Apparition

I have to admit to raising an eyebrow in surprise at the previous reviews, as this is my hands-down favourite perfume of the moment. You know, the kind you keep wafting your clothes madly trying to get a deeper sniff of; the kind that has your nose buried somewhere in your cleavage in a double-jointed attempt to keep on smelling throughout the day as the scent mellows with your body's chemistry. In short: the kind of perfume that rewards you with strangers stopping you in the street to ask what you're wearing, and the kind of perfume that has equal numbers of strangers looking at you oddly as you perform the above rituals of "just one more sniff!" At least, that's my story with this perfume, but I suppose what attracts us all to the world of fragrance is that each perfume we use becomes part of us when we wear it. Therefore, my personal favourite might make you wrinkle your nose in disgust, the next person smile with delight and the person after that shrug their shoulders as they can't for the life of them fathom what all the fuss is about... The first spray for me is all about pink pepper and sharp berries, which begins mellowing almost immediately into a riper raspberry tang. Then, perhaps half an hour into the wearing, it transforms yet again into a far deeper, more seductive elixir by far. This is the stage I love best, and which - happily for me! - lasts longest on my skin. I get oodles of cinnamon, nutmeg and maybe even a touch of clove, but the ripe raspberry bursts in slow motion (like one of those slowed-down nature documentaries showing a bud opening) to become a wealth of mouthwatering woodland berries. Somehow, this intoxicating mixture never becomes cloying or sickly or any of the things that have put other people off this perfume. This is one of the best balanced, truly well blended perfumes I have ever tried. It also lasts for an absolute age - literally a few sprays in the morning will last all day, sometimes until I wake up the next morning and shower. If I had to liken Apparition to another perfume (which, despite other people's assertions, is quite a challenged, as I find this a VERY unique fragrance) I would have to place this somewhere between Paco Rabanne's Black XS For Her and L'Artisan Parfumuer's Mure et Musc (both of which I own[ed] and have, at one time or another, adored). By the way, I am 35, so it's certainly not only for teenagers! I would like, at this point in my hyperbolic appreciation of this scent, to say something about the presentation of this perfume. For me, the bottle is entirely wrong. It's clunky, modernist and horribly dated looking, now. I would like to see this re-launched and in a bottle that speaks of the perfume inside - something organic and mysterious in nature, yet that wouldn't look at all out of place in a 1930's movie starlet's boudoir would be a good place to start. The name, again, causes problems. It brings to mind a willow-the-wisp of a scent - something that's all white flowers and faint trails of incense. This is certainly not the reality. Apparition is fatally addictive and will certainly haunt me for many years to come.

I love this perfume... One of the very few perfumes I have repurchased three times! No matter how I try to move on to other fragrances, I feel incomplete until Apparition is in my collection again. When I want a feminine fragrance that kicks ass, and takes numbers this is the one. It's sexy, a bit boozy, exudes warmth, yet is brightly composed. The top notes of raspberry and sweet pepper are an unusual and unforgettable combo. Although this is sweet, it is not syrupy drippy sweet. It satisfies my need for something youthful and whimsical in a classy, mature, unadulterated way. The Vanilla is light and ohhh sooo pure, it swirls around the raspberry liqueur and pepper like a iridescent, sugar spun cloud, gently elevating the beautiful heliotrope and tonka in luscious waves. The rose is ever present but always lurking in the shadows. The patchouli is veil like, it is used in discretion, unlike some of the patch bombs being marketed today. The bottle is heavy, a tad eccentric and the many colored facets catch and fragment the light in such a bright way. Sillage is bold and longevity is better than average. I get many compliments both male and female when wearing this fragrance. I think Apparition is best suited for evenings out and parties. If used very carefully and sparingly it could be worn for work, unless you work in a very close, tight environment with co workers. I love the name, Apparition...it is appropriate, as the fragrance is hauntingly beautiful.

I got the gist of this parfume from the reviews, so I bought it for casual winter wear. Even though Apparition received quite a few negative reviews I still purchased it blindly, because after trying and really enjoing 3 fragrances from Ungaro, I had a lot of confidence in this house. The only perplexing thing about Apparition is that neither its name nor the bottle design make no sense whatsoever. Smelling this perfume you would imagine the bottle to be deep red or maroon, but not a transparent weird-looking avangard rectangle. But the contents actually exceeded my expectations. Apparition smells like dark, thick raspberry liquer of the most expensive and luxurious quality, spiced with pepper and infused with rose. Nothing sticky, sickening or overwhelming, but very rich and enjoyable. I would say it could be even worn for a special occasion on a cold winter night. Sillage is great, lasting power is avearage...around 3-4 hours, but the peppery drydown is still noticeable and lingers beyond 3 hours.

I used to wear this in 2004 when it was first launched, and then I bought another bottle in 2009 for nostalgia since this was my first "grown-up" scent after using Victoria's Secret Pink. I'm revisiting it again for the second time, and I feel like I'm finally able to really pick apart what this perfume is about. First applied, you get this sweet, spicy bite of red pepper with a quiet rose and a splash of what smells like blackcurrant liqueur, but it's really passion flower! I was not able to detect the raspberry on it's own at all, but I think that it helped to tone down the pepper in the beginning. After around an hour, the patchouli, vanilla, and tonka unfold uniformly without silencing the flowers present. I'm mostly thrilled that it's exactly how I remembered it, and now I can truly appreciate it. This is truly my signature scent, after all this time.

I wear fragrances very lightly so I may be missing nuances that a heavier application would reveal. On me, this is a warm and cozy scent, without being overtly vanilla. The raspberry is very gentle and well blended and makes me think 'yum' without making me feel like a sticky sweet fruit dessert. I don't really get a pyramid effect-after a very few minutes the berry predominates and the vanilla/tonka are present; as the raspberry diminishes slightly over time I detect the amber and a bit of powder; the raspberries hang around until the fragrance fades away completely (on me, 4-5 hours). Apparition isn't my usual type, but I like it quite a lot, more than any other fruity fragrance I have tried (except for Feerie which I also like very much even though they don't smell a bit alike to me).