen Weiss. One of the rarest discontinued vintages to be found, it has a magnificent sillage and fixation, being a respectable Eau de Parfum. A modern oriental, incensed, balsamic, sweet, spicy, floral, musky, powdery. It has all the notes you would find in male and female fragrances, in a shareable composition, opulent, but incredibly clean and soft, which presents the best of both genres in harmonic and thoughtful structures, like a seam, which joins parts of a fabric, to create a piece of clothing. Donna Karan Signature is just like Donna Karan's fashion was. Elegant, intellectually sexy, hybrid, versatile and modern, in a poetically obscure way... like a black swan.

Shalimar PI, move aside, my true signature fragrance has arrived. It seems the perfume gods have bestowed me with this ambrosia like fragrance; it smells so divine and wonderful to me, almost out of this world. I happened to stumble upon half full 1.3 and full 3.4 oz bottles for only 50 dollars on my local auction site. I didn't think twice and contacted the seller immediately. Since it contains an army of notes I have great difficulty picking out the individual notes, but I'll try anyway. It opens up like some heavy, boozy nectar; it's sweet and dark and has a substantial heft to it. The most noticeable opening notes are the green notes, pineapple and osmanthus, swirling in a tornado of booze. The suede, incense and tonkabean are noticeable right from the start and they give DK it's fascinating, static smokiness that I adore. The boozy and smoky quality never fades away, but it comes less intense as the floral middle notes start to show up. Lily and orchid steal the spotlight, whilst the other florals create more of a floral low frequency humming. From this point on the smoke and booziness start to clear. This is the moment when the other basenotes start to show up. As dark and smoky as it started, DK dries up surprisingly clean. The musk is quite clean, but fluffy, but it is texturized by the amber, benzoin., vanilla and sandalwood. The incense has faded away, but suede feeling has remained. It dries up, at least on my skin, as a musky lily, wrapped in suede and sprinkled with vanilla powder. The evolution of this fragrance is simply wonderful. Longevity is about 10 hours. Sillage is extremely heavy the first hour, but it fades away to a skin scent in about 3 hours. Even though I'd like it to be a bit stronger I'm still very happy I got the chance to buy this perfume. Oh, and I agree with the other reviewer who mentioned it has similarities to Antaeus (I don't know about the vintage version, though). Antaeus is pretty much the smoky, suede aspect, only much darker and more stern.

This review is for the 1992 release of the Swan Bottle. It opens with the leathery bite of an old cracked bikers jacket. It reminds me of the leather that is used in Whips and Roses by Kerosene. The leather is touched with a bit of Frankincense. There is also a good sized dose of cassis that adds an almost phenolic green sweetness. It's not often that I find a scent that showcases cassis as well as this one does. It really gives that leathery incense combo the "something" that it needs. After a few moments a sweetness pops out with a loud "pop". It's a beautiful pineapple/peachy zing with a floral tail (ylang-ylang and rose). This new combination punches it's way over the leather brightening everything up and breathing some life and youth into the old, cracked leather. The soft floral accord is almost a whisper. It's really beautiful. The heart is more floral than the opening and the cassis has faded. There is a sharp ylang-ylang bite with a spicy (carnation?) rose touched lily. It's a really nice, girly contrast that breathes life into the weathered and more masculine leather. There is also a touch of sweetness on the skin (benzoin perhaps?). The dry down is mostly a sweetish amber and tonka with a clean musky zing. There are still some light florals (rose, lily, ylang-ylang) lazing around. The leather is also much softer, almost a memory. This is a really beautiful dry down. The florals blend so beautifully with the amber/musk/Tonka cpombo that it all becomes one lazy and lovely song. Overall this is a fantastic scent. The longevity isn't the best but You'll get a good 7-9 hours out of it and it doesn't become a skin scent until well after 4-5 hours. There is something just so wonderful about the play of the very feminine florals and the heavily masculine leather. She's a tough girl that loves butterflies but takes no crap from anyone.

I just opened my last bottle of Donna Karen. Yes, I'm old enough to have purchased this when it came out in the early 1990s. I have been storing this perfume for maybe 20 years after I found out it was discontinued and stocked up. I loved, and still love this scent but have been looking for a few new scent to broaden my palette. Often men would stop me and ask what I was wearing so they could buy it for their wives/girlfriends. They loved it enough to courageously ask a stranger what perfume they wore. I don't have the nose to describe all the notes in this perfume as others on this site have. I just like it. A lot. I wear it very sparingly because I saw it was selling on ebay for over $800.00. For perfume? Come on. I will say that the sprayer was the worst. One has to press this flap that then engages the sprayer. The little flap can moves about so you can't be certain exactly where the spray is going to come out. Or it is is coming out. Poor functional design but guess they had to keep the "swan's" head covered for the design to look nice. I always thought it a spicy Oriental scent, although the above describes it as a floral. IMO it is for a confident, experienced woman - of any age - that has been there and done that. Again, and again.

My Mother and I used to wear this. It is absolutely gorgeous! I was a young girl, just loving this! Many years ago, my Mother and I went to repurchase it, and the gentleman told us it had been discontinued. We were so disappointed! The gentleman, then let us sample Donna Karen Cashmere Mist—an instant love for the both of us! I always keep Cashmere Mist in my collection today, love it! The dry down of Donna Karan is insatiable. The amber and musky notes are slightly animalic. The performance is excellent, also. Donna Karan is classy, professional, adventurous, and alluring. I would love to wear it again!